What is a church?

[I Think]

I don't believe Jesus would be welcome in too many church circles these days, let alone in the homes of his many so-called followers.

Do you mean the homes of people who only allow whites into their homes?
(why is jesus always pictured as a white man, when he could only be of Persian descent?)

Do you mean the homes of people who don't allow long haired people in their homes?
Do you mean the homes of people who don't allow robes and sandals in their homes?
Or do you just mean zenophobic bigots?

[cutter7]

I don't believe Jesus would be welcome in too many church circles these days, let alone in the homes of his many so-called followers.

Do you mean the homes of people who only allow whites into their homes?
(why is jesus always pictured as a white man, when he could only be of Persian descent?)

Do you mean the homes of people who don't allow long haired people in their homes?
Do you mean the homes of people who don't allow robes and sandals in their homes?
Or do you just mean zenophobic bigots?

jesus was jewish I have never met a jewish person that did not have fair skin so I dont think him being depicted as white is that much of a stretch.

[averagejoe]

I don't believe Jesus would be welcome in too many church circles these days, let alone in the homes of his many so-called followers.

Do you mean the homes of people who only allow whites into their homes?
(why is jesus always pictured as a white man, when he could only be of Persian descent?)

Do you mean the homes of people who don't allow long haired people in their homes?
Do you mean the homes of people who don't allow robes and sandals in their homes?
Or do you just mean zenophobic bigots?

jesus was jewish I have never met a jewish person that did not have fair skin so I dont think him being depicted as white is that much of a stretch.

Thanks for straightening up that for nibs, cutter7. People make such uneducated remarks and it makes them look silly. Parthia (Iraq and Iran) was east of Palistine at the time of Christ and it was a Caucasian country at the time. Indo-European. Mass migration from Parthia into Europe happened after the Battle of Niblis (Turkey) (possibly the 3rd biggest battle in history vs the Roman Empire) in 271 AD. Also parts of Parthia were Christian before the mass migration from being witnessed to by Christ's disciple's. Many of Christ's disciples went to Parthia and Scythia.

[I Think]

jesus was jewish I have never met a jewish person that did not have fair skin so I dont think him being depicted as white is that much of a stretch.

I went to a jewish high school in Toronto, and I can tell you that you are way off base. Though for most of the last 2 or 3 thousand
years, jewish people have intermingled/bred with northern whites.

[Thinktank]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGMG_PVaJoI&feature=related[/youtube]

[Glacier]

It's interesting that you posted a David Wilkinson video because I was just reading about how he recently died a Texas car crash.

As a young kid, I watched the move about him, The Cross and the Switchblade.

[cutter7]

jesus was jewish I have never met a jewish person that did not have fair skin so I dont think him being depicted as white is that much of a stretch.

I went to a jewish high school in Toronto, and I can tell you that you are way off base. Though for most of the last 2 or 3 thousand
years, jewish people have intermingled/bred with northern whites.

Your reply does not make any sense to me. jesus was born slightly over 2 thousand years ago and your post backs up the fact that he could have had fair skin.

[fluffy]

I hardly think there is any consistent trend for prejudice and racism within the church, unless somewhere there is an organized religion actively engaged in promoting superiority based on skin colour, in which case they missed an important point or two about the whole love and compassion thing somewhere along the line. Bigotry is a human function as far as I know, not a religious function. I don't doubt there there is prejudice and racism among some church members, but that would be their own personal shortfall and not one of the church, right?

[Queen K]

Definitely right.

Unless the preacher is a literalist and is still expounding on the shortfalls of Ham.

[NAB]

Not being particularly religious in a practicing or studied sense, somewhere along the line I developed a view that all religions (hence "churches") based on the old testament and various other writings of the time and place which contributed to it did indeed have racism and elitism as their foundation. I look at it more as starting with a genealogy based exercise ((pure bloodline tracing back to Adam and Eve versus "mixed (interracial?) marriages")) In addition, one might theorize that Adam and Eve were NOT the first and only "humans" of the time, just the humanoids deemed perfect, elite and worthy enopugh as an original ancestor worth tracing one's roots to. All others populating the world at that time of course would then be considered subhuman to the ancient genealogical blood line purists? But then mixed race "marriages" (actually, "mating" might be a better term for the times) presumably did occur, producing the wide diversity (and skin colours, physical characteristics, even religion and intellect) we see today?

If that makes any sense to anyone, then "the church" simply becomes a place to study one's human genealogy in an attempt to draw a link to what was considered the original human elite, and through that a link to the entity that was apparently smart enough (and capable enough) to create such a wondrous pair of ancient "pure" specimens.

Much I suppose like many folk who embark on tracing their genealogy today do. The vast majority of people doing it find out that their blood line origins are nothing special - just everyday folk doing everyday things and descended from the same. But along the way they hope to find some link to an elite class of ancestor no matter how far removed they are in terms of "pure blood line", even if the ancestor was the result of an illegitimate liaison with some ancient famous entity with God like attributes. An example may be that one of the motivators of people tracing their genealogy today is with the hope of finding links to some elite ancestor, such as nobility, or even royal families and kings and queens.... or even "Gods". I've even come across folk who are delighted to find out that one of their ancestors was employed empting some Royal's jerry pot each morning and keeping the royal latrines clean.

Racism (and elitism) isn't just in the literature then, be it religious or non-religious, ...it would be in the genes. One of those natural evolutionary things (instincts?) that attempts to keep separate the distinctions, no matter how trivial, between "species", even if similar in general format?

Edit to add: Even physical size is a distinction that separated people and what they considered valuable, ...and still does today (a la the David and Goliath story for example, as "little people" look for some equalizer to the vastly superior "big people". Even if it is just acceptance, as in "the meek shall inherit the earth". We might even speculate as to why most sailors tended to be small in stature.

Nab

[I Think]

your post backs up the fact that he could have had fair skin.

Yep, he could have had fair skin - but it is pretty clear that people who live in hot desert climes - tend to be swarthy or dark skinned. Would it matter to you if he was an African black?

[fluffy]

That has always bugged me, and in my opinion is a huge strike against the "intelligent design" theory. If the creator was supposedly all-knowing and all-powerful, why was it that he didn't know squat about the solar absorption rates of different skin colours? Some of that black skin could help quite a bit in the Arctic, as would white skin at the equator.

[I Think]

a huge strike against the "intelligent design"

Lo, "an intelligent designer would not have built us with the sewer outfall right next to the pleasure garden".

Robin Williams, or was it Gallagher?.

[cutter7]

your post backs up the fact that he could have had fair skin.

Yep, he could have had fair skin - but it is pretty clear that people who live in hot desert climes - tend to be swarthy or dark skinned. Would it matter to you if he was an African black?

I am not the one who questioned his color but no it would not matter to me what color jesus was.

[I Think]

I hardly think there is any consistent trend for prejudice and racism within the church, unless somewhere there is an organized religion actively engaged in promoting superiority based on skin colour,

Until very recently blacks, and other non whites, were not allowed in the mormon church.