I was recently engaged in a conversation with a colleague regarding race, specifically on the importance of the race of Jesus. The conversation is posted below. His argument, in summary, is that the skin tone of Jesus is of great importance in knowing "the truth". In other words, Jesus was Black or descended from blacks (which I am not interested in arguing), and that knowing this is TRUTH and it will set you free (which I am arguing). You’ve got to be kidding me. I had no plans of sharing the conversation, but I decided to just because it really infuriates me. It is so sad. This points to a greater human problem of drawing boundaries between itself based on trivial human matters like race, and other physical, economical, and ideological characteristics—the same boundaries that the theologically, spiritually, and historically true Christ came to erase. The only boundary Christ upheld was that one which divided evil from good. Historically, Jesus was one of the first, if not the major, influential people to stir controversy by going against societal and cultural norms in views regarding race, nationality, gender, economic class, religious class. And he was HATED and killed for that by Pharisees, who were the intellectuals and the religious Ph.Ds of the time.
Anyway, here is the conversation: