I have a “controversial and emotional ask” for all of you who call yourselves “Christians,” both Black and White. While you argue about what Jesus looked like, one thing is clear — he was a Jew. He was born to Jews, preached to Jews, and the crime for which the Romans crucified him was posted on his cross — “King of the Jews.”

But, when the New Testament was put together into what we know now, Jews were not popular in the Roman Empire. They had revolted against Roman rule — twice. Romans did not throw Christians to the lions — they threw Jews to the lions. In order to distance themselves from other Jews, and avoid being thrown to the lions, some of those early Christians (the ones who won the internal struggles of the day), changed the narrative of Jesus. As Stephen Stills once said, “I don’t know if I want White America to remember or forget, that Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary.” He was crucified by Rome, as a challenge to Roman authority. But the narrative was changed to blame Jews for his crucifixion, while “washing the hands” of the Romans.

This false story has been repeated over many centuries, in Black churches as well as White ones. It is responsible for the centuries of oppression, the Inquisition, leading up to the murder of most of my own family in the Holocaust. The Nazis did not invent this hatred of Jews — they were just more efficient at killing. And they were aided, in the case of my own family, by those who were following what they were taught in church.

So, my controversial and emotional ask to you is to correct this lie, and to preach the truth with the same fervor with which you formerly repeated the lies. Preach the true Jesus. Whatever his physical appearance, he preached tolerance and love, not blame and retribution. That is a message we sorely need in these times.