Rejecting the Birth of a White Evangelical Christian Jesus

When Labor Party member Lizzie Blandthorn, a member of Australia’s parliament, who is based in Pascoe Vale, north of Melbourne, displayed a black doll in a Christmas nativity scene, she received congratulatory comments, such as “I think it is fantastic …” from Wendy Odgers and “I love that you are depicting Jesus as he most likely was considering the part of the world he was born in.” from Maggie Palmer.

However, as if experiencing a sudden hernia, Blandthorn also received complaints from listeners to Tony Jones 3AW Mornings radio show. Francesca complained that “Many people, especially people of [Blandthorn’s] own faith, will find it very offensive. She really went outside the boundaries. ... At the end of the game, this is a mocking of the birth of Christ, the son of God and I think it's very offensive.”

Another woman, Maria, said that Blandthorn’s doll was too black to be Jesus, because blacks come from Africa. Maria, of course, misses an essential point in making that complaint: Though we are not sure whether Jesus was as dark as many Africans, we do know he was not white like most Europeans.

Why Many White Right-Wing Christians are Racists
Yet, despite the overwhelming support Blandthorn has received for her black nativity scene, the reaction by Francesca and Maria is typical of many white right-wing Christians, whether they live in Australia or the United States.

In other words, they whose beliefs, whose doctrines yearn to re-chain blacks to the auction post, those people still see themselves as masters and blacks as slaves, even if they have not yet pointed one shotgun at a black face or tightened shackles around black ankles.

Hence, the white Christian fundamentalist and evangelical manufactured a Jesus, as if by 3D printing, to be impure, unholy, untrue and racist.

Black Christians and the White Jesus
Alarmingly, some blacks have handcuffed themselves to this Jesus without an ounce of understanding that he demeans them, that he converts them from harmonicas full of precious harmony to the screech of rust being scraped off decaying pipes.

If it suits their religious or psychological purpose to re-enslave themselves as property to the evil ones, I guess everyone has the right to dump buckets of scorn on themselves. But to those blacks who love integrity and crave justice, the lamp post of Christmas illuminates a better path.

And that path is as concrete and commendable as newly laid hardwood floors: To celebrate the birth of Jesus in purity and truth.

Celebrating the Birth of the Real Jesus
Celebrating Christmas this way requires, first of all, that you look to the Jesus recorded by the apostles in the Gospels. That Jesus doesn’t smell like a racist; he doesn’t burp hate from the manger; he doesn’t howl like a ruthless werewolf.

Second, no true understanding of Jesus makes sense without considering the historical Jesus. The historical Jesus is not too well-known right now. Archaeologists, theologians and historians have puzzled over information either missing or vaguely explained in the apostles’ account of his life.

Without such recognition, we can interpret the sayings of Jesus any way we want. Thus, the white Christian fundamentalist and evangelical, and their predecessors, created a demonic Jesus, a wretched Jesus in the lineage of Hitler, to support hate, terror and bigotry.

Subsequently, during the centuries when European countries colonized Africa, African freedom fighters executed Catholic priests and nuns, as well as Protestant ministers and missionaries, who taught that Jesus would have condoned black inferiority to whites and would have nodded his head in favor of black enslavement to Europeans.

So why will some blacks on Christmas Day fall to their knees and celebrate the birth of a white right-wing Jesus, a Jesus of whom current historical information says never existed?

Third, to pay homage to a non-white Jesus bears the tattoo of eternal reality, if for no other reason than he was not born in Europe or raised in Judah by parents from Europe. This we know, both from the apostles' account of Jesus’ life and available historical evidence.

Why, then, do many white evangelical Christians insist Jesus was white? Because in the hands of heresy, truth is smaller than a horseshoe crab, while blasphemy is more immense than billions of horned owls.

Finally, you should celebrate the birth of a wholly Jesus, a Jesus whose holiness is complete and applies to everyone and is not selective depending on race or ethnicity. The white right-wing Christian’s version of Jesus’ holiness is filled with unholiness, because deep deception, harsh hatred and steep lying comprise the outer and inner lining of its beliefs.

Thus, if you reject the Jesus of white right-wing Christianity, of white evangelical Christianity, honest integrity carries more weight than false faith. On the other hand, by celebrating a right-wing Jesus, you throw away one of the most precious qualities in life, your self-worth, as if it were nothing more than scrap paper.

No Compromise
The ancestors of blacks fought with the intensity of a hurricane to liberate blacks in Africa and the Americas from the evil of white right-wing Christianity. Shouldn’t their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren fight just as hard to keep that freedom by refusing to celebrate the birth of a pagan white evangelical Christ?