c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Robert M. Parham directs the Nashville-based Baptist Center for Ethics.)

UNDATED _”Could white people remain Christian if they had to bow down to a black Jesus?”asked longtime civil rights leader C. T. Vivian, speaking at the Carter Center to a gathering of Baptists.

Vivian said the symbol of white Jesus was both a symptom and cause of racism.”We’re so racist we can’t even tell the truth about God,”Vivian said, referring to Jesus’ skin color.

His stinging remarks moved the Baptist delegates from 30 different countries to resolve in their covenant statement:”We recognize that the almost exclusive use of white images of Jesus has humbled our understanding of and witness to the incarnation.” Vivian spoke at an International Summit of Baptists Against Racism, sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance, a worldwide fellowship of Baptist conventions. Sessions of the January meeting were also held at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer and Wheat Street Baptist churches.

A few days after the conference, a white, Texas Baptist pastor told about driving past a manger scene in which Joseph, Mary and Jesus were black. His young daughter expressed surprise. She said that she did not know if she could worship a black Jesus.

Mainstream Christian publishing houses have historically pictured Jesus as an Anglo-looking figure, even though Christian faith has no reliable descriptions of Jesus’ physical appearance.

Years ago, some picture Bibles portrayed Jesus as a lean, blond-haired, blue-eyed man with a neatly trimmed beard. He looked almost like a young Robert Redford. Such an image made Jesus the male model for the Aryan race.

Not surprisingly, some Christians of color justifiably chaff at this depiction, challenging such an image’s historical accuracy.

For others, the issue is really a matter of political power. They define racism as prejudice with power.

An African delegate at the BWA meeting said that the white world is the creator of racism. For those with such a perspective, a white Jesus reinforces the existing white power that harms people of color. Thus, one way to reverse white power is to strip Jesus of his whiteness. Making Jesus a person of color gives nonwhites power.

The issues of historical accuracy and political power should not be quickly dismissed. But they should be considered alongside the issue of discernment, specifically the practice of moral judgment.

Judging others is part of what it means to be a human being, despite the often incorrectly cited biblical exhortation to”judge not.”This reference speaks to self-righteous, hypercritical judgment. It is not an admonition against the commonplace evaluation of others.

The biblical witness actually offers guidelines about the practice of moral judgment.

One guideline contrasts the human tendency with God’s desire. We look on the outside, while God looks on the inside. Such an outlook found voice in Martin Luther King Jr., who called Americans to judge others based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

Another guideline for the practice of moral judgment urges believers with power to remove stumbling blocks from the path of fellow believers.

How do these two guidelines relate to the issue of Jesus’ skin color?

First, the character of Jesus, his actions and teaching, should be our touchstone, not skin pigmentation. Keeping Jesus white or making Jesus black will do little for those stuck on outward appearances.

Those who look on the inside look beyond skin color. Three of the world’s most noted 20th century moral leaders _Gandhi, King and Mandela _are people of color.

Sound moral judgment probes beneath the exterior, superficial, transparent.

Second, the color of Jesus’ skin does matter, if it causes others to stumble. The practice of moral judgment has a bias in favor of the needs of others, especially the weak, the alienated, the dispossessed.

Prudent moral judgment recognizes and empathizes with the deep sense of alienation that many Christians of color feel about the apparent endorsement that a white Jesus provides to a”white”culture.

Yet healthy ethical discernment moves beyond recognition and empathy toward dialogue. The February observance of Black History Month would be a good time for white Christians and Christians of color to share perceptions related to the influence of Jesus’ skin color on culture.

After all, the issue of how Christians think about Jesus’ color is far more than skin-deep.

DEA END PARHAM