COVID-19, horrid as it is, has gifted me with time. Hours that normally would have been used to go here and there, doing this and that, have been spent at home. Much of that at-home time has been filled with watching and learning. I’ve learned about viruses, flattening the curve, and handwashing/mask wearing requirements. I’ve also been exposed to George Floyd’s lynching shown live on TV and the resulting protests over his death. Cable TV and the internet have brought the world into my home. I have learned from CNN and MSNBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times, The Atlantic and The New Yorker. Yes, I’ve learned. More accurate, I’ve been poked at, kicked in the butt—I’ve been woke!
I believe in life-long learning. It’s a thrill to learn something new and satisfying to deepen my knowledge in areas where I already have some bit of expertise. It is embarrassing, though—dismaying, actually—to have my blind spots exposed. I recoil at the number of times I’ve had to say, “I’ve never thought of it that way before.” Digging out my white supremacy is excruciating.
At 76, I’m finally acknowledging that the U.S. history I was taught was tragically flawed. America-the-Beautiful was founded on bloody land, stolen from its owners who were systematically slaughtered. Our system, our rules, and ways of life were created by slave owners. I’ve “known” that – but, until now, I haven’t considered the on-going consequences of our nation’s beginnings.
I feel the most guilt about a third travesty. I was born into a Christian family. Church has been important to me my whole life. I have, by my inaction, furthered Christianity’s falsehood that Jesus was a white guy.
I don’t remember being told that Jesus was white. Instead, following the advice given to writers to “show, not tell,” my church elders showed me his whiteness. The stained-glass windows, illustrations in my bible, every piece of the Sunday School materials perpetuated the myth. When I close my eyes, I can picture white Jesus knocking at a door, seated with children, and walking with the disciples. More than any other image, I see Warner Sallman’s “The Head of Christ.” Drawn first as a charcoal sketch, Sallman’s famous depiction of Jesus of Nazareth was painted in 1940. His Christ, a gentle man, blue-eyed, with dark blond hair, became the best-known image of Jesus, reprinted close to a billion times. The painting is sometimes referred to as “a photograph of Jesus.”
I don’t apologize for my childhood naiveté. I do cringe at how long I allowed those lily-white imprints to stay in my mind. As an adult (as an adult!) I became interested in religious art and started to notice renderings of Jesus as Native American, Black, Japanese—so many differing nationalities and races. I would say to myself, how meaningful … they are imagining Christ in their own image. Yes, they were. And, that was good. What I didn’t say was, just as we white-skinned people have always done. I am particularly chagrined by this transgression.
No one knows, of course, what Jesus looked like. Tall? Short? Lean or stout? What we know with certainty is this: Jesus, a Jewish Palestinian, was not white.
In this set-apart pandemic time, I’ve spent time thinking things through. I’ve spent hours and hours on “Jesus wasn’t white.” How would I have been different if I acknowledged the reality of Jesus’ physical being? How would I have been different if, instead of the comfort of his familiarity, I had been given the helpful challenge of a leader so different from myself? How would my church, my community, all of Christianity been different?
The protests following George Floyd’s death are a roar of grief and lamentation. They are also a call to action, to change—to making things different. Mississippi has chosen to change its state flag. Confederate statues are being torn down throughout the South. There’s strong belief that the symbols of discrimination must, as a statement of repentance, be eliminated.
This determination to eradicate the symbols of white supremacy has also focused on white Jesus. The Washington Post, on June 25, 2020, ran an article titled How Jesus Became So White. The article focused first on the pervasive impact of Sallman’s “Head of Christ.” It then discussed the backlash of rage that’s occurring. It notes civil rights activist Shaun King who called for statues depicting Jesus as European to come down, calling those images a “form of white supremacy.”
The article also quoted Jemar Tisby, author of the 2019 book The Color of Compromise; the Truth About the American Church’s Complicity on Racism. “To say that Jesus is black — or, more broadly, to say that Jesus is not white — is to say that Jesus identifies with the oppressed and that the experience of marginalized people is not foreign to God, but that God is on the side of those who, in Matthew 25, Jesus refers to as ‘the least of these.’ “
For years, the United Methodist Church has known it needs to change. Doings things as they have always been done has not been successful. Figuring out what and how to change has been a challenge. Perhaps the answer lies within today’s protest and unrest.
White Jesus has to go. His truth needs to be told—and shown in our signs and symbols. I am eager to talk with like-minded others in my congregation about how we might (must) bring in images more truthful to Jesus’ human form. I’m particularly interested in talking about why that’s the thing we must do to honor our Savior, the dark-skinned Jesus?
Friends, how can we work together to stay woke?
Well-reasoned and argued, Amory. I know the Sallman image but not the story behind it.I carefully observe Nativity sets from around the world, and the figures, even of the infant Jesus, often look like folk from that particular area. Sallman’s ethnic heritage was Swedish and Finnish. I’m actually surprised his painting wasn’t “platinum blond Jesus.” Times must change. ‘Tis by was right.
Carla, thanks for the response. I realized early on that our image of Jesus was a fraud, but, I’m sorry to admit< I never thought enough about the consequences of that decision to make Jesus white. Yes, change is called for!
I have seen several darker skinned portrayals of Jesus in the last few years and am glad to live in a time when we are being more realistic about Jesus–not only his skin color. It is challenging, but as Bob Dylan sang: The times, they are a-changin’. Maybe that change is slower than we would like it to be, but I don’t think we will go backwards on this. Diversity of skin color is on the increase in the US and the global internet won’t let us deny the realities of that diversity. Whiteness, blackness–it is only skin deep, and Jesus was constantly calling us to something more that involves compassionate justice. Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us. “Teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace. Be present, Lord, among us, and bring us to believe we are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live.”
Carol, thank you for your comments. I pray you’re right, that we won’t “go backwards” on this. Yes, skin color is only skin deep — but, what harm we’ve done by usurping the nationality of Jesus.
Amory, my dear friend…what I wouldn’t give to be back at Mercy Ctr. sitting on a bench discussing this issue. I miss our discussions.
Growing up and going to a variety of churches, I always felt out of sorts, I always encountered a white Jesus, white Mother of Jesus, white Virgin Mary, white disciples, white prophets and white ways to worship. It is no wonder how colonialism has kept people of culture obedient and fearful. I find no comfort in church any longer, especially when I hear how Christians tout racism from one side of their mouth and God`s love from the other.
Thank you for your written words. I pray love will eventually prevail.
Tish — oh, yes! It would be grand to be back at a Mercy Center bench, talking this through. Thank you for sharing your insight/your lived experience. Your comments reinforce the work us white-ones have to do in the church.
Amen sister. Well said and brava for the indlinching look inward and ability to admit your own complicity. If we all could get to this place …
(Also you may want to read up on Shaun King. He is a bit problematic).
Pam, thanks for the Amen. (Thanks, too, for the heads-up on Shaun King. I’ll do some searching.)
*unflinching, not whatever that says . . .
Beautifully written and poignant. Another call to action. Thank you for sharing!
Kristina, thank you for reading and responding. Your positive comments warm me, and your affirmation of my call to action encourages me.
This post covers exactly what I was wondering about when we spoke a week or so ago. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Glad the post matched up with your questions and thoughts. Looking forward to talking further about this.
What?? Jesus wasn’t white? Actually, I grew up thinking he was German/Irish reflecting the culture of the church I was mandated to attend. You provide an excellent example of anthropomorphism. Two stories to include here – I’ll make them brief.
When I would drive home to the ethno-euro town where I lived, there was a highway billboard along the road advertising a local church. It imaged a flowing blond-haired Jesus with children. They were all white – I mean really white, Swede white. No surprise as the billboard reflected the congregation of the church – white upper-strata, creating god in their own image. Anthropomorphism.
Story two: The first college I worked at had two sisters who ran the library. Sisters in a double way. They were twins, and they were Nuns (Sister Mary Martha, and her sister, Sister Mary Mary). These two generous souls told me about the years they served in Haiti. If you know about the history of brutal colonialism there, this will make more sense. There was a wall mural of the last supper in their local Catholic parish church. Although some white guy painted the original Last Supper, the Haitians did a twist on it….everyone in the picture was black. Jesus had the darkest skin of all. However, there was one white guy seated at the table…guess who? That picture said more than a thousand words.
We don’t need to stop with pictures or images to see how anthropomorphism works. How about attitudes? Like…those people over there, they are really nasty & terrible. They are different. I don’t like them. And hey, god does not like them either (how convenient for the conscience). God is on our side, so let’s go whack them, we’ll be doing god a favor.
Eastern Philosophy/Religion posits that separation is the foundation of evil. That scares the hell out of me when I turn on the news.
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Lance. The conversation continues.