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."
Why aren't people complaining that the Jews of Jerusalem are being depicted as racist?
"It is the first representation in the history of American cinema of Jesus as a black man."
Ah wrong. There was a bizarre American film in 1996 entitled "The Offering" which depicted a "black" Jesus.
Great research as usual MSM.
How about a movie on Martin Luther King's life starring Bruce Willis?
However John describes the risen Jesus by saying His "head and hair" were white.
Me too! And my thought as well when reading the article.
Nice try generalizing all of Calif from some whacko in Los Angeles.....that is like saying Texas produces mothers who drown their babies......which is worse?..... I wouldn't generalize to the whole state....don't know why it is Texans that are the first on FR to always bash Calif..
I agree with you. Jesus was what he was and he wasn't black.
It doesn't matter what color Jesus was. All that matters is THAT He was, and that all of mankind recognizes Him as the Savior.
He has ascended. He borrowed the physical form of a Jew. Now
His face is that of all mankind.
That's how I see it.
Revelation 1:14
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
Jesus was a Jew from the Middle East. Pretty easy to guess what color he was..
And man, imagine his NOSE!
No they're not. There are Asian Christians, Hispanic Christians, American Indian Christians, Indian Christians and the list goes on and on.
http://www.tv.com/all-in-the-family/archie-in-the-cellar/episode/38178/summary.html?tag=ep_list;ep_title;9
Yes, He probably looked more or less like a Sephardic Jews Jew. But maybe not as much like modern Sephardim as you might think. Lots of things change in 2000 years. Many of them trace their lineage through the Ottoman empire and/or Spain. Some mixing there.
But as someone else wrote: Who cares. What he was is infintely more important than what he looked like.
Jesus was brown, not white ...
You know what Ron White says?
"You can't fix Stupid"
Just figured we would at least point at it...
TT
......nope....I guess you are stuck
BUMP!
Dittos
But that his skin was like brass.
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