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Not too long ago, the California State Meeting handed a legislation requiring faculties to include media literacy requirements all through a number of topics in grades Ok-12.
The aim? To fight “fake-news” by equipping college students “to confront questions about the moral obligations and ethical standards regarding what appears on social media networks and digital platforms.”
With the Creation season upon us, I’d add that Christian educators consider the same “moral obligations” in educating biblical considering expertise to confront the “fake theology” prevalent within the imagery present in so a lot of our faculties.
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Take, for instance, our celebration of Christmas.
Christians want to know that Jesus was born a Jewish man within the Center East and his look ought to replicate that. (Photograph by: Godong/Common Photographs Group through Getty Photographs)
A number of years in the past, once I was main a multi-racial college neighborhood, I used to be saddened to find how erroneous my Christmas decorations were. Getting ready to brighten my workplace with conventional Christian ornaments, I seen for the primary time how my manger scene was not biblically correct — from Joseph and Mary to the Angel Gabriel, to most significantly, the infant Jesus.
It was humbling to confess this blind spot to my colleagues of coloration — particularly contemplating that I had been educating a category for years that addressed these types of unbiblical images.
And for individuals who might think about this a woke train in vital Christmas principle — it was not.
It was realizing for the primary time that my decor was sarcastically a White Christmas and never biblical in any respect. As I took out my Nativity books that I had learn to my youngsters for years, I used to be confronted with the identical actuality — photos of the holy household in my picture — not these of Center Japanese Jews.
As our nation grows extra culturally and racially various, it is crucial for Christian teenagers immediately to know the influence false photos can have on their beliefs and their technology.
Reformer John Calvin acknowledged the gravity of this error in his day too: “A true image of God [the Father] is not to be found in all the world; and hence … His glory is defiled, and His truth corrupted by the lie, whenever He is set before our eyes in a visible form.”
Whereas that is sensible for God, the Father, what concerning the picture of God’s Son — “the image of the invisible God” who we have a good time coming into the world at Christmas?
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Regardless that Christians acknowledge Jesus as Immanuel (which suggests, God with us), the Gospel writers by no means describe his bodily look. Moreover, whereas unbiblical photos of Jesus as a child could also be a stumbling block to some, I’ve discovered the depictions of him as an grownup to be rather more problematic.
Vienna – Mosaic of Final supper of Jesus by Giacomo Raffaelli from the yr 1816. It’s a copy of Leonardo da Vinci work that was displayed on January 15, 2013 in VIenna. (iStock)
As I share with my college students, I by no means thought twice concerning the photos of Jesus that I grew up seeing as a result of they mirrored my picture — from Renaissance work to the ever present “Head of Christ” by Warner Sallman.
However that view dramatically modified in my early 30s, once I noticed the Disney movie “Ruby Bridges.”
The highly effective true story of the civil rights icon, Ruby Bridges, was the primary African American scholar to attend her all-White college in New Orleans, La. The movie portrays the horrific racism and hatred the 6-year-old Ruby skilled every day from an indignant mob of White males, girls and kids, as she entered her college.
In a poignant scene the place the dad and mom are debating whether or not to maintain Ruby within the college, the digicam turns to Sallman’s portrait of Jesus hanging on the wall. When the mom seeks time to hope to God about their choice, the daddy holds up Sallman’s work and declares, “She’s got it in her head that White folks are better than colored.”
Regardless that Christians acknowledge Jesus as Immanuel (which suggests, God with us), the Gospel writers by no means describe his bodily look. Moreover, whereas unbiblical photos of Jesus as a child could also be a stumbling block to some, I’ve discovered the depictions of him as an grownup to be rather more problematic.
“What’s that got to do with Jesus?”, the mom asks.
“Ain’t nobody really knows what He looks like,” the daddy responds. “But when she sees this every day, that tells her God looks more like them White folks outside her school than her.”
Fortunately, with the assistance of her dad and mom, Ruby is given a biblical view of Jesus. Her deep religion in Jesus sustains her and permits her to persevere by the horrible remedy she receives from her neighborhood — praying for her verbal attackers every single day and echoing Jesus’ prayer on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
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As I seek God’s forgiveness for the times I have not represented His image or that of His Son through my actions, I am reminded of the powerful charge St. Paul gave to the Church of Corinth: “And all of us, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being reworked into the identical picture from one diploma of glory to a different.”
For the power of Jesus transforms us, bringing forgiveness of sin and restoring us back to His original intent of reflecting His image. A much-needed message this Christmas season.
