What about Asian Jesus?
Posted on 01/20/2006 2:48:54 PM PST by Lee_Marvin
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Billed as the world's first black Jesus movie, "Son of Man" portrays Christ as a modern African revolutionary and aims to shatter the Western image of a placid savior with fair hair and blue eyes.
The South African film, which premieres on Sunday at the U.S. Sundance festival in Utah, transports the life and death of Christ from first century Palestine to a contemporary African state racked by war and poverty.
Jesus is born in a shanty-town shed, a far cry from a manger in a Bethlehem stable. His mother Mary is a virgin, though feisty enough to argue with the angels. Gun-wielding authorities fear his message of equality and he ends up hanging on a cross.
"We wanted to look at the gospels as if they were written by spindoctors and to strip that away and look at the truth," director Mark Dornford-May told Reuters in an interview.
"The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn't very acceptable."
By portraying Jesus as a black African, Dornford-May hopes to sharpen the political context of the gospels, when Israel was under Roman occupation, and challenge Western perceptions of Christ as meek, mild and European.
"We have to accept that Christ has been hijacked a bit -- he's gone very blonde haired and blue-eyed," he said. "The important thing about the message of Christ was that it is universal. It doesn't matter what he looked like."
In fact, there was a film called "Black Jesus" made in 1968 and starring Woody Strode, but it is described as a political commentary rather than an interpretation of the life of Christ.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyid=2006-01-19T153717Z_01_L18788195_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARTS-JESUS-BLACK.xml&rpc=22
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
Well heck, if they're going to push that plot-line, it opens up a whole new world of Jesus models. I think I'll stick to the one and only. Jesus was born a Jew. He died for my sins. I appreciate that very much.
Well, 0 out 3 aint bad.
/s
A black African revolution can die for no one but himself. They can have that "Jesus."
You know slick willy is upset he didn't think about this.
Agreed
What about Asian Jesus?
If it didn't matter to them what he looked like then they wouldn't have made a "black Jesus" movie. How can we even take these people seriously?
Call the Motion Picture Academy and tell them we have the Oscar winner!
How about short, fat, and bald -- sort of a Buddha Jesus. I know some so-called Christians who might go for that.
Or how about Buddy Christ?
"Western perceptions of Christ as meek, mild and European"
ROTFLMAO!
Does he take a White mans farm and multiply the loaves to feed thousands? What does he do to stop the tribal killing and the Genocide? I suppose he doesnt get crucified he gets a Flaming Tire around his neck.
[We have to accept that Christ has been hijacked a bit...]
Yeah, there's a lot of that going around.
"...Gun-wielding authorities fear his message of equality and he ends up hanging on a cross."
Wielding a gun 2000 years ago, eh? I guess the sword- and spear-toting Roman soldier is a myth, too?
The Messiah's a Shvartzer?
Black African Jesus squats on a farm after it's confiscated from its rightful owners and he and his disciples eat the remaining seed grain at their "last supper" then stand by as the "multitudes" die of starvation in subsequent years as the farm produces nothing but dust.
I say the "black Jesus" IS the Messiah, and I ought to know, I've followed enough Messiahs around!
NO the first- and best Black Jesus was from "Good Times"-- J.J. painted him.
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