Racism In Religion (Is Jesus Wrongly Depicted?)
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EXPLORING NEGATIVE RACIAL EFFECTS OF RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY
Although it was never supposed to, Christianity inadvertently played a major role in spreading racism and white supremacy. Something that was meant to enlighten mankind has instead been one of the largest sources of brainwashing, and evil. Instead of spreading love, wisdom, and a connection to The Light, religion has often caused stunted social advancement, lost or destroyed history, science and art, and has caused several wars and death because of its misguided mismanagement. Below are some of the ways religion and Christianity in the hands of the imprudent has steered mankind toward the darkness of racial inequality.
Our Attachment To The Familiar
Let’s get right to it with no chaser: Jesus didn’t look anything like the images we’re familiar with. The pictures of Jesus, Mary and the saints we see everywhere and in every Catholic Church are false and very inaccurate. Based on extensive research, the History Channel documented the work of expert historians and posted a picture of what the real Jesus might have looked like, and it’s incredibly different from most popular paintings of Christ. Jesus’ lineage can be traced throughout Africa and the Middle East, yet somehow he’s usually portrayed with blue eyes or fair long hair. In actuality, because he was a Galilean Jew in that period, he was probably much darker with shorter, curlier hair texture. Also from factual research, Jesus has black African ancestry from both Mary and Joseph. For those that only acknowledge Mary's ancesty, the result is still the same. Other descriptions of Jesus and some of his family ties have been conveniently destroyed; however we know enough to decipher more truthful depictions. Even though we know all of this in this day and age, the fraudulent images of Christ are still recognized and prevalent. Regardless of what we all know, we still cling to the absurd images pushed on us that were promoted for centuries.
Historically Accurate Depiction of Christ Versus The Traditional
How this representation of Christ came to be is simple: When Christianity expanded all over the world, each culture painted Jesus as they themselves looked for local approval.
Years after Christ’s death, Christianity transformed into a very structured, organized religion. Like many things men create, Christianity initially had the best intentions to spread Christ’s message, but resulted in various negative consequences with political, racial and cultural posturing.
Christianity began to spread from Jerusalem and became the official state church of Armenia, then Ethiopia, and Georgia. Eventually, Christianity spread further and became the state church of the Roman Empire by 380 AD and began to spread to Europe for political reasons. Christianity became strong in all of Europe by The Middle Ages. It was during these times that Christianity became a major world religion, and European kings, leaders, artists, zealots and churches began to modify the image of Christ, and painted Christ and other biblical patriarchs as European Caucasians. They also began painting images of God, The Father, and the angels as Caucasians, and these are the images that reverberated around the world all the way to present day.
Many indigenous cultures had gods and deities, but mostly depicted as animals, objects, raceless, inhuman entities and spirits. In Europe however, all of the mythological deities prior to the influx of Christianity were depicted as white men and women, and it eventually transfused into biblical depictions.
These churches also made trinkets of Jesus, Mary and crucifixes in silver and gold and countless other things of value that ironically, Christ would be vehemently against. People looked up to these bejeweled images, works of art and symbols and prayed to them. These shining, grand works of art reflexively served as a promoter of Christianity to the rest of the world. As people grew in their reverence for these images, the face of the European God, angels, Christ and Mary began to stick.
Many of the early artists and sculptors may have had good intentions or made them for the approval of European monarchy, but these images were erroneous and had very inconspicuous negative effects that would last for thousands of years.
Religious Imagery and Depictions of God In The Middle Ages in Europe
Mankind did it again, and this was wrong on many levels. Firstly, for a people who claimed to follow the teachings of the Bible and Christ, the Bible clearly states that we should never attempt to create images of things in heaven and look upon them with reverence. And not only is it extremely wrong and audacious to designate a race to the Creator of all men and races, but Exodus 20:3 states emphatically that we should never make idols in the form of anything in heaven. Secondly, depicting God and everything holy as blue eyed or Caucasian had very negative and oppressive effects in the subconscious of non whites.
How Religious Imagery Racially Affected The World
When Christian missionaries came to Africa in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and when missionaries came to convert other indigenous peoples, they brought these tainted images with them. So along with the Christian faith came the inadvertent allusion of white supremacy.
It was done to Africans during colonialism and Neo colonialism. It was done to people in the East and Asia. It was done to Native Americans and indigenous people all over the world. Missionaries went out to spread Christianity, and with it, the nations from where they came had political and social motives to encourage Mission work. Missionaries simultaneously spread their culture, languages and reeducated the people. They built schools, churches and ministered to the poor. As the poor became appreciative of the charities and mission work, their influence grew. These people started to become detached from their own cultures and dogmas. Soon, Christianity, Western culture and images of a white God began to infiltrate the minds and hearts of indigenous people. Even though the spiritual message was inclusive, the religious imagery was not universal. And though race had no place in Christian doctrine, through earthly religious imagery, Christianity inadvertently and subconsciously implied the lie that God, the angels, Jesus and others were white.
Missionaries Converting Indigenous People With Christianity
Why There Is No Change
In this decade, any educated person knows all of this very well already. So why are all the pictures still the same? Most modern Protestant churches don’t have many religious pictures and art anymore. Catholic churches however, are very notorious for these images.
Religious leaders argue that the images shouldn’t be significant. They feel that they’re only symbolic, and that the message is what’s paramount. If it truly doesn’t matter, then why knowingly keep or continue to promote, uphold and create images that are false and historically inaccurate? Why continue to make new pictures, drawings, movies and shows depicting this false Jesus and planting the same seed in newer generations? If it truly doesn’t matter, why not depict a more historically accurate Jesus when the opportunity permits it? In fact, whenever a dark Jesus is depicted in modern culture, it’s usually spun as something blasphemous or something to produce humor. A light, blue eyed Jesus is utterly ridiculous, yet portraying a dark one which would be more historically accurate would cause a stir. How very ironic.
Jesus most likely looked a kin to Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden. However, if you asked children to draw a picture of Jesus, they would draw a picture of Keith Urban.
Images Of Deities In Other Cultures
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How Christianity is Obstructed From Its True Capabilities
The veiled elite have made us a people who love to live in a lie and feed pride. Our history books are full of lies, exaggerations, altered details and omitted information. We continue to follow that pattern. We change history and keep lies in tact if it serves our interests. We don’t correct things that we’ve grown comfortable with. We still hold national holidays for sinister, murderous criminals like Christopher Columbus and sweep bad things under the rug. We’re socialized to lie, and make lies the truth. With religion and Christianity however, there should be zero tolerance for alterations and inaccuracies. Understand that when this issue comes up, oh yes it is a big deal. All those religious images are reminders of the old world corruptions of Christianity, thousands of years of white supremacy, and the ethnocentric perspective that we still need to grow away from. A flawed way of guided thinking has been nurtured for a long time.
Instead of people growing spiritually in a world that acknowledges people of all shades and hues, and knowing that there are special and important patriarchs of all ethnicities, everything has been changed and absorbed into one dominant race. Because of this propagated falsehood, it became more conducive for generations of white children to grow into a subconscious entitlement. When you hear of all the atrocities regarding race relations in this country’s history, don’t think racism came out of the blue or that it was inherent. Diligent research by Howard Zinn proves people are innately better than that. Racism was trained and instilled into people for decades and in myriad ways. Separations between races and classes have also been trained. The portrayal of God and the patriarchs as white men to the rest of the world had many subconscious ramifications. Don’t listen to religious leaders attempting to down play and ignore it. It was always a big deal that affected many, not to be blown off.
Why The Old Religious Images Are Still An Issue Affecting Modern Day Society
Why is it important? And is it correct that we shouldn’t focus on pictures? It is important because I truly believe in improving race relations. I believe in the old cliché things people claim to want like world peace and an end to racism. I want everyone to learn to love and respect each other. I know that it will never happen in my lifetime, but things can definitely improve with each decade. One sure way to help end racism is to start telling the truth. Racism was begat in deception and the nurturing of lies. The powers that be once even wanted everyone to believe people of color were 3/5th’s of man and even wrote books on it. Because the powers that be pumped lies and ideas into people’s heads for so many years to justify hatred and suppression of people, it will take many years of racial appropriation to combat it. When we’re mature enough to stop accrediting everything to one race, future generations will be more inclusive and open minded. When so called Christians are ready to practice what they preach and acknowledge things done in the past that probably shouldn’t have been done instead of downplaying it, people in future generations have a chance at improving relations.
Case in point, many people have heard of the studies in which black children were shown pictures of children of different races and were asked to pick the good kids with good qualities over the bad. As expected they picked the typically Caucasian kids to have the good qualities and the darker kids the bad. That’s an example of the deep rooted mental conditioning that religion and religious imagery helped establish among many other contributing variables. With all things so heavily tilted in one direction, there will always be racial condescension, resentment, and imbalance.
How We Should Approach Old Religious Imagery
Simply understand that to show pictures of Jesus as he wasn’t, and to show pictures of God, the angels and everything holy as white was always wrong. We were never supposed to do that. In a world full of black people, white people, Asians, Hispanics, aboriginal, or whatever have you, to paint a picture of the face of God and paint him white is beyond audacious. Most of us never saw the negative subconscious consequences for all of us, and it’s never too late to acknowledge it. Choosing to ignore it and continuing to subscribe to the old religious imagery is irresponsible. We’re living in one of many mistakes of our predecessors. Let’s not exist in the error of their ways. One of the main purposes to our lives as well as life’s biggest challenges is enlightenment and bettering ourselves, not sitting back justifying our wrongs.
People have no idea how to think as God does or as one truly connected to the Light. We’re only human; we can understand when we hear the right thing, but we either choose to adhere to it, or we intellectualize and rationalize the wrong thing and move in the other direction. Unfortunately we often do the latter. The people in the past responsible for the onset of those images did so because of limited understanding of the celestial, cultural reasons, and they didn’t know better. It was a different time.
The next time you see an image of a black God or Jesus, never arrogantly object to it as blasphemous or see it as something humorous. It’s an equivalent, meaningless earthly manifestation of what you’re already accustomed to, just of a different perspective. We all have to break the chains of a mental conditioning and evil, man-made entitlements. Digging deep and being honest, we know what happened and what we’re living through now. It’s never too late to genuinely be about the true ideals of what religion was meant to be.
Is The Religious Imagery We Subscribe to A Big Deal?
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Hey Jandee. Thanks for your support on my page once again. And btw, I don't consider you a "non believer". Thats just more divisive religious BS terms lol. God knows the heart and spirit; people who hold hate in their heart are non believers--whether they're holding Bibles or not. No one's judging you here.
I'd have to say, religion might be more dangerous than racsim. Religion has many times maintained types of racism. Regardless, made up minds brain washed to believe they're right are very dangerous, believe me. Get a group of people to believe something and watch men corrupt it, watch it get divisive, and watch it get very dangerous.
Religious history has the Jews in Isreal fighting with Muslims, with thousands dying at war for decades. Religion is what made Christians start countless wars and deaths etc etc. You can never trust men to handle things they believe "God" said. There are millions of brainwashed people that have no idea whatsoever that they too are brainwashed with religious dogmas and that's pretty scary. Anyway, all this is probably for another hub lol.
Thanks again!
You're article is amazing. Perhaps "article" is the wrong word to use, your "voice" on this matter, pictures provided, really speak strongly to me. Beautifully written and informative. It leaves the door open for people to venture into their own spiritual questioning. I love it and I too feel the same as you. Our own journey with The Light is a very intimate and deep one that we must be aware of.
I def agree that the truth is freedom, in many and all ways of life. Lies kill anything productive and any form of growth. We CAN start as individuals and our connections with others first, just like you have here. And in our own way, create paths, rivers, that travel to our goal of how we truly are meant to love one another. The Light is Love - in my view. Thanks for your input and truth.
Keep sharing!
Hello there drew,yes but the religion you talk about is only the sword held by the enemy. The oppression in Palestine has not so much to do with religion but rather imperialism. Love your writing but believe me I am an atheist,sorry!
best from jandee
Thanks for coming by and supporting again too fuertelady. You're comments are very flattering.
I agree lies do a lot of things. When lies are told and supported, newer, innocent generations buy into those lies and the consequences run very deep.
The immaturity and evil that exists in the world is a bit surprising and infuriating, but it’s definitely worth it to put it on Front Street and fight it.
Thanks again for the support!
Not to put you in a defensive posture - but if you are so deeply concerned about the truth as you have written here (and this piece is well written I might add), then why the inflammatory and untrue, "We don’t correct things that we’ve grown comfortable with. We still hold national holidays for sinister, murderous criminals like Christopher Columbus and sweep bad things under the rug" comment? Talk about revisionist history. I might add, you seem to give zero support for this premise as if it is a known historical fact.
Our history these days is to paint any white man as evil. Period. And you have just perpetuated that myth with that statement which is absolutely untrue taken as a whole. Now please hear me out and don't become angry. I just ask that you hear me out.
As a third generation American-immagrant-Italian, both sides of my family tree going back centuries of Italian heritage, it grieves me that this type of thing is taught in our schools. You are young and a product of our school system so I honestly can't blame you for believing what you do about Christopher Columbus. But that isn't the main reason I write to you here.
I wish to address your premise as a whole - Christianity is responsible (in great part) for racism.
I suggest that your observations of what Jesus probably looked like should be largely confined to the Catholic Church (big on dogma and tradition) and the Mormon Church - which is a cult anyway. The Catholic Church is very stubborn about change, the LDS Church is a cult - so you can dismiss this organization's depictions of Jesus outright. Besides, the Mormon Church IS racist by their specific teachings in their Book of Mormon which proclaim that dark skin is the mark of Cain - which means anyone descended from this "tribe" is hopelessly sinful. Again, the LDS Church is a cult, so it would be unfair to lump them together with real Christian religions.
As an Evangelical Christian, I have never seen a single image of Christ where he is depicted as anything other than what a Jew would have looked like in that day, dark, with dark or at least cocoa skin, and brown eyes. Still, I have rarely ever seen a depiction of Christ at all regardless. And I am an Army wife (ret) of over 30 years who has moved over 21 times (including living in Germany) and have attended almost as many different Protestant Churches.
So please do not paint "Christianity" with your broad brush. It's not only unfair, it's inaccurate. Now - having said all of that, I understand your anger. I've been saying for years - "He wasn't Jesus Sven Christ, he was a Jew. If he looked like the Renaissance paintings depict him, he would have been like a circus freak."
So while your point is well taken, I believe you take it way too far. Again, I'm not trying to put you on the defensive. I'd like you to consider this.
You are using broad generalizations and applying it to two large organizational expressions of faith, Catholic and Protestant and blaming all Christianity for racism.
I submit this to you. God is no respecter of persons. This is plain and very clear not only in the teachings of Christ, but in both the Old and New Testament. God or in the case of Christians, Christ, doesn't notice the color of anyone's skin. God sees the heart and it is the heart we are judged by. Any TRUE Christian, any Christian who studies the Bible, would know this and apply this very important principle in life as I always have tried to do. That is why I know in my heart I am no racist. I do have one distinct prejudice however I admit, white southern women - but I'm working on that hurdle...
The fact that "religion" has had a tendency to warp images of Christ (which you point out yourself we're not supposed to do anyway) is only testament to knowing why we as Christians need Christ in the first place. Because we are sinful, stupid, and essentially worthless left to our own devices. We need Christ to truly become "human."
IF there is racism amongst Christians, then that's their sinful nature warping their mind. It's just that simple. God's Word teaches just the opposite. The heart is where the person is. It has nothing to do with the color of anyone's skin.
And that's what the Lord sees - only the heart.
You are obviously a brilliant, handsome, well-written young man. I do hope that some of this bitterness can be diluted if you could at least consider that man and man's organizations aren't perfect. That's WHY we Christians need Christ. It's a fallen, corrupt and ugly world when it comes to man and man's behavior. Christ's teachings don't make racists. It's the lack of adherence to His teachings that leads down the path of sin and racism.
Carol
Hey Carol,
Nice to hear from you again and---No I don’t get angry. I enjoy going back and forth with different perspectives.
Anyway regarding Christopher Columbus, it isn’t school the set me against him at all. I only heard good things in school. It was out of school that I did most of my reading, studying and researching. I learned what I wasn’t taught. I don’t mean to degrade someone you revere but I studied the truth about the man. Firstly, they arrogantly told us he discovered a land already populated by millions of people, and if you consider the exploits of men like Leif Ericson, he wasn’t even truly the first.
When Columbus arrived he became so impressed with how honest, hardworking and innocent the Natives were that he eventually took advantage of them, and enslaved them to mine for Gold to bring back to Spain. This is all fact. He was so brutal to the Natives that he chopped off limbs of those who weren’t producing, even if there was no gold there, and he burned some of them alive to make examples of them. Columbus also supervised the sexual slavery of female Arawak children for himself and his men. The Natives were a proud people, so many of them committed mass suicides because of Columbus’ presence among them. Columbus also had many of them murdered for self serving reasons. The man was no hero. He was greedy and sinister. History is always written by the Captures.
This is exactly what I mean when I say we’ve been socialized to lie and sweep things under the rug. This is all recorded information. The Knights of Columbus felt they needed a Catholic hero for American children to idolize so they white washed everything, lionized his exploits and eventually got the government to give him a national holiday and we revere him as the discoverer of America.
As for demonizing white people, not my goal at all. White people in general are not my enemy and I have many brothers of the white race and a bond with them way beyond our earthly visage. I love them and I’m not afraid to tell them or anyone how I feel. My goal is fighting what’s wrong, and social injustices. It’s a part of our reality and our history. A lot of my heroes happen to be white men in our Nation’s history who did the right thing. There’s many of them like John Brown, that hardly get mentioned but guys like Columbus get pushed forward as heroes.
I agree with you and I did mention that most Protestant churches have not been responsible or promote those old false images. But the damage has been done and its ingrained in all of us. Christian Protestant churches do adhere to a better standard, and correct, most of them don’t adorn their churches with these images or pray to them.
I think towards the end of what you wrote is our common ground. The world is flawed and sinful. Christianity was usurped and used as a vehicle with which to do a lot of wrong. It’s infiltration, misinterpretation, and mismanagement has been the cause of wars, death and yes, racism. Also as you mentioned there are many cults and altered versions of Christianity that are blatantly racist. Yes the Mormons added fictional nonsense to it to justify inequality. But allow me to appeal to that common ground. You aren’t my enemy, but the transgression of others and predecessors can affect us if we allow it to. That’s what my hub is about. The image of a white God can keep us all divisive. I watched a youtube clip of a guy who claimed he was Christian talk about this subject. He initalliy said it didn’t matter, but then he veered off into explaining how Jesus could’ve looked white because where Jesus lived was traversed by Europeans etc etc etc. I read between the lines in a millisec and saw that his earthly pride was trying to “claim” Jesus and his ethnicity. That's what happens. Then I saw all these shows potraying a white Jesus and others portaying a black or dark one as some sort joke with him speaking Ebonics.
The image of God which the Bible said not to try and recreate has already been implanted in our subconscious and it’s still doing its damage pulling people off track. These false images of Jesus need to stop and the Zeus-like image of God needs to stop entirely.
It's good to see that we can find some common ground Dru.
I do have some suggestions and clarifications though.
I did not call Columbus a hero. I don't use that term loosely. I also believe we have some common ground with regard to making Columbus into a demi-god. He certainly should have been portrayed in our school system in a less heroic light. Yet he also should not be demonized as I believe you are doing.
Let me pose this to you - Martin Luther King Jr. was a serial adulterer who was unrepentant until he was murdered. He was a minister. The Bible tells us ministers have a much larger burden to live a life of example. Much more so than the common man. He didn't just have AN affair, he was a womanizer. As a man of the cloth, he accepted the responsibility of living up to certain Biblically based ideals, but failed miserably to live up to them. Should we dismiss the man outright, and all of his accomplishments knowing this?
As far as Christopher Columbus discovering America - I have heard it used over and over just as you stated - "he didn't discover anything - there were millions of indigenous people here before he arrived."
He discovered a new land for the CIVILIZED world and for Europe's expansion into exploration of the world. This "discovering America" has been taken out of context and twisted. It was directly due to Columbus coming to the shores of America that changed history. This is factual. While you paint him as a demon - it was very difficult to plan and execute these journeys that he did as it was at great risk and great peril to both himself and his crew.
Enslaving Indians to work for the Spanish crown in retrospect we see it as horrible. Not to make excuses, but the fact is, It was what was done at the time. People had slaves - it's the way it was, right or wrong - it's what our civilization was like given the times.
I also submit to you that in your readings - read more about these indigenous people Columbus found in the U.S. you seem to want to make paragons of virtue.
The Caribs were cannibals and when Columbus found the Arawaks they told him their biggest complaint was they were being eaten by the Caribs. In fact their tribal name was where the English word "cannibal" derived from.
When the Caribs expanded and conquered, their habit was to marry the conquered women and eat the conquered men.
While today there are attempts to make eye witness accounts of Carib cannibalism, the fact is these eye witness accounts exist, were recorded/written and debunked today, seem to be sustained. One article I cite below suggests in light of Spain's slavery edict that only cannibals could become slaves, the records say differently. While zc' writings could be argued as having an agenda, other writings would have no such agenda (to please the Spanish monarch in order to receive more money for exploration).
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Caribs.aspx
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Carib/id/19463
The Indians (so named because Columbus thought he landed in India) practiced slavery themselves.
The largest Indian civilizations which includes the Incas, Mayans and the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice and enslaved entire Indian nations they conquered.
I found a source that gives a good account of the historical facts regarding Columbus specifically. I couldn't find mass suicides of any Indian population either in this article or others and I didn't find anything at all about children as sex slaves. I suggest those things are extremely unreliable and shouldn't be repeated. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Christopher_Colu
I do see your point about images of Christ's "whiteness" being in the culture for so long that it is a difficult image to dislodge.
However I also submit this to you - with knowledge there is power. Now with knowledge literally a few keystrokes away people can and will leave these Renaissance images behind and form a more realistic picture of what Jesus really looked like.
One last thing - I know that depiction you produced of an artist's rendition of what Jesus must have looked like is popular. However, I will say based on the history of the Jewish people, I believe the features would have been more like the Egyptian images we can still see today rather than African. Still with dark skin, hair, eyes of course, but the features would have been similar to the Egyptians than Africans - IMHO.
I suspect you will place me in the same category with the guy who said that the color of Jesus didn't matter but then proceeded to try to make him white. I'm not trying to do that at all but I suppose there may be no convincing you. However, be that as it may, my supposition comes from the historical fact that the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians. I also derive my thoughts about what Jesus may have looked like from 20th century Jews. The 20th century Jews tended to look like my "peeps" - long nose, dark hair, dark eyes etc. In the day however, as desert dwellers - the Jews definitely would have had dark skin. No question.
Thanks for the discussion. As someone here said, you have a voice and it's an important one. I've enjoyed our talk. Keep writing. You're very good.
Carol
Excellent, thought provoking article. It is frustrating to see the unintentional harm that white missionaries have done in carrying Christ to other cultures. Having read a few of the effects through some essays, it's too easy to understand comments like Christianity being the white man's religion.
That being said, what is important about determining how the historical Christ actually looked? If you believe that Jesus is God incarnate, then any human depiction of him would be lacking in comparison to the invisible God (assuming that God was as glorious and beautiful as the biblical text indicates). Yet if God became human as a way to show humans that he was one of them, then would it not make more sense that Jesus looked white, Chinese, Black, Native American, Indian, fat, thin, etc. to further convey that he/God/human part was with us?
I don't know if you've heard about the implicit attitudes project, but it points out that people are naturally more biased toward their own culture's appearance. I imagine it creates that sense of "Hey, he looks similar to me" kind of instinct that all people seem to have. It's easy to be more yourself at first around people who look similar to you and so it makes more sense that artistic depictions of Christ would try to show how Christ is approachable to all.
It seems ridiculous that Christ should be so narrowly depicted world wide (although I see your point about how people are getting hung up on the appearance part and being barred from understanding what Christ was about).
Frankly, according to Isaiah, the man was hideous looking by human standards. In fact, I read from one source (Phillip Yancey, I think) that some of the early church thought Jesus was actually a leper. And frankly, it would be nice to see a less culturally pretty Jesus -- the one portrayed now seems like he should be selling toothpaste, although I think the Renaissance men were being typical human by portraying a Christ akin to their own culture. But I would be curious to hear your thoughts on this. It's always good to compare perspectives. Good article!
I appreciate your discussion very much too, Carol. And I like people who come back with facts and research as you do.
Anyway, “Civilized” countries have entered indigenous cultures in total and complete ignorance of their languages or meanings behind their customs and ways, but still recorded their own interpretations. Indigenous societies did have culture, structure and meaning behind what they did. The European visitors didn’t know anything about it, didn’t care, and drew their own conclusions. In the Medieval era, people were put in guillotines, were flogged, and put into huge torture contraptions, were ripped open and left to die for hours. If an advanced foreign visitor strolled around and documented his opinions, they might not have been favorable. Vikings and many other civilizations have barbarically and ferociously raped and pillaged other defenseless villages for hundreds of years. Someone watching them could’ve made a negative assessment about their being civilized. The cannibalism of the Caribbs was a war ritual. Morbid, unfavorable, and unconventional---but different. Columbus most likely judged and thought them inferior when they were people on the other side of the world in a different social stage of development who were completely different, with different ways and customs. I do get your point though as to what his mindset was and I do consider the time he was living in. That is a huge factor that I do take into consideration. Regardless what he thought however, he was a devout “civilized” Catholic who decided to rape, enslave and kill many of them, including watching them burn alive. You wouldn’t do that to an animal.
As for Martin Luther King, every one born on this earth has done wrong. Comparing Martin Luther King’s adultery to Columbus’s rape and genocide is a stretch though. Columbus single handedly reduced a population of people.
I do recognize and appreciate the present though. But I choose to learn from my past and I don’t brush aside the bad spots. It’s all a part of who we are if unchecked and challenged. I won’t honor a man like Columbus who could’ve done everything he did for the nation---without raping, murdering and his diabolic tyranny. What he did transcends any period in time. But believe me Carol, I do not hate Columbus and I do recognize the era he was in. What I don’t like is what gets built around him generations later by people who know better, including our “Columbus Day”.
As for the Jews---The way the present day Jews look is a direct result of the Jews historically always being a nomadic people by circumstance. The modern day Jews are a mix of converts and Eastern Europeans. In Jesus’ time, ancestors of Galilean Jews only traveled as far as Egypt, Ethiopia, Jerusalem and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Men that looked like Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller weren’t enslaved in Egypt and migrating throughout Africa.
I will reconsider and take a look at the good Columbus has done that you’ve pointed out.
Thanks again and please drop back anytime. I appreciate the convo and the perspective.
Not to be argumentative - but Dru - I have to take exception to your answer regarding the Indians in particular the Caribs. Your reasoning for discounting the eye witness accounts of cannibalism is...well...weak. Please don't become offended. I truly don't mean any offense. You are obviously a very intelligent man. As an intelligent and educated man you've heard of "primary sources." An eyewitness account is a primary source. You can't get more primary than that actually. I would grant you, if you want - Christopher Columbus's account - he had an agenda so-to-speak. I don't agree with you though. His journals are used to show how he took advantage of the indigenous peoples - where you get some of your opinion from. So you can't have it both ways, but for arguments sake, let's just say I agree with you with regard to ole Paisan. However, the other eye-witness accounts are recorded and generally, unless you have blatant proof that there was some type of grand conspiracy going on --well-documented - they stand as historical record. The historical record - as the Encyclopedia proves - is that these people, the Caribs, were cannibals. The same source I use in the Encyclopedia again must have used the same primary sources in recording the terrible way Columbus by order of Spain's Monarch - treated their Indian slaves. You take that account as true, but not the eye-witness primary accounts of cannibalism? Again, you can't have it both ways.
Dru - I'm not asking you to love Chris Columbus - I'm just asking you to consider - if Christopher Columbus was uplifted wrongly and made into some sort of icon - don't you think it's possible that liberals did the same with regard to the American Indians? Don't you agree with me that there is a faction of iberalism that demonizes ANY white man? Trust me - while there is no question that throughout the founding and colonization of America - the American Indian got the shaft, that doesn't mean they were perfect. They were not this perfect Avatar civilization by any stretch. That's stuff of movies, not reality.
With regard to the Aztecs, Incas, Mayans - this is historical fact as well, you simply can't deny this and explain it away to a "misunderstanding." Or cultural and language mixups. If someone witnesses a human sacrafice, I'm guessing they know what that is and won't mix it up with peace-pipe smoking. It's a significant event and they sacraficed children - little babies BTW. There simply is no denying, they did human sacrifice. These Indians of the Americas were "savages" in many respects.
Now - does that excuse treating them as less than human? Of course not - but let's see the truth of both sides and not wear rose colored glasses either way.
Just sayin'...
;-)
I too really enjoyed our back and forth. It was civil, it was enlightening and I think we both learned at least a little if not more, from this whole experience.
Thank you for taking your time to have this talk. It was my pleasure!
Carol
Hey Elefanza,
Thank you so much for your compliments. I appreciate it. Yes, I’m also aware of accounts of Jesus being described as unattractive, and short even. What he looked like was never supposed to be important. And I don’t believe he looked like a mix of all people as you mentioned. That would be another man made attempt to explain what He looked like. Jesus was born of woman who’s ancestry is clear. I’d be careful not to get lost in theories involving the Immaculate Conception. Man has been bamboozled on this issue too. I’ll save a lot of what I believe on that for another hub.
But I don’t think what he looked like is important or should’ve been something to be larger than his message. It has become important though however by default because of the prevalence of the false image and what it’s done in our subconscious thought. I see what it does in the minds of generations of children. Those images speak volumes. I feel like we should be a little smarter than that in this day and age and It’s irresponsible for modern day artists or casting directors to still be portraying him that way. That’s what exposes some of the issues we’re still wrestling with. If you look at religious pictures, the last supper, movies depicting Christ, you could see the problem and we need to start moving away the old unrealistic standard.
I'll try my best to explain to you why it is important. I heard an argument with kids once about this, something so trivial but you don’t forget things like this. A white child was insisting that Jesus was white to a group of other kids. He was getting very frustrated, sometimes condescending, but started to realize that he couldn’t intellectually plead his case and simply relied on historic imagery. The fact the he desperately thought/wanted/needed Jesus to be white, and the probability there are so many just like him spoke to me. It isn’t supposed to matter Elefanza, but the world made it matter for many years and it has to be undone and eradicated. Children need to grow up detached from these images telling them Jesus, God, and beings in heaven are all white. There were 2 more shows and cartoons that came out with God as a white bearded man. There’s never 1 reason for racism or inequality issues. It’s trained and ingrained with so many contributing factors that people may not be conscious of it.
Anyway, thank you for coming back. I’m trying to catch up with posts and private responses so sorry I took so long lol.
And Carol, believe me I see where you’re coming from and I do recognize and contend with that too at times. I do understand that people always like to think in terms of black and white, when sometimes things are gray. People draw lines; make an enemy, hover to one side on demonize another. Yes, all indigenous natives weren’t all perfect and angelic---and all people of white Europe descent that arrived weren’t evil waiting to take. I understand this and I’m not suggesting that. But even once being arrested for excessive and abusive tyranny during his governing in the West Indies, and again, watching people burn and writhe while alive---all things point to Columbus not being good nice a guy. He had issues.
And the Carribs were one of MANY types of Natives they encountered. The Natives weren’t ALL running around eating each other. Initially the Natives Columbus and later the Pilgrims encountered were documented to be friendly, giving and hard working---who also didn’t fully understand the concept of owning or claiming land, sexual servitude, or publicly giving your word about things that were lies or untrue. Consequently they weren’t prepared for Columbus arrival and many after him. But yes, there were some questionable practices among indigenous people like the Aztecs and Mayans who were further south, including human sacrifice, pagan rituals to fictional gods etc ect---Of course. We’re all members of the human race, flawed and capable of a lot of stupid things. No ones denying that the Natives didn't have some of there own unfavorable practices.
Also, and just fyi---a lot of the early English settlers, especially in what was eventually James town---were also cannibalistic. Many settlers came in ships expecting land, wealth and new opportunities. What they found were extremely hot summers, swarms of bugs, Native attacks and hostility after the Natives began to resent them, harsh winters and the sudden realization that they had no survival or farming ability. Many of the early settlers turned to cannibalism, preying on each other and often snuck out at night to raid both English and Native grave yards to exhume and eat the human carcasses. Men were even killing their wives and eating them. This is all fact and recorded history. Again, if someone were judging or documenting, it would not be favorable. The cannibalism eventually subsided after tobacco became profitable and the early settlers began to find their footing with help from England. Just saying observations can be deceiving if you don’t know much about a people.
Again, I’m not saying all the white settlers were evil and I need that to be clear. There were people like John Smith who did a lot to keep peace and mutual respect between Natives and settlers, and helped establish the colonies with order and structure. But there are others who took, murdered, enslaved etc---and that’s just what happened. I guess it may often seem like people paint the picture of the Natives being an innocent, noble people and the white settlers as violent and greedy all time, but that isn’t what I’m doing here. I’m a realist as you seem to be Carol; sure some Natives might’ve been violent or not so deserving of their romanticized image. However, there is plenty evidence that shows that they were many times not the aggressors and blindsided in many points in history.
But my main focus for this hub is to put focus on what’s been done, perhaps in innocence considering the times, but the result is still harmful in the present. White supremacy and the subjugation of other races and cultures is a part of the reality of our history and the effects have bled into religion, corrupted the minds of all of us, including innocent generations that came after. It’s affected and planted earthly, race favoring images that we need to abandon.
Hey dru hepkins,
I'm actually a fan of your music and I found your blog page through your tweets. I gotta say, you truly are a talented, smart and special guy.
I agree with u 100%. I come from a white catholic family and I can see how this relates to some people in my wolrd. You tell the truth raw and like it is. You're right and I appreciate. A lot of things that are supposed to help mankind are corrupted and help screw things up and divide us. We need more people to practice what they preach and help destroy the lines that have been built up around people, and the many lies that have been told.
What we do keeps indirectly telling kids that God is white and it does have consequences and shapes the way people think. I too have witnessed a similar experience when you over heard the child and I understand. We're not in the middle ages anymore and we need to rid ourselves of the images and unite people.
Thank you again and please keep it up.
Very strong thought provoking article! Good conversation too. Made me think.
Take care
I appreciate this article. As a kid who spent some time in Northern Virginia, where cultural diversity was rather rich, I had both friends and also knew of kids whose families were from all over the world. Kids catch on quick and I distinctly remember one day in Sunday school when one kid asked, referring to a painting by Warner Sallman, why Jesus didn't have darker and curlier hair. It made sense, and why not? After all he was born a Jew.
Because of those earlier years being flooded with these inaccurate depictions, or at the very least non-researched impressions, it was clear to me that one needs to be considerate of others. Having been taught that we were created in Gods image, that we needed to think about who Gods children truly are, we must all be brothers and sisters, at the very least in the spiritual sense.
Personally, I see all inhabitants of this planet as having originated from the mind of God first and then manifesting into the magnificent woven tapestry, full in display of all of its glorious colors as depicted by the coat of Joseph. And why not, but to test us all and see how we react to one another. After all spirit manifest into body not the other way around. In a sense, we were blindfolded and sent into a terrestrial pinata game. When will we learn to take off the blindfold, quite swinging our bats into the empty space – and at each other – and just open up the toy-donkey and share the candy?
I thank you for this article that brings a much needed awareness to the elephant in the room and I also thank God for being part of this race, that we know as the human race, and allowing me to experience the challenges and the rewards.
So, do we know any good artists that could create a more accurate depiction of the Christ and for the selfless reason of helping others to reach a state of enlightenment?
Thank you Dru Hepkins. Write on...
Hey Sofie83,
Thank you so much for appreciating my music and my hub. Your compliments really mean a lot to me. I'm glad that what I have to say musically and literally has struck a cord with you.
This topic is very real and I see evidences of those problems every day. I will keep it up and thanks so much again.
Thank you too StepnanieLaos. I appreciate you coming by and your encouragement.
Thanks again!
And thank you chuckfizz,
As I see you know, it's definitely experiences with the kids that really help put things in perspective and get you thinking.
I thank you for seeing what I see (or don't see) in those images. They don't represent how you put it :"we all originated from he mind of God" and the images we subscribed to for so log are images lost and stuck in one earthly perspective---which becomes subconsciously misleading to all us---especially the kids.
We are united, and I really do appreciate special, open minded people like yourself that have the prudence to recognize what's right despite our earthly mental conditioning.
Your contribution to my page was a pleasure and thank you.
Thanks for the example and response. I can see your rationale better, though still not as clearly as I’d like. Maybe a lot of people would be helped by this, though I think there will be some unfortunate children who will still act like jerks no matter what is done.
Your reference to the playground was very wise. In the words of a junior high student I taught, if you’re different, it’s just hard (and should come with a survival manual). Thanks again for the quality of your dialog!
Very serious, thought provoking article and very true. It'd be nice to get to a point where none of this matters.
Thank for the article. Those in my circle of family and friends have discussed this, at intervals, for years.
Thanks for coming by James Ingram and Honut Sinti. Those in my circle haven't discussed this really and thats what bothered me: just going along with things that are wrong without change.
Thanks for coming by!
"The image of God which the Bible said not to try and recreate has already been implanted in our subconscious and it’s still doing its damage pulling people off track. These false images of Jesus need to stop and the Zeus-like image of God needs to stop entirely."
Keep doing what you do brother. Would love to shoot the breeze with you someday.
"My children know my VOICE"...
Thanks so much for that. You're totally correct, and once something has already been implanted and institutionalized, its extremely hard to correct or even acknowledge the negative consequences.
As for shooting the breeze, my page is always open for communication.
Thanks again and take care.
Hi , congrats a very provoking read im from Puerto Rico and reading the back and forth you had with Carol , it made me really understand your view even more is really impresive how myths can go on and people be so general and offensive you see P.R. is on the caribbean as you may know and we have a very popular song is like a second national anthem the name is preciosa "precious" and is a narative of the moment columbus arrived and how he was welcome by the locals BORICUAS or TAINOS men with great hospitality and they with such things like mirrors , spoons, impresive ships and they went on and trade few of those with the locals for gold lot of gold in fact the name of P.R. PUERTO = PORT , RICO = RICH came for the impresive amount of gold this 100 mile long per 35 mile wide island have we were humble and kind . But when the tainos became aware that they were being oppressed well naturaly they fight back but never with acts of canibalism keep the good work.
jandee Level 5 Commenter 15 months ago
Hello druhepkins, I think this is a good and excellent hub. As a non-believer I have no idea what 'God' would be like if He/She would be Black or white or pink ! My immortal ruler is the mighty occean .
The arrogance of the christian whites who presumed to be 'needed'in those times is to me very embarrassing . Today ,in a survey ,I was asked the question 'Which is more dangerous Racism or Religion' my answer was Racism........ But..
thanks from jandee