WEDNESDAY’S WORD – WHITEWASH – Sadell Bradley – 07/20/16 New Life Covenant Cincinnati

I read an interesting pop culture article on Hollywood whitewashing. “It’s a kind of casting where film studios have placed white actors in lead roles under the assumption that the majority of Americans would rather see a white face than a non-white one-despite what the role calls for.” (e.g. Jake Gyllenhaal playing a Persian, John Wayne playing Genghis Khan, or Liz Taylor playing Cleopatra) The author, Tanya Ghahremani goes on to say, “The major problem with race-bending and whitewashing-aside from, you know, it being deeply offensive-is that it takes roles from actors who actually are of that ethnicity/race. In turn, they get stuck with minor roles that only serve to supplement the story of the white lead, or with stereotyped roles. For instance: If you’re Middle Eastern, you’ll be cast as a terrorist.” I am concerned that the same thing is happening in our churches. Are those of color an integral part, or are we just supplementing the white lead? Is it possible that a particular song should be sung or statement made by a person of color?

There is great debate over what the multi-national and tribal expression of the Church Like Heaven in Revelation 7:9 actually looks like today: 

The beauty of cultural identity was somehow important enough for John to mention in this context.  Multi-ethnicity should not turn into mono-ethnicity. If a particular culture must dominate over all others no matter the side, then the higher question is… Is Jesus really playing the lead role?