'Cross' shows Jesus as being a black man

[Gman]

By SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer Wed Oct 25, 2:23 PM ET

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

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/061025/482/3f3837ede76f4d9fb87ccd5586ca3ca7

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061025/ap_en_mo/film_black_jesus

------------------------------------

'Bout damn time. Jesus was a Black man. Now let the white freeper/fundie heads explode.

[texasleo]

1. Jesus was not black

[valerief]

2. Yeah, I've seen photographs of JC and he's Irish, I think. nt

[texasleo]

3. not black = white?

[valerief]

24. Not black and not white = not Irish? nt

[Atman]

4. You got that right!

Jesus' "homeland" was just a teaming hotbed of lilly-white caucasians 2000 years ago. No way he could have had dark skin!

[texasleo]

8. not black = white?

[Atman]

15. Why don't you just state your point, 'kay?

So what are you saying, he was Asian? American Indian? Do you know in which region of the world the Jesus fairy tale takes place? God handed down a handsome white guy to tell all the middle easterners that he was created in their image? I'm skeptical.

.

[Clark2008]

56. The poster's point - and I agree - is that Jesus was not black,

nor was he "lily" white. Jesus was Jewish and, therefore, Semetic and, therefore, brown. Like native-born Israelis and Arabic people. Duh.

Jesus probably had longish, but not long, dark hair, brown eyes and brownish-white skin, just like the millions of people who CURRENTLY inhabit that region.

He certainly didn't look like the lily white paintings of the Victorian era, nor was he as dark as Oprah.

Now, was Jesus Caucasian? Most likely, since Semetic people are considered Caucasian by their bone structure. That's the way anthropologists determine race - not by skin color.

[Karenina]

99. Hmmm.... NOT black... brownish-white skin

Like the guy on the right, mebbe??? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Spider Jerusalem]

35. In common parlance, "black" = "of sub-Saharan African ancestry".

If there even WAS a Jesus (which is questionable), he certainly wouldn't have had a pale, blond, blue-eyed Northern European phenotype, but he wouldn't have been "black" by the common definition either--last time I checked, neither Arabs nor Mizrahi Jews (or "Arab Jews"...think Paula Abdul) were black.

[Karenina]

50. This thread is high comedy!!!

Last time I checked, the "one-drop rule" still rules in Amurikkka. And we "of colour" are quite aware of how accurately her citizens are able to identify "the other." :rofl:

[Spider Jerusalem]

73. You're not making any sense.

That doesn't constitute a logical or even remotely relevant response to anything that I said.

[genie_weenie]

82. This is a highly intelligent and coherent post which

is quite unusual on a thread of this nature.

[Karenina]

83. Especially if you read code!

:rofl::evilgrin::rofl:

[Spider Jerusalem]

86. Code for what, exactly?

Saying "if Jesus existed, he was neither white nor black, as those terms are commonly defined" (which, by the way, is what I said, though not in so many words; you seem to have some sort of reading comprehension problem) isn't code for anything at all; in light of the historical populations of ancient Judea, it's a simple fact. Sorry if that bothers you.

[Karenina]

110. "Those terms," "common parlance," if you will

are "commonly defined" by the dominant culture. This thread has been a barrel of laughs! "JESUS WASN'T BLACK!!! Well, he prolly wasn't WHITE, not like "us..." He was whitish-brown (or whatever makes you feel safe and good). :rofl: He's even CAUCASIAN because he's Semitic and the anthropologists look at BONES. (Tell THAT to TSA or the Gladys who had the Interstate shut down!) Better yet, let the anthros look at MY BONES! :rofl: It would confuse the hell outta them!

I've posted pictures of whitish-brown man running for office (check the eye color) who in your "common parlance" is BLACK enough to be smeared as a boogeyman lusting after "white" women.

"BLACK" is nothing more than a sick construct in the American mind. It encompasses much more than the amount of melanin in any individual's skin.
And JESUS sho' cuddnabin no nigra.

[Spider Jerusalem]

113. You're an offensive twit.

I'm not saying that a Middle Eastern Jew from 2000 years ago was ethnically Semitic because it makes me "feel good", I'm saying it because it's a FACT (which you seem to have some problem with). Also, I'm not responsible for the language people in the US use to delineate ethnicity; I didn't originate it, just pointed out what it means (and I don't really care about the "construct in the American mind", or whatever insane nonsense you happen to be on about; as I used the term, it refers to ethnicity and nothing else). If you think there's some sort of racist subtext in anything I said, you're sadly fucking mistaken; I don't do subtext at all; I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism. I say exactly what I mean, no more, no less. Any subtext you read into anything I say is the product of your own mind and not of my words.

[Karenina]

114. You've taken my comments

MUCH. TOO. PERSONALLY.

And I must apologize to you PERSONALLY, S.J. as I tagged your post for its CONTENT without searching my memory files for your handle (DU has gotten REALLY BIG) and totally brainfarted on what I know of YOU, which is that you are a very literal "Just the FACTS, ma'am" person and indeed don't do subtext. The "you's" in my post to your words were actually editorials on a conglomerate of OTHER posts. It's just that you laid out the "facts" SO WELL! :hug:

Conversation with my kid in the car, 1992:

Where are we going, mom?

CRAZY!

NO, I MEAN A PLACE!!!!

(Don't stay mad at me S.J. :loveya:)

[malaise]

124. Since when?

I thought black was anyone with a drop of African blood.

[genie_weenie]

126. Everyone on earth has african blood.

No matter if you prescribe to the Out-of-Africa Model or the Multi-Regional Model...

Race as envisioned by social scientists and politicians is a pseudo-scientific construct designed to establish a heiracrchy and divide up the lesser classes.

So in reference to the Jesus question, black and white as defined by modern American mind, do not apply.

[malaise]

128. That is true n/t

[maddiejoan]

5. How do ya know?

Didn't the bible describe him as having skin of copper and hair like wool?

[texasleo]

9. Have you seen Sephardic Jews?

[stepnw1f]

11. Here's One:

[tammywammy]

12. I think it's more likely

that Jesus was a lighter brown, like Middle Eastern, and not black.

BTW I don't think the poster meant not black = white either.

[Karenina]

98. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

:rofl:

[neebob]

20. According to my oldy-moldy King James Bible

Revelation 1:13-15 (located with the help of Google):

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

[CJCRANE]

51. That's a vision.

If the real Jesus had flaming eyes and burning feet...?!

[mainegreen]

64. An albino with dirty feet? thats a new one!

[Bonobo]

21. Methinks I know you, Maddie!

Were you in The Fantastics in High School?

[maddiejoan]

28. OMG! I certainly was!!!

PM me --let me know who you are!

[tammywammy]

14. I don't think he was black either

He was born in the Middle East, so he'd have brown skin, not what we call black.

[shanti]

33. oh please

the skin of "black" people is BROWN. dark yes, but still BROWN. jesus christ...

[CJCRANE]

54. Well

there are people from central parts of Africa who look literally "black" but yes, to all intents and purposes most "black" people are in fact really brown.

Also many arabs in the ME would be considered "black" (i.e. African or of African descent) by outsiders even though they do not see themselves as being black or African.

[CJCRANE]

52. There are plenty of black people

and specifically black semites in the Middle East (it's next to Africa don't forget) so it's possible he was black.

[jeffrey_X]

104. Maybe they were going by the "one drop" rule back then like...

we do now.

[Gman]

23. Yes Jesus was Black

So is Bill Clinton. So is Madonna.

[oasis]

39. Yup, as in "Just Like a Prayer" by Madonna.

[Blue_Tires]

120. lol

i'm old enough to remember the public outrage over that!

[Zhade]

26. Everyone knows he was the whitest guy in the Middle East!

:rofl:

Your certainty is HILAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARIOUS!

[donheld]

44. He was albino

:rofl:

[shanti]

32. and you know this how?

:eyes:

[Mr_Spock]

41. Never seen a black person. He may have been tan to brown

Not that it matters at this point as nobody will agree on this anyway.

He was a cool dude though - that's all that matters to me.

[Richard Steele]

49. He was a 1st-century Palestinian Jew.

And they tended to look like THIS:

[Sequoia]

77. Sure he was.

The book of Revealations says he has hair like lamb's wool, which is like buffalo's only there were no bison in the Holy Land to make that comparison.

[TheDebbieDee]

6. Christians have been in denial for far too long.........

the image of a blond or fair-haired, blue-eyed Jesus is far outdated.

I am an African-American female, and I am astounded that both of the churches I occasionally visit still feature large portraits of a fair-skinned, fair-haired Jesus. It's stupifying!

[Igel]

22. The traditional representation is in error, but it's

from a time when the error wasn't all that obvious. They were ignorant, and the tradition was established. Wrong, but tradition.

In northern Europe, whence most American religious traditions ultimately spring, most of the people didn't know what Middle Easterners look like--light olive to fairly dark brown skin, hair red or black or brown. Whether the variation is entirely due to the Slavs taken as slaves and other immigration, forced and voluntary, since 650 AD I don't know--other immigrants are noted from the earliest recorded history. I haven't seen anybody tease apart the contribution to skin color made by Egyptian, Arab, Hittite, Hurrian, Turkish, Greek, Roman, Persian, African, and other immigrant ethnicities, and rather think it's impossible. I think the ancient Egyptians portrayed the Hebrews and Canaanites as yellow (with lower Egyptians being red and upper Egyptians black), but it's been more than a few years, and the interpretation of the colors being uncertain. The best you get out of the Egyptian drawings is that they generalized three distinct skin colors.

The movie with the black Jesus is, of course, wrong, but initiates an obviously wrong point of view for the sake of not being like the white point of view. They could have chosen something more accurate, but decided to go with error and be as wrong as the N. European tradition is for the sake of race-based politics. But with no tradition to justify it.

Imitation is apparently the sincerest form of flattery.

[Clark2008]

57. Agreed.

And what's funny is, if ANY person of AVERAGE intelligence just gave it a little thought, they'd KNOW he wasn't fair-haired and fair-skinned:

A. He was a Palestinian Jew.
B. They lived in very warm - in some places desertous - regions without the benefit of air-conditioning, thus, evolution (which maybe some religious don't believe in) would tell us that darker skin was needed for protection from the heat and elements.

Not that hard of a stretch.

[Homer Wells]

7. Stands to Reason

By all reports, Jesus was a man of Galilee. As I was telling my SO last night, I am sure Jesus does not look like the Caucasian brown haired blue eyed man seen on the cross. Most likely, he would more closely resemble Osama bin Laden (gasp). :wow:


Another damn good way to make said freepers head burst like a rotten melon.

:spray:

[Atman]

10. "Like a rotten melon" is bad grammar

"Another damned good way to make said freepers' heads burst as would a rotten, maggot-invested, racist, hate-filled, ignorant melon" would be more proper.

.

[Homer Wells]

16. I gladly stand corrected!!

Your modification of my statement is excellent!

[eleny]

13. I've told fundy friends that

You can hear there brains thumping inside their skulls.

[CJCRANE]

62. Also

Jesus spoke Aramaic...the Aramaic word for God is "Allaha"
(very similar to...)

[Mend]

17. If God is black, then most likely Jesus would be too. Even if

Mary was a blue-eyed blond, surely God's genes would be stronger....He's God after all.

[PsychoDad]

18. Dare I say it.....?

Jesus(pbuh) was a Jewish man from a Roman controlled region called Palestine. Goes to reason that he looked Palestinian.

But seriously, darker or lighter, what difference does it make when they won't listen to his teachings in the first place?

And I think if you took his teachings seriously, his color wouldn't matter in the least.

Peace.

[Atman]

19. Best response yet.

"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"

[Jed Dilligan]

30. Today's Palestinians are Arabs,

a people that would not occupy Palestine until well after Roman times.

The fact people can't wrap their minds around is that color DID NOT MATTER in Roman times. Period. Not to Pontius Pilate, or Nero, or Tacitus, or Tiberius. Racial discrimination based on skin color was unheard of.

This is not to say that people in those times were not bigoted based on class, gender, and nationality. But the reason we don't know Jesus' color is that it was not considered important to his character, either by his disciples or other contemporary sources.

[Odin2005]

38. "Arab" is a cultural term, not a racial one.

Palestinian and Lebanese arabs are direct decendedts of the people who lived in the Levant 2000 years ago, the just took up Arab culture when they comverted to Islam.

[Jed Dilligan]

48. You are probably minimizing the genetic effects

of conquest.

I don't doubt the "old" blood is there, but I disbelieve any such claim of racial purity over time. Maybe in the highlands of New Guinea, but not at the crossroads of the world.

[bklyncowgirl]

53. Good response. Thanks for the bit of sanity.

I don't particularly care for historical revisionism but since there is no credible contemporary or near contemporary description Jesus, we are left to imagine him as we see fit, so there's no sense getting all crazy one way or the other.

Historically Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew. He may have had some African blood, he may have had some European blood but most likely he looked like your average 30 something year old Middle Eastern man.

He would probably have a great deal of difficulty getting on an airplane.

As to what contemporary people would have made of his doctrine of universal love, I dare say we would probably react to Jesus in the way the first century Jewish governing council and the Roman Imperial authorities reacted to him.

We'd probably get rid of him in a less messy way, of course.

[valerief]

25. Hmm, wonder if they'll address his sexual orientation, too. nt

[soothsayer]

27. Heck, JJ painted him as a black wino on Good Times way back

in the 70's (Ned the wino, as I recall), because of his description as being dark complected with wooly hair, etc.

[spacelady]

29. Jesus, " Hep me, Hep me! Do what he say! Do what he say!!"

[Catherine Vincent]

31. No one knows what color Jesus was.

So let's just call him "colored". :)

[Ron Green]

34. Makes sense. He spoke out against the Man and they strung him up.

I think he was a black guy.

[Odin2005]

36. WTF? HELLO, Jesus was Jewish, he was a Middle-Easterner!

The Samaritan Israelis are probably the best place to look for people who look like Jesus.

[ourbluenation]

37. you guys are all WRONGO. I've seen Jesus and he's a surfer dude

blue-eyed and blond haired surfer.

[muriel_volestrangler]

58. Ah shit, my monitor's on the blink

because that picture comes out looking like a brown eyed, brown haired man on my computer. Fairly pale skin for a surfer, though - can't have caught much sun. Perhaps that surfer used a lot of sun block.

[American Jesus]

96. Being able to walk on water makes surfing much easier.

Unfortunately, having holes in your feet has the opposite effect. :(

[Cleita]

40. It's cool.

His mother, Mary, has variously been depicted as an African, a Native American and an Asian, why not her son?

And since the historical Jesus is supposed to be a semitic Middle Easterner, he seems to have been portrayed as a rather European, blond blue-eyed guy for centuries.

Maybe each culture needs to adopt him in their image. I don't think he would mind.

[Selatius]

42. I would say Jesus was "brown" like most indigenous people in the area.

He spoke Aramaic, which is virtually extinct nowadays, and he was a Jewish rabbi.

[Hippo_Tron]

43. Jesus could've been albino for all we know

What he taught is a lot more important than his skin color. Also what he taught is a lot more important than the graphic descriptions of how he suffered on the cross (yes Mel Gibson, I'm talking to you).

[GoddessOfGuinness]

45. scientists speculate that he looked like this...

I think she looks something like this now:

[blogslut]

46. Having never met the man

...I can't say what he looked like. Or if he even existed for that matter. I accepted him as lord and savior 30 years ago but now I'm agnostic.

Just the same, here's the Popular Mechanics' Jesus:

[951-Riverside]

47. Yo yo yo! Jesus was a white man!

Not let the black separatists/fundie heads explode. *scratches record*

but seriously how can a man who is just as real as Robin Hood or Santa Claus have a race, why are we giving this BULLSHIT any credibility?

[Rocknrule]

70. No, it's a historical fact that there was a guy named Jesus and he was crucified

Whether or not he was the Son of God is for the individual to decide

[Lance_Boyle]

106. That is far from a historical fact.

Do you have some documentation that proves the existence of the "historical jesus?"

[entanglement]

55. But... but... I thought Jesus was Scandinavian?

/learn something every day

[melm00se]

59. does it really matter?

which is more important? the message or the messenger?

[earth mom]

93. The message isn't even important these days...

look at the fundies...they haven't a clue. :eyes:

[sakabatou]

60. Well, he wouldn't be white in the traditional sense

ie. West European White

[HamdenRice]

61. Arab conquest and drying of the Sahara -- Middle East people were darker then

You can't assume that Jesus looked like contemporary middle easterners. He was probably darker, more African than these contemporary populations for two reasons.

In ancient, pre-Biblical times, North Africa and the middle east were much more connected to sub-Saharan Africa because the Sahara was a more hospitable savannah that did not cut north Africa off from the southern part of the continent. The drying of the Sahara divided these two populations in pre-historic times.

Then the Arab/Muslim conquest of the 600s and 700s brought lighter skinned semitic people to North Africa and the middle east AFTER the time of Jesus, generally lightening the population.

Jesus was probably semitic looking, but darker than contemporary Arab and Sephardic Jewish populations.

[ecstatic]

63. Why is the idea of a Black Jesus so offensive to so many

yet in almost every cathedral around the world, Jesus is painted as having blonde hair, blue eyes. Why is that grossly wrong depiction somehow better or less offensive then a black Jesus? Mel Gibson just grossed billions with his film Passion of the Christ, and there was little or no debate on the fact that a white man played the lead role!

[Odin2005]

116. Wasn't the actor Jewish?

Ashkenazi Jews have a significant amount of Northern European ancestry, but they still generally look fairly middle-eastern.

[hedgehog]

65. Here's an oddity I came up with:

I was trying to shake up the third graders in my Sunday School class by showing them different images of God. i found all kinds of doves with or without flames, black, white, Asian and Native American Christs but 99% of the images of God the father were the old white guy. I did find one set of Chinese prints showing a Chinese God the Father. I'd appreciate it if anybody can point me to some alternate images.

[ContraBass Black]

67. Google "Black/Latin/Asian Jesus" and take your pick.

[hedgehog]

68. I can find plenty of multiracial images of Jesus

It's multiracial images of God the Father or God the Creator that I can't find. It's unfortunate, because anyone who gets locked into the narrow image of the old white guy with a beard has no concept of how awesome and un-human the real thing is. Note I said un-human, not inhuman!

[ContraBass Black]

71. Hm, that is interesting.

Wasn't the Father originally supposed to be so glorious as to be unpicturable?

[hedgehog]

72. Which is the reasoning behind the prohibition of images in

many sects. Strict Baptists and Moslems are alike in adorning their houses of worship with the Words of God but no images of God. I understand the concept of the Trinity to encompass a God who is utterly the unknowable Other but also a human man simultaneously. The Holy Spirit is even harder to envision or explain.

[Dob Bole]

66. Wasn't there a film adaptation of the Cotton Patch Gospels?

That would mean that ISN'T the first portrayal of Jesus as a black man. Doesn't matter much, though, because a lot of people have never even heard of Clarence Jordan.

[butterfly77]

69. Is something suppose to be bad or wrong if he was black...

or is the representation suppose to be what is portrayed in a lot of american churches... For all who believe in the Lord and all who will be there on judgement day what do you think would happen if he was.

[tammywammy]

78. No, I don't think there's anything wrong if he was black

But I tend to think given where he was born & lived, he's skin is light/medium brown, like Middle Eastern people today. I think he probably looked like the picture in this post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2482027&mesg_id=2483904

Of my Christian friends (none are rabid right-wing either), none dispute that Jesus was Middle Eastern with light brown skin.

[Karenina]

105. You seem really attached to the

"LIGHT-brown" thang... :shrug:

[stepnw1f]

74. self-delete

[stepnw1f]

75. On Russian Orthodox Icons Jesus is Depicted as Being Dark Skinned

We are talking about the Middle East...

[Karenina]

80. A Polish friend gave me

The most wonderful "Black Madonna" pendant.

This thread is just soooo entertaining! :popcorn:

[stepnw1f]

91. I Know...

heee

[SmokingJacket]

76. There's bits in the bible about his "kinky" hair.

He was certainly dark, probably quite dark.

[eagler]

101. The Bible doesn't say what his skin color was because

it just doesn't matter.

[SmokingJacket]

107. Or, it was just taken for granted.

Of course it doesn't matter. But it's a little ridiculous to portray him as caucasian.

[Nikki Stone 1]

79. Hey, Madonna did the black Jesus thing over 16 years ago in

"Like a Prayer."

Nice to see that Hollywood is catching up.

Seriously, what's the problem with a black Jesus? The pics we see in paintings are all European types and we KNOW he wasn't Irish. :)

[Connie_Corleone]

81. Brown-skin, light brown skin....WTF?

I hate to tell some of you this, but we aren't literally black, just like white people aren't literally white. How non-black does the man have to be in order to be considered some other race?

You do realize that dark skin is just pigmentation? I mean, there are brown-skin black people and, dare I say, light brown-skin black people!! Perish the thought!

I find it amusing that some of you are trying to find a difference between brown skin and "black" skin. How black is black?

[Karenina]

103. Let's play FIND THE BLACKS!!!

:rofl::evilgrin::rofl:

[Solly Mack]

84. I'm looking forward to seeing the film

[tinfoilinfor2005]

85. One of the best things about Christ is his continuing mystery...

During his days on earth, no one did a painting or a sculpture of him, although there were plenty of artists who depicted Roman emperors and certainly there are scads of artistic interpretations of Egyptian rulers. King Tut's face, for one, is familiar to all of us, painted on his sarcophagus. But the lack of a portrait or a carving or Jesus Christ has allowed him to be claimed by all nations and all races.

[and-justice-for-all]

87. He would have been very tan, but not black....if he existed at all.

Which he did not.

[Karenina]

108. But NOT black...

And WHAT do YOU mean by "black?"

[and-justice-for-all]

109. African....nt

[Karenina]

111. B-B-But WAIT!

Didn't I read somewhere about LUCY being the mother of mankind??? It's so shameful how folks turn on dey mamas after she done raised 'em...

[and-justice-for-all]

119. I know we are all out of Africa.....

....But thats what the posted article is referring to...African. Black. Which if Jeebus was a native of the Middle Eastern Region he would not have been African, this determination of a fabricated characters skin color is rather obsurd.

[Karenina]

122. Absurd and hilarious!!!

Only in Amurikkka!!!
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[BoneDaddy]

88. Jesus was probably more in the middle of the melanin spectrum

Honestly, similar to the other mediterean cultures.

But he most certainly was not Wilem Defoe.

[warrior1]

89. Doesn't he look like this to reeps?

[donco6]

92. BWAHA-Barf. eom

[Bridget Burke]

90. European artists depicted Jesus as "one of them"....

So it make sense when others do the same. His message is more important than his hypothetical skin color.



www.mc.maricopa.edu/~ladelia/INTREL243/CH%209%20Christianity/Images_of_Jesus.htm

[American Jesus]

94. Why are people obsessed with silly things like My skin color?

Look, I spent 33 years living in the Middle East. My earthly family was Jewish. Those are the facts. Figure out the rest from there.

I don't care if someone paints Me or makes a movie of Me as black, white, brown, or purple, as long as they get the important stuff right.

[bullwinkle428]

95. Let's face it - the only reason that the "Ted Nugent Jesus" image is

continually foisted upon us here in the good old U.S.A. is to make it palatable for the knuckle-dragging, Wonder bread, mayo & Kraft American single crowd as a figure of worship. You can't possibly sell the idea of that group worshiping someone that was...GASP...darker than they are!

[American Jesus]

97. Ted Nugent Jesus??

Please, I'd rather be crucified again than compared to that psycho!

[bullwinkle428]

118. LMAO! I figured that someone would probably take umbrage to that

comparison! I just recall some standup comedian (Robin Williams perhaps) using that description years and years ago, before "the Nuge" went competely off the deep end...

[Greyhound]

100. Jesus, if he was a real person and not a conglomerate of many

"prophets" of the time, was certainly not white as we think of it today. I think portraying him as a black man, while very unlikely to be accurate, is a great idea and much closer to the truth than Ted Neely.

Plus the idea of all those religious bigots freaking out and protesting should provide some amusement. :D :rofl::kick:

[progressoid]

102. NO NO NO, he looked like Peter O'Toole.

From "The Ruling Class"

[d_b]

121. That's deliciously creepy.

[progressoid]

125. It's a deliciously creepy movie!

http://imdb.com/title/tt0069198/

[d_b]

127. oooooh, Peter Medak

He directed one of my favorite films - The Changeling.

[mvd]

112. Jesus should actually be portrayed as Middle Eastern

That would probably bother the Fundies even more so. Some of them haven't even gotten over the fact he was a Jew.

[Odin2005]

115. The reason Jesus is usually pictured as European is because...

...of the ignorance of medieval Europeans, it has nothing to do with racism as far as I know.

[DavidDvorkin]

117. That's absurd. Jesus was transparent.

Invisible. Non-existent. Mythological.

[Karenina]

123. Wonder if anyone saw the film yesterday...

:popcorn: