A while back, many accused rapper Kanye West of sacrilege for proclaiming on his hit “Jesus Walks” that Christ chills out with the “hustlers, drug dealers and strippers.” However, the idea that the “King of Kings” hangs out with bigots, racists and white supremacists is widely accepted.
On Palm Sunday, National Geographic will premier Killing Jesus, a film based on the book by the same name by head Fox News commentator, Bill O’Reilly. The movie is a recreation of the life of Jesus Christ (Yeshua) and chronicles his persecution by the Roman Empire as well as his fellow countrymen who were hatin’ on his ministry. What is ironic is that O’Reilly also serves as the chief spokesman for a right wing agenda that is responsible for the persecution of America’s poor and downtrodden.
Killing Jesus is not a new revelation as Dr. Hugh Schonfield has written several works on the political activities of the early believers such as “The Passover Plot” and “The Jesus Party.” Also, Dr. James Cone has written extensively about the Messiah in the context of racial oppression in books such as “Black Theology/Black Power” and “God of the Oppressed.” But the hypocrisy of the major mouthpiece of the self righteous right having his book made into a TV movie about the champion of the poor and oppressed is too much for a member of an oppressed class to ignore.
What is extremely interesting about Killing Jesus is the striking similarities between the villains of the narrative and The Fox News Nation and between the heroic Jesus figure and the people who are victims of the Right Wing’s wrath.
Follow me on this one.
Just like the Caesars, the Right Wingers demand that everybody bows down to their collective will. Conservatives have a monolithic view of America and only tolerate those who have similar backgrounds and values. When is the last time that you heard a Fox talking head say something nice about someone Black or Latino except ,maybe, Geraldo Rivera or one of the members of their regular Crucify Him Choir of black conservatives ?
Another similarity is that conservative commentators serve as televangelists for the big business tycoons who gained their fortunes by exploiting the poor and paying them slave wages, thus creating the social conditions that cause the pathological behaviors that Fox and Friends demonize daily . It must be remembered that genocide is not only the act of carrying out the mass murder of a race, but according to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide it is defined as “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part .” So the right wing would have been best buds with the Thieves in the Temple.
Also, Fox News is notorious for “bearing false witness “ against those who oppose them. Just like the Pharisees and Sadducees started a smear campaign against Jesus, Fox News and others slander anyone who objects to their tyranny. When ratings need a quick boost , Fox always stages an Inquisition and goes after anyone whom they deem un-American. Many can remember the vicious attack that they waged against President Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 election season.
In addition, although they claim to love “The Prince of Peace,” they champion policies that favor the biggest warmongers on the planet. Not to mention “get tough on crime” policies that created the prison industrial complex and have a disproportionate number of Black and Latino youth on a never- ending journey down the school to prison pipeline.
Lastly, they send their conservative legionnaires to crucify those who speak the truth, as Rupert Murdoch has transformed an office building in the heart of New York City into a modern day Mt. Calvary. For instance, during the last National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama incurred the wrath of the Right when he dared to suggest that Christianity had just as much blood on its hands as Islam, using the Crusades, slavery and Jim Crow-ism as a backdrop . However, due to the machinations of a conservative media, what could have been a much needed discussion of the nuances of race and religion in this country was reduced to some idiotic right wing ramblings about knights in shining armor. The thousands of other examples of church sponsored genocide were ignored.
So, don’t believe everything you see on TV kids.
If Jesus showed up in America today advocating for the rights of the poor , he would be hanging from the satellite antenna at the top of the News Corp Building.
Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Messianic Afrikan Nation ministry based in Durham NC. He has appeared on talk shows across the country discussing race, religion and rap including several appearances on the Fox News Channel. He is also a contributor to the anthology “Hip Hop and the Black Church.” He can be reached at (919) 972-8305 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com