Many religious groups share an image of Jesus Christ; however the groups have different visions of who Jesus was in order to claim him as their own. People create a Jesus depending on their need, they use the ideas of Jesus then morph the ideas to fit that groups particular desires.
The image of Jesus is distorted to fit the individual group’s needs and desires, according to my scholarly source. Poor people follow Jesus because they think he was poor, Romantics followed Jesus because they thought he, like themselves, was a naturalist, and the black community in America during the Civil Rights Movement followed Jesus because they thought he was black. In regards to the black community, the Black Messiah had nothing to do with slavery. Rather, this group believed that Jesus was a powerful and big black man, who was a leader of black people. Therefore, the white community in America should treat the black community equal because the God the white people worship is actually black. Whether Jesus was white or black, rich or poor, naturalist or technologist, I do not know. But it is clear, that creating a Jesus that shares a commonality with an oppressed group can give that group a sacred understanding as to why they are suffering, helping them live through it.
According to Albert B. Clearge Jr., white Jesus was given to slaves as a way to create bondage over them by the white world (Mathisen, Doc 137). He felt that the Black Church through the Black Messiah was a weekly escape for the black community during this time of extreme racism. At the Black Church, the preacher would help this oppressed group, giving them strength to continue to fight for equality and faith that one day this cruelty will end. The Black Messiah was a means of unifying all blacks. The black community needed this during the Civil Rights Movement.
Religion is social constructed to meet the needs of individuals. During the Civil Rights Movement, a vision of a Black Messiah is passed around the black community as a means of encouragement. By having an icon of Jesus as a black man, priests could preach equality using Jesus as its backbone. The church gave people the strength to endure the suffering; through this congregation people had faith that the end of segregation was possible.
Mathesin, Robert, R. Critical Issues in American Religious History: A Reader (2nd Revised Edition). Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006. Print.
"The Use and Abuse of the Name of Jesus." Studies in World Christianity Oct. 2001: 141.
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I believe you are correct when you said the Black Messiah was a way to bring the African community together. But I am not sure how leaders of the Civil Rights movement dealt with the issue of the Black Messiah since they were trying to get white Americas support. I doubt white America would ever except that Jesus was black.
ReplyDeleteIf “necessity is the mother of all invention,” it makes sense that people would invent God, but does little to explain why a God might invent people. If people invent God, then it also makes sense that God is every color and no color at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with one love about how people make Jesus to fit their needs. I also agree with Jayg about how America during the civil rights movement would never accept Jesus to be a Black man. This is just another example of how religion can be distorted and twisted to meet the needs the followers and make the religion more sacred on a personal level.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Celtic2004, there are so many denominations of the Chrisitian religion, which is due in part to people finding away for religion to have meaning in their own lives. But of course this idea goes beyong Christianity since there are so many religions which cater to the needs of their people
ReplyDeleteThe idea that the black Messiah was passed around the community in order to promote support for blacks makes a perfect statement about how religion is influenced by the politics of their time. Other times throughout history we may have seen a hippy Jesus or even a sophisticated Jesus now days, who knows! The ability people have to create a figure such as Jesus into what they stand for gives the religion that much more strength. By imposing their strongest beliefs into the black Messiah they were able to gain the most from their religion.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, the Black Messiah created by the black community proved that religion, to a sociologist, is a phenomenon created by man. The Black Messiah proved Weber's theory that people find explanations for suffering and, in the end, create the idea of a redeemer, with whom they can relate.
ReplyDeleteI truly have to agree with the fact that the "black Messiah" was the one person that individuals that were black would turn to praise and in a sense follow and become comforted with because they assimilated him into the community. At the same time African Americans used him as a religious symbol in order to keep strong and in ways divert "Black Messiah"(Jesus) a symbol of want of equality, justice and freedom. In this way the African Americans believed that the white people would look at this concept and believe that there should be equality because the " Messiah" said regardless white society would never have believed that Jesus was black. Yet it would give them a way of looking at the issue of what is ethical a bit more because of the equality and bare general knowledge that slave-hood is wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe black messiah is an example of something that goes far beyond the civil rights movement. The original poster mentioned other characteristics of the messiah that change depending on the group with which the image is popular. There is a Jesus image in some parts of Asia in which his eyes are more Asian looking. His hair and other physical characteristics change as well. The image of the messiah changes to be something more acceptable to the beliefs of the people. In part, I think this has to do with the comment in class a few days ago about the messiah representing the society in a form of self worship. I also think that the messiah needs to be an image that can speak to the people, and therefor needs to fit their expectations of a messiah who came for them. Whatever that may be.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am in agreeance with the comments here. "The Black Messiah" is something that the African American community could connect to. Not only was it was a shared commonality amongst those who believed, but it was also a reason to fight for their freedom.
ReplyDeleteIf different groups altered their view of Jesus to give them hope and encouragement as they endured suffering during times like th Civil Rights Movement, I believe that this paved the way toward contemporary religion as it exists today. Having faith, whether it is in God, Nature, or any other higher power that is viewed as a spiritual guide, allows people to believe that there is a reason for everything that happens and believe that they will pull through adverse situations. There are so many different religions today and not all of them are based on "God" as he is traditionally known. Many of them are "Faith-based" and I think that this is more accepted today as a result of the idea of altering the image of Jesus (e.g. The Black Messiah) to fit a particular group's needs.
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