Fox News anchor declares that 'Jesus and Santa are 'verifiably white'

PUBLISHED: 17:36 EST, 12 December 2013 | UPDATED: 18:17 EST, 12 December 2013

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Fox News host Megyn Kelly caused controversy last night as she confidently declared that not only is Santa Claus white but Jesus Christ is too.

Despite logic dictating that a man born in the Middle East more than 2,000 years ago would at the very least have been olive-skinned - Kelly announced her asertion that Jesus was white to be fact and 'verifiable'.

While no physical descriptions of Jesus definitively exist, Kelly made her absurd statement during Wednesday's edition of The Kelly File as she discussed a Slate article that suggested a more inclusive Santa for the tens of millions of Americans who are not white.

Controversy: Megyn Kelly and her panel listened as the Fox News host declared Santa Claus and Jesus Christ to be unequivocally white

Kelly said when she saw the piece by Aisha Harris titled, 'Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore' she laughed.

'Oh this is so ridiculous,' she said, 'Yet another person claiming it's racist to have a white Santa. You know?'

'And by the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,' she added, 'but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa.'

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In her complex piece, Harris writes that as she grew up she became disappointed that a black Santa her family invented for themselves 'wasn't the real thing'.

Hitting back, Kelly pulled no punches.

'But just because it makes you feel uncomfortable,' Kelly said Wednesday, 'doesn’t mean it has to change. Jesus was a white man, too.'

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Fox Anchor: Santa and Jesus are white

New Show: FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly attends the 6th Annual BGC Charity Day at BGC Partners, INC on September 13, 2010 in New York City

Speaking to her all-white panel, Kelly then reminded them - and viewers at home of the 'facts' of Jesus Christ's ethnicity and Santa Claus.

'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,' said Kelly.

'How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?'

However, that is not quite what Harris suggested in her piece.

Harris actually proposed a different solution: Make Santa a penguin.

'OK, that's where she goes off the rails!' Megyn retorted.

Realistic portrayal: This mosaic from Instanbul, Turkey represents a likeness of Jesus Christ that is a world away from the tall, dark, long haired white man that man believe him to have been

Classic Santa Claus: As a fictitious representation of a European Saint Nicholas - it is fair to assume that Santa Claus was white

When another correspondent says this would make all kids equally feel welcome, she replied, 'No. No, it doesn't…It makes all birds feel welcome.'

The controversy was addressed by Reza Aslan, a scholar of religions and author of the recent bestseller 'Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.'

An expert, Aslan said that 'as a Galilean, he would have been what is referred to as a Palestinian Jew. He would look the way that the average Palestinian would look today. So that would mean dark features, hairy, probably a longer nose, black hair,' said Aslan to the Washington Post.

Jamelle Bouie writing in the Daily Beast was even harder on Kelly.

'Kelly’s not wrong to say that Santa Claus is European—that’s his heritage.

'But there’s little chance that Jesus is white, and asserting otherwise is just as ludicrous as the declaration—made by some Christians—that Jesus spoke the early modern English of the King James Bible.

'At best, the assertion of Jesus’s whiteness reflects ignorance. At worst, it’s a sign of racial prejudice.'