Apparently white is right.  

Peter Hutley, the producer, asserts: “Jesus was white. If I was advertising for an actor in Sanders of the River I would specify a black man. We want a cast that is appropriate to Trafalgar Square in 2010. When we perform it in a black prison in Alabama or in Uganda we will have casts appropriate to the area.”

I need to wipe my boot, I stepped in some Peter Hutley.

How very politically correct of you.

So fucking what if he wants "a white Jesus"? Honestly, do you really give a flying fuck?

This is what the production wants for its casting. Okie-dokie. They have freedom of expression.

You'd have to be a fucking hypocritical retard to have problem with that.

lol.. Take your pseudo-passive aggressive tone and shove it. I've wiped more than the likes of Peter Hutley off my boots. The only thing hypocritical is your attempt to suppress my point of view with your self-righteous indignation.

I don't see the problem here. What are they supposed to do, cast an actual mizrahi jew? Aren't there only a few million members of that ethnic group left? And don't almost all of them live in Israel? If British people do a play about Jesus, then of course it will be white Jesus. In the same sense that all (or almost) all of the characters will be white since they are British actors. If anything, it would be racists to cast any brownish man to play Jesus just because some mizrahi jews are kind of brownish. They aren't going to get a member from the correct ethnic group anyways, so I don't see the point of casting someone brown guy just for the sake of having brown skinned Jesus.

When I was real young my dad played Jesus in my church's Easter play. He is white. But he was the right age and had a beard, so they had him be Jesus. No mizrahi jews attended our church (obviously, they wouldn't be in a Christian Church), so we couldn't have an ethically appropriate Jesus. And if a church in sub-Saharan Africa did that same play, then all the characters would be black. If the Koreans did it, then you would have asian Jesus. We shouldn't care or get worked up over this.

"Jesus was almost certainly a Palestinian by descent"

'Palestinian' is not an ethic group. The concept of there being a Palestinian people dates back to WW1. So, no. Jesus wasn't a Palestinian. That isn't a racial or ethnic catagory.

They are typecasting Jesus as a white guy because that is their audience, so be it. As stated they would pick a black Jesus if they were doing the play in Uganda or a prison in Alabama. Since this guy chose to identify blacks with a prison community, I am going to make the assumption he is a piece of shit. I don't think they are saying Jesus was white, they are saying Jesus is to be white because they are trying to sell this shit to a mostly white audience. There is nothing noble or worth defending here, it's just marketing crap of religious bullshit by a piece of shit racist.

X-actly!

Their anthropomorphic view of God is what we are seeing loud and clear here. Man will make god in HIS own image, every time.

God is their idol they cast for themselves.

They worship a man thought up idol.

I'm sure they're only insisting on a white male so that the blood would show up really really good. If you're going to tell the story right, then it's vital to include as much bloody violence as possible.

Underneath his hair, he is completely bald!!!!

actually it goes back a lot further than that.  "palestine" comes from a word meaning "land of the philistines."  sargon II of assyria called the area "palashtu" and herodotus wrote about a "palaistine."  in the second century the romans renamed the province of judea "syria palaestina."  it's very possible that judea was called "palestine" in common parlance, particularly by greeks and north africans.  and since the vast majority of the inhabitants of judea were invariably dark-complected, regardless of their ethnicity, the comment, while poorly worded, does make sense.

besides, the whole idea of a jewish ethnicity is historically spurious.  most scholars are skeptical of the idea that the first century jews were the direct, unbroken descendents of the israelites of the hebrew bible.  it's more likely that the "jews" of the first century were descendents of various canaanite nationalities who latched onto the mythology of the hebrew bible in order to preserve a sense of identity among the waves of foreign invaders like the assyrians, babylonians, medo-persians, and greeks.  since it's also very likely that the philistines were also among the canaanite peoples who adopted those myths, it is entirely possible that one could call jesus quite literally a palestinian. 

I sure am glad no one knows about this. Because there sure would be a much higher attendance at churches everywhere if this got out.

Darn you!