Thread by @ShoshanaKessock

Say it with me now on Easter folks: while it’s important to note Jesus was not a white dude but Middle Eastern, he was also Jewish. Reclaiming history is important. And I’ll tell you why.

Hi, I’m Shoshana, and this is Shoshana ruins appropriation.

Religious appropriation has been an issue for Christianity pretty much since the beginning. In an effort to convert others comfortably, Christian leaders integrated already existing holidays, both pagan and Jewish, to make up their own calendar.

The example from today is Easter, with its origins in the ancient goddess Ishtar and her holiday, plus the celebration of the resurrection during springtime and the Last Supper probably being originally a Passover Seder celebration. Mix and match and shake it up: boom, Easter.

Now while religious appropriation has been Christianity ol’ bait and switch since time immemorial, it basically has its roots in its origins as a cult offshoot of Judaism from the beginning. A lot of ideas, rituals, garb, and prayers started Jewish.

Example: Look up Hallelujah.

But what’s most unnerving about this religious appropriation case from Judaism is not only has Christianity divorced itself from Judaism altogether, it’s taken the parts it wanted and then used them to persecute Jews throughout the centuries.

Icons, ideas, and stories have been twisted to make up a doctrine of hate towards Jews counter to the love and acceptance taught in the New Testament while Jewish ideas make up the foundation of Christian identity on a fundamental level.

Say it with me now, folks: Jesus was Jewish, born of Jews, in Judea. He was a rabbi, a teacher of the community. His whole deal was fighting corruption inside the community under the oppressive Roman rule.

You cannot divorce Jesus from Judaism.

Now one way Christianity has tried to twist their appropriation into hatred of Jews is the old “they sold Jesus up the river to get killed” story. There are so many ways to refute that narrative including biased source material (N. Testament) and revisionist history.

But even if you take the Bible as a literal historical document (which many do not) and believe Jesus lived and died and all that jazz, he was executed by Romans and only possibly condemned by leaders of a captive population and corrupt leadership. Not a whole people.

Regardless of the truth of that story or not, it serves as the basis for an excuse to separate Jesus from Judaism to legitimate Christianity as its own religion rather than an offshoot cult, as it was when it started. And allows it to mask its appropriation.

Christianity’s spread has swallowed more religious groups thru persecution and devastation than most others thru a history of slaughter, mass and forced conversions, and oppression.

Kind of like those pesky Romans did way back. More appropriation of ideas there huh?

In its wake it has left more religious groups lost or marginalized, with their ideas homogenized under the banner of Christianity while relegating their true stories to the wastebin or the margins of history. And most people will never know unless they choose to google.

But why is this so dangerous now, in an age where we talk so much about appropriation? Because in an age of people not verifying sources and anti-intellectualism, it’s easier than ever for religious folk to ignore the origins of religious appropriation in the very name of Jesus.

And as history marches on, with hate on the rise from fundamentalist and fascist groups, the chances of the truth about these religious appropriations can be easily swept aside even further in the name of revisionist history and justified bigotry.

Similarly, progressive groups may hurry to justify Jesus as a non-white figure to be reclaimed (and justifiably so!) but to do so without recognizing his origins as Jewish as well ignored the Christian appropriation of his Jewish origins and stolen historical context.

All this wouldn’t be as big of a danger of course (and I classify this appropriation as a danger) if not for the widespread nature of Christianity and how these ideas of revising towards hatred hadn’t spread world-wide and continue to spread to this day.

One only needs to look at the continued bigotry against Jews and the demonization of pagan ideas in today’s church in some areas to see how this appropriation is an ongoing, living concern to safety to people TODAY. It’s a living problem, not a historical one.

So in short (and this hasn’t been short): if you are Christian, do some research. Google your own religious history. And do not divorce those ideas from where it came from. Judaism especially, but also pagan ideas and icons. Do not let these ideas be forgotten.

(And this is for my Jews out there: we can’t divorce ourselves from Christianity and the offshoot that came from us. Don’t forget the step-child at the table, even if it has become an unruly one).

So folks, do not ever think you can separate Judaism from Christianity, especially for the sake of creating hatred. You’re hating your own ancestry in the name of a guy who was a religious and social reformer speaking about acceptance, kindness, and hope.

Let’s do this better.