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."
It is wrong to depict him in a way that he was not, because of "truth". Would it be right to depict Buddha as being negroid? And eating a steak?
I think various depictions were ways in which to worship the traditional God while under the control of missionaries.
I thought JESUS was Muslim and GOD is black! Now I'm going to have to change all my mental images. Poop.
LOLOLOL!!! Brilliant analogy!
I don't think the actual color of his skin matters. He had to come to the Earth in one color or another. But I agree the author of Revelation, within a 100 yrs or so of Jesus's death, probably had a better idea of the truth than you or I could have by just thinking about the matter. I'll side with the Book!
Now you are kidding right?
TT
Not all mankind recognizes Him as the Savior.
If his face is that of all mankind, what does he look like?
If, as liberal hypocrites claim that race does not make a difference (not that they believe that), then why does it matter that the traditional view of Yeshua must be altered to appear to be of a different race? The answer must be because a liberal view is always a hypocrisy, hijacking a meaning of something (tolerance and lack of racial prejudice) and subverting it to mean something else (lifting up a racial identity).
A KKK guy accidentally ends up in heaven and when he finds out Christ is black, he moves out.
Faith is much more than skin deep, isn't it? Amen.
Then you care not for truth, which was a big deal with Jesus.
In the picture, does Jesus look anything like Sammy Davis Jr?
I see the face of my Savior.
1 Corinthians 9:22b ....I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
I am??????...... Our GSP is 1.5 trillion.... our innovation in science and tech are not even rivaled by any other state...hell, go check out U.S News and Reports and see the college rankings......
......also...... http://www.tradeport.org/news/accolades.html
I could go on and on....but your hatred of parts of Calif make your statement laughable.....hell, half the software or components on your computer you are typing on most likely were develeped in Calif...you can Google it.... oops, that was dev. in Calif too......too many things to list.....you just have not done the research....you are only using emotional reasoning........
Dreads were the rage in those days ....
So, which are you hoping for--gay, alcoholic, or sleeping with Mary?
Wasn't Sammy Davis Jewish? I believe so.
Everybody knows California boys suck hind tit. There's no use kickin' about it. :^)
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