Posted on 10/25/2006 6:22:33 PM PDT by Nachum
LOS ANGELES - It's a familiar image for millions of Christians: Jesus Christ, with a crown of thorns, hanging from the cross. What color is he? In a controversial new film opening Friday, he is black.
"Color of the Cross" tells a traditional story, focusing on the last 48 hours of his life as told in the Gospels. In this version, though, race contributes to his persecution.
It is the first representation in the history of American cinema of Jesus as a black man.
"It's very important because (the film) is going to provide an image of Jesus for African-Americans that is no longer under the control of whites," says Stephenson Humphries-Brooks, an associate professor of religious studies at New York's Hamilton College and author of "Cinematic Savior: Hollywood's Making of the American Christ."
What Jesus looked like has long been debated by theologians around the world. Different cultures have imagined him in different ways, says Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. In Japan, Jesus looks Japanese. In Africa, he is black. But in America he is almost always white, like the fair-haired savior painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in "The Last Supper" in 1495.
While some black churches have images of a black Jesus behind the altar and others have claimed Christ was black, Prothero says "none of those arguments or images have filtered much into the mainstream."
Filmmaker Jean Claude LaMarre set out to change that with "Color of the Cross." LaMarre, who plays Jesus, wrote, directed and financed the film. It will open in 30 theaters in predominantly black neighborhoods.
"Black people in this country are the only race of people who worship a god outside their own image," says LaMarre, 38, adding that showing Christ as a black man is "the most poignant way to deal with the issue of race in this country because it goes to the heart of how we look at the world."
It also provides a positive image of blacks, something that's been scant in the U.S., says the Rev. Cecil "Chip" Murray, longtime leader of L.A.'s First African Methodist Episcopal Church and a producer of the film.
"It could be revolutionary because, for four centuries in our nation, blacks have been at the lowest end of the stratum," he says. "I think it will traumatize the United States more than it will foreign nations who, to some extent, don't have a centuries-old concept of equating black with negativity."
Humphries-Brooks agrees. Other countries are likely to view the film "in a more detached manner," he says, "because of the way (they) see our race-relations problem."
Why does race matter in the story of Christ?
"Jesus isn't in the hands of historians," Prothero says. "What we have now is our own debate and, in that debate, race has to be a factor because race is a big predicament in American life."
Film is a powerful place to have the discussion, says Humphries-Brooks, who calls the medium "one of the last places that is quasi-public for the formation of values in America."
"Artistic and aesthetic views are as important in developing religious values as the words we speak. Everybody goes to the movies. Not everybody goes to the same church."
Filmmaker LaMarre thinks the film can only have a positive effect.
"The message is that color, a colored Jesus Christ, doesn't matter," he says. "That's why the movie is important. When you have one prevailing image out there, it suggests color does matter."
>>>>"......nope....I guess you are stuck"<<<<<<
....nope ....just smart enough to leave those that are stuck on stupid
TT
"It's very important because (the film) is going to provide an image of Jesus for African-Americans that is no longer under the control of whites," says Stephenson Humphries-Brooks, an associate professor of religious studies at New York's Hamilton College ..."
Obviouly image is more important than truth to this guy. And to think he is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies.
I dunno: I live in Cali and I think most of you are nuts :)
Not Swedish, but not negroid either.
Actually his feet were like bronze;
But His head and Hair were white;
"13and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
.....stastistics would not prove you out.....
A little New Agey, don't you think?
I agree. Dark skin is probably closer to reality than the white Jesus usually portrayed.
.....including Jim Robinson who started this site?.... Most top rated scientists and technological advances by far are developed in Calif....Silicon Valley....etc.....don't let your emotion get in the way of rational thinking.....you just hate the libs here.....as I do....but I differentiate between them and the state as a whole
LOL!!!
Amen. BTTT!
Many of the Hindu gods are not human. Ganesh for example.
.....Good Lord.....you don't like the liberals here as I don't...nor the crap mainly in So Cal...and you generalize to the whole state....?????......that is just absurd.. Historically this is the "smartest" state when you look at universities and innovation, invention and business development......
If humans were created in the image of God, then it's perfectly ok for Blacks to picture Christ as Black, Whites to picture him as white, Asians to picture him as Asian, etc.
Would you reject the gift of salvation offered by Christ, if somehow his earthly heritage failed to meet your expectations?
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