{"id":13905,"date":"2020-06-23T13:49:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T17:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=13905"},"modified":"2020-06-23T13:49:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T17:49:42","slug":"shaun-king-statues-of-jesus-christ-are-form-of-white-supremacy-should-come-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2020\/06\/shaun-king-statues-of-jesus-christ-are-form-of-white-supremacy-should-come-down","title":{"rendered":"Shaun King: Statues of Jesus Christ Are \u2018Form of White Supremacy,\u2019 Should Come Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13911\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13911\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/06\/ShaunKing.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13911\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/06\/ShaunKing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13911\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jp16103\/WikiCommons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a series of tweets, activist Shaun King said all images depicting Jesus as a \u201cwhite European\u201d should be torn down because they are a form of \u201cwhite supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These comments come as monuments and statues paying tribute to the Confederacy have become a source of debate and contention in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s death and ongoing protests against racial injustice and police brutality.<\/p>\n<p>These statues and other figures from early American history connected with slavery have also been taken down.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down.<\/p>\n<p>They are a form of white supremacy.<\/p>\n<p>Always have been.<\/p>\n<p>In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went?<\/p>\n<p>EGYPT!<\/p>\n<p>Not Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>Tear them down.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shaun King (@shaunking) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shaunking\/status\/1275106946916499456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n\u201cYes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been,\u201d King tweeted. \u201cIn the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide and blend in, guess where they went? EGYPT! Not Demark. Tear them down,\u201d King tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>He followed up his tweet with another, saying that \u201cwhite Jesus is a lie\u201d and a \u201ctool of white supremacy\u201d created to help white people use Christianity as a \u201ctool of oppression.<\/p>\n<p>King then added that white people would never have accepted a religion \u201cfrom a Brown man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also called for all imagery, including \u201cmurals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends\u201d to also be taken down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are a gross form white supremacy,\u201d King wrote. \u201cCreated as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The controversial tweets received mixed reviews. While some agreed with King\u2019s position, others pointed out that cultures other than white Europeans have depicted Jesus in other ways.<\/p>\n<p>He also shared an image of a dark-skinned Jesus that appeared in a 2002 Popular Mechanics article, which scholars believe may be more accurate than European depictions.<\/p>\n<p>Kind said that the image would have been intolerable for white Americans who participated in slavery.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Experts have long since said this is likely the most accurate depiction of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>White Americans who bought, sold, traded, raped, and worked Africans to death, for hundreds of years in this country, simply could not have THIS man at the center of their faith. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Mn1pOCR233\">pic.twitter.com\/Mn1pOCR233<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shaun King (@shaunking) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shaunking\/status\/1275233551034843136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 23, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nKing later clarified that he was only advocating that statues of white Jesus be torn down in response to a tweet from the account of PragerU, a non-profit co-founded by conservative talk show host, Dennis Prager.<\/p>\n<p>King is a writer and activist who uses social media to promote social justice issues. While King actively addresses Black Lives Matter on his social media platform, he is not a leader or officially involved with Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a series of tweets, activist Shaun King said all images depicting Jesus as a \u201cwhite European\u201d should be torn down because they are a form of \u201cwhite supremacy.\u201d These comments come as monuments and statues paying tribute to the Confederacy have become a source of debate and contention in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2907,394,2871,2874,2901,2904,2264],"class_list":["post-13905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-confederate-statues","tag-jesus","tag-racism","tag-racism-in-the-church","tag-shaun-king","tag-statues","tag-white-supremacy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shaun King: Statues of Jesus Christ Are \u2018Form of White Supremacy,\u2019 Should Come Down<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shaun King: Statues of Jesus Christ Are \u2018Form of White Supremacy,\u2019 Should Come Down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a series of tweets, activist Shaun King said all images depicting Jesus as a \u201cwhite European\u201d should be torn down because they are a form of \u201cwhite supremacy.\u201d These comments come as monuments and statues paying tribute to the Confederacy have become a source of debate and contention in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2020\/06\/shaun-king-statues-of-jesus-christ-are-form-of-white-supremacy-should-come-down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-23T17:49:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2020\/06\/ShaunKing.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta 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