Thinkings

Core “Thinkings” #1 of 3: White Man Meets Black Jesus

(or, What to the Patrio-Religious White Kid Is Juneteenth?)

Jordan Hyde

— 3 min read
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Core “Thinkings” #1 of 3: White Man Meets Black Jesus
Me, at Almine Rech in NYC, taking in Vaughn Spann's "(All) Americans" exhibit. (I ended up speaking to another visitor about how we were both captivated by it, despite--or maybe because of--our different backgrounds. But I hereby apologize to his daughter, who so patiently sat on the steps, waiting for our 40 minute conversation to end.)

As a kid I was so powerfully patriotic-yet-religious that I once wondered whether God was mad at me for liking the Fourth of July more than Christmas.  (In dying for my sins, and/or rising again to avail me of eternal life, one would think Jesus had secured the top spot without contest.  Then again, we were dealing with the greatest country in the history of the world, after all.)  

Whenever I accidentally thought about the relationship between my faith and my patriotism, I saw the conflation as problematic, even idolatrous.  But in funner[1] moments I didn’t think about it, and Jesus and America were pretty much the same thing. 

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