Belief in white Jesus linked to racism
People who think Jesus Christ was white are more likely to endorse anti-Black attitudes, a new study found, suggesting that belief in white deities works to uphold white supremacy.e
For the study, published March 1 in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, researchers conducted a survey of 179 mostly Christian college students at a midsize private university in the Midwest. The students, over 70% of whom were white, were asked whether, based on personal understanding of Jesus, they thought of him as white, black, something else or unknown.
Using established scales, the survey then measured students' explicit racism, subtle racism, implicit bias, their preferences for hierarchies and their endorsement of colorblind racial ideology - the set of beliefs that deny the effects of racism.
The researchers argued that a Jesus who has the same race as the dominant group helps that dominant group maintain power and legitimacy.
Compared with 95 students who believed Jesus was not white, the 84 students who believed Jesus was white hand more negative explicit ideas about black people, more subtle prejudices, more feelings of warmth toward white people, greater preference for group based hierarchy, and more insistence that they, essentially, do not see race.
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