After saying on national television that Jesus Christ and Santa Claus are white, Megyn Kelly, host of Fox News Channel's "The Kelly Files" now admits that both men may not be white after all, according to a report by the Christian Science Monitor.
Kelly, 43, sparked a backlash from Netizen comments after she said in her show that Jesus Christ and Santa Clause was a man with verifiably white skin and that Jesus was also Caucasian, the Daily Mail reported.
Kelly's comments came as a response to a Slate article written by Aisha Harris who suggested that a penguin to become a new symbol of Christmas to entertain children. She said that "just because Santa's supposed white race makes some people uncomfortable, it does not mean that it has to change."
"Jesus was a white man, too. It's like we have, he's a historical figure that's a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that," Kelly was noted saying in her show. "How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?"
Response to Kelly statement ranged from outrage to ridicule. For example, African Americans who watched the show said the Santa in their neighborhoods was often black when they were kids.
In another criticism, Jonathan Merritt, senior columnist for Religion News Service and author of "A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars" wrote in the Atlantic that Kelly made a serious error about Jesus.
"The scholarly consensus is actually that Jesus was, like most first-century Jews, probably a dark-skinned man, Merritt said. "If he were taking the red-eye flight from San Francisco to New York today, Jesus might be profiled for additional security screening by TSA."
However, Kelly called in sick on the day of her taping, but returned to answer in full force the criticisms leveled against her. She defended her states saying that it was taken out of context and the real crux of the debate was lost in the controversy. Kelly claimed that her statement was intended as a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek, but her detractors took it the wrong way.
"Humor is part of what we try to bring to the show," Kelly said. "Sometimes that's lost on the humorless."
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