Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
Speaker 1: an idea.
Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through the.
Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I
Speaker 1: tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because.
Speaker 3: I put my hand on a book and made a wish.
Speaker 1: And working together for a more rational world.
Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
Speaker 2: Truth Usian wisdom will come to you that way.
Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
Speaker 1: Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
Speaker 3: It is that time again when I take a speech
Speaker 3: that I've been doing on the road and I retire it.
Speaker 3: I put the video of it on YouTube and the
Speaker 3: audio here in the podcast. Usually this stuff translates great
Speaker 3: to audio, and I think this one is no exception.
Speaker 3: It's a very listenable speech you're gonna get. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: say the majority of it. But as I go back
Speaker 3: through what seventeen hundred years of these depictions of Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ and all these various contexts, you're gonna hear me
Speaker 3: talk about the slides that are on the screen. I
Speaker 3: described them a little bit. I described them enough for
Speaker 3: you to be able to take the ride here. But
Speaker 3: I really think when you're done listening, if you get
Speaker 3: a chance, click the YouTube version. The link is in
Speaker 3: the description box and go back and see all the
Speaker 3: stuff that you are hearing about on the show this week.
Speaker 3: I am not going to take a commercial break in
Speaker 3: this show. I just don't want to interrupt the momentum.
Speaker 3: So as much as I know I could use the revenue,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to take a break. You're going to
Speaker 3: hear the whole thing uninterrupted. Thanks to my supporters and
Speaker 3: patrons and everybody else for helping to fill in that gap.
Speaker 3: Here we go the audio of my presentation given May
Speaker 3: the second in Calgary that the We Can Reason Conference.
Speaker 3: It's called Died and Risen, and that's dye ed died
Speaker 3: as in dyeing a color, dyed and risen. The strange
Speaker 3: story of white Jesus.
Speaker 2: Imposter syndrome is real.
Speaker 3: I was going down the US of Speakers and I
Speaker 3: was like PhD, PhD guy who took thirty years to
Speaker 3: figure out a Bible donkey couldn't speak Hebrew. But I'm
Speaker 3: here for what it's worth, and it's an honor to
Speaker 3: be here now.
Speaker 2: Those who know my story know where I live.
Speaker 3: I was born and raised in a state where registered
Speaker 3: Republicans outnumber Democrats two to one. It's a state with
Speaker 3: over seven thousand churches, most of them Bible based. It
Speaker 3: is located within a highly religious section of the United
Speaker 3: States known as the Bible Belt. Also it's known as
Speaker 3: the divorce Belt, the.
Speaker 2: Teen pregnancy Belt.
Speaker 3: We have the meth Belt, divorce, and the foreign you
Speaker 3: Belt have a Yeah, always the Puritan States, and then
Speaker 3: you hear from like porn Hub. They did a survey
Speaker 3: and they're like, hey, our biggest usage comes out of and.
Speaker 2: It's always a red state, isn't it?
Speaker 3: Or almost always we're certainly the flag waving, Bible banging
Speaker 3: God and country.
Speaker 2: We are a Christian nation belt.
Speaker 3: Tens of millions of Americans have linked God and the government.
Speaker 3: Political speeches have really become sermons. The White House has
Speaker 3: been doing prayer theater. You guys been watching that these
Speaker 3: big performances where he's sitting in the Oval Office and
Speaker 3: all the evangelists are laying hands and anointing him as
Speaker 3: God's proxy on Earth. Bible rhetoric has really infected the discourse.
Speaker 3: False history about our founders and a secular constitution. The
Speaker 3: false narratives are everywhere. We've seen an entire culture linking
Speaker 3: Jesus to a man that they have embraced as a
Speaker 3: great savior anointed by the Savior.
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm.
Speaker 3: Talking about the poster child for presidential pre pubescence, Donald.
Speaker 4: Tangerine Palpatine right there, our founding fondler.
Speaker 3: Okay, now, I know, I know that the rest of
Speaker 3: the world, including Canada, thinks that my country has become
Speaker 3: just a runaway clown car.
Speaker 2: I know this. I saw this post a while back.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you can validate this one from a guy
Speaker 3: named John who posted online Canada must feel like they
Speaker 3: live in an apartment above a methline.
Speaker 2: I'm prepping a.
Speaker 3: Different speech which gets into the breakdown of the breakdown
Speaker 3: of the United States that covers decades and decades. All
Speaker 3: the precursors are many of the major precursors that got
Speaker 3: us to the tragic place we are today. That's a
Speaker 3: different presentation that I'll probably do and release in the fall.
Speaker 3: But I want to draw mostly away from politics today
Speaker 3: for a presentation about the Western perception of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: Certainly the Bible Belt perception of Jesus Christ, which is
Speaker 3: something like this. Now, I am not going out on
Speaker 3: a limb when I say that Oklahoma's and citizens like
Speaker 3: them profess Jesus all the time while knowing almost nothing
Speaker 3: about him.
Speaker 2: Maybe you saw this recent headline from my home state.
Speaker 3: Oklahoma has recently been ranked fiftieth in education.
Speaker 2: You know how many states we have in the United States.
Speaker 3: If you don't count the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Oklahoma,
Speaker 3: we have fifty states.
Speaker 2: We have come in last.
Speaker 3: Fortunately, our leaders in Oklahoma have been focused on other
Speaker 3: ways that we can make Oklahoma great again. We just
Speaker 3: passed House Resolution ten thirteen proclaiming Christ is King. This
Speaker 3: is a government proclamation. Well, that ought to do it right.
Speaker 3: That should fix roads, health care, transportation, schools, public safety, homelessness,
Speaker 3: the deficit, etc. And this kind of legislation has been
Speaker 3: making the rounds across the United States. A similar bill
Speaker 3: was introduced in North Dakota last year. It was rejected,
Speaker 3: but the proposal was again that the kingship of Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ would be acknowledged at a government's level.
Speaker 2: Jesus is on everybody's lips. Trump is worried.
Speaker 3: He's terrified about the upcoming midterm election, so he's been
Speaker 3: telling people to support his voter suppression bill in the
Speaker 3: name of Jesus.
Speaker 2: For Jesus.
Speaker 3: But beyond the weaponization of God speak to turn the
Speaker 3: United States into Gilead. I have noticed something interesting. America
Speaker 3: needs Jesus. This is a common sentiment. We need some Jesus.
Speaker 3: I love Jesus and Jesus loves me. What a friend
Speaker 3: we have in Jesus. Jesus saves Jesus take the wheel. Interestingly,
Speaker 3: the son of God and savior Jesus they are invoking
Speaker 3: is almost always this guy white Jesus. Check out those
Speaker 3: baby blue eyes. I saw this meme recently, so there
Speaker 3: I was the only white dude in Jerusalem. Of course,
Speaker 3: we've seen the artist interpretation of Jesus's brother. Do you
Speaker 3: know he had a brother, Brian Christ.
Speaker 2: He turns water into cold Core's light Brian Christ.
Speaker 3: By the way, have you seen these These are making
Speaker 3: the rounds throughout the Bible Belt and elsewhere.
Speaker 2: It's taken off.
Speaker 3: People are buying in bulk these tiny, little one and
Speaker 3: a half inch.
Speaker 2: Talled Jesus figurines.
Speaker 3: And the thing is is you just put them in
Speaker 3: your pockets, your handbag, or wherever, and wherever.
Speaker 2: You go you leave a little Jesus. I call them
Speaker 2: a little Jesus. You leave a little Jesus wherever you go.
Speaker 3: And so people go shopping, they leave one on the shelf,
Speaker 3: They go to a friend's house, they leave it on
Speaker 3: the mantle. Natalie was working, she works in medical, and
Speaker 3: somebody left one of these on the receptionist desk, and
Speaker 3: so she knows my sense of humor, and she called
Speaker 3: me and she goes, you want this for your off
Speaker 3: And I'm like, hell, yes, I want a little Jesus.
Speaker 3: So she brought it home. In fact, that's it on
Speaker 3: the right. I took a little phone photo on my
Speaker 3: way out the door.
Speaker 2: But even here, doesn't that skin look suspiciously fair to you?
Speaker 3: I grew up with this image of Jesus all over
Speaker 3: the place, Christian schools, my illustrated Bibles in my head.
Speaker 3: You walk up to the average American Christian and even
Speaker 3: suggest that a first century Jewish man might not have
Speaker 3: looked like this guy, what response might we expect? Back
Speaker 3: in two thousand and one, a British forensic anthropologist and
Speaker 3: a retired medical examiner, A guy named Richard Nee out
Speaker 3: of the University of Manchester. He made this image of
Speaker 3: what he thought Jesus might have looked like. He used
Speaker 3: as a guide this uncovered male skeleton from the time
Speaker 3: the region. This was made for a BBC documentary called
Speaker 3: The Son of God two thousand and one. Now Here
Speaker 3: this guy looked suspiciously like someone that Ice would throw
Speaker 3: in the back of a van and deport. Right and
Speaker 3: my churches who saw this depiction of Jesus Christ would
Speaker 3: be undoubtedly shouting in protest because our mental picture of
Speaker 3: Jesus was literally a white savior. Now, this is the
Speaker 3: most all time, most reproduced image of Jesus Christ ever made.
Speaker 3: It was painted by a guy named Warner Salmon back
Speaker 3: in nineteen forty.
Speaker 2: It's called the Head of Christ.
Speaker 3: Warner Salomon was an artist who mostly drew and painted
Speaker 3: for commercial ad campaigns. For the better part of a century,
Speaker 3: this single image has been printed more than.
Speaker 2: Half a billion times.
Speaker 3: It's in illustrated bibles, prayer cards, calendars, murals, hymnals. It's
Speaker 3: displayed in homes and churches across the United States and
Speaker 3: all around the world.
Speaker 2: This is the Jesus You're gonna get when.
Speaker 3: The guy who depicts him is a white Christian marketing
Speaker 3: artist out of Chicago. Now, we know that human beings
Speaker 3: have evolved to respond to things that look like us,
Speaker 3: and sound like us, and feel like us and validate us.
Speaker 3: And in a country that has been white centric for
Speaker 3: most of its history, what ethnicity would we expect our
Speaker 3: Jesus to be?
Speaker 2: He would be white Jesus.
Speaker 3: Now, I don't know if it's true that a grandma
Speaker 3: displayed a young obi Wan on her mantle thinking it
Speaker 3: was Jesus. But I really wanted to be true, so
Speaker 3: I brought this slide. But have you guys seen Kenny
Speaker 3: Loggin's Jesus? Is Jesus Taken the Highway to the danger
Speaker 3: Zone Jesus? So okay, Well, take a look at the
Speaker 3: depiction on your left. This is a legitimate piece of art.
Speaker 3: It is called Prince of Peace. It was painted back
Speaker 3: in two thousand and three by an artist who was
Speaker 3: a child eight years old at the time. Her name
Speaker 3: is Akiana Krumerik. Now, she claimed as a young baby,
Speaker 3: I say baby eight, that she had visions of heaven. Okay,
Speaker 3: And she had claimed that after one of these visions,
Speaker 3: when she came back, she saw Jesus, and so she
Speaker 3: took her paint brush, and this is the Jesus that
Speaker 3: she painted. Now we see maybe a little ethnicity in there,
Speaker 3: but overall, this is going to be the type of
Speaker 3: Christ that would be painted by a young woman not
Speaker 3: born in the biblical Holy Lands, but in Mount Morris, Illinois.
Speaker 3: Right now, if that's her personal God, fine, totally cool
Speaker 3: with men.
Speaker 2: I doubt Jesus would be upset. He's supposed to be
Speaker 2: a personal god. He personalizes himself. I'm good with that. Now.
Speaker 2: I'm going to back up for just a second.
Speaker 3: The Gospels themselves never describe Jesus on the Damascus Road.
Speaker 3: The Bible says he appeared to Saul as a blinding
Speaker 3: white light. If you read about him in the Book
Speaker 3: of Revelation, he's more of an apocalyptic figure. He's got
Speaker 3: white hair and eyes of fire. But there are no
Speaker 3: specific features for Christ ever given in the Bible. If
Speaker 3: you go back to the Old Testament, supposedly prophesying the
Speaker 3: arrival of the Messiah in Isaiah, Isaiah fifty three says
Speaker 3: he wasn't beautiful, he wasn't majestic, wasn't really desirable or
Speaker 3: even remarkable in appearance.
Speaker 2: He was gonna ordinary.
Speaker 3: Contrast that to Psalm forty five to two, which says,
Speaker 3: thou art fairer.
Speaker 2: Than the children of men.
Speaker 3: Now when they the Hebrew word for farer is there
Speaker 3: doesn't mean fairer as in whiter of skin, and that
Speaker 3: context the words yaffa, which translates to become beautiful.
Speaker 2: So Psalm forty five was not saying Jesus was white.
Speaker 3: It was saying that he was a handsome like the
Speaker 3: handsome bridegroom, and of course his church would be the
Speaker 3: bride of Christ.
Speaker 2: Here is one of the first.
Speaker 3: Ever discovered depictions of Jesus Christ. It is in statue form.
Speaker 3: It's dated to about three thirty CE. It was found
Speaker 3: in one of the Roman catacombs. And he is the
Speaker 3: young boy Christ upper teens, maybe twenty, and he's caring
Speaker 3: for one of his flock. That's right out of the
Speaker 3: New Testament John chapter ten. I am the good shepherd.
Speaker 3: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Speaker 2: But check out Jesus's face. Does that look like.
Speaker 3: A brown skinned Middle Eastern Jewish guy or does it
Speaker 3: look more Caesar like? Now, Roman emperors were treated as gods,
Speaker 3: especially in its more pagan centric eras before Christianity was
Speaker 3: more incorporated. But we saw emperor worship and then the
Speaker 3: melding of emperor worship and the worship of the Christian god.
Speaker 3: Jesus Constantine considered to be the first Christian emperor. He
Speaker 3: legalized Christianity in Roman three thirteen. How many people said
Speaker 3: that he may have mandated it was the law of
Speaker 3: the land, you must be Christian. That is not correct,
Speaker 3: but it had been stigmatized in the past, and so
Speaker 3: Constantine he made it acceptable and even promoted it right
Speaker 3: his own personal faith.
Speaker 2: And so we begin to see more of a melding.
Speaker 3: Of supreme ruler imagery, the supreme ruler on earth in
Speaker 3: conjunction with the supreme.
Speaker 2: Ruler from on high.
Speaker 3: And we see this in other deity figures, other leaders, other.
Speaker 2: Great and noble men.
Speaker 3: Right now, this is a depiction of Constantine's unshaven face
Speaker 3: next to that good shepherd carving.
Speaker 2: Do you see any similarities? Because I do.
Speaker 3: I mean, I might be wrong. I know, it's all
Speaker 3: subjective Christine kingly power. Neither one of these guys looking
Speaker 3: like that brown skinned guy from Galilee.
Speaker 2: Jesus is more Eurocentric.
Speaker 3: In this depiction, Constantine moved the capital of Rome to
Speaker 3: Byzantium and he renamed it. He named it after himself,
Speaker 3: of course, Constantinople. The Byzantines were a Christian Greek speaking
Speaker 3: part of the Eastern Roman Empire, which lasted another thousand
Speaker 3: years after the fall of the Western Empire. A lot
Speaker 3: of people say that Rome fell when it fell in
Speaker 3: four seventy sixty e that's the fall of Rome. But actually, no,
Speaker 3: Rome was more than the Western Empire. It's more than
Speaker 3: the city of Rome. The Empire was divided into West
Speaker 3: and East, and the Eastern Empire survived well into the
Speaker 3: fifteenth century, and that millennium saw a tremendous amount of
Speaker 3: marvels and advances in science and engineering, infrastructure, and in
Speaker 3: art history. So here's where we really start to see
Speaker 3: depictions of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Christ made by the Romans.
Speaker 3: Mosaics of Christ were plastered all over Byzantine churches. More
Speaker 3: and more Christ was depicted as the slightly older Jesus
Speaker 3: around the age of thirty, complete with beard, and of
Speaker 3: course that image would become embedded.
Speaker 2: Into the culture.
Speaker 3: It's believed that the beard communicated greatness, great wisdom, great power.
Speaker 3: It was a credibility enhandser. Of course, we've seen this
Speaker 3: and other great figures. Marcus Aurelius had the beard. The
Speaker 3: philosopher Diogenesia traveled to Athens. You know, he'd been given
Speaker 3: audience by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. This was
Speaker 3: considered the look of extraordinary men, and it makes sense
Speaker 3: that extraordinary gods might have the same look even beyond Christianity.
Speaker 2: Zeus is the obvious.
Speaker 3: One, but I mean, check out some of the other deities.
Speaker 3: Poseidon had the beard, Odin had the beard, Brahma, the
Speaker 3: creator god of Hinduism, had the beard. And of course
Speaker 3: then with Christianity, we do have to come back to
Speaker 3: it's god. Yahweh, okay, okay, fine, yahweh. All right, I'll
Speaker 3: play it straight. Let's pinball back to Jesus. This is
Speaker 3: a similar Byzantine depiction of Christ. It adds purple to
Speaker 3: the mixes purple and his hair and purple in his clothing.
Speaker 3: At that time, emperors were the only ones allowed to
Speaker 3: wear purple.
Speaker 2: It was the color of royalty.
Speaker 3: The commoners could paint with it, they could use it,
Speaker 3: but they could not wear it. So it makes sense
Speaker 3: that Christ, the King of Kings, would incorporate purple. This
Speaker 3: is a specific type of Jesus depiction in the style
Speaker 3: called Christ pentacritor, which means almighty. This is the oldest
Speaker 3: depiction known of the pentocrator Christ. It's it's Saint Catherine's
Speaker 3: monastery at the foot of Mount Sinaid stated back to
Speaker 3: the sixth century.
Speaker 2: And you'll see commonalities.
Speaker 3: And now once I point them out, you won't be
Speaker 3: able to not see them, because they'll be everywhere. But
Speaker 3: you will see he's got his right hand kind of
Speaker 3: up with a gesture, and then in the left.
Speaker 2: Hand he's holding the Holy Book. Right. This is a
Speaker 2: common element.
Speaker 3: Check out the face the right side, his right, our left.
Speaker 3: His right side is gentler, The countenance is gentler, it's softer.
Speaker 3: This represents the merciful Jesus. The left side, our right.
Speaker 3: His left side represents the sterner Jesus. More of Jesus
Speaker 3: the judge. The whole vibe was about Jesus the pardoner
Speaker 3: or the judge, the forgiver or the condemner.
Speaker 2: Both an open hand and a closed fist.
Speaker 3: Right, and these literal two faces were of course mostly white.
Speaker 3: Here's the Christ Pentocrator depicted in the High Sophia Grand
Speaker 3: Mosque in Istanbul. It started out as a church in
Speaker 3: the three hundreds in Byzantine that it became a museum,
Speaker 3: and now it's a mosque.
Speaker 2: And you can see, I'll show, I'll zoom out.
Speaker 3: You can see on his right hour left, he's flanked
Speaker 3: by the Virgin Mary, and on the other.
Speaker 2: Side is John the Baptist.
Speaker 3: Jesus is sitting on a jeweled throne like an emperor. Again,
Speaker 3: He's got the gesture with one hand, the Holy Book
Speaker 3: in the other mercy and or judgment. A few other
Speaker 3: examples of Christ Pentocrator. This is on the dome of
Speaker 3: the Church of the Holy Sepuchuur in Jerusalem, still fourth century.
Speaker 3: This is from the Chapel Palatina in Palermo. This is
Speaker 3: twelfth century. A bearded Christ with the big halo. He's
Speaker 3: got the book, he's got the gesture.
Speaker 2: And I found this interesting.
Speaker 3: During the Renaissance, it was not uncommon for artists to
Speaker 3: depict Jesus Christ but insert their own faces sort of
Speaker 3: into the mix. They would make a Jesus that resemble them.
Speaker 3: This guy is a German Renaissance artist. His name is
Speaker 3: Albrech Durer. This one dates to about fifteen hundred CE.
Speaker 3: Now that he have a god complex, that he have
Speaker 3: a good sense of humor, and he thought this will
Speaker 3: be awesome, and he makes himself Jesus.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I mean, you and I are
Speaker 3: asking the same question. Do we really think that the
Speaker 3: New Testament Jesus Christ looked like a twenty eight year
Speaker 3: old dude out of Nuremberg.
Speaker 2: I kind of doubt it, right, I kind of doubt it.
Speaker 2: The Koran has its own Jesus.
Speaker 3: Muslims say Jesus was a great prophet, not the Son
Speaker 3: of God, not the Messiah, but he was an important
Speaker 3: part of the story in the myth of Islam that
Speaker 3: Jesus was born not in a manger or in a stable,
Speaker 3: or in a house, but in the desert under a
Speaker 3: palm tree. You'll notice that Mary in the Muslim depiction
Speaker 3: has Persian features and clothing. As she offers her breast
Speaker 3: for food, Jesus offers.
Speaker 2: Back a pomegranate.
Speaker 3: Now, in Islam, the pomegranate is one of the fruits
Speaker 3: of heaven. By the way, the Islamic halo is commonly
Speaker 3: depicted not as the glowing ring that we're used to,
Speaker 3: but the Islamic halo is often depicted as fire, and
Speaker 3: you can see that in this depiction. Islam has altered
Speaker 3: the Jesus story to serve its Islamic story.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. Here's a Hindu Jesus.
Speaker 3: This depiction is back to about sixteen hundred from India.
Speaker 2: You'll see Jesus and Mary.
Speaker 3: We don't know who the other characters are supposed to be,
Speaker 3: but Jesus.
Speaker 2: And Mary are identifiable.
Speaker 3: Mary's got the Tillic mark on her forehead, and that
Speaker 3: mark is commonly used by Hindus, of course, to represent
Speaker 3: spiritual enlightenments, meditation, focus, the mind's eye right. Hindus molded
Speaker 3: the Jesus story into Hinduism. Here is an Asian nativity scene.
Speaker 3: This was painted in nineteen fifty eight. Asian mother Mary,
Speaker 3: Asian Joseph, Asian baby Jesus in a bamboo manger. Many
Speaker 3: Native Americans have their own version of Jesus Christ. This
Speaker 3: was painted by a Francescan Friar a guy named Robert
Speaker 3: Lentz in nineteen eighty nine. This is Apache Christ is
Speaker 3: on display at the Apache Mission in Mescalero, New Mexico,
Speaker 3: and there's some beautiful art from the Native American culture
Speaker 3: representing Jesus. This one's called Lakota Trinity. It was painted
Speaker 3: by a guy named John Juliana who is a Jesuit priest,
Speaker 3: and he painted the Trinity. So if you look at
Speaker 3: the top and I'll do you give you a close up.
Speaker 3: Here that's Yahweh or God the Father. He's got the
Speaker 3: big head dress in the middle, the Holy Spirit as
Speaker 3: represented by a great eagle, and Jesus is on the bottom.
Speaker 3: But he doesn't look like any Jesus we are used to.
Speaker 3: He in this depiction is a victorious Sue warrior. And
Speaker 3: of course throughout the United States and around the world,
Speaker 3: we have plenty of depictions of an.
Speaker 2: African American Jesus.
Speaker 3: This is one of the earliest depictions of a black
Speaker 3: Jesus in the US. It's in stained glass at Saint
Speaker 3: Mark x Episcopal Church in Warren, Rhode Island. It was
Speaker 3: made in eighteen seventy seven, and versions of this in
Speaker 3: Prince are displayed in homes and churches across the US
Speaker 3: and all around the world.
Speaker 2: There's a black.
Speaker 3: Virgin Mary statue at Saint Charles Lwanga Parish in Detroit, Michigan.
Speaker 3: Of all places, we can find African American versions of
Speaker 3: all the major Jesus stories, including the Sermon on the
Speaker 3: Mount and the Passion Right, the Arrest, the Crucifixion, and
Speaker 3: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, let's say I took
Speaker 3: one of these African American Jesus paintings into the average
Speaker 3: white bread, corn fed Protestant American Christian Church. What reaction
Speaker 3: might I expect?
Speaker 2: But why? What's the issue? What's the problem? And he's
Speaker 2: a personal Jesus.
Speaker 3: Many people get really uncomfortable when made in thy image
Speaker 3: doesn't look like my image? And how much othering and
Speaker 3: bigotry and harm has resulted because God has been shaded
Speaker 3: in our limited colors. In more extreme cases, this kind
Speaker 3: of Jesus propaganda can cause immense suffering. Hitler's propaganda made
Speaker 3: use of Jesus' imagery to persecute, imprison, and murder Jews
Speaker 3: an Aryan Christ. He was the master of his supposed
Speaker 3: master race right wing extremist organization, The Proud Boys, raised
Speaker 3: a wooden cross outside the Michigan State Capital on January sixth,
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, they're Jesus validates their racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Speaker 2: The Jesus of.
Speaker 3: More progressive Christians rejects racism, sexism, and homophobia. There Jesus
Speaker 3: meets you where you are, as you are and loves
Speaker 3: you unconditionally. The Jesus of Christian nationalism is a dominionist
Speaker 3: Jesus who demands a state church. On April thirteenth, our
Speaker 3: own Department of Justice promoted that dominionist Jesus from an
Speaker 3: official government page. Christians who oppose a state church have
Speaker 3: activated to defend state church separation and promote a personal Jesus,
Speaker 3: not a government one. This is Amanda Tyler of the
Speaker 3: Baptist Joint Committee where Friends. She's an ally. She happens
Speaker 3: to be a Jesus believer, but she founded the organization
Speaker 3: Christians Against Christian Nationalism. She's like, Jesus wouldn't want or
Speaker 3: need a state church. He's a personal savior. I appreciate that,
Speaker 3: And of course, how can I not mention another example
Speaker 3: of someone who made a god.
Speaker 2: Who looked like him.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm sure you guys saw this one right.
Speaker 3: A few weeks back, April the thirteen, Donald Trump posted
Speaker 3: an AI image of himself as savior and healer, complete
Speaker 3: with all the Americana bullshit that we see in that
Speaker 3: type of depiction, flags and Eagles worshippers. And even when
Speaker 3: many Christians came forward, a few people in the Maggot
Speaker 3: cult came forward upset.
Speaker 2: They called it blasphemous.
Speaker 3: He deleted the image, but he had an explanation, and
Speaker 3: it was this. He said, it wasn't a depiction. I
Speaker 3: did post it, and I thought it was me as
Speaker 3: a doctor and had to do with Red Cross as
Speaker 3: a Red Cross worker, which we support. And then he
Speaker 3: blamed the fake news for misinterpreting the image and misrepresenting him.
Speaker 3: Now indulge me as I take a little bit of
Speaker 3: a bunny trail here.
Speaker 2: But have you seen the.
Speaker 3: Memes that followed him the wake of his doctor excuse.
Speaker 2: This is the cast of Gray's anatomy.
Speaker 3: Someone posted this a cognitive assessment test.
Speaker 2: Please identify the doctor. We've got to giving court before Congress.
Speaker 2: We've got doctor mement Oz giving testimony.
Speaker 3: Of course, as we rolled toward the month of October
Speaker 3: and Halloween looking for a costume of a Red crossworker,
Speaker 3: we have that. When ready, here's my doctor before my
Speaker 3: prostate exam.
Speaker 2: Jesus checking your limp nodes.
Speaker 5: There we've got the doctor statue in Rio de Janeiro,
Speaker 5: And of course someone had to share a picture of
Speaker 5: his doctor water schime.
Speaker 2: Okay, fine, fine.
Speaker 3: Trump, as Jesus did bother a lot of Trump's supporters,
Speaker 3: But magas have long worshiped Trump as a savior figure
Speaker 3: with a direct link to the Christian Savior, which brings
Speaker 3: me back to this whole idea of the warrior Christ,
Speaker 3: because that's the whole mentality that's been going on, the
Speaker 3: conqueror the crusher of evil, right, much like g of
Speaker 3: the ninth century Germanic Saxon people, that was a warrior
Speaker 3: culture spoken about in poems about the Great Chieftain. The
Speaker 3: apostles were warriors, They were warrior companions. They drank mead,
Speaker 3: which was honey wine at the last Supper. Their mission
Speaker 3: was to conquer, as written in the ancient Germanic epic
Speaker 3: the hell yand the idea of the warrior Christ with
Speaker 3: his army remains popular today. Then he spoke and said
Speaker 3: there would come a wise king, magnificent and mighty to
Speaker 3: this middle realm. He would be of the best birth.
Speaker 3: He said that he would be the son of God.
Speaker 3: He said that he would rule this world, earth and sky, always.
Speaker 2: And forever more.
Speaker 3: This attitude, especially when it's colored by American gun culture,
Speaker 3: is extremely popular today. This is a real sign you
Speaker 3: can buy, and people are actually hanging on their properties
Speaker 3: warning this home is protected by a sweet Jesus and
Speaker 3: a gun. If you come here uninvited, you might meet
Speaker 3: both of them.
Speaker 2: Of course, blessed are the meek.
Speaker 3: Christians reject the God and gun sermons.
Speaker 2: They protest.
Speaker 3: They think a second Amendment Jesus is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Right, they don't buy them.
Speaker 3: The Southern Baptist convention Jesus wants women silent and submissive,
Speaker 3: serving men. The American Baptist Jesus ordains women and celebrates
Speaker 3: them as equals. Anti gay Christians say Jesus condemns homosexuals
Speaker 3: advocacy Christians say Jesus made gay people and loves them
Speaker 3: exactly the way they are. This is Hebrew Bible professor
Speaker 3: doctor Hester Hamori. She's written a lot of books about
Speaker 3: the early and suspiciously human depictions and attributes of the
Speaker 3: Biblical God.
Speaker 2: But all we have to do is just crack open
Speaker 2: the freaking Bible. To see the obvious.
Speaker 3: Throughout all scripture, God is emotional. He's glad and sad,
Speaker 3: He's calm and angry. He's secure, he's insecure and jealous.
Speaker 3: He's forgiving, he's unforgiving. He's petty and territorial, and man can.
Speaker 2: Heal the grudge? Right?
Speaker 3: Got a big ego. No matter how big the Bible
Speaker 3: tries to make him, God becomes increasingly small, very small.
Speaker 3: He looks more like crea Shun, not a create tor.
Speaker 2: He looks like us.
Speaker 3: I am convinced that if other creatures could make a god,
Speaker 3: the same would be true. If Zebras had a zebra god.
Speaker 3: There is almost no doubt that deity would have foll legs, hoofs,
Speaker 3: and stripes. The gods of eagles would almost certainly have
Speaker 3: great talons and large wings. Whale gods would be able
Speaker 3: to raise giant tsunamis with their giant mammal tails.
Speaker 2: And then there are the gods of human.
Speaker 3: Beings, bipeds with four limbs, skin, hair, eyes, ears, nostrils, teeth,
Speaker 3: and even fingernails. Why would a god need fingernails? Michelangelo's
Speaker 3: famous fresco inside the Cistine Chapel, we see Jesus's father
Speaker 3: and the same qualities.
Speaker 2: Now you can't see fingernails, but check out his feet here.
Speaker 2: You always got toenails.
Speaker 3: Why does yahweh need toenails if he wasn't created by
Speaker 3: people who were using us as inspiration. There are tens
Speaker 3: of thousands of splintered denominations of Christianity, which is bizarre
Speaker 3: considering that they represent the religion which, according to one
Speaker 3: Corinthians fourteen thirty three, has a God who is not
Speaker 3: the author of confusion? Is it possible that all of
Speaker 3: this was the product of.
Speaker 2: Human hands and not divine ones?
Speaker 3: Was our inspiration for gods just a reflection in the mirror?
Speaker 2: Did God make man in his image? Or did we
Speaker 2: make God in ours?
Speaker 3: Now, personally, if I made a God in my own image,
Speaker 3: I would leave you today with three commandments, except I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be so presumptuous as to give commandments. I don't
Speaker 3: want to command anybody. I would give some encouragements. My
Speaker 3: encouragements would be be strong in kindness, not cruelty, live
Speaker 3: an authentic life to the fullest.
Speaker 2: And help others to do the same.
Speaker 3: And because we have an innate capacity for goodness without gods,
Speaker 3: let us go out into this often cruel and divided
Speaker 3: world and let.
Speaker 2: Us love one another. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: After the.
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