Sunday, March 17, 2013

Would The History Channel's Series "The Bible" be as Popular If It Didn't Feature a White Surfer Jesus Dude?

The History Channel's miniseries The Bible is one of the most popular TV shows in recent memory. "The greatest story ever told" would appear to have much life left in it.

During an age of economic uncertainty (and among Christian Dominionist Evangelicals even more so who believe that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ) a retreat to a popularized version of the underpinnings of Christian faith, tailor-made for cable TV, would prove itself to be imminently popular.

The Bible is not a "true" or an "accurate" depiction of events. Like other TV shows and films, the final product is the result of the many decisions made by producers, actors, directors, writers, and editors. Given the religious-mythological-historical elements in the Bible as a document, these acts of creative decision-making are further compounded.

The choice of what elements to include or exclude from the History Channel's series is ultimately an artistic interpretation of a document, one that itself is an act of both the omission, as well as selected inclusion of facts and details, that in total is a saleable product designed to make money for a TV network. Despite what its writers would claim, and some of the "faithful" in the audience would like to believe, there is nothing divine about the History Channel's The Bible.

Truth is held hostage to these realities. However, that does not mean that we should avoid asking some basic questions about the accuracy of The Bible miniseries.

For some, what follows is an uncomfortable truth.

The historical figure known as Jesus of Nazareth was not "white." He was not European. Based on the scholarly consensus, the historical Jesus would be a Middle Eastern Jew of medium, if not dark, complexion. He was certainly dark enough to have spent time in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to not have had his skin tone commented upon or noted.

This Jesus would be hounded and harassed by the TSA, looked at as a de facto "suspicious" person in post 9/11 America, and be racially profiled by the national security state. The historical Jesus would likely be subject to stop and frisk policies by the New York police and others. If it were too late at night, and the historical Jesus was trying to get a cab--especially if he were not attired "professionally"--he would be left standing curbside because brown folks in their twenties and thirties who look like him are presumed to be criminals.

Despite the "common sense" depiction of Jesus in the (white) American popular imagination, the historical Jesus Christ is not a white surfer dude with blue eyes, long flowing hair, and suntan toned skin.

When I was an undergraduate and forced to take a series of Religious Studies classes as part of a core requirement. There, I was exposed first hand to how volatile such a basic observation can be to some Christians and others who identify with that faith tradition. Our professor was discussing how the Bible is a historical text that has been edited and changed to reveal the prevailing political and social norms of a given time. I asked a question about the Civil Rights Movement and how black folks tried to use the text for purposes of political inspiration and motivation in the face of great adversity.

This transitioned to a follow-up question where I asked, "what color was Jesus?" Having just seen Malcolm X the movie, I was curious as to the professor's response. He looked around and plainly said that Jesus Christ was not white or a European. He would likely be a medium complected Jew with brown or darker skin. Check and mate: thus my follow-up, "could one reasonably say that Jesus the historical figure was black?"

Our masterful professor looked around in a considerate and contemplative manner and said, "depending on who you ask, and in what context, one could say that he could be considered 'black' in a society like America where whites have been so color conscious and race obsessed." You could here a pin hit the floor as gasps of anger and protest erupted from the white (and some black and brown) students in the class.

There was actually an effort made by some students to get this professor fired. He was saved by a few things. First, his research claims, historiography on the matter, and credentials were impeccable. He had tenure. And he was white. It is quite likely that a black faculty member making such a basic claim would have had far fewer protections.

In these discussion of faith, some would likely object that "race doesn't matter." Who cares what color the historical Jesus is/was?

Here, the color of Jesus Christ matters while simultaneously being of little import. Thus, a paradox. If the color of Jesus Christ is unimportant, why then the objection to the question and a resistance to changing the images to be more historically accurate? Moreover, such a basic question about the lie that is white Jesus, is often deflected and redirected into one which ends with the power of the white racial frame enabling those invested in its distortion(s) of reality arguing that anyone, especially a person of color, asking such things must be a black "racist" or anti-white.

If a Christian is a true believer why would they have difficulty reconciling their faith with such a superficial thing as changing the historical lie that is white Jesus into one that is more accurate, a man of color, whose message would be unchanged? Would it really be that hard for some white Christians (and others) to kneel before a black or brown Jesus Christ? Are the psychic wages of Whiteness so great as to distort a person's image of God?

These matters of race, religion, and politics remain potent even in 21st century America. See how President Obama's presidential campaign was almost destroyed by Reverend Wright and the white conservative bogeyman known as "black liberation theology."

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo's White Jesus were iconic images that enabled European colonialism and imperialism. In these grand projects of global white power and conquest "Christian" became synonymous with free, "white," and "civilized." "Heathen" meant that whole populations could be subjected to extermination, enslavement, and exploitation.

The current and most popular image of Jesus as created by Warner Sallman in 1941 depicts the former as a white "American." Here, American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, and rise as an Imperial power were ordained as being one with He, and a blessing from God for a country whose elites imagined it to be a "shining city on the hill."

This logic is perfectly cogent: a racial project of exploitation and enslavement of non-whites by Europeans, one legitimated by a belief in the natural inferiority of people of color, the pseudo-science of The Great Chain of Being, a belief in The Curse of Ham as well as other myths, must, for reasons of practical necessity, be predicated on the existence of a "white" God.

A twisted complement to how the whiteness of Jesus has been historically naturalized in the West is how the same ahistorical image adorns many African-American churches (as well as those of Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and others) in this country and throughout the world.

Is there any greater example of the twisted nature of the color line, and the power of internalized white supremacy, than how many millions of black and brown folks kneel and pray before the image of a white god--an image which has long been used to justify and legitimate white supremacy and racial exploitation--on the most segregated day of the week?

Black and white Christians pray to the same mythologized and historically inaccurate image of Jesus; yet, they do not pray or worship together in the same churches.

Research shows that white audiences will not watch TV shows or movies which they judge to have too many people of color as characters. A historically accurate version of the Bible, which embraced the demographic realities of the era such as HBO's epic Rome series, would be a revelation. Unfortunately, many in the American public would be unwilling to hear such a basic truth, for it would be too upsetting for those who have internalized whiteness and white racial privilege even on matters of religion and faith.

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CNu said...

s there any greater example of the twisted nature of the color line, and the power of internalized white supremacy, than how many millions of black and brown folks kneel and pray before the image of a white god--an
image which has long been used to justify and legitimate white supremacy and racial exploitation--on the most segregated day of the week?

Black and white Christians pray to the same mythologized and historically inaccurate image of Jesus; yet, they do not pray or worship together in the same churches.


lol, actually there is a more profoundly twisted trick being foisted on you humans than that silly, perpetual color-line.. Namely, the cognition-line, and the secrecy with which the truth of these western religious traditions has been concealed, safeguarded, and violently prohibited from your knowledge and use.


Not only was there no historical Jesus - and not a single shred of archeological or documentary evidence exists to contradict this assertion - http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/05/jesus-was-mushroom.html

But the specific object of cannabalistic, eucharistic adulation has been with held from the common experience of the believer.


What ought be recognized first and foremost is that what has been created and internalized by ALL "true-believers" is a load of tripe. Consequently, arguing over the color and texture of that tripe can proceed apace with the same degree of seriousness with which fanboys who don't get none, argue over the aliens populating the star wars saloon http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/05/man-child-born-of-virgin.html

Even the Hon.Bro.Preznit.Double-O (Satan) is compelled to play along with this fake-believe governance narrative whose primary purpose is to filter for manageable, credulous fools.

CNu said...

Fret not, the dying god cult started many millenia prior to its catching on among the hellenized Jews http://api.ning.com/files/z9VWg*KaeVz9oh1J3uV6tmCV9Z14F3fjqaDSKMNVuxOx3lSuY9-8Zrgd7kFIiQ2S6lyTAoMZaxe3yiX6OX2xhBqISdHW3qx0/Hubicky_v_Egypte.pdf

which Jews contrived their entire hagiography in the centuries following greek dominance of the levant. That's right, none of that stuff in the old testament happened either, but in order for the "ancient" Jews to feel good about themselves once they were rendered literate by the Greeks, they had to make up some stuff that made them more glorious than their autopoetic status as illiterate goatherds with no civilization and no accomplishments to show for themselves.



Consider them the fiddypage bookmen of the Hellenic mediterranean, making up a glorious hebrewcentric past which bore scant resemblance to their actual extremely humble and impoverished true origins....,


What's most comical (and frightening) of all, is that in the modern, scientific era, we're remain conspicuously constrained in our examination (still more experimentation) with the stuff of which these magical thinking myths were made.

Sunkissed said...

Check out this article on the white Jesus from a SDA. I know your a busy man Chauncey but I would love it if you read this heartfelt plea from a black man to his white fellow members to stop making pictures of Jesus. http://holythinking.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html

Black Jesuscom said...

Never for that the underpinning of white supremacy revolves around maintaining the white Jesus lie. When you present the truth to white people and to brain washed blacks, the immediate response is "Why does it matter." If it didn't matter, then why the white lie. The Truth Always Matters.

Wavenstein said...

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/obama-devil-resemblance-bible-sets-off-firestorm-140047536.html

In addition to our "white savior"

Lee Viola said...

And what of that mythic antagonist?


http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/barack_obama_doppelganger_plays_satan_in_bible_miniseries_conservatives_react/#comments

Shady Grady said...

Is there any greater example of the twisted nature of the color line, and the power of internalized white supremacy, than how many millions of black and brown folks kneel and pray before the image of a white god--an image which has long been used to justify and legitimate white supremacy and racial exploitation--on the most segregated day of the week?



No there isn't. Most people worship a God that looks like themselves. Doing other than that is the basis of self-hatred and acceptance of inferiority.


And people know this, which is why whites are so resistant to historically accurate depictions of Middle eastern/North African figures AND also resistant to placing black figures in white legends (Idris Elba as Heimdall).

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chauncey devega said...

Lots of sickness out there brother. Can it be healed?

chauncey devega said...

You just seeing things ;)

chauncey devega said...

Will check it out.

chauncey devega said...

Gonna have to print that bad boy out. Always sharing knowledge. What did you think of your boy Thrasher's CPAC acting out business card exercise?

chauncey devega said...

When folks actually get into the magic and pagan elements of Christianity, especially among Catholics, has always fascinated me. The "real" Bible and history with its gang rapes, mass murder, genocide, and other mayhem should be made into a Tarantino movie. I hope that is his next film project. The Real "Greatest Story" Ever Told.

Cain S. LaTrans said...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/history-channels-satan-looks-a-lot-like-barack-obama

Ben Grim said...

Yes! I can see it now....

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/new-tarantino-movie/n32896/

Ben Grim said...

So. You mean, the people who call themselves Jews today are not the biblical Jews? That begs the question...

Scott said...

To me, this is emblematic of what has happened to the history channel. It used to actually be about...history. Now, like the other educational channels, it has decided to engineer its content precisely to the tastes of the wider populace. Where it used to bring them up, now it goes down to where they are. I would love to see a series like this if there were any attempt whatsoever at historicity. But having grown up in white churches in the south, I know the HEALTHY unease this would cause. People have to struggle with this stuff before they can overcome it. So Boo to Burnett and History for their cowardice.

chauncey devega said...

The show would not have gotten made if the lead actors were not white. You can take that to the bank as the saying goes.

SBlady said...

I see you found more material. Good stuff CNu.


SBee

SBlady said...

Of course, It would be as well received as a program on what happened to the Latin language? Of course, an even truer depiction that Jesus was a mushroom and Christianity a sex-cult wouldn't even make it into the "History" channel's version of history. Speaking of the enabling of slavery and Christianity's role in it. I've often wondered, if "christians" would have fought so hard for the freedom of blacks if they had not been willing to accept conversion. In other words, if the majority of blacks had decided to seek out and embrace their natives religions, would they not still be being called savage/heathens on the plantation. I'm not so sure our release was divine inspiration.

chauncey devega said...

"if "christians" would have fought so hard for the freedom of blacks if they had not been willing to accept conversion."


Like the white Christian slave owners?

Miles_Ellison said...

Any time Jesus doesn't look like a '70 heavy metal guitarist, white people lose their shit. I remember when Madonna's Like a Prayer video came out, there was more consternation about the fact that there was a black Jesus than there was about the rampant burning of crosses.

SBlady said...

I know, ironic. I was referring to the other side, of their coin. I believe they were called the Quakers. At least, that is what they teach in history. Always, have to keep the frame of the white christian savior.

DJ said...

The character wasn't depicting Jesus, but St. Martin de Porres, who was most certainly a person of color. Madge knows her Catholic iconography, and which buttons to push.

chauncey devega said...

Sounds like a game--let's nominate a 70s heavy metal guitarist to be the new face of Jesus. Who would you include?

chauncey devega said...

was dragged to a church by that name until i renounced religion at 11 years old. small world.

Waterwitch said...

Strange that European religious history also includes the wonderful phenomenon of Black Virgins, which you can still see all over the world, but particularly in France. Statues of the Virgin Mary (or maybe Mary Magdalene) with very dark skin. Clergy try to explain her complexion away as candle smoke or aging, but the truth is that the great churches (Chartres, Mt. St. Michel, Montserrat, many, many more) are built around Black female sacredness. I was in a church in Brittany once, where the Black Virgin lives in a kind of enclosed porch accessible from the street. There was a sign in her chapel that said something like "the Virgin thanks you for your visit, and hopes you'll also stop by the church to visit her son." Apparently she was a lot more popular than Jesus there.

The Americas have Guadalupe, who is pure Aztec, and Cuba has la Virgen de la caridad del cobre, who is also black. Jesus may be blue eyed, but his mama is black or brown, apparently.

Maybe that's where the healing is happening? Not with American Protestant Jesus, but quietly in the side chapels and botanicas.

chauncey devega said...

I was thinking of that. Also how Eastern European and Greek Orthodox images of Jesus are quite different from Western Europe and America. Never mind thinking about the Jesuits and Liberation theology in Latin and South America, Asia, and Africa.

craig said...

When I visited Taiwan, about 10 years ago, I went into a shop that sold Buddha sculptures. Most of the Buddhas looked Chinese in their features but several did not - these others were dark and had large eyes, noses and lips. In temples I saw the same thing - side by side there were these dark, bold featured Buddhas next to the Chinese looking ones. Later, my mother in law explained the dark Buddhas represent the historical Buddha which is Indian in origin while the Chinese looking ones represents Buddhism's cultural integration into Chinese society. This was so easily explained and accepted that I didn't really think about it until I thought about how different it was for the image of Jesus in the U.S. I wonder if there will be a day when different images of Jesus exist side by side. The different representations of Buddha reveals a different understanding of Buddha and deepens people's understanding of Buddhism- the same can be true for different visual representations of Jesus- not as competing cultural property- but as a way of gaining broader/deeper insight into what he was and is about.

chauncey devega said...

Why do think they were mature enough to offer such honest depictions?

CNu said...

I liked it. Hope he parlays it into something useful and profitable.

CNu said...

Hush now CDV...., those elements are neither "magical" or "pagan". They're simply "reminders".

The Mrs. and I will be admitted to Roman Catholic communion this Easter. Let me assure you that roman catholic initiation for adults is no joke. it's damn near a year long process, most of which involves careful "scrutiny".

Pair of beans in a big-ass bowl of rice, but they just looooove seeing us add a little bit of glorious color to the mix. If you're going to do a cognitive and cultural infiltration, don't half step on the short term, go whole hog.

Peep game on the governor of Kansas and the draconian antics he's pulling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Brownback#Religion

Lee Viola said...

O Chauncy, you pulled the Ol' Salon Rope-A-Dope on me and I didn't see it coming. Cold! ;-)

Sue G said...

I found this article about what anthropologist forensic scientists think Jesus really looked like. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/forensics/1282186

CNu said...

nah..., http://www.clinicalanthropology.com/

Katherine McChesney said...

Jesus complexion would be olive but not black.

Katherine McChesney said...

What a liar you are.

Katherine McChesney said...

Your language certainly isn't Christian. Is that what passes for catholic 'christianity'?

Black Jesuscom said...

The real question is, would white people and their religious leaders sit back silently and watch and applaud a movie featuring a Black Jesus, if there were biblical, scientific and common sense proof that he was really white?