{"id":2405,"date":"2014-09-12T15:01:59","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T15:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2405"},"modified":"2014-09-12T15:01:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T15:01:59","slug":"vanilla-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/vanilla-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanilla Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jesus01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are many things in life that I don’t understand. I don’t understand the purpose of the church (I know! I\u2019m a pastor, but I struggle with church). I don’t understand why Jesus is almost always portrayed as a beautiful white man\u2026 even by non- whites. Finally, I don’t understand why Christians are driven and motivated by fear rather than love. It seems completely contrary to the gospel that we claim to uphold.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave my struggle with the church for a different post, but I will attempt to discuss the other two.<\/p>\n

First, why is Jesus almost always portrayed as a beautiful white man? I\u2019ve been into a few protestant African American homes and most times; if they had an image of Christ in their home it was a copy of Warner Sallman\u2019s Head of Christ<\/em>. I don\u2019t understand why? I\u2019ve been into many Korean- American homes and I\u2019ve seen the exact same image of Christ hanging above the fireplace or somewhere in the house where it would be noticed. If it wasn’t Sallman\u2019s Head of Christ <\/em>it was a picture Sallman\u2019s Christ at Heart\u2019s Door\u2026 <\/em>same Jesus, different painting.<\/p>\n

Most people I\u2019ve talked to are quick to say the same thing that the Ethiopian Protestant described by David Morgan in his book The Sacred Gaze <\/em>said.<\/em> When talking about icons and paintings he was quick to say that \u201cthe Christ of faith does not does not have a look\u201d (P73) I think most protestants would agree with him. The Christ of faith does not have a look\u2026 really? I think that the popularity of Warner Sallman\u2019s work speaks volumes against us. Christ does have a look, and we\u2019ve embraced it\u2026 and the world has embraced it even if somewhere deep in our hearts we think that it might be the wrong image. In the heads of many Christians, Christ is a white man. How sad! Why is it sad? I feel like by making Jesus a white man we\u2019ve taken away the universality of the gospel and made it seem like it was white man\u2019s gift to the world when in fact it was God\u2019s gift to the universe. If we preach a white Jesus, we preach an American Jesus\u2026 and an American Jesus is an idol that doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Second, I don\u2019t understand why Christians are driven and motivated by fear rather then love. \u201c[\u2026] The motivating force behind the destructive response to images is typically fear: fear of what images might do if left to themselves. Often it is fear of what they represent.\u201d (P141) For Calvin, \u201cit was not the images themselves that he feared, but the powerful human inclination to turn such images into idols in the context of religious worship\u2026 problem resides in human nature.\u201d (P142)<\/p>\n

Fear comes out of our desire to control. It is easier to fear than to live. It\u2019s easier to fear than to love. It\u2019s easier to fear and stand still than to allow God to be God and in faith move forward. Icons are feared because of what they might evoke in our hearts, but if we hold icons and art at such a high level of scrutiny, why don\u2019t we apply the same intensity to everything ales in Christian life\u2026 like music\u2026 or the way we dress? We also fear because we\u2019ve made Christ into our own image and this christ doesn\u2019t like the things we don\u2019t like and opposes all that we oppose. This christ uses fear to keep us in check\u2026 the real Christ uses love as the motivating factor for life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many things in life that I don’t understand. I don’t understand the purpose of the church (I know! I\u2019m a pastor, but I struggle with church). I don’t understand why Jesus is almost always portrayed as a beautiful white man\u2026 even by non- whites. Finally, I don’t understand why Christians are driven and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[500,284],"class_list":["post-2405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-davidmorgan","tag-morgan","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2409,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions\/2409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}