One of my all time favorite video clips is where controversy is brewing in the Fox News HQ about someone depicting a black Santa Clause, and Megyn Kelly had this to say:
“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change. You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man, too" (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/fox-news-host-megyn-kelly-says-jesus-and-santa-are-white-193322244.html).
Of course, her argument is flawed since there's no way Jesus could've been white. But I find it interesting because her logic contradicts itself. Just as some African-Americans find it preferable to depict the (mostly) fictional character of Santa Claus as black in order to better relate to the tradition, white Europeans and Americans have been doing the exact same thing to Jesus for centuries! If you've seen 21 Jump Street, you know that Korean Christians have done the same thing with "Korean Jesus" (I don't know if Asian depictions of Jesus are actually a thing, but the point stands). Ignorance of race was an excuse in the medieval times, but nowadays the only argument that the "Jesus was white" crowd can wield is the argument of tradition.
Not even the Buddha is safe from this type of image distortion. There's the aforementioned portrayal of the Fat Buddha (who I think was really just a popular image of a monk), but in other Asian countries he is depicted in the native nationalities; Thai temples show the Buddha as Thai, Shinto temples show the Buddha as Japanese, etc. What people forget is that the Buddha was from India.
So, this type of race reassigning seems to be unavoidable in most religions. But just because it's traditional doesn't make it right, so I can't see why Megyn Kelly would defend her point so fervently.
One of my all time favorite video clips is where controversy is brewing in the Fox News HQ about someone depicting a black Santa Clause, and Megyn Kelly had this to say:
ReplyDelete“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change. You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man, too" (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/fox-news-host-megyn-kelly-says-jesus-and-santa-are-white-193322244.html).
Of course, her argument is flawed since there's no way Jesus could've been white. But I find it interesting because her logic contradicts itself. Just as some African-Americans find it preferable to depict the (mostly) fictional character of Santa Claus as black in order to better relate to the tradition, white Europeans and Americans have been doing the exact same thing to Jesus for centuries! If you've seen 21 Jump Street, you know that Korean Christians have done the same thing with "Korean Jesus" (I don't know if Asian depictions of Jesus are actually a thing, but the point stands). Ignorance of race was an excuse in the medieval times, but nowadays the only argument that the "Jesus was white" crowd can wield is the argument of tradition.
Not even the Buddha is safe from this type of image distortion. There's the aforementioned portrayal of the Fat Buddha (who I think was really just a popular image of a monk), but in other Asian countries he is depicted in the native nationalities; Thai temples show the Buddha as Thai, Shinto temples show the Buddha as Japanese, etc. What people forget is that the Buddha was from India.
So, this type of race reassigning seems to be unavoidable in most religions. But just because it's traditional doesn't make it right, so I can't see why Megyn Kelly would defend her point so fervently.