#Now they’re coming for Jesus

The movement bent on erasing all depictions of real and fictional folks, from Teddy Roosevelt and Christopher Columbus to Aunt Jemima, doesn’t go far enough for some. Pumped by the recent successes of the nationwide cancel culture, a prominent activist is targeting none other than Jesus Christ.

Claiming that depictions of the Christian savior and holy family as Caucasians are hurtful examples of racial “oppression,’’ Shaun King, the Black Lives Matter firebrand, has demanded that such images be destroyed.

“Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down,” King posted to Twitter Monday. “They are a form of white supremacy. Always have. . . . Tear them down.’’

Who’ll be canceled next? RFK? Anne Frank?

Jolly St. Nick?

The potential forcible removal of Jesus Christ from public display is the most absurd and chilling entry into the canon of destruction.

Sparked by the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis cop, we’ve seen unbridled efforts, many of them sanctioned by elected officials, to nuke likenesses of a wide range of historical and fanciful figures, from Ulysses Grant to Mrs. Butterworth. Sculptures have been toppled, vandalized or hidden from public view, and advertising icons demonized, rebranded and rubbed out of existence.

But the call to vanquish the image of Jesus is especially jarring when one considers that Christians the world over revere Him, regardless of race, as the Messiah, a symbol of love, faith and charity, not discrimination and brutality. Yet to King, depictions of Jesus as a white man are nothing more than assaults on people of color.

And, he insists, they’re bogus. “In the Bible,” King’s initial tweet reads, “when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? EGYPT! Not Denmark.”

It should be noted that Biblical figures have long been represented by images that resemble the artist’s own community.

So in Ethiopia, Jesus has been depicted as black for more than 1,500 years. In the Far East, works showing Jesus as Asian can be found. There’s nothing to stop artists from creating new works depicting Jesus however they wish.

But King was undaunted. In another, even more unhinged tweet he issued later Monday, he called for the elimination of stained glass windows, murals, and other parts of Christian churches and buildings that depict Biblical icons as white.

“Yes. All murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends should also come down,’’ he wrote. “They are a gross form [of] white supremacy. Created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda.

“They should all come down.’’

Does that include masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci? Let’s burn down the Met! The Sistine Chapel! This isn’t about racial justice. This is fascism.