If you thought that we had reached in our culture the limit of absurdities, fear not; for I see among this morning's headlines that prominent Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King has called for the removal of white colored statues of Jesus as part of a crusade against white supremacy. "They are a form of white supremacy," Shaun says. "Always have been."
Well my goodness, where to start?
First of all, there are white statues all over the world depicting just about everyone of every flesh color. Why? Is it because the sculptors thought these people--Martin Luther King, Jr., Mao Zedong, Buddha, Booker T. Washington, Genghis Khan, Nelson Mandela, St. Peter and indeed Jesus Christ--were white? Uh … no. It is because white stone in sculpture has been a preferred medium all over the world from time immemorial. White or gray. Y'all know of any gray people?
Moreover, is any human being white like a white statue? As a matter of fact, white is technically not a color at all. It is the absence of color, as in a white canvas or a blank sheet of paper. If you drew a similarly "white" person on these mediums, well, you wouldn't be able to see the person at all, would you?
There is no such thing as 'white' skin. It is merely a convenient term, as is black, for neither is there any such a thing as black skin. These simply do not exist in nature.
Now what about the use of the color white in scripture? Take a look through a word search from Genesis to Revelation. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow (Rev 1:14); The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses (Rev 9:14); His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them (Mark 9:3); Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). And so on. I have given but a small sample.
Are the writers of scripture suggesting that white is a supreme color of skin? Of course not. The color white is used not only in scripture but throughout world literature and mythologies to indicate purity, goodness, light. Moreover, the authors of scripture as well as much of ancient mythology were not white. The authors of scripture were brown, for God's sake! Lol. Jesus was brown.
So, no, Shaun, a statue made of white stone is not a racist memorial. It is a statue made of white stone. If we are going to take down white Jesus, we will need to take down white everybody. We may as well get rid of white stone altogether on the basis of its being generally offensive. What about that white church? How dare they? What about that white Synagogue, that white mosque?
And while we are at it, we may as well mention that Jesus has in every culture been depicted in art as a member of that culture because each culture identifies with Jesus as one of them--for he is indeed one of all of us in every far flung part of the world. Nobody whomsoever other than the most outrageously moronic has thought that Jesus of Nazareth, of Nazarene parentage, was somehow Caucasian.
Wouldn't it be better to get back to the real world and address our real problems realistically rather than foisting them on inanimate stones?
Well my goodness, where to start?
First of all, there are white statues all over the world depicting just about everyone of every flesh color. Why? Is it because the sculptors thought these people--Martin Luther King, Jr., Mao Zedong, Buddha, Booker T. Washington, Genghis Khan, Nelson Mandela, St. Peter and indeed Jesus Christ--were white? Uh … no. It is because white stone in sculpture has been a preferred medium all over the world from time immemorial. White or gray. Y'all know of any gray people?
Moreover, is any human being white like a white statue? As a matter of fact, white is technically not a color at all. It is the absence of color, as in a white canvas or a blank sheet of paper. If you drew a similarly "white" person on these mediums, well, you wouldn't be able to see the person at all, would you?
There is no such thing as 'white' skin. It is merely a convenient term, as is black, for neither is there any such a thing as black skin. These simply do not exist in nature.
Now what about the use of the color white in scripture? Take a look through a word search from Genesis to Revelation. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow (Rev 1:14); The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses (Rev 9:14); His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them (Mark 9:3); Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). And so on. I have given but a small sample.
Are the writers of scripture suggesting that white is a supreme color of skin? Of course not. The color white is used not only in scripture but throughout world literature and mythologies to indicate purity, goodness, light. Moreover, the authors of scripture as well as much of ancient mythology were not white. The authors of scripture were brown, for God's sake! Lol. Jesus was brown.
So, no, Shaun, a statue made of white stone is not a racist memorial. It is a statue made of white stone. If we are going to take down white Jesus, we will need to take down white everybody. We may as well get rid of white stone altogether on the basis of its being generally offensive. What about that white church? How dare they? What about that white Synagogue, that white mosque?
And while we are at it, we may as well mention that Jesus has in every culture been depicted in art as a member of that culture because each culture identifies with Jesus as one of them--for he is indeed one of all of us in every far flung part of the world. Nobody whomsoever other than the most outrageously moronic has thought that Jesus of Nazareth, of Nazarene parentage, was somehow Caucasian.
Wouldn't it be better to get back to the real world and address our real problems realistically rather than foisting them on inanimate stones?
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