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Monday, September 20, 2010
What's your favorite Jesus?
Growing up, I definitely had a preferred mental picture of Jesus. I always found it odd that although you were not allowed to portrait God artistically, you were allowed to portrait God's son (Whom many would say was God) pictorially. My church utilized and family many different images of the Christ. Of course there was the standard Long silky blond haired Jesus with brilliant blue eye's, there was the scruffier black haired (yet still white) Jesus. and finally there was the black dread headed Jesus who was usually wore less clothing than his counterparts and was far more muscular. Of course I preferred the black Jesus. As an African American, I could more readily identify with black Jesus for obvious reasons. Black Jesus, at the time, seemed to be a far more heroic at least in his depiction. He was muscular and seemed always to be asserting his "messianic authority" at least from my vantage point. Even as far his crucifixion goes, white Jesus appeared to be helpless, frail and weak whereas black Jesus seemed to fit the story better, one strong enough to come down from the cross and take vengeance if he wanted but rather chose to stay. When I need strength, encouragement or when I prayed, I didn't envision frail blond Jesus or crazy scruffy black haired white Jesus, but big bad Black Jesus. With my conceptualization of Jesus in mind, think about what the popular phrase "What Would Jesus Do?"would mean to me. It certainly in my early youth didn't mean reenacting the somewhat effeminate ideals that the white Jesus stood far (i.e. being nice, avoiding violence and so forth), but handling situations like a man.
Monday, September 13, 2010
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