While reading the chapters of the
book this week, I often found myself uncomfortable or disagreeing with the
stance the author took. I did not disagree on the basic facts such as the oppression
or how it was not right how they used to the bible to justify the oppression,
but I felt like some of the things they said may have been slightly embellished
or very “liberal” as a conservative would say. One thing that I still remember
from the reading Tuesday that still stands out in my mind as ridiculous was one
of the stances they took on the oppression of blacks during segregation and
still today. At one point, the author said something along the lines of
segregation was based solely around keeping the blacks uneducated, and this
practice has still not been fixed today. I found this statement completely
ridiculous. Not because I disagree on segregation being bad or that being a
major factor in it, but in the fact that the author genuinely believes that in
21st century America that we are still keeping blacks uneducated and
that they do not have the same academic opportunity as other Americans. I went
to school with many African Americans, and for someone to say that they are not
receiving the same educational opportunities when in many places across the
country blacks and whites go to the same public schools and have the exact same
educational opportunities is ridiculous in my mind.
Another
thing I found hard to agree with or imagine was the many different ethnic Jesus’s
that they presented. I know the author was mainly trying to prove the reasons
that the people from these ethnic groups should identify with Jesus, but for me
personally, imagining Jesus as these things made me uncomfortable and I found
it very hard to imagine Jesus as such. Although in my mind I often do find
myself picturing Jesus as a white man like myself, I am not ignorant enough to
not realize that this image of Jesus is very unlikely. I realize Jesus was
most likely of olive color skin and looked like what a middle easterner looks
like today, and I have no problem with that. I just found it extremely hard to
fathom Jesus as a woman, homosexual, or even of African origin as they made a
case for at one point.
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