The New Majority: houston's minority news reader

Over 33 percent of all humans call themselves Christians, making it the single largest religion on the planet. Once, a rejected sect of Judaism, more than 2.1 billion persons share a singular belief that the Christian messiah Jesus Christ is the Son of God. In this our third look at the religions of Asia, New Majority Editor, Paul Fitzgerald Bennett talks to Pastor Rudy Rasmus of St. John's United Methodist Church in downtown Houston.

Bennett: Define Christianity.

Pastor Rasmus: Christianity is the faith initiated out of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Bennett: How does one become Christian?

Pastor Rasmus: In identifying a Christian, we first have to go back to a time before there was a term called Christian. The term Christian is a later invention. Jesus never identified himself as a Christian. Jesus was a Jew who practiced Judaism in its orthodox form. In scripture he's called a rabbi. He looked at the existing structures of Judaism so differently that people became attracted to the way he interpreted Judaism. What emerged from this was literally a sect of practicing Jews who began to view the arrival of the Messiah in the person of Jesus. Now, if we look at Judaism in its orthodox form, Jews are still waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. Where Jesus broke company with that theological perception was Jesus said "You're waiting for him to come. And I am here."

Bennett: According to Christians the greatest person to have ever lived was and is a Jew named Jesus. Jesus practiced Judaism. Why shouldn't Christians practice Judaism?

Pastor Rasmus: In many forms Christians do practice Judaism. In fact we can place many of our rituals side by side with Orthodox Judaism. Our Easter is celebrated during Passover week. The Lord's Supper is similar to the Passover meal. Whenever we look at Judaism, one thing we have to own up to is Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was never a Christian. He died a Jew. But when we begin to label what is really a belief in a Supreme Being, then we begin to partition one another out. What really attracted me to Christianity from Jesus' prospective was the fact that from his vantage point their was no 'out crowd'. From Jesus' vantage point everyone was part of the 'in crowd'. It made no difference if you were Jew, Gentile, bond or free, male, female, rich or poor.

Bennett: You mentioned that Jesus was a practicing Jew. Let's talk about the Sabbath. Jesus observed it as Friday evening to Saturday evening as it is described in Genesis. Christians come along and change it to Sunday, for something called The Lord's Day. Now, there is no scriptural evidence that God said it was okay to change his Sabbath from Friday evening and Saturday evening to Sunday.

Pastor Rasmus: Right, and that's a good point. That's why I call myself a practical theologian. There are folk who I would consider literalist. And then there are folk like me who look at the text and know that there were a lot of things happening in and around the text. When we start talking about the Sabbath and try to narrow it down to a day in the week, we really need to go back to Augustus who starting messing around with the calendar and added August and July. So when I get down to Friday, Saturday or Sunday, I'm forced to say well maybe the hour or the day isn't as big a deal as it is in our hearts and minds to practice these principles of Christ every moment. I don't wait until Sunday to believe. I don't wait until Sunday to worship. I don't wait until Sunday to do the right thing. Sunday is a day for me where I get with other folk who have survived a week as a follower of The Way and have come together to celebrate the week in review and the week ahead. I practice my faith every moment and every hour.

Bennett: Jesus said the only way to get to the Father is through the Son and that if you don't accept the Son you don't accept the Father. Some would interpret that as Jesus telling Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Buddhist who by coincidence are mostly persons of color and who have overwhelmingly received unequal amounts of terrorism by White Christians historically, that if you don't accept me you risk eternity in Hell.

Pastor Rasmus: We have to look at Jesus very carefully. When we take that particular text, we have to take the whole of Jesus' dialogue which was an inclusive dialogue. Remember on the Day of Judgment there will be many disciples of Jesus who did not know they were his disciples. He tells them "When I was hungry you fed me. When I was thirsty you gave me drink. When I was in prison you visited me. And when I was naked you clothe me. And these same disciples said, "Well, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you? And when did we see you thirsty and give you drink? And when did we visit you in prison? And when did we see you naked and clothe you?" And he said "Inasmuch as you've done it for one of the least of these, you've done it also for me." What Jesus is doing here is eliminating the exclusivity by eroding the boundaries and expanding the margins.

Bennett: Pastor, Jesus talked a lot about faith. He often said that if your faith in God is strong, all that you ask for shall be given to you, as long as God is put first. You can make a strong argument that no other people on Earth are as dependant and faith focused on God as African Americans and persons of Latin America. As an African American, I'm a bit biased here of course, but when it comes to songs and poetry honoring God, no one on this Earth including King David has done it better. No one worships Jesus with the same passion as African Americans on Sundays. But without a doubt when it comes to Earthly economic success, African Americans and Latino Christians share a seat at the back of the bus in comparison to other ethnic Christians. We are last. We are the least. That message which Jesus spoke about concerning having faith in God and all other things shall be added unto you doesn't seem to be working out for African American and Latino Christians.

Pastor Rasmus: Well, let me respond to the African who is now an American and considered African American part of your question. When we look at the millions who have perished, were tortured and had terrorist acts committed against them in unprecedented numbers; more than the Holocaust and more than any other human atrocity ever heaped on human-kind, we must also look at where that same group is today. There has to be some credence given to an unseen power that literally galvanized hearts and minds to survive a terror not seen in the whole of human history. Now, I have considered why are we Christian? I have questioned why we are practicing this faith handed to us after having our own indigenous faiths snatched from us.

I can only imagine what happened 500 years ago; without the benefit of knowing the language and without the benefit of freedom; having your woman snatched from you; having your children snatched from you. And even having these plantation preachers show up with this new text. And my questions are answered with a verse which is a definition of faith which describes the African American in our entirety. In Hebrews we read, "Faith is the substance of those things which we hope for, and the evidence of those things which we cannot see." African Americans have every reason in the world to hate Christianity. But that one Christian verse serves as a sustaining force for people who in every sense of the word should have given up, killed themselves and acquiesced. One thing I know is that the African American has not acquiesced.

We are trendsetters and we are innovators. When people talk about American culture in other parts of the world, they are talking about us. We are an amazing people. And what makes us amazing is that in that moment when our forefathers and foremothers faced death, they found something to hold on to.

Bennett: So are you saying in an ironic way, that maybe we should thank our European Christian brethren? Maybe they did commit terrorism against our fore-parents, but at the same time they did introduce many of them to Christianity?

Pastor Rasmus: I was telling my daughter just yesterday that I cried the entire day. It was just one of those days that I just wanted to quit. I have those every now and then. And I told my daughter that '"Baby, I am coming to terms once again with the grips of human reality." And the fact of human reality is there are things that can and will happen to us as humans that are beyond our control.

Bennett: Let's turn to a subject that really shouldn't matter, but has apparently mattered to someone in the past 2000 years; the color of Jesus. From African to Europe to North and South America to Asia, Jesus Christ is mostly portrayed as a California Venus Beach, long blond hair, and blue eyed surfer dude. Now maybe I'm wrong, but from my understanding of The New Testament that's not the case.

We're told that Joseph took Mary and the baby Jesus to Africa to hide out when King Herod started murdering children. What that says to me is that if you're hiding somewhere, you kind of have to look like the people of the area where you're hiding. But I will admit, that even today, as much as I try to suppress it, when I pray to Jesus, that California Venus Beach surfer dude is always showing up. Is the portrayal of Jesus as a White person, the greatest public relations con job ever done in human history?

Pastor Rasmus: The Bible is a unique document. There are things in there that if a person really wanted to edit, they could. There is a description of Jesus in the Bible. It says he has hair of lamb's wool and skin of burnt brass. Burnt brass; not platinum. And I think his eyes were like fire; in other words blood shot. Now what I've done in my own experiment is burn brass. Take some brass, put a little fire to it and see what happens. Now, I'm not a literalist, but come on we have a description.

Bennett: What's unique about Christianity which may surprise some people?

Pastor Rasmus: True Christianity has a place at the table for everybody; those who believe and those who don't. When Jesus called the 12; Peter, James, all those cats, when he called them, none of them said, "Man, I'm following you because you are God." None of them said, "I'm following you because you are the Christ." You know why they followed him? It was because they liked him. They liked hanging around him. He kept it interesting because he was always challenging folk and loving folk. He told them "You know all of you can already catch fish in the Sea of Galilee; but what if you could catch people just like you catch fish?" And they probably said, "What! Catch people like fish?" What Jesus did was appeal to the basic, natural, human desire for power.

He said, "Hey, you already have power over fish. But how would you like to have power over people." He was focusing on their basic narrow human perception, knowing that they were unable at that point to understand his entire agenda.

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