The stained-glass image would soon be changed. The Savior's skin would be darkened. His hair, once long and straight, would be transformed into a tumble of dark curls.
The changes, six years ago, were Salem Baptist's first steps toward an Afrocentric visual aesthetic. It is a step that other black churches are taking - one that encompasses paintings, stained glass, icons, vestments, calendars, church bulletins, Christian education materials, and even the backs of hand-held fans used to wave away the heat, experts say.
At its root is a quest to reach out to young people who have experienced some part of the civil-rights or black-power movement and who insist that their faith reflect their pride in their blackness, said Robert Franklin, director of black-church studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology in Atlanta and author of the soon-to-be-published study, Another Day's Journey: Change and Continuity in Black Church Culture.
"There are a lot of people of color who haven't accepted Christianity
because of the way it has been used to oppress people or to exclude them. A lot of my friends are like that," Hardy said. "It makes a difference when you see a Christ that looks like you. It makes a statement about inclusion."
But a new cultural aesthetic, in the shape of a black Jesus, is by no means a form of expression that has been universally embraced by black Christians. The movement has met with resistance from those who say color is not the issue. The message is what matters, they argue.
"I think what is happening now is an overreaction," said the Rev. Herbert Lusk 2d of Greater Exodus Baptist Church in North Philadelphia. "There are a number of things we can do to (raise) our self-esteem without tampering with God's word. . . . I feel that from that region, during that time, (Christ) would have been of some color - but it would be equally as wrong to depict him as black with an Afro as with blond hair and blue eyes."
