When did Christianity become "White"?

It was The Invention Of Lying, a fun movie, definitely an apt analogy to the real world.

And I'm pretty sure that judging by where he'd be from, Mr. Christ would be a "Jew" aka having middle-eastern-ish features. I think I heard form some documentary he'd be likely specifically a "Galilean Jew" whatever that means.

Of course this would mean we'd have to change everything, all those images of a man with long flowing mid-brown hair would be replaced with a gay with a potentially lengthy schnoz, dark brown to blackish hair, and a jew-fro.

Actually, I'd love to see that.

@Slycat: Yo dawg, I heard you like gods, so I put a god in your god so you can worship while you worship?

There is not one pagan religion, but several (also it's incorrect to capitalize it as "Pagan"), although there are some recurring patterns in Roman, Greek, Norse and Keltic paganism that suggest that they are all variants of an older so-called Indo-European religion (and in case some of you are wondering, yes Hinduism is Indo-European too).

But yes, it is probably quite reasonable to say that Christianity got europeanized (or "paganized") at some point early on, although I'm not convinced it was Constantine that did that. For all I know it could have happened much earlier.

Syncretism is a common occurrence in any religion given enough time, but it doesn't seem to be something that's a sect effected main stream Christianity at a serious level until the 1400s.

There are, of course, some pagan influences on "Christian" holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Also, at least one saint that comes to mind is definitely not of Jewish or Christian origin. I'm sure there are others...

There are some possible ancient influences on Jewish culture that, of course, would affect Christianity. Though, they're only ancient in hindsight, and pretty much gone by the time Christianity is being formed.

I guess a good definition of europeanized/paganized is in order.

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Christianity differs more from Islam and Judaism than Islam differs from Judaism. Since they all originated in the same enviroment and culture, and are closely memetically related, one would reasonably expect all of them to be pretty alike.

They are alike, if viewed from an atheistic or a pre-medieval pagan point of view. But if you look more closely, Christianity is very much the odd one out.

Actually, Islam is more different then the other two, because of the different origins of Islam versus Bible religions.

Islamic practices (diet, ritual, etc.) are generally seen to be closer to those of Judaism in mechanism.

It's all a bit of a toss-up if you ask me.

edited 29th Aug '11 5:26:58 PM by ForlornDreamer

I don't think so. Christians and Jews share books. Sure, Islam has some similar customs, but there isn't anything like the Clause of the Sword in the other two.

I think Islam and Judaism have more in common then they do with christianity.

Learn more about them then.

"Clause of the Sword" pertains mostly dealing with a specific group of idolaters who where the aggressors. It's referring to a historical event, not a general rule of thumb for all non-Muslims.

Considering the Jews had similar experiences once or twice with other tribes there almost certainly is a verse in the Tanakh, and therefore Bible, that's the same.

Both Judaism and Islam are based on works, while Christianity is based on faith and forgiveness. This seperates them greatly. However, Islam is also the odd one out because it is a completly different religion.

Christianity is "white"?

News to me, since the original founders of it were, you know, Hebrews and all.

Anyway, I'd blame The Holy Roman Empire for that, converting lots of Western Europe. Imagine if Paul had taken his missionary trips eastward, rather than to the north and west. Totally different outcome, I'd imagine. But since he was a Roman citizen, he stayed in Roman territory, hence the result we ended up with. Or that's how I understood it, anyway.

I'd kinda like to know how you're qualifying this. Judaism and Christianity have some scripture overlap, but Islam is still an Abrahamic religion and much of the Qur'an pretty much lifted strait out of the Bible. You'd be hard pressed to find a fourth religion that comes close to being nearly as comparable to the similarities these three have with each other.

Frankly, I'm not sure this is really something someone can make a quick judgement call. Some of the dietary laws are very similar in Judaism and Islam while treatment of Jesus is much more similar in Christianity and Islam, and that's just scratching the surface.

Islam specifically states that the bible is "corrupted" and can not be trusted. Meanwhile, Christianity states that the old testament is completely canon.

While you are right, I forgot that they based Islam off of the Abrahamic religion. (Stupid, I just finished reading a book on Islam too.)

I'd say Christianity and Judaism are closer, because they share scripture.

Besides, the Bible is a history, and the Qu'Ran is a book of teachings. That's a pretty significant difference.

Also, Christianity grew directly out of Judaism, while, if I recall correctly, Islam was founded as a response to Christianity, which are pretty much opposites.

What was the majority religion in now-Islamic countries before Islam?

The Jewish references on Jesus seem to range from "vauge" to "Idolater, Dark Magician who is the child of an adulterous Jewish woman and roman solider"

So I really don't think that's a great metric.

The Qur'an has many beliefs that are taken out of the Bible, considered Jesus a prophet, and glorifies Mary to a point only beat out by the Catholics. There is some response against both Jews and Christians in the book, but the Christians at least were sort of "doing it WRONG" by most standards of the religion (considering Mary the WIFE of God, and other weird stuff no sect has believed in).

edited 29th Aug '11 8:47:46 PM by Justice4243

Christianity and Judaism are generally on one side of the argument when dealing with outsiders, but very sharp differences when looking at Jewish customs themselves, particularly in orthodox-styled Israel. For instance, Christians believe in loving the enemies, while Jews believe in swift divine justice upon them. And whereas Christians see their new covenant being new but nevertheless having firm ground in what was established by Jewish origins, Jews see Christianity as basically heresy and a Gentile influence opposing them.

Maybe this is why throughout history Jews were treated as outsiders to a western European, and later American, society. The Jews feel like a difference race. I don't see Judaism as being white.

...You want to make a new topic for this?

edited 29th Aug '11 8:40:18 PM by abstractematics

Christianity isn't white... it's a multiethnic religion, Catholicism especially.

That's a pretty decent point. One could maybe make a case for Protestantism being mostly white, but Catholicism has all the Latin American countries.

@Sheep: Islam being founded actually has nothing to do with Christianity.

Though the Muslims do believe in the bible - they believe Jesus and David and such were prophets. Mohammed was jsut the ultimate one.

edited 30th Aug '11 10:07:51 PM by Erock

Not even most of Protestantism is white - not since the modern era. Look at Africa, and the movement in Uganda to execute homosexuals - most of the proponents were Protestants.

Erm, do you mean "The Earth Sheep", cause Islam being founded as a response to Christianity wasn't my point at all.

Sorry,Justice! I'm tired.