JESUS: 'BLACK ICON'

New Nation, an "ethnic paper", has named Jesus its number one 'black icon':

Jesus has been named No1 black icon of all time.

Ethnic paper New Nation asked experts to list the 100 most important figures in black history.

They put the Son of God - traditionally portrayed as white - at the top of the list.

New Nation editor Michael Eboda argued that the Bible describes Christ as "dark skinned" - and that 2,000 years ago, the people of Bethlehem were a "mix of Ethiopians, Egyptians and Babylonians, all mixed with people from central Africa."

He said: "Jesus was more likely to be black than anything else."

Church of England spokesman Lou Henderson added to the confusion, saying: "In fact Jesus was a Palestinian Jew."

Yes, calling the self-identified Palestinian Jew Jesus a "Palestinian Jew" certainly confuses things. The BBC weighs in, debating the issue:Was he white, white-ish, olive-skinned, swarthy, dark-skinned or black? There are people who believe he was any one of those shades, but there seem to be only two things about the debate that can be said with any degree of certainty.

First - if the past 2,000 years of Western art were the judge, Jesus would be white, handsome, probably with long hair and an ethereal glow.

Second - it can almost certainly be said that Jesus would not have been white. His hair was also probably cut short.
I think we have a winner. No, Jesus would not have looked like He was from Norway. Nor would he have looked like He was from Ethiopia, either. He probably would have looked (gasp!) just like he came from Galilee: dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes. Very much like the Middle-Easterner He was.

My favorite justification for the "black Jesus" was this from the New Nation:

As light-hearted evidence that Jesus was black, it adds that he "called everybody 'brother', liked Gospel, and couldn't get a fair trial".

And there you have it.