Thursday, April 05, 2007

the other Jesus

Black Jesus by Frank Hazen(a bit like the Black Madonna)

Well, obviously Jesus wasn't blond, or auburn-haired, but must have looked Jewish - "a brotha of colour" as the expressions website puts it. But there is a time-honoured tradition of portraying deities and holy people to look like oneself, so why not a Black Jesus? If you can have a white Jesus (and he obviously wasn't white), then why not a Black Jesus, a Chinese Jesus, a Queer Jesus, even a female Jesus?

I have a black Tammuz and Ishtar that I made years ago. I made them because Tammuz and Ishtar were brown-skinned, and to honour all people of colour.

3 comments:

Kittredge Cherry said...

I just did a Google image search for "black Jesus" and clicked on my favorite out of the images that came up. What a pleasant surprise that it lead me back here, to one of my favorite bloggers, with a link to my image gallery at JesusInLove.org.

And you just posted it today. This seems like one of those "coincidences" that are guided by Spirit.

I was doing this search because I recently wrote a post about black Jesus, and I'm thinking of writing a second installment. Black Jesus and related theology has been in the news lately -- preached by Obama's pastor. Anyway, many thanks for this powerful, beautiful black Jesus image.

Yewtree said...

Actually, I posted it a year-and-a-day before your comment :) (A very significant time period for Pagans.)

It is a beautiful image, isn't it.

Grace Potts said...

Do you have the rights to this picture? If so, may I use it for a t-shirt?Please contact me at isaac@thepottshouse.org.