A 21-year-old man, who says he is a Jewish atheist has caused controversy after printing and selling t-shirts that read: “I met God, She’s Black”.
Dylan Chenfeld said he didn’t invent the phrase, which has been around for a while.
He started with the controversial message, and American hip hop star Drake has been seen wearing one.
Dylan owns and runsRooftopsNYC, from where he sells the shirts.
The Huffington Post reported the story, and pointed out that Renaissance artists in Europe “painted God into their own cultures, often giving him the white skin and flowing golden hair of a European aristocrat”.
But although Jesus has usually been portrayed with light skin, some Christian churches insist that God doesn’t have a gender.
Although the company selling the t-shirts is based in America, they can be ordered from all over the world can order one.
“I like poking fun at sacred cows,” Chenfeld told HuffPost. “I’m taking the idea that God is a white male and doing the opposite of that, which is a black woman.”
“Sometimes when you get really religious, it becomes sexist and that’s when I tap out,” Chenfeld says. “And that’s why I’ve never been a super religious person.”
He says he stepped away from Judaism and all organized religion after his 13th birthday. He’s hoping his shirt will help people question the image of God as a white male.
Even if it’s a Jewish atheist behind the business, Lewis says that doesn’t dismantle the good outcome.
“It’s important for people to keep the contemporary conversation going about who God is, what God wants and how we relate to God,” Lewis told HuffPost. “The good outcome is if some black child somewhere bumps into it and goes, ‘Well maybe. . . maybe God’s not an old white guy and if so, what does that say about me?'”
-Huffington Post