Rhode Island’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church now houses a near-150-year-old stained glass window considered to be the most outstanding and oldest-known public work of its kind depicting Jesus Christ with dark skin. The depiction of Jesus Christ as a person of colour invites discussions on race, America’s slave trading past and the status of women in 19th-century New England society. Experts have noted that the window is an exceptional example of stained glass artwork where Christ is shown as a person of colour, and it confirms his humanity and honouring of both sexes, with Lazarus’s two dark-skinned sisters Mary and Martha featured. The window, made in 1878 by the Henry E. Sharp studio in New York, depicting four distinct figures from different biblical scenes, is believed to reflect the motives of its patron, Mary P. Carr. Mary wanted to celebrate the marriages of her aunts, Hannah Bourne Gibbs and Ruth Bourne DeWolf, both of whom had married men whose families had been involved in the slave trade. Notably, the two women supported the American Colonization Society, which proposed returning black Americans to Africa. While the stained glass holds mysteries, its unveiling contributes to contemporary discussions and recognises a significant landmark in American art and culture.
The mystery surrounding Christ’s physical appearance and the biblical description of his characteristics have challenged researchers for years. However, forensic anthropology has enabled experts to use methods similar to those of police when solving crimes to create a more accurate representation of what Jesus may have looked like. Researchers acquired well-preserved Semite skulls from the region in Galilee where Jesus lived and preached. Using computer programs and Matthew’s description in the Bible about the characteristics of soldiers who located Jesus visually in the Garden of Gethsemane, experts were able to create a three-dimensional model of Jesus’s face. This method made it possible to discover probable depiction and confirms the local characteristics of Jesus’s facial features in Galilee. The scholars had to determine the length of Jesus’s hair and eye colour since the biblical depictions of his hair were not clear. Ultimately, the sculpture of Jesus’s swarthy Middle Eastern man’s face is closer to the truth than the artwork of many celebrated artists.
Meanwhile, the primary election for the governorship in Kentucky is set for May 16th, with Attorney General Daniel Cameron running as a Republican candidate. Cameron was seen on a cartoon by Joel Pett that portrayed him wearing a “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat backward and allowing people to die during the pandemic. Cameron, who is black, claimed that the Democrats and the “leftist media” feared a black Christian conservative governor for Kentucky. Due to the nature of the cartoon, it was seen as an example of the racial politics and power dynamics that pervade the US.
Especially during the global pandemic, people can experience various health conditions, including melasma. This common skin condition causes brown patches on the face and other exposed areas of the body, and it predominantly affects people with darker skin tones. Hormonal changes, sun exposure, or genetics often trigger the skin condition. A biopsy or a Wood’s light can be used to rule out other possible conditions and diagnose melasma. While melasma is treatable, doctors suggest that people should prevent it by protecting their skin from direct sun exposure, wearing sunscreen daily, using gentle skincare products, eating healthily, and managing underlying health conditions.
Ultimately, the unveiling of the stained glass of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Rhode Island highlights the importance of preserving landmarks that teach and remind contemporary Americans about the nation’s complex history and ongoing challenges related to race and slavery. By depicting Jesus Christ as a person of colour, the stained glass window depicting dark-skinned figures is a rare example contributing to the ongoing debates and discussions on race and racial inequality in America and around the world.
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