By Steve Rhodes
“I pray. I read the bible. I go to church. I try to do unto others, as I would have them do unto me,” writes Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell.
Do I have questions about who Jesus is? Sure I do. Yet, those questions don’t get in the way of my reverence.
So, it isn’t surprising that I would be disgusted with Aaron McGruder’s Black Jesus, which made its controversial debut on Adult Swim last week.
Finally, we get a black Jesus and he’s a wig-wearing, profanity-spewing, gangbanging, weed-smoking, Hennessey-swilling hippy.
Really?
In the recent Son of God, believers got a dignified portrayal of Jesus, played by Diogo Morgado. In 2004, we got a suffering Jesus played by Jim Caviezel in The Passion.
But when black people are the targeted audience, what do they get?
Buffoonery.
Okay. Um, Son of God and The Passion of the Christ (the actual title) were dramatic movies. Black Jesus is a comedy on Adult Swim, the nighttime block of the Cartoon Network, and is much if not more a social commentary simply using a black Jesus as a comedic device than a religious commentary.
Besides, has Mitchell never seen Family Guy, now in its twelfth season and, among other accolades, the first animated show to be nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series since The Flintstones in 1961?
To wit:
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Posted on August 14, 2014
