removing images of Jesus as white - can we have a respecful discussion?

[Anonymous]

Goodness, first the little mermaid and now Jesus?
white supremacy isn't going to be "dismantled" by focusing on mythical creatures for representation. put your efforts into getting more black people on the Supreme Court.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been brought up before, but more so in recent weeks as one of the responses do dismantling white supremacy. The theory behind it is that if we keep perceiving Jesus as white, and the son of God as white, that gets deep into the psyche as a false image of perfection and "good." Praying to, worshiping, elevating this handsome tall, blue eyed, long blonde haired white man image has an effect on what society deeps as "right."

Obviously Jesus, whether you believe him to be a deity or a historical man, looked nothing like the image that has been painted and elevated. In all likeliness, he was an olive, short, hairy, rustic looking guy.

Would any Black Christians be willing to share their thoughts on the imagery as it relates to supremacy?

I'm black but not a Christian, you've all been conned. Of course Jesus wasn't white, I don't even know why this is an issue. And even if miraculously he was white, wouldn't he have at least a tan? Rediculous….

I am black also. Decades ago, I went to the black neighborhood Catholic elementary school. The interpretive pictures of Christ had blond hair and blue eyes. When I went to the single sex Catholic high school, all the statues and pictures of Christ were blond hair and blue eyes. All the nuns were white. All the priests were white. All the parishioners were black. I guess those who had the gold made the rules.

This is changing. Our Catholic school has a wide variety of representations of Jesus, on the walls of the hallways and classrooms.

It's natural for people to want to see themselves reflected in images of God, but the fact that only one group of people had the power to get their image on the walls of schools and churches is a problem. It's good that that's changing.

But the solution isn't to get rid of images of white Jesus, it's to balance them with both historically accurate images, and images that reflect other groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every depiction I see generally has him as a dark skinned, Arab or maybe Italian/Greek looking person. Where are these blond Jesuses of which you speak?

In every single Black Church I've been in. I'm 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jesus was a Jew. So he was caucasian, probably with dark hair and dark eyes.

You know not all Semetic peoples aren't white, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every depiction I see generally has him as a dark skinned, Arab or maybe Italian/Greek looking person. Where are these blond Jesuses of which you speak?

In every single Black Church I've been in. I'm 50.

Well. Then the problem is within the black church, so maybe you should find "their" website and complain there. Do you think the kind people of DCUM have influence in that space?? They do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every depiction I see generally has him as a dark skinned, Arab or maybe Italian/Greek looking person. Where are these blond Jesuses of which you speak?

In every single Black Church I've been in. I'm 50.

Well. Then the problem is within the black church, so maybe you should find "their" website and complain there. Do you think the kind people of DCUM have influence in that space?? They do not.

What makes you think the small subset of people on DCUM who are kind doesn't include any Black Christians?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every depiction I see generally has him as a dark skinned, Arab or maybe Italian/Greek looking person. Where are these blond Jesuses of which you speak?

In every single Black Church I've been in. I'm 50.

Well. Then the problem is within the black church, so maybe you should find "their" website and complain there. Do you think the kind people of DCUM have influence in that space?? They do not.

Jesus. You are obtuse. The question was:

Where are these blond Jesuses of which you speak?

. I answered. Why are you so upset? I'm not upset. But me thinks you are because you're getting that twinge in the back of your neck when the truth is presented.

FYI - There's no such thing as the 'black church' you're really showing your ignorance. Website...LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most Jewish people I know are white with dark hair.

Most of us Irish too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus was a Jew. So he was caucasian, probably with dark hair and dark eyes.

You know not all Semetic peoples aren't white, right?

Not pp but then what are these non-white semitic people?
Black? Asian?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really occupies your mind? As a small child I figured out pictures of Jesus were “ made in our image” to comfort people. You really spend time thinking about this?

Whose image? I’ve never seen an Asian Jesus.

+1 whoever said upfront that Jesus looks Asian in Thailand doesn’t know what they are taking about.
I have inlaws in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia (ethnic Chinese) and their Jesus in church/homes looks just like the typical Caucasian Jesus you see in the US.

Jesus was a Semite. But…
I’ve seen Jesus portrayed as East Asian in Catholic Churches in both Korea and Japan. The Jesus depicted by Indian Christians often has Indian features. Orthodox and Catholic Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks often depict him as a Slav. Copts depict him as an Egyptian. Sub Saharan Africans depict him as one of their own. Syriac Christians are probably the closest with their depictions as they are also Semites.
It doesn’t really matter. I think it’s neat that so many globally feel free to claim Christ as one of them.

PP here with the inlaws in Asia but... I really need to see this lol. I think you're imagining historical works by no name artists, not the actual statues and paintings that exists in the local churches that people go to and worship. Have you ever been to a church in Japan or Korea? If you did, you'd know it doesn't look any different from the churches across N America.

Actually Asian. You can travel throughout the countries and see all sorts of art in Catholic Churches there. Mary’s features in particular are often very East Asian. It’s all good.

[Anonymous]

Everyone knows Jesus was an Asian. Come on now.

[Anonymous]

He was definitely circumcised.

[Anonymous]

This is ridiculous. Jesus would have looked Mediterranean, which is typically read as white these days. The fallacy here is that "white" appearance = European. It really doesn't. The whole Mediterranean world looks white too and has since Ancient times. In fact it was even more so before the spread of Islam brought some Arabian peninsular ancestry to parts of the Mediterranean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus was a Jew. So he was caucasian, probably with dark hair and dark eyes.

You know not all Semetic peoples aren't white, right?

Jesus was a middle eastern Jewish man. He was not Arab btw. He would not have looked Northern European of course. We also would not have looked Arab. He would have looked a lot like the non-Arab peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean look.

Personally before this dumb controversy I would have considered all those people white. I never had some Nordicist definition of white. But the classification is irrelevant, olive skinned Caucasian is a reasonable enough guess.

But of course He has been depicted as East Asian, Sub-Saharan African, Mestizo and, yes, Northern European by various artists throughout history.

I prefer more accurate depictions but more culturally specific depictions are fine too.

[Anonymous]

Jesus wasn't white.