The "White" Messiah. Literally!

In class this week and last, we talked briefly about the "white" messiah in films such as James Cameron's Avatar and The Blind Side. These stories depict white protagonists coming along to help or literally save the indigenous or colored peoples. This particular complex has been around, not only in American cinema, but even longer in our country's main religious practice. Christianity.

For those of you who don't know, most mainstream Christianity focuses on one historical individual. Jesus Christ. According to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town six miles south of Jerusalem. Throughout his lifetime he performed many miracles and also claimed to be the Son of God. After His brutal crucifixion on the cross, (and sacrifice for humanity), people began gathering and worshiping in His name. Thanks to many different apostles, this teaching grew and soon became Europe and indeed Western Civilization's staple religion.

It seems to me that once Jesus was in the hands of the west, they shaped and molded Him into who they wanted Him to be. One of the many things the west did was to literally change the "race" of Jesus. According to Wikipedia, "The race of Jesus has been a subject of debate since at least the nineteenth century."

Though we cannot be certain as to what Jesus looked like, we can discern what he most likely did due to the place of his birth and of course his heritage. According to Wikipedia, "The current dominant opinion among historians and scientists is that he was most likely a Galilean Jew and thus would have features which resemble modern-day persons of Middle Eastern or Semitic

descent."

So why is Jesus depicted in almost every picture or painting as a pale white skinned guy with blue eyes? Racism perhaps? Just maybe the Western Culture couldn't imagine worshiping a man of color? This dominant image of The Christ in the media still lives on today and can even be seen in more recent films such as Jesus of Nazareth and The Passion of the Christ.

In Jesus of Nazareth, Robert Powell portrays the Savior as having blue eyes, pale skin and a hint of a British accent. Not exactly what we would think of as Middle Eastern.

Jim Caviezel's portrayal in The Passion of the Christ, is quite a bit better and more genuine then that of Powell's. Caviezel actually speaks in Aramaic, (the language Jesus most likely spoke), has a much darker skin tone and his eyes are not brilliantly blue. Still, Jim has no Israeli or Arabic heritage making him yet another "white" messiah.

Both these films and many other forms of media depicting my Savior as a very white man, reinforce the dominant message that white people are here to "save the day". In these cases the white hero is literally here to save all of humanity.

Sources:

• Race of Jesus
• Top Image from godlesspaladin.wordpress.com
• Bottom Image taken from bbc.co.uk