{"id":480,"date":"2025-04-13T23:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=480"},"modified":"2025-04-13T23:25:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:25:58","slug":"what-color-is-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"What Color Is God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last night, I was flipping through channels and landed on ABC. They were airing The Ten Commandments<\/em> \u2014 for the 52nd consecutive year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1973, that film had me awestruck. The spectacle. The history. The majesty. I saw the people I\u2019d learned about in Bible school come to life. I accepted the story as fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assimilation told me that Charlton Heston was Moses. That Yul Brynner, the Russian-born actor playing Pharaoh, was somehow Black. That the Nubians in the film didn\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the next 20 years, I watched that movie religiously \u2014 pun intended. I could recite the lines from Dathan to Nefertiri, Joshua to Baka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I paused on the channel last night, it was the scene where Seti learns of the foretelling of a Messiah and orders the execution of all first-born Hebrew boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flash forward to this morning. I\u2019m on the treadmill, mid-Sunday workout, 3 miles in. Then KRS-One\u2019s Higher Level<\/em> blasts through my earbuds. Eighties and nineties hip-hop always stays in heavy rotation during my runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe white Jesus deceived us awhile ago
And Pope Julius the Second paid Michelangelo
I know this happened in 1519, yet
This is the image we can’t seem to forget.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I knew that bar was about to take me down a rabbit hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, historically speaking, KRS is in the ballpark. Pope Julius II did commission Michelangelo \u2014 but to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, not a portrait of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonardo da Vinci painted Salvator Mundi<\/em> (\u201cSavior of the World\u201d) around 1500, portraying Jesus with unmistakably European features \u2014 straight brown hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. The Last Supper<\/em>? That was between 1495 and 1498. Same pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where did the definitive<\/strong> white Jesus image come from? That credit goes to Warner Sallman<\/strong>, whose 1940 painting Head of Christ<\/em> became the most reproduced Jesus image in the world. For Western civilization, that face became gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I asked a question that\u2019s been sitting uncomfortably with me for a while \u2014 the kind that feels like blasphemy in some circles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What color is God?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And yeah, I asked ChatGPT. I was honestly a little nervous about the response. Here\u2019s what I got back \u2014 unedited:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In most major religious traditions, God is not described as having a color \u2014 because God is not a physical being. In Christianity, for instance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 4:24<\/strong> says: \u201cGod is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) often describes God with metaphor, not appearance \u2014 as fire, light, wind, or a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, from a theological standpoint, God has no color \u2014 at least not one that can be tied to human skin or race.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sounds like a safe, scholarly answer. Respectable. Defensible. White Christian Nationalists \u2014 you may want to stop reading here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the reality:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Scripture may not assign God a color \u2014 but culture has<\/strong>. And that color is usually white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European art, especially during the Renaissance, consistently portrayed God as an old white man with flowing robes and a long beard (think The Creation of Adam<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These images weren\u2019t just artistic choices. They were exported globally through colonization, missionary conquest, and Christian education \u2014 embedding the image of a white God and a white Jesus deep into the spiritual imagination of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Because when God is imagined as white<\/strong>, whiteness becomes divine.
And if whiteness is divine, then Blackness, brownness, indigeneity \u2014 everything else \u2014 becomes \u201cother.\u201d Profane. In need of saving.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Reclaiming the Divine Image<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Black, Indigenous, and other non-European cultures have long reimagined the divine in their own image:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Black Liberation Theology<\/strong> says God is Black \u2014 not because of melanin, but because God aligns with the oppressed.
    James Cone said: \u201cGod is not color-blind. God is Black because Black people are being oppressed.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • African spirituality<\/strong> sees God in many forms: male, female, ancestor, animal, spirit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Womanist theology<\/strong>, Indigenous traditions<\/strong>, and liberation theology across Latin America<\/strong> all reject the whitewashed God of colonial power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Bottom Line:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    God is not white.
    God is not Black.
    God is not male.
    God is not a being you can Photoshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But in a world that has weaponized whiteness and called it holy, asking \u201cWhat color is God?\u201d<\/strong> becomes a political and spiritual act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s not just about skin.
    It\u2019s about truth.
    It\u2019s about reclaiming what was stolen \u2014 including the divine reflection in ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    Maybe that\u2019s the real question \u2014 not what color is God, but whose God is winning?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In Parable of the Sower<\/em>, Octavia Butler wrote, \u201cAt least three years ago, my father\u2019s God stopped being my God.\u201d<\/em> I remembered the line again yesterday written in the book published in 1993. The same year KRS-One dropped Higher Level<\/em> to remind us that we\u2019ve been sold an image that was never ours. The same spirit Erykah Badu channeled when she sang, \u201cMost intellects do not believe in gods but they fear us just the same.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And I think about Invictus<\/em> \u2014 \u201cI thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Maybe the gods we\u2019ve inherited were never meant to liberate us.
    Maybe it\u2019s time we stop fearing their gaze and start recognizing our reflection.
    If the divine lives in all of us, then it\u2019s long past time we saw ourselves as sacred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Last night, I was flipping through channels and landed on ABC. They were airing The Ten Commandments \u2014 for the 52nd consecutive year. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}