ā€¦

Who can forget when the former Fox News host Megyn KellyĀ declaredĀ in 2013 that Jesus, like Santa Claus, ā€œwas a White man, too,ā€ and ā€œthatā€™s a verifiable fact,ā€ a remark she later said was meant in jest.

ā€¦

First, while the classic Nordic Jesus remains a popular image today in some churches, a movement toĀ replace the White Jesus has long taken root in America. In many Christian circles ā€”Ā progressiveĀ mainline churches,Ā churches of colorĀ shaped by ā€œliberation theology,ā€ and amongĀ Biblical scholarsĀ ā€” conspicuous displays of the White Jesus are considered outdated, and to some,Ā offensive.Ā In a rapidly diversifying multicultural America, more Christians want to see a Jesus thatĀ looks like them.

But in some parts of the country, the White Jesus never left. TheĀ spread of White Christian nationalism has flooded social media feeds withĀ imagesĀ of the traditional White Jesus, sometimes adorned with a red MAGA hat. Former President Trump is selling a ā€œGod Bless the USA Bibleā€ with passages from the Constitution and Bill of Rights ā€” a linking of patriotism with Christianity that reinforces a White image of Jesus that is central to Christian nationalism.

ā€¦

BlumĀ says the image of a White Jesus has been used to justify slavery, lynching, laws against interracial marriage and hostility toward immigrants deemed not White enough. When Congress passed a law inĀ the early 20thĀ centuryĀ to restrict immigration from Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe, White politicians evoked the White Jesus, he says.

ā€œOne of the arguments was, ā€˜Well, Jesus was White,ā€™ ā€˜ā€™ Blum says. ā€œSo the theme was, we want America to be profoundly Christian or at least Jesus based, so we should only allow White people in this country.ā€

The MAGA movement uses the image of a White Jesus to weaponize political battles, he says, pointing to signs at the January 6 insurrection displaying a White Jesus, sometimes wearing a red MAGA hat. To Blum, some Christian conservatives see a White MAGA Jesus as ā€œan anti-woke symbol.ā€

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Around 20 years, not 40.

    Paul is writing around 50-60 CE.

    And thereā€™s definitely at least one alleged firsthand account of what he said, it just isnā€™t cannonical so you donā€™t hear much about that claim by the Gospel of Thomas.

    Yet you can sort of see Paul referring to some of those statements in what he argued against, such as:

    Jesus said, ā€œLet one who has become wealthy reign, and let one who has power renounce it.ā€

    • Thomas 81

    Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

    • 1 Cor 4:8

    The Thomasine form of the saying is also very relevant to Pilateā€™s timeframe, given thatā€™s when Tiberius, the first emperor of Rome to achieve it not by life accomplishments but by dynastic birthright has literally abandoned the position to party all day without renouncing the position of emperor to anyone else.

    Itā€™s also the kind of statement that might have ended up with the person saying it killed by the Roman state.

    And yet miraculously it doesnā€™t end up cannonized after Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, converts and had the council of Nicaea decide on what made the cut. Instead the texts that reflected Paulā€™s schtick and also happened to promote the idea of dynastic monarchy as divine made the cut.

    Very convenient for Constantine that the Gospel of Thomas wasnā€™t cannonized, despite it claiming to have contained sayings directly from a historical Jesus.

    • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Bringing in the non canonical books is funny because you have to accept most the stories are made up, if they were so happy to make up stories whatā€™s to stop them making them all up?

      • kromem@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        While itā€™s true that all versions of Jesus canā€™t all be historical, thatā€™s a very different matter from the claim that all versions are made up.

        In fact, it would be one of the only cases Iā€™m aware of in all of history where a made up person had bitter schisms leading to the majority of surviving writings within the first century of making up those stories dedicated to trying to silence the different versions.

        But that pattern of behavior is extremely common among sects and cults focused around a real person who then dies or is imprisoned, where the groups fracture and claim different stories or interpretations of the historical figure quickly after they are out of the picture.

        If Jesus was made up, we should probably expect one official story of him, similar to Mithrism which emerged around the same time, which had none of the Christian bitter schisms.

        Basically, what Paul writes here only twenty years after Jesusā€™s alleged execution is extremely unusual if Jesus as a figure was entirely made up:

        For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.

        You basically have an official cannonized version of Jesus thatā€™s dedicated to claiming the women around Jesus ā€œtotally saw the empty tomb but didnā€™t tell anyoneā€ or that women should stay silent (1 Clement) and that women shouldnā€™t teach (1 Cor), and then a heretical group discussing Jesusā€™s teachings to female disciples to whom he basically says the men disciples are idiots and claim their female teacher had said Jesusā€™s sower and mustard seed parables were talking about Lucretiusā€™s ā€œseeds of thingsā€ (writing in Latin 50 years before Jesus was born he used the word ā€˜seedā€™ in place of the Greek atomos in discussing how randomly scattered atoms were the cause of life where where survived to reproduce is what multiplied).

        A parable that btw is also the only one provided a ā€œsecret explanationā€ in the earliest cannonical versions.

        I donā€™t see that level of nuance occurring if the entire thing is made up from scratch only decades earlier.

        • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Corinthians 10 through 13 are widely considered to be written later than the first half of the letter, all Christian documents are heavily edited to try and prove their faith which is one of many reasons to acknowledge they could easily have rewritten early history of spiritual belief to apply to a fictional person.

          plus he even sounds like heā€™s talking about a spiritual Jesus from heaven not a born son - receiving the spirit is how you meet spiritual Jesus, the only Jesus Paul knows - isnā€™t it weird he doesnā€™t say ā€˜other people talking about Jesus are liars, we have living people who knew him in personā€™ā€¦ but actualy, where are those people? Why donā€™t the apostles establish the religion? Peter might have existed maybe for a bit but really in actual history thereā€™s no sign of any affect from any of them - Paul is the first significant figure we can really see and feel in history nut he never met him - all the churches and gospels come from his actions.

          We know why there are 12 apostles, no one actually believes Jesus met the magic number of guys and they followed him instantly, theyā€™re not real people and they donā€™t act real either - but surely Jesus would have had followers so why donā€™t they run the religion instead of someone who doesnā€™t even pretend to have met a physical Jesus?

          Paul went far far away from anyone that would know the truth and told his story, Christianity developed from these places, highly educated Greek scholars write the books of the Bible from Paulā€™s teaching - a man who never met Jesus, who only claims to have met James (inconsequential meeting) and Peter though mysteriously doesnā€™t even mention Peter when writing his letter to the Romanā€™sā€¦

          The bits of the early church we have historic evidence for all come from Paul, if Peter existed the biblical version of him certainly isnā€™t true and thereā€™s no roman record of him until itā€™s invented much later and sites are ā€˜foundā€™ for his resting place - again even the Vatica scholars n accept this.

          When you really look at it thereā€™s no room for a historical Jesus but a perfect pathway for a man we know invented his part of the story for personal gain (maybe he had an episode that put the idea of Jesus in his head but it wasnā€™t based on physical reality)