-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Megyn Kelly, on her Fox News show, declared: “Jesus was a white man, too. It’s like we have, he’s a historical figure that’s a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that.” While I grant that Jesus was a historical figure, Santa was only based on a historical figure, a monk named Nicholas. Nicholas was born around 260 A.D. in Patara, in present-day Turkey. Nicholas was probably Greek although little is known about his parents. While it make make Kelly uncomfortable, Nicolas certainly wouldn’t have looked as white as Santa appears in the Coca-Cola ads.
According to Reza Aslan, Jesus was a Galilean, a Palestinian Jew. He would have looked like the average Palestinian looks today. Aslan cites those features: “that would mean dark features, hairy, probably a longer nose, black hair.” Hardly the Jesus seen in so many European paintings. There is great psychological benefit to portraying Jesus as “one of your own.”
In Chinese art (left) we see the Mary and Jesus are depicted with Chinese attributes. 
In Japanese art (right), Jesus is depicted with Japanese characteristics. The artists may never have seen a foreigner and had no model, other than their fellow countrymen, on which to base their depictions. When trying to attract converts, it is best to remember that people naturally relate to someone who looks like them.
Modern forensic techniques have been used on a skull of a first century Jewish male to create a model of Jesus’ face shown at left. The skin color was chosen as indicative of someone from a desert climate. This image contrasts greatly with the Jesus found in European paintings.
Why is a white skin color for Jesus so important to Kelly?
Many married Christians think they can grow their relationship by inviting Jesus into their marriage. This spiritual polyandry would be less attractive when a non-white Jesus is envisioned.
The portrayal of Jesus has been used throughout history as a political tool. For those who advocate immigration restrictions, a blond-haired blue-eyed Jesus sends a clear message of exclusion.
H/T: Paul Harvey and Edward J. Blum, Darren E. Grem, BBC News, James Nye, Max Fisher.
The Vatican has many explanations for this. One they say is that the original ones where exposed to candle soot and took on that patina. The one I like the most is the one about her trip to Egypt in Jesus’ 2nd year of life. It is claimed that Apostle Luke (the Evangelizer and doctor) made some sort of artistic icon of her on the trip and made some comments about her skin-color. Of course I believe this to be apocryphal but it is claimed that Luke said he accompanied Joseph and Mary on the trip and acted as their personal physician. She being a middle-eastern Asian her already medium-tanned skin probably suffered from sunburn in the deserts between Israel and Egypt. She was on donkey-back the entire time exposed to the sun. So the Vatican also offers this as an explanation for the Black Madonna.
SOTB
Pete,
I’d much rather deal with an atheist than a self professed Christian….. I think it was one of the St Fraces that said when actions fail…. Then speak….. I think that’s the right one….
The less we speak of her, the less airtime she will get! Lord knows we have plenty of ignorant people running rampant, we most definitely do not need more!
2nd at least with these Jesus Freaks here & in many places in the world they in many ways have a belief that they are obligated to be decent human beings under threat of the Christian religion’s god.
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that kinda depends on their definition of “a decent human being” and what they feel obligated to do for his favor.
over the past 2000 years there’s been some pretty horrible sh!t done to people by other people who considered themselves to be righteous, decent, even law abiding human beings.
i’d rather have a neighbor who minds his own business.
Never heard of the “Black Madonna” – the earliest representations of Mary. Impossible her son was white.
@Mike Appleton – “Well said sir!” (In a pompous Foghorn Leghorn Southern accent)… no really well said. I agree 100%
@RWL – I got that… You know (or you should know by now) I just had to say something pithy and informative… It’s what I do… 😎
To the guy who said the mob is in NYC? Nope… check NOLA. More of them there. NOLA is where the wise guys who whacked JFK confabed back in ’63. Just ask Oliver Barr McClellan**. He spilled all the beans on who was behind the JFK thing. And yes he implicated the VPOTUS too.
How does Barr know this? Remember that line from Enemy of the State – 1998: where Will Smith and Gene Hackman said: Will: “Conspiracy theorists of the world unite.” Gene: “It’s more than a theory with me. I’m a former conspirer. “ Yes Barr was a former conspirer turned whistle-blower. Read his book: “Blood, Money & Power”.
**Barr’s son was GWBUSH’s Press secretary Scott McClellan.
Santa Claus Is ‘Black As Hell’… Sorry, Megyn Kelly
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/santa-claus-is-black_n_4449345.html
Oops, looks like WordPress ate one?
**Gene H. 1, December 14, 2013 at 2:38 pm
Tony,
As a comparative religion instructor I once had said, “Whether Jesus was a real person is really kind of irrelevant. Real or myth, his impact and the impact of his followers on Western civilization is undeniable.” **
The other day some here, & I’ve heard it said elsewhere, stated that they were uncomfortable with the gen pop/law of Southern States.
I replied I’d rather be here in Oklahoma with the Jesus Freaks then up in NY,NY with all their mob corruption.
To better qualify my remarks I will add 1st we seem to have plenty of mafia type corruption of our own down here as well.
2nd at least with these Jesus Freaks here & in many places in the world they in many ways have a belief that they are obligated to be decent human beings under threat of the Christian religion’s god.
That as society shifts away from organized religions of the past the parts of society that have already moved away from religion seem without any beliefs for a foundation in which to build their lives around. Of course I don’t mean everyone, but many seem like that.
With the lack of that religious foundation “many” seem to have replaced mindless obeisance to organized religions with mindless obeisance to a domineering a State, (govt).
From my perspective it could be a few more decades until “many” people move away from the fallacy of mindless obeisance, until then at least I know in part where the Jesus Freaks around here are coming from & what their foundation for their lives is.
Another observation that may/may not be the case is regardless if it’s the Hard Right Religious Extremist people or those of the Far Left Stateist Extremist I believe both share a common trait.
Both groups seem to demand an authoritarian Father Figure Type Leadership. Top down, Vertically Integrated leadership we see in the Military & corporations instead of Bottom Up, Horizontally Integrated Leadership as the Founders intended for this nation.
That they are fearful of be responsible for making leadership decisions for themselves & their family & that that’d rather submit themselves & families to be followers.
As a child, waiting eagerly for Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet to visit my family on the night of December 5th, the skin color of this supposed saint was the least of my worries. At school, when he finally showed up with his Piet (yes, white male with black face paint), I didn’t worry about the skin color, I just worried about Piet grabbing me and putting me in a potato bag, the one bad kids were thrown into. I was spared that spectacle as it was usually one of my brothers who was forcefully caught into the bag. His four siblings would share their gifts with him afterward. I wonder why this one brother kept going to the Sinterklaas school party after his fate was repeated quite a few times. All it did was encourage him to be ‘bad’ some more. Interestingly enough that it was the Zwarte Piet who did the snatching. I’m sure it helped the white kids believe that black people are mean. Fox News moving Ms. Kelly to a prime spot fits one of their ‘best’ strategies: a good-looking blonde to sell the news; what man doesn’t like to look and listen to THAT package as they can continuously fantasize she is noticing them. Why else would she look so intensely into their eyes?
From The Colbert Report:
Megyn Kelly on Santa’s Skin Color
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/431282/december-12-2013/megyn-kelly-on-santa-s-skin-color
What Mike A. said. Ms. Kelly understood what she was saying.
“I admit I will never know exactly what was in Megyn’s mind at the time of the broadcast,” said bfm.
I’m thinking something like this:
Mike A…. Excellent…
@Mike Appleton “Her comments were not “tongue in cheek.”
I was especially impressed by Megyn Kelly’s reassurances to children that Santa really is white. The approximate quote as nearly as I can transcribe it from the clip posted by Elaine M.
“For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white… Santa is what he is, So you know we are just debating this because someone wrote about it. OK, I wanted to get that straight.”
There is more, but this quote captures most of what impressed me.
She seems to feel it necessary to reassure children that there is a fundamental ‘truth’ that Santa is white, as though children might be disturbed or damaged by the thought of an ethnic Santa.
I think her reassurance to children did more than anything else to convince me of the seriousness and importance Megyn attaches white Santa, and white Jesus.
I admit I will never know exactly what was in Megyn’s mind at the time of the broadcast.
But Megyn’s remarks to children are what convinced me that the later releases claiming that the piece was tongue-in-cheek and the program unfairly criticized are nothing more than spin to minimize damage to FOX.
Megyn is a one of a group of Americans that are not kidding when they say they are dreaming of a white Christmas.
I agree with Mike Appleton. To some extent. We dogs in the dogpac had a discussion about which television show or channel to have “left on” here at the marina dogpac room when the humanoids were “out”. We had a vote and told DogBiscuitGuy that we wanted taped versions of Fox when The Fox i.e. Megyn was on. We have discarded Animal Planet. Since some of us dogs (the majority of us dogs) were humans in a prior life and the male dogs out vote the female (itchBays) our vote won out. We cant stand Hannity or that other old fart who writes books and Juan has sold out. We call him Sell Out Juan. We figure if your name is Juan you can pronounce HeyZeus correctly. We in the dogpac are also fed up with the Santa, the Seighs, and the Xmas apCray. We went out to the stores with our half blind guys on Black Friday and white people were out and about and we went again on Green Monday and the sky was blue. On Cyber Monday there was not a troll to be seen. Our poor half blind guy humans are strung out buying gifts for their spoiled brats and dorky wives. On December 26 we are calling on all Americans to celebrate Dog artFay Day. If you know what I mean jelly bean, by the Pig Latin. On Dog artFay Day we will demand the end of the NSA. They were responsible for the destruction of the Dogalogue Machine a week or so ago.
Nal,
You hit this one out of the park.
At one point in my life, I wished I would’ve lived 2,000 years ago so I could have seen the beautiful one for myself.
Now, I wish to see him in all his glory, forever. And to bring him a gift when we finally meet face to face.
My favorite painting. http://www.akiane.com/
Megyn Kelly is a dim bulb in the cultural darkroom that is Fox News. She did not say that Jesus was Caucasian. She said he was white. For her and her viewers, Jesus must be white, just as Santa Claus must be white. We need to remember that she speaks for those whom Sarah Palin calls the “real Americans,” conservative white people who attend conservative churches and reside in small, homogeneous towns throughout the country. It is that segment of society most fearful of demographic and cultural change, people who desire to “take our country back” to a time that never was and for whom a white Jesus and a white Santa represent the last, best defenses against diversity and pluralism. Her comments were not “tongue in cheek.” They were thrown down like a gauntlet.
@RWL – I know you are being sarcastic BUT… Jimi Hendrix (aka Johhny Allen) is a bit extreme… why? Because not only was Jimi a “mutt” but was also a dope-fiend. Conversely, Jesus was not a mutt but a pure Semitic Jew (that had some divine tinkering with his DNA). Jesus also refused drugs during his execution unlike Jimi who would take them on general principles.
Jimi’s complexion was due to a melanin combination of an African American father and a Native American-Irish mother. So his complexion would have been too dark. If you need an example of a 1st century middle-eastern complexion I refer you to Ramón Rodríguez . Ramon was in the TRANSFORMER (Revenge of the Fallen) movie.
SOTB
SOTB,
I wasn’t comparing the 2. I was implying: Who cares about his physical features. What He accomplished, via the cross & resurrection, matters most.