A Christian magazines A controversial article explaining the ethnicity of Jesus Christ sparked commenters on social media on Christmas Eve.
Christianity today published a story titled “How Asian Artists Imagine the Birth of Jesus from 1240 to the Present,” in which writer Victoria Emily Jones claimed that “Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian.”
The photo essay featured nine works of art from Asian cultures depicting the Nativity. Jones claimed that by depicting Jesus as Asian, Christian artists could depict a deeper “theological meaning” of the “universality of Christ’s birth.”
“Some may object to the idea of depicting Jesus as anything other than a brown man born to a Jewish family in first-century Bethlehem of Judea, feeling that it undermines his historicity. But Christian artists who tackle the subject of “The Incarnation is often aimed not at historical realism but at theological sense,” Jones wrote.
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The Christianity Today article angered social media users for calling Jesus “Asian.” (iStock)
“By representing Jesus as Japanese, Indonesian or Indian, they convey a sense of God’s immanence, of his ‘with us,’ for their own communities – and for all others, the universality of Christ’s birth,” she explained.
Although the article was published on December 18, it gained attention on December 24 after the news outlet published it on social media platform,
“Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. The artists in this photo essay take him back to Asia, but not to ancient Israel. These nine works of art ‘proclaim the expansion of Christ’s kingdom,'” explained The media.
X’s commenters, however, rejected the article’s premise and mocked the evangelical media outlet that promoted it.
Editor-in-chief of the information site on Christian satire The Babylon BeeJoel Berry, joked: “Then can you please make an article with a bunch of AI images of Jesus if he were Rosa Parks.”
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Archive photo – Mosaic of Jesus Christ from the 13th century in the Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul, Turkey (iStock) (hadynyah/iStock)
“Have you read the Bible?” RedState columnist and author Buzz Patterson responded to the post.
Christian blogger Samuel Sey responded: “Blasphemy. Jesus is Jewish.”
“It is necessary for our salvation that he be a son of David, of the tribe of Judah, and born in Bethlehem. Stop this nonsense. He is neither European, nor Asian, nor Palestinian, nor black. It is a Jew, the king of the Jews. and therefore the savior of the world,” he added.
Western Ave Baptist Church Senior Pastor Ekkie Tepsupornchai also responded to the article, writing: “I am Asian. Jesus was not. Nevertheless, Jesus is my Lord. And his sacrifice has granted me the right to become a child of God. That’s all that means.” matters to me.”
Christianity Today was not the only media outlet to receive backlash for its comments about Jesus during the holiday.
Father Edward Beck called Jesus “a Palestinian Jew born at a time when his country was occupied” on CNN’s Christmas Morning.
Critics slammed the CNN guest on social media, blasting his “incorrect” story of Jesus Christ.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn of Fox News contributed to this report.
