Black Lives Matter activist calls for destruction of images and statues of ‘white’ Jesus and Mary The activist said that statues, murals, and stained- glass windows depicting Jesus and Our Lady as 'white' should be taken down for being forms of 'white supremacy' Tue Jun 23, 2020 - 4:22 pm EST •

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Shaun KingShaun King / The Break Down By Calvin Freiburger June 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – As protests against alleged “systemic racism” continue to spread across the United States and have expanded to toppling statues of American historical figures, left-wing activists are now turning their attention to the supposed racial implications of religious imagery, and are calling for the destruction of images and statues of a “white” Jesus and Mary his mother.

Shaun King, a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, best known for claiming to be half-black despite both parents on his birth certificate being listed as white, declared Monday that statues, murals, and stained-glass windows depicting Jesus as white should be taken down for being “form[s] of white supremacy,” meant to be “tools of oppression” and “racist propaganda”:

Christ’s skin color and exact physical features are a subject — beyond the common-sense assumption that they were in line with the Middle Eastern population into which He was born — of frequent debate among historical and biblical scholars, as well as activists like King who derive racial or political significance from how He is depicted. However, throughout history, Jesus has generally been depicted in alignment with the majority race of whichever culture produced a given piece of artwork, and not entirely for reasons of cultural bias. The Federalist’s Jonah Gottschalk notes that “when Christianity spread throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, independent churches made images of Jesus whose appearance and dress were familiar to community members. This includes 1500 years of Ethiopian depictions of a black Jesus.”

Such points tend not to matter to left-wing activists, who are also pressuring Christian institutions to support BLM in other ways, the Associated Press reports.

Last week, Villanova University professor Shannen Dee Williams wrote in the dissident National Catholic Reporter that statements from Catholic leaders condemning the deaths of , Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery “fall way short when it comes to acknowledging the church's role in the contemporary crisis and direct complicity in the sins of anti-Black racism, slavery and segregation in the modern era.”

In addition, she demands that the Catholic Church formally apologize for its role in past racial injustices; stop closing active black parishes; increase spending on black Catholic education and scholarship; require the teaching of “Black and Brown Catholic history”; and add “anti-racist women and members of the laity” to the formal church leadership; and that Catholics “take leading roles in campaigns working to protect Black lives, eliminate racism in the health care system, end mass incarceration and bail, and secure police reform and accountability.”

Her call was echoed in a letter signed by eight bishops representing Maryland and Washington DC. The bishops endorsed BLM’s stance that “the conscience of our nation is on trial as questions of race and equality confront each and every one of us,” and that “prayer and dialogue, alone, are not enough. We must act to bring about true change.”

Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington DC, one of the letter’s signatories, went so far as to elevate BLM-style “racial justice” to same level as the fight to protect the sanctity of human life from abortion. “Birth is only the first moment of a person’s human dignity, which is never lost throughout the journey of life,” he wrote in an email to the AP. Floyd’s killing was instantly and unanimously condemned, and the police officers involved have been charged with murder. As to BLM’s broader claim of “systemic racism” in law enforcement, research actually shows that police are not disproportionately likely to use excessive lethal force against black suspects.

Further, BLM’s own stated values are intensely at odds with any authentic reading of Christianity. The group officially supports “reproductive justice that gives us autonomy over our bodies.” An estimated 40 percent of all U.S. abortions are sought by black women, meaning that Black Lives Matter supports the annual elimination of more than 344,800 black lives every year.

The group also pledges to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

“We foster a queer‐affirming network,” BLM continues. “When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”

APPENDIX: RADICALLY POLITICAL AGENDAS BEHIND BLM

In what is sure to elevate race tension to ’12’ (since they are already at ’11’), President Trump has responded to comments from the BLM movement’s leader earlier in the week: Black Lives Matter leader states, “If U.S. doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it”. This is Treason, Sedition, Insurrection! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2020 Trump’s comment follow comments by Hawk Newsome – who chairs Black Lives Matter of Greater New York argued that because violence and rioting appeared to be getting the point across more effectively, those efforts were justifiable.

A tense exchange with Fox’s Martha MacCallum lays out the details (and likely triggered Trump): MacCallum began by quoting Newsome as saying that he wanted to “shove legislation down people’s throats,” and then asked him, “What exactly is it that you hope to achieve through violence?” Newsome responded by claiming that the United States had been “built upon violence,” citing the American Revolution and arguing that American diplomacy largely consisted of blowing up other countries and replacing their leaders with leaders we liked better.

MacCallum responded: “The only reason I posed that first question to you the way that I did, I watched you talking on a bunch of different interviews today and you said, ‘Burn it down.’ You said it, ‘Burn it down, it’s time.’ So that makes me think that you want to burn it down.” “If this country doesn’t give us what we want then we will burn down the system and replace it,” Newsome replied. “And I could be speaking figuratively, I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.” This came on the heels of comments from another BLM co-founder earlier in the week. As we detailed earlier in the week, while massive protests continue to rage across the country (and beyond) in the name of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter co-founder admitted during a Friday night interview with CNN that “our goal is to get Trump out.”

Cullors, who described BLM organizers in 2015 as “trained Marxists,” compared Trump to Hitler after refusing to meet with him, and referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as the Gestapo, told CNN‘s Jake Tapper (via Breitbart‘s Josh Caplan): JAKE TAPPER: I’ve heard a lot of criticism of former Vice President Joe Biden from civil rights activists. The election, obviously, will be a choice. How do you think Biden matches up compared to President Trump when it comes to these issues that are important to you? PATRISSE CULLORS: Trump not only needs to not be in office in November but he should resign now. Trump needs to be out of office. He is not fit for office. And so what we are going to push for is a move to get Trump out. While we’re also going to continue to push and pressure vice president Joe Biden around his policies and relationship to policing and criminalization. That’s going to be important. But our goal is to get Trump out. President “Trump not only needs to not be in office in November but he should resign now,” says co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Patrisse Cullors. “Trump needs to be out of office. He is not fit for office.” pic..com/T6mLZ11cEv — The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) June 19, 2020 In 2015, Cullors said that BLM would take “any opportunity we have to shut down a Republican convention.”

Was Tucker Carlson right when he said (and was punished with an advertiser walkout from the ‘cancel’ crew at Sleeping Giants) that Black Lives Matter is now a political party? “Black [Lives] Matter is more popular by double digits than both the Democratic and Republican parties. It is almost as popular as the U.S. military. It is much more popular than the pope.”@TuckerCarlson warns that the Black Lives Matter movement wields significant influence. pic.twitter.com/1AhsGqHBzo — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 16, 2020