{"id":1719,"date":"2012-11-20T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T10:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/11\/color-of-christ-a-story-of-race-and-religion-in-america.html"},"modified":"2012-11-20T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T10:19:00","slug":"color-of-christ-a-story-of-race-and-religion-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/11\/color-of-christ-a-story-of-race-and-religion-in-america.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Color Of Christ’: A Story Of Race And Religion In America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

NPR recently interviewed R3 contributor\/blogger Edward J. Blum<\/a> to discuss his (and Paul\u00a0<\/span>Harvey\u2019s)<\/span>\u00a0 latest book, The Color of Christ. See below<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
What did Jesus look like? The many different depictions of Christ tell a story about race and religion in America. Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey explore that history in their new book,The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America<\/em>. The book traces how different races and ethnic groups claimed Christ as their own \u2014 and how depictions of Jesus have both inspired civil rights crusades, and been used to justify the violence of white supremacists.<\/div>\n
The Ku Klux Klan could not rely on Christian doctrine to justify their persecution and violence, so they had to turn to religious icons. \u201cThe belief, the value, that Jesus is white provides them an image in place of text,\u201d Blum tells\u00a0Fresh Air<\/em>\u2018s Terry Gross. \u201cIt gets them away from actually having to quote chapter and verse, which they can\u2019t really do to present their cause.\u201d<\/div>\n
If Blum had to paint a realistic portrait of Jesus, he says he wouldn\u2019t be white: \u201cI would probably paint him darkly complected, not pure black, more in a kind of light brownish [color].\u201d<\/div>\n
Up until the late 1800s, Blum says Americans were comfortable with Jesus\u2019 Semitic roots and depicted him with brown eyes. But as waves of Catholic and Jewish immigrants came to the United States, some Americans \u201cbecame concerned that it was changing the face of America too much, changing it racially, changing it religiously.\u201d In the early 20th century, there was an attempt to distinguish Jesus from his Semitic background. Religious writers and artists who were advocating for immigration restrictions began to depict Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes.<\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NPR recently interviewed R3 contributor\/blogger Edward J. Blum to discuss his (and Paul\u00a0Harvey\u2019s)\u00a0 latest book, The Color of Christ. See below What did Jesus look like? The many different depictions of Christ tell a story about race and religion in America. Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey explore that history in their new book,The Color […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n'Color Of Christ': A Story Of Race And Religion In America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NPR recently interviewed R3 contributor\/blogger Edward J. Blum to discuss his (and Paul Harvey's)  latest book, The Color of Christ. 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