God’s Skin Colour

It’s always been a mystery what God looks like, though I have to give props to Kenneth Copeland, the televangelist, who has seen God in person and has a description of him on record including his approximate height and weight. He even describes how the span of God’s hand it just a half-inch longer than his own. Impressive detail. And we would have no reason to not believe him, seeing as he’s still on TV despite his chronic habit of taking money from poor people all across North America and generously giving that money to himself. That, and the fact that the only people who tend to call out his bluff and condemn his actions are filmmakers and journalists. But alas, the Cope-Man from Cope-Land said nothing about his skin colour despite having seen God and having a chat with him over a nice steaming mug of prosperity.

It is also unfortunate that even though God walked on the earth in human form a couple thousand years ago, that we still have no hard evidence. Taking into consideration the makeup of the world geographically back then, he was most likely a slightly darker brownish tone than what we see in native middle-easterners today. However, we should acknowledge here that for a small part of his life he was African. Then again, most depictions of him give us a picture of Jesus having white skin and hair that’s usually parted in the middle for some reason. But since these depictions seem to change so much, even from year to year (the most recent one I’ve seen looks like a bearded Michael Landon and Siegfried Fischbacher’s love child grew a beard), they aren’t much help either.

I can’t go running to movies for answers, as I too often do. Either he’s white skinned and grey-haired like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Maybe he’s black like in Bruce Almighty. Maybe he’s a woman like in Dogma. Maybe he’s black and a woman like in 

The

Shack

. I’m hoping he’s not just a bunch of fire like in Demille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). I have to admit I’d feel a little cheated in that case.

Maybe he’s waiting to show us all in heaven that he’s blue like the sky. Or maybe he’s all metalic or crystal (And he can’t wait to see the look on our faces!). Of course, I think what we are all hoping is that his look reflects attributes more than pigment. I’m hoping that virtues like kindness and compassion drown out the din of our obsession with skin tone. Oh I know… settling on a statement like that is a big cornball dripping in syrup. And believe me, the “I don’t see colour” sentimentality is both naive and frustrating to me. But it sure would be refreshing if we looked at the face of God and saw so much, but were too distracted by it all that we missed the colour.

Yeah that’s pretty cheesy too. Ok, all I’ll say is that I really hope he doesn’t look a thing like Kenneth Copeland.

Congratulations This is your week.

• Best Actress: Whoopi Goldberg as Celie in If you haven’t seen this  movie, it is more than worth the watch. And I believe that this, her very first feature film, is the very best she has ever done.

• Best Actor: Robert De Niro in

• Best Quote: “ I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don’t notice it . ” — Margaret Avery as Shug in

Tonight I saw starring Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson, and I highly recommend it. Other movies I enjoyed in the theater this summer: and .