Westernized White Jesus
- Samme
- Mar 26, 2019
- 10 min read
Say whaaaat? I'll get into it, don't worry.
Let me tell you a quick story & some things I learned after it.
There was a day that I heard a simple statement that changed my views and understanding of Christ and the westernized culture of Christianity. While I don't remember exactly when it was said- whether it was during a Sunday school class, or during the sermon- or who said it- whether it was the pastor or the class leader- it hit me smack dab in the eyes. The statement was...
"Jesus is not white."
I heard it, and was stunned for a second, then I thought, "well, duh Samme, He couldn't have been white. It's not like He was born in America or England by a white woman! How could I have been so naive to not realize this before, though?!".... Then I realized, our western culture has portrayed Him as a white male because it fits our culture's racial agenda better than saying we follow a Middle Eastern man; but they would never admit that now would they? ('They' as in religious leaders that have molded and continue to mend Christianity into what they want, rather than what the Bible teaches).
I'll bet that you've heard the, "What if Jesus was black?" phrase before.. and well.. white folks, I have some news for ya. Jesus is not the porcelain, blushed, blue-eyed, man that the western culture and white religious leaders have portrayed Him as. Why is this even relevant to talk about? I'll tell you after a few lines of background information.
First, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea (also known as Judah). If you do not know where that is, it is touching boarders with Israel. Hence, Jesus would not be white while having been born in the Middle East region by a Nazarene woman.
Second, He (as indicated by the Bible) was not necessarily the most eye-catching man. He was able to walk from place to place without turning heads due to His appearance (that is, until people realized His healing power- but that's for another post!), and Judas even had to go as far as identifying Him to the officers that arrested Him to be crucified. Rather than looks, His love for the Father and compassion for us is what mattered, and still matters. On the other hand, the paintings and portraits of Christ depict Him as a glowing man, for a lack of a better description. I'm not saying that there's no way He was handsome, He very well could have been. The point is- the Bible focuses on Christ's life, death, and resurrection, not His looks, so we should too.
Third, there's no detailed descriptions of His appearance in the Bible, so we should not assume we know enough to paint a portrait. However, it is safe to say that since He was born of a virgin who was a Nazarene, He was not going to be born with white skin, blonde hair. I would argue that it is safe to say we know His ethnicity, but to say we know what He really looked like and paint pictures depicting Him is where we should stop. Once more, it's not how He looks that matters, it's the life He lived, the death He endured, and His resurrection that matters.
So if I'm saying His looks aren't the most important part of knowing Him, why am I bothering to write this post? Well...
We have been so programmed by centuries of propaganda of what Jesus looked like that it has become almost second nature to assume that He looked like the paintings we see of Him today. For a lot of us who have become so accustomed to seeing these portrayals of Christ, they become what we believe Him to look like even knowing that He was born in the Middle East region. It would be helpful to intentionally take time to realize that we have been led astray from the truth.
And if we have a problem with that truth, we need to check our hearts with haste.
It occurred to me when I realized this common misconception that there have been so many white people claiming to be Christians that hate and rebuke people based on their skin color and ethnicity in the name of their "white Jesus," almost as if the fact that they believe He is white gives them some sort of power over other ethnicities and people of different skin colors. They do not realize that they are hating the very people of the man they are claiming to worship. God teaches us we are to love everyone, with no exceptions- even to love our enemies. So, we need to pray for the people who use these false pictures of Christ to support their racist agenda to realize that they have been led astray from the truth and that they are being used for evil rather than God's work.
If the sole fact that these portrayals of Christ have formed a type of religion where people use their skin color to boost their stance with God doesn't make you realize that creating paintings and pictures of Christ is wrong, let's look at the Bible...
The Bible instructs us to not have idols or gods before Him.
Here's the Word's instruction, “You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them…” So what do we learn from that? We should not be making images of Christ, God, or even the Holy Spirit (even if we have good intentions) because it will be seen as the object of worship, rather than simply worshiping Christ Himself. Think about it, when you go into a church that is plastered with images of Christ and other biblical figures, is your heart focusing on your relationship with Christ or the image you see in front of you? It may not feel like you're praising the actual picture, but I want to gently but urgently warn you that it it can be easy to slip into putting more faith into the image you see rather than the living, breathing Christ you really want to serve. It's a way that Satan can use our desire to know God against us. It may seem like a worthy act of worship to want to paint a portrait of Christ, but believe me and the Bible when we say, your relationship with Christ should involve your soul reaching out to the living God who created you, not the picture on the wall created by man.
To be honest, when I learned this misconception I was not disappointed or offended in any way at all. In fact I was actually pleased to realize that He was not a white male. It gave me a better perspective on the Bible, and it made me realize how messed up our western culture is- we have been so hell-bent on trying to prove white is the supreme race that we have gone as far as ignoring the facts of Jesus' birth and recreated His image to fit our agendas. My thoughts were along the lines of, "Good! White people have too much privilege in this world anyways, we don't need yet another reason to make others feel bad about their skin color or ethnicity. I hope every racist white 'Christian' realizes this and is humbled to know they were wrong & that Jesus looks like the people they hate." (Back then I thought those thoughts with more anger and frustration, but since maturing in my faith a little more, I realize I need to be gracious to those led astray by this false representation and pray for their hearts to be changed.)
Here's the thing.. there are people (like me) who have absolutely no problem with knowing Christ was not white, but were just conditioned by the countless misrepresentations of Jesus' appearance to think He was white even despite knowing His birthplace- we simply needed a wake up call to realize the quiet lie we have been fed for so long. Then there are other people who have used this lie to further support/justify their racist actions, thoughts, and words.
There are so many different personality types in this situation. There are those that can accept they've been misled and are willing to accept change. There are those who might resent the truth because they have put their faith into this lie for so long, so it takes a while to accept the change. And there are those who are so convinced of the lie that they will not change and will resent anything other than the lie they have their faith in; especially because the lie has given them power (empty power, but they feel powerful nonetheless).
Here's a real life example of what I mean by saying how this seemingly insignificant issue of pictures of 'white Jesus' is really how Satan is working against us.
Let's set the stage first with information we just talked about; Race is an obvious issue in this world, so of course it will be a tool in Satan's belt to divide us and push us away from God. For centuries we have been fed the idea that Christ does not look like the Middle Eastern man He was. This has caused issues with people who follow, or claim to follow, God- there are those who believe He was white and are racist, who then use that to degrade others while feeling justified. Also this false narrative can cause non-white people to have troubles identifying with Jesus because they see Him as a white male, not as someone they can relate to.
Now, with this cultural misconception of Christ set, let's look at Lecrae's situation. Lecrae is a Grammy award winning rap artist who is a Christian. In an article, which I will link in this post, Lecrae's struggle of feeling that he had to put his "black heritage to the side as a Christian" was explained. The article goes on to say that Lecrae lost loads of his white evangelical audience in 2016 when he began speaking of racial injustice.
The article says...
| "I spoke out repeatedly in 2016 in many different ways, and it affected me. I went from a show that may have 3,000 people to 300," he said. "Those 300 love Lecrae, the black man, the Christian, not the caricature that had been drawn up." |
So, in summary Lecrae, while not trying to aggravate his white audience when talking about losing white fans, was pointing out the fact that our culture has been so affected by the 'white privileged & white Jesus culture' (my words, not his) that we easily forget that our skin color does not make us more appealing to Christ- it's what in our hearts. Essentially, to him he felt that in order to reach more white evangelical fans he needed to ignore his black heritage, which he was not willing to do, as he shouldn't be! It's important for him to take this stance because it shows his faith is not wavering based on people's opinions of his heritage, he is more concerned with the truth than what the culture is pushing. (Just a quick note- some of his statements may sound like he is grouping all white believers together, but that is not the case. He is talking about those who hold race to be more important than faith).
The racist agendas that these misrepresentations of Christ have caused are evident in more than just this example. But in this example we see people walking away from a faith driven artist simply because he spoke out for his race. We can so easily see how Satan has used skin color to divide us. Even though it seems insignificant or not that influential to see pictures of Jesus as white, it has caused a subconscious reaction in so many of our hearts. Without realizing it, we (white people) can cling to these images because they are easy to identify with because we have the same skin; we look similar. It's disheartening to know that something that seems harmless can cause so much destruction and lost souls. This is one of the many reasons why God instructed us to not make any images (Exodus 20:4).
Because I feel like that short quote from Lecrae didn't give the full gist of what he was trying to say, here are a few lyrics that better show his stance on the westernized Christian culture we created, as well as to further support my post's message.
"I will not oblige to your colonized way of faith My Messiah died for the world, not just USA They say, "Jesus was Conservative" Tell 'em, "That's a lie" No, He not a Liberal either if you think I'll choose a side They say, "'Crae, you so divisive, shouldn't be a black church" I say, "Do the math, segregation started that first!"
....
"And I love God.
I love Jesus, the one out of Nazareth,
Not the European with the ultra perm and them soft eyes
and thin lips."
(Both from the song Facts)
If you're offended by these lyrics, you need to check your heart- why does it make you mad to hear that? Lecrae is trying to be blunt and real in showing these misunderstandings of Christ and how it has divided us. Thank you Crae!
....
Andy Mineo, also a rap artist who is a Christian, wrote a song about so many of the misconceptions and lies he believed growing up until he realized the truth. One of the lines had to do with 'white Jesus.'
It goes...
"But when I was young, I thought the world was alright,
It's funny, I even thought that Jesus was white..."
(From the song Now I Know)
To wrap up...
On the surface, seeing pictures of Jesus as white may not seem like a dangerous or serious issue. But the more we dive in, the more we see that too many of us have the wrong idea of Christ in our minds. Again, God instructs us to not create any "images of any thing that is in heaven above..." so that we worship Him for Him, and not the image we create. That by itself should cause us to not have any paintings or images of Christ, since it is one of the commandments. Furthermore, we can see how something that is seemingly harmless can cause such a divide in our lives. The misconceptions of Christ caused by these images have led to more division than unity under Christ. It's time for us to speak the truth to get rid of these lies and bring people to Christ's true self.
It's time to stop creating & pushing this westernized culture of Christianity that fits our wants and needs. We need to follow God's Word- not man's.
Here's the link to the article about Lecrae's white evangelical struggles:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/john-piper-thankful-lecrae-has-strong-faith-jesus-after-feeling-let-down-by-white-evangelicals.html
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