August 16, 2014
Jesus’ Portrayal in New TV Comedy Draws Fire
Gerald “Slink” Johnson, right, playing role of Black Jesus.
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Is it a new way to spread the Gospel message? Or is it blasphemy? Those questions now surround a new TV show called “Black Jesus.”
The weekly show focuses on a modern-day savior working in rough-and-tough Compton,Calif. The show debuted Aug. 7 as a new late night offering on the Cartoon Network. To the producers, “Black Jesus” is a satire and one interpretation of the message of Jesus played out in present-day morality tales. To the American Family Association and its One Million Moms division, the show “makes a mockery of the Lord” by portraying him as a Black man living in a poor neighborhood.
The show contains “foul language that is shocking and disgusting,” according to Tim Wildmon, president of AFA, which promotes fundamentalist Christian values. “In addition, violence, gunfire, drinking and other inappropriate behavior completely misrepresent Jesus.”
However, the cable network has not been fazed by AFA’s call for cancellation of the show written and produced by Aaron McGruder, best known for the comic strip and animated series“ The Boondocks.” The new show stars Gerald “Slink” Johnson, who spreads “love and kindness” with a “loyal group of downtrodden followers,” according to Cartoon Network’s parent, Turner Broadcasting. Monica Cole, the leader of the AFA’s One Million Moms, said her group does not typically go after shows intended for adult audiences, but she said that as a “Christian ministry, we felt like we could not excuse this behavior for any television company.”
Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said Jesus has been a tricky subject going all the way back to Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. “If you go to the actual basic teaching of love and turning the other cheek and feeding the poor, they are very, very good messages,” Dr. Thompson said. “And to me, if you can getto the base of that kind of story, it can be told in a lot of different contexts, including this one from the Cartoon Network.”