{"id":19858,"date":"2013-12-12T18:42:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T23:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=19858"},"modified":"2013-12-12T18:42:21","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T23:42:21","slug":"dreaming-of-a-white-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/12\/dreaming-of-a-white-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Dreaming of a White Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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The recent statement by a Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly<\/a> illustrates well why historical Jesus research is so important. Jesus has become a powerful myth, indeed more than one, and has been coopted in the service of a great many ideologies. Nothing provides as effective a counter to the infinite range of things that Jesus has become and may yet become, than historical evidence does.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Kelly was emphasizing that Santa Claus was white<\/a>, just like Jesus (and equally historical, it sounds like). Santa Claus the myth can become any color, just as Jesus the myth can. But the historical St. Nicholas<\/a>, from the region of modern-day Turkey, was probably at most only a shade closer to Kelly's definition of whiteness than Jesus was.<\/p>\n

Of course, historical evidence is only effective as an antidote to ideological distortion of evidence, if people are willing to listen. And so willful ignorance can provide an antidote to the antidote.<\/p>\n

Satirical responses to this have also been offered by Jeff Carter<\/a> and Fred Clark<\/a>, the latter having shared the image below:<\/p>\n

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The recent statement by a Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly illustrates well why historical Jesus research is so important. Jesus has become a powerful myth, indeed more than one, and has been coopted in the service of a great many ideologies. Nothing provides as effective a counter to the infinite range of things that Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1223,3559,4652,5706,8635,10765,10766,11782,12987,13681],"class_list":["post-19858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-jesus","tag-black","tag-fox-news","tag-historical-jesus","tag-jewish","tag-palestine","tag-santa","tag-santa-claus","tag-st-nicholas","tag-turkey","tag-white"],"yoast_head":"\nDreaming of a White Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The recent statement by a Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly illustrates well why historical Jesus research is so important. 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