RSA — the Republic of South Africa — is making headlines this week for two great developments. Yes, the gay marriage & religion combo is, in this case, a great story.

First, the Supreme Court ruled that any attempts to ban gay marriage are unconstitutional! (here’s to a revolutionary Constitution that written in 1994 — hoo-ray!)

And in demonstrating that the U.S. wasn’t the only nation with film challenging society and social norms in 2005, the South African film “Son of Man” challenges the concepts of a Jesus who is docile, pale-skinned with thin hair.

As director Mark Dornford-May describes it in a Reuters article:

“The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn’t very acceptable.”

By portraying Jesus as a black African, Dornford-May hopes to sharpen the political context of the gospels, when Israel was under Roman occupation, and challenge Western perceptions of Christ as meek, mild and European.

To dare say in such fundamentalist times that “We have to accept that Christ has been hijacked a bit — he’s gone very blonde haired and blue-eyed,” Dornford-May is pushing limits. Revolutionary, indeed.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2006 at 2:45 pm by Chad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.