Rhetoric Race and Religion
Jesus, Christians believe, is God-with-us. Thus, when someone insists Jesus was “white,” the theological implication is that God is white. In fact, doesn’t God, in our cultural stereotype, look a lot like Santa? Old white man with a long white beard?
A great illustration of this point happened on Wednesday night when Megyn Kelly declared on her Fox News show that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white.
Jesus and Santa are enormously powerful images for Americans and it is not surprising, as the U.S. is becoming ever more racially diverse, that there would be a visible contest over whether Jesus and Santa are white.
This is the frontline of our struggles over what it means to be an American and a person of faith today. Racial prejudice has actually increased since the election of Barack Obama, as an AP News Poll taken earlier this fall shows. This is due, I believe, to an increase in racially polarizing rhetoric since President Obama’s election, and it is both culturally and religiously harmful.
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