Making Sense of 'The Passion'

[Oshun_Auset]

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=45096

THE WHITEWASHING OF THE PASSION  

by Michael Edward  

http://worldvisionportal

Regarding his PASSION movie, Mel Gibson has repeatedly stated in every interview how his film "accurately depicts the crucifixion of Jesus." He stresses how he has consulted with "hundreds of scholars" and has "read hundreds of books over the past 13 years" (note the number 13) to make his movie realistically correct. He went as far as to have a modern dialect of ancient Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples, be spoken throughout the movie. The Romans who were portrayed spoke in a modernized Latin. After people watch this movie, they are astonished at the great lengths Gibson has taken to make his movie so "accurate."  

But I have just one question concerning Gibson's PASSION. I would like to know what scholars or reference books he consulted to portray Jesus as a European looking man with light European skin colour, what the world now racially classifies as a "white man." Perhaps he used the 1970's ABC television movie JESUS OF NAZARETH as a skin tone guide since Jesus was a fair skinned (pronounced "white") and blue eyed man in that movie. Or perhaps he used the 1500's paintings of Jesus made by Michelangelo, who used his pale skinned cousin as his sitting model.  

Just to set the record straight, Jesus' skin was not white: It was dark brown, the same colour as all the indigenous people of the Eastern Mediterranean two thousand years ago. And before someone accuses me of being a black racist, I want you to know that my skin is white, I have blue eyes, and my hair is (naturally) blonde.  

Soon after Jesus was born, Herod is believed to have sent his soldiers to seek and kill him as an infant. To hide Jesus from Herod, we are told his family fled with him to Egypt. The Egypt of that historical time period was a society of dark-skinned Africans, as evidenced in their own hieroglyphs. That region of the world was referred to as Kemet, meaning "the black land," and the inhabitants called themselves Kemetcu, meaning "the black people." It would surely have been an impossible task to hide and blend a light-skinned child among a dark-skinned population.  

Under Emperor Justinian II, the Roman Empire minted a gold coin that pictured Jesus. This coin, which is currently housed in the British Museum, shows a man with clearly non-white facial features and tightly curled hair.  

There is no doubt that suggesting Jesus might have been dark-skinned (pronounced "black") makes most Europeans and Westerners very uneasy... perhaps just as uneasy as dark-skinned Africans feel when Jesus is portrayed as a white, blue-eyed, blonde Aryan.  

What we have here is the whitewashing of the PASSION (pun fully intended). By portraying Jesus as a light-skinned European-American, Gibson's movie creates a religious based clash between Protestant-Catholics (represented by Jesus' inaccurate light skinned portrayal) against the darker skinned Jews who crucified Jesus.  

With that in mind, this movie has sub-consciously triggered a conflict between the white European-American race against darker skinned races, which just happens to include all Arabs, Persians, Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Libyans, etc.  

I deliberately excluded the "Jews" from among the dark-skin races - those people who occupy the current UN established borders, commonly known as Israeli - since nearly all of them migrated from Europe in the modern-day "Exodus" of the 1950's. Modern "Israel" is actually of recent European and American origin, so they are accurately counted among the European-Americans.  

Furthermore, is it any mistake on Gibson's part that this movie is graphically violent? What Gibson's movie is triggering, without conscious knowledge by most viewers, is a violent racial conflict between white and black because, in modern racial terms, ‘black' is any skin colour from light brown to dark black.  

Gibson's PASSION movie is an absolute WHITEWASH in terms of both colour and accuracy, but this is no mistake. It's an attempt to re-write history in order to make it fit the current agenda of the "powers that be."  

Gibson's controllers have done an excellent job in promoting their agenda, right down to having nearly everyone believe that this movie is "accurate."  

[douglarasta]

 .......I NOT MEANING TO BE RUDE BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.......WHOOOO CAREESSSSSSSSSS WHETHER HE WAS WHITE OR BLACKKKKKKKKKKKK?..ALL YUH  CLOSE MINDED IDEALISTS/RETREATISTS STARTING TO TICK ME OFF REAL BAD.....THE POINT OF THE BLOOCLAT MOVIE WAS TO SHOW HUMAN HUMILITY, COMPASSION AND MOST OF ALL LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE................OHHHHHHHHHHHH MYYY GOSHHHHHHHHHH ALL THE MELANIN IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD WOULD NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE ARE SINNERS AND HEEEEEEEEEE DIED FOR OUR SINSSSSSSSSS..........PEOPLE WWAKEEEEEEEE UPPPPPPPPPPPP.......THE TIME FOR DEBATING WHAT COLOUR JESUS WAS DONE LONG TIME WITH BIN LADIN, ABU BAKER AND THE REST AH REBELS IN HAITI........OPEN YUH  MIND AND REALISE THAT WE CANNOT CHANGE WHAT IS DONE BUT WE CAN AND SHOULD BUILD WHAT IS TOMORROW..........WIITH THAT SAID I DOH WHA NOBODY SEND MEH NO S**T BOUT HOW JESUS WAS NOT WHITE AND WHY HE HAIR STRAIGHT WHEN THE BIBLE SAY HE FOOT WAS OF BRASS AND HE HAIR WAS OF WOOOL.....................................I REALLY AND TRULY DO NOT GIVE  ABOUT HE RACE/GENDER/COMPLEXION/HAIR TYPE OR FLIPPING WHERRE THE HELL HE WAS BORN......................THAT IS NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT THE POINTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT................STOP THIS INSNAITYYYYY   AND JUST THANK THE MAN FOR WHAT HE DID................I OUTTTTTTTTTT....DAMN IT!!!! :-/

[Oshun_Auset]

"WHOOOO CAREESSSSSSSSSS WHETHER HE WAS WHITE OR BLACKKKKKKKKKKKK?.."

....The people that lie about it OBVIOUSELY care quite a bit if they won't show the truth. Symbolic language is something that doesn't need to be translated. The symbolism of the European/White as God is extremely affective in maintaining mental subordination of all the colonized and oppressed peoples of the world. The only thing constant is change. Nothing is permanent. We will reclaim our roots and culture and our true history. African history must guide African action. A people with no past have no future. We must know and spread the truth to help with breaking the bonds of mental slavery, and when we see lies they must be confronted. These are important factors in part of the process of creating a new reality for Africans everywhere. We must organize our people so that we all shall know the truth. It may be redundant to you...But you would be surprised at how few of the masses know our true history, and progress can only be judged by the forward movement of the masses....not a few individuals.

I think your frustration should be directed towards the people that perpetuate the lies and falsehoods, not the truth seekers. Don't kill the messenger....Shouldn't that be one of the first lessons we learn from Yeshua's teachings? Did he not die for that very purpose....the TRUTH?

[douglarasta]

TO TELL YUHTHE HONEST TRUTH I HAVE NOT EVEN SEEN THE MOVIE YET YUH KNOW..YES I HAVE NOT SEEN IT BUT I JUST TRYING TO PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE...I LIKE TO SEE HOW PEOPLE RESPOND TO RISQUE OPINIONS THAT STIR AND SIZZLE THEIR CENTRAL BEING...IT WILL FORCE YOU ALLL WHO ARE SO WRAPPED IN YOUR NEAT LITTLE WORLD THE WAKE UP CALL NEEDED TO REALIZE THAT THE WORLD IS NOT ALL GLITS AND GLAMOUR.....SOOOOOOO GET OVER IT...I WAS ONCE LIKE YOU ALL...BICKERING AND TRYING TO UNDERSTAND AND TRANSFORM THE WORLD..THEN I SAW A QUOTE IN A STORE..'PLEASE GOD GIVE ME THE STRENGHT TO ACCEPT THE THINGS THAT I CANNOT CHANGE AND DO WHAT I MUST TO CHANGE THE THINGS THAT ARE WITHIN MY EARTHLY GRASP'...AND AS SUCH I REALLY JJUST REALIZED THAT SOME THINGS THAT ARE BEING WARRED OVER CENTURIES MAY JUST BE THAT......A WARRRR...A NEVER ENDING BATTLE....A FORTRESS....A NECESSARY EVIL.....GIVING US THE DRIVE TO MOVE ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.....I AM NOT SAYING RENOUNCE WHAT U KNOW...BUT IF IS ONE THING I GATHERED FROM MY READINGS OVER THE YEARS...IS THAT.....HE NEVER TRIED TO WIN BATTLES HE JUST SIMPLY STATED WHAT WAS THE TRUTH AND MOVED ON....AND IF IS ONE THING I KNOW EVEN THOUGH HE WAS OF A DARK COMPLEXTION HE WAS NOT EXCLUSIVELY BLACK..IT WAS ALSO PROVEN THAT THOSE PEOPLE WERE SOMEWHAT ARABIC IN NATURE.....NOTE I SAID SOMEWHAT SO DO NOT CHOKE ON YOUR DINNER WHILST READING THIS AND ALL......CHA....I AM GLAD THAT I HAVE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE..I ALWAYS HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL....THAT IS WHAT MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND...BUT I STILL STICK TO MY POINT.....WE REALLY NEED TO STOP DWELLING ON SUCH MATTTERS WHEN IT HAS SO MANY OTHER ATTRIBUTES TO THE MOVIE THAT.........................I HAVE NEVER EVEN SEEN....THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT!!!!

[Ras_Legacy]

First of all, i think this issue is worth reasoning with...first to establish InI beliefs, instead of being led blindly around issues; and second, to recognize fiction when it is there and turn it into fict-shun.

anyway,
I think that I will add my reasoning to this discussion. I have chosen not to see this movie, because i feel that it goes against the beliefs of InI. InI do not need to focus on the death. InI overstand this pain and suffering. InI have felt the lashes of the whip thru slavery, thru the Jim Crow laws in America in the 1960s. InI don't need to re-live the suffering that InI have been subjected to for centuries, and are still subjected to today. InI focus on the miracles of JAH, touchin the man who can't walk upright, feedin the oppressed. These give I strength, and I-spire. InI gotta remember that, not death. Yeshuah died to give InI freedom, not depression. InI seh JAH LIVE, not JAH DIED! Emancipate the self from this mindset bredren and sistren...it could be a trap!
JAH LIVE FOREVER!!!!

Legacy

[Yann]

Douglarasta:

Well I find it quite strange that someone would come to a website called Africa speaks and expect issues like this not to be debated and questioned. I wonder what you expected to find???

First of all I find your response here to be quite ignorant:

“WHOOOO CAREESSSSSSSSSS WHETHER HE WAS WHITE OR BLACKKKKKKKKKKKK?”

douglarasta

Well obviously many of us do… and obviously so did the Europeans who went to such great lengths to change the image of a man from African/Semitic/ Dark skinned to a white blue eyed, blond haired (sometimes brown haired) European. I wonder why?? Why go to such lengths if the colour of this man did not matter?  And if his colour does not matter why should it offend, upset, annoy when folks choose to state unequivocally that Jesus was black? Well if you believe that painting someone who many people believe is the son of god in an erroneous image as a European has no effect on other races who have been subject to racism, discrimination and self hatred then you are quite naïve indeed.  If you choose not to see this as a part of a systematic white washing of all our Gods and Goddesses, as a deliberate construct, part and parcel of the racism that Christianity has perpetrated for centuries then that is your choice. However informed Africans reserve the right to question this and speak out against it.

You also say:

“ALL THE MELANIN IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD WOULD NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE ARE SINNERS AND HEEEEEEEEEE DIED FOR OUR SINSSSSSSSSS..........PEOPLE WWAKEEEEEEEE UPPPPPPPPPPPP”

douglarasta

Well this may be your belief and if you choose to see yourself as a sinner then that is quite your affair. But for those who choose to have a more enlightened view of spirituality and do not buy the Christian idea of Jesus being the Son of God or one sent to redeem us of some unknown sin, this statement is quite arrogant and ludicrous indeed.  Because some believe Jesus to be the messiah that certainly does not mean that his race/ethnicity does not matter, and it is an excellent indication of where the world is at when we see this image still being perpetuated. The fact is that whites cannot stand to see their image of ‘god’ with the face of a black man. And that is the bottom line. We must look at this continued misrepresentation through the lens of historical racial abuses. It is the right and duty of all people to question why, though all evidence has pointed to the contrary, we still see this image of a white Jesus. If you choose not to question it fine, but do not come into a forum spewing venom at those who choose to discuss the issue.

Personally I find the idea of the movie quite distasteful and have no desire to see it, as I have no desire to see any movie that depicts a myth that has done damage to the psyche’s African people worldwide. I have no taste for gore or lies and I see nothing enlightening in watching anyone being brutally murdered. I have no comment on the content of the movie whatsoever as I see nothing new or uplifting in the movie itself or the story upon which it is based. But I do reserve the right to discuss the ethnicity of a historical figure whose memory has affected the course of world history.

In your second post you state that there are some things that cannot be changed and people should move on. Well, informed people respectfully reserve the right to choose what battles they will fight and what is within their power to change.  You also say your posts were an attempt to:  

PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE... SEE HOW PEOPLE RESPOND TO RISQUE OPINIONS THAT STIR AND SIZZLE THEIR CENTRAL BEING...IT WILL FORCE YOU ALLL WHO ARE SO WRAPPED IN YOUR NEAT LITTLE WORLD THE WAKE UP CALL NEEDED TO REALIZE THAT THE WORLD IS NOT ALL GLITS AND GLAMOUR...”

douglarasta

Well this is a tall order that I daresay you have not fulfilled.  You have stated nothing new here, just that same old diatribe that has been spewed for years. Those who know the truth simply state it. In your arrogance all you have achieved here is to show yourself as quite poorly informed.


yan

[Oshun_Auset]

Douglarasta...

In your second post you state that there are some things that cannot be changed and people should move on.
Can you imagine if the diciple's of Yeshua felt this way? There were only twleve of them and look at what has changed! (although I do realize that it was the political state of Christiandom, and colonization and slavery that spread the religion around the planet, hence I am not a Christian.)

The enemy of humanity wants us to believe that how it is, is how it always has been, and how it always will be. We CAN and WILL reclaim our place in the world as African people. That to me is worth dieing for!!!
Africa will unite, it is only a matter of when. Individuals can do very little, but collective organized masses with a common ideology and goal can change our reality. Does our reality not need changing? Or are you comfortable with the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental/psychological suffering of the masses of African people and humanity in general?

The only thing constant is change!

[out_of_Zion]

(although I do realize that it was the political state of Christiandom, and colonization and slavery that spread the religion around the planet, hence I am not a Christian.)

"You are my witnesses," is the utterance of Jehovah, "even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and have faith in me and that you may understand that I am the same One.  Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none.  -Isaiah 43:10

So shun Christendom and become a member of Christ's true faith, which JAH names cold and simple in Is 43:10, JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.  No man is a Christian, because Christian means Christ-like, and I have yet to meet an individual who deserves such a title...

[Ayinde]

No man is a Christian, because Christian means Christ-like, and I have yet to meet an individual who deserves such a title...

Just out of curiosity, what would you expect to see in a 'Christ-like' person?

How do you think you would be able to tell if such a person is for real or not?

What sets this person apart from others?

[Oshun_Auset]

 ;)I see and "overstand" your point out_of_Zion.

That is why I don't chastize anyone who practices the true form of spirituality that Yeshua preached. I just prefer to follow in the footsteps and honor my direct ancestors form West Africa and their spiritual practices.(If we weren't enslaved...us Africans in the West would be practicing the spirituality of Ifa, Vudun, Fon, or Dahomey practices, and many of us still do in the West, although it has been mixed with Catholicism) I practice Ifa of the Yuroba(no Catholicism)...Which if researched shows...The Yoruba migrated from the Nile Valley region about 2000 years ago to their current location in Nigeria, Sierre Leone, and Benin(also small populations in other countries that formerly were Yurobaland prior to colonization). The spiritual concepts are similar in many ways to those of the Nile Valley civilizations...The Orishas can be compared to the Neteru....The aspects of the "ALL", Olodumare with Amen(both mean the hidden one), Olorun with Ausar...Yemeya with Hathor, Oshun with Auset(hence my name) Ancestor veneration and respect for nature are predominant...ect. And since the spiritual teachings of the Nile Valley civilizartions were what Yeshua was trained in...by extension I am LIVING the true spirituality. I have major issues with the perverted and distorted Helio Biblio...and REFUSE to believe that my direct ancestors needed it, if they did not already have it, especially with the way it was introduced to us of West African stock....Sorry, I can't get past that contradiction...

[out_of_Zion]

Man, Oshun_auset, I cannot help but admit to feeling slightly ignorant when you speak of your faith and ancestry.  It's a source of embarassment for the I because INI like to relate to people on a spiritual level and overstand the spiritual inclinations of all peoples.  I do believe that JAH is the source of all power & energy in this universe and that many people get to know the true God many different ways (which differs from the opinion of many of my brothers who are somewhat closed minded, I feel).

I've always had a very Catholic attitude (I was raised Catholic indeed), Catholic meaning universal, in believing that many people are on a path to meeting the true God, Yehowah or Jehovah or Allah, and being judged according to their deeds.  I also believe that as Paul said in Romans that people can be "a law unto themselves," thus if they are righteous people they will be judged righteous by our Lord Jah.  I don't pretend to have any special ability to deliniate and say that someone must have a certain theology to enter the kingdom of the Eternal.
---

Ayinde - my point was somewhat satirical.  I don't believe any of us can attain a Christ-like state enough to call ourselves true Christians.  While some of us may display Christ-like qualities, we never acheive a truly selfless & sinless state like Yeshua himself was.  It is my belief that only after the milennial reign will we acheive such perfection and harmony with one another.  It is something I dream about, a hope that keeps me going in this world, ya gather?

[Oshun_Auset]

I had to post this picture under this subject now that I finally know how to do it...

[Oshun_Auset]

http://www.africana.com/funstuff/comics/boondocks/fs20040419boon.asp

[seshatasefekht7]

peace and hotep,

it is predictable that all boards where africans in amorica congregate will be visited by cointelpro.

if we don't form a national congress of like minds  
we won't stand a chance.

africa unite  

to save our incited and angry 'white' children

freedomisahapislave

[Ras_Legacy]

Oshun_Auset- awesome picture! thank ya for sharin' that...i have never seen a Black Yeshua depicted in a published picture before...only ini friends work. Also- i have that comic strip of Boondocks taped on I wall!

seshatasefekht7- powerful response! SELAH!!!

one love,
Legacy