Wednesday 14 April 2021

In Whose Image?






How Coptic Christians in Egypt depict Christ --




Should we also talk about gender
and sexual orientation?

44 comments:

Sixpence Notthewiser said...

You are SO on point with this!
These are the answers to the #jesussowhite hashtag. And that answer to the little girl? Accurate!

XOXO

Boud said...

Yes to all of this. And to a blonde Mary. Sez who?

Bob said...

Bravo.

anne marie in philly said...

the last illustration is more accurate.

Martha said...

So on point!

Brenda said...

Hi, I came across your blog from looking at Louise's blog. I am what people call a 'born again' Christian. I do not worship Jesus in the flesh, and I agree with you on how He would have looked when He was on earth. I worship Him in the Spirit. All nationalities have been made by God, and God does not live in a house made with hands (a'church' building). He is Spirit, and lives within us when we believe on His Word, Jesus, the Word of God made flesh.

Marcia LaRue said...

Yes, Yes, Yes!!! to every one of these!

Mistress Maddie said...

If the Jesus looked like this one....that would blow A LOT of minds.

brewella deville said...

Could I get that last one printed on a t-shirt? I never know what to wear to family reunions.

Rommy said...

No lies detected... but I definitely heard myself snarkily guffaw a few times.

Leanna said...

THIS is why I'm an atheist.
BTW I'm stealing a few of these for my Religion in a Nutshell post.

Val Ewing said...

Absolutely ... yes. I would offend so much of my family if I showed them this!
But this is so very true.

Guillaume said...

Well, Jesus had a favourite disciple (ahem!) and asked the twelve apostles to leave their wives, so that's all you need to know to assess his sexual orientation.

Regarding his face, they used the features of Zeus/Jupiter.

This N That said...

Amen!! For some reason comments have stopped coming to my email..That's how I am used to responding to them..I don't know what to do about that..Pi---- me off..Always something..Anyhow ..thanks for stopping by..

bobbie said...

Yes to all of these!!!

Linda said...

Give me a great big AMEN!

Moving with Mitchell said...

You've done it again!

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

Oh the disturbing insanity of it all!

Mike said...

I'd seen the last one and saved it because it's so on point. But the rest of them a great too. Especially the church sign. I've seen a few other signs I should have saved.

krayolakris said...

Thank you!

Tundra Bunny said...

OY VEY!

Old Lurker said...

Finally! Do you have any idea of how long your fans have been waiting for you to blog about Historical Jesus? It's about time you got around to it. Now we'll see how long it takes you to blog about gender and sexual orientation.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

@ Old Lurker -- Sorry you had to wait so long! FYI, I'll be blogging about Jesus & gender in May, and Jesus & sexual orientation in June.

peppylady (Dora) said...

These so true.
Coffee is on and stay safe

Kirk said...

It doesn't make him any more divine than George Bernard Shaw, but the historical Jesus was a true radical. It wasn't until Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire did Christ--a title he never claimed for himself--become the keeper of the status quo.

Polly said...

Spot on. I was raised by a devout Baptist mother, no say in the matter, just taken to church and Sunday school, no questions asked. But as I got older some things didn't add up and when I started asking questions my mother and the church didn't like it, replying with "That's just the way it is". This all lead to me realising that the whole religion thing was invented to control the masses and make men wealthy and powerful.

Lady M said...

Right on sister - these are great!

Forsythia said...

Have seen much of this before, but then, I go to a church in which our dear priest recently had surgery for an aggressive form of breast cancer and is being cared for at home by her wife. Can't wait to see your future posts on gender. At least one gender war in our family was waged on religious grounds.

e said...

Ugh, religion. So destructive, so negative, so controlling. I'm glad I was raised by atheists who reminded us that 'Religion is the opiate of the masses'. (Not that they were Marxists, mind you!)

Morgaine Pendragon said...

Do these ever hit the nail on the head!!
WOW! Great post Debra!!

The Blog Fodder said...

If Jesus looked like this, would white conservative Christians still be Christian? A man of colour murdered by keepers of the law.

These very accurately sum up today's Christians.

Janie Junebug said...

I love these! I've always thought it's weird to go into the homes of people who call themselves Christians and see a cheap print on the wall of a Jesus who looks absolutely nothing like the way a real person in the Middle East would have looked. They create God in their own image.

Love,
Janie

Sue Bursztynski said...

Guillaume is right, he was given the features of Jupiter. I saw this on a documentary recently. Look at the Byzantine images, very different. I’m a Jew. So was Jesus. How do you think I felt hearing from a boy who’d been in a Catholic primary school that Jesus was a Catholic? That was after he had declared that “the Jews killed Christ” and a teacher pointed out that Jesus himself was Jewish.

The Nazis made him the son of a German soldier in the Roman army. 🙄


G. B. Miller said...

In a small way, this reminds me of an episode of the 70's show "Good Times", in which Michael, the youngest, replaced the picture of Jesus with picture of a black Jesus. Suddenly good things started happening, which in turn put the main character into a quandary about whether or not to keep the black or change it back to white.

Ultimately, for the sake of the show she turned it back to the original (white), but it made for an interesting show since it put a religious person into a moral quandary about the color of Jesus and handled it as a serious subject as opposed for comedy purposes.

baili said...

i found this one bit sensitive yet amusing dear Debra

i liked you pointed out some great issues here and i wonder if they have any answer too ?

Ol'Buzzard said...

the transmogrification of Jesus from a man to a god, doesn't pass the smell test. It requires consensual gullibility to worship a man-god and to insert a god into the gaps of scientific unknowns.
Religions have done nothing for the advancement of mankind, and on the contrary has opposed and retarded progress in science, medicine and human rights throughout the ages.
the Ol'Buzzard

LL Cool Joe said...

I think most practising Christians are aware Jesus wasn't white. If people believe that Jesus (historical) existed, he was either a complete nutcase going around saying he was the son of God and performing miracles etc. or he was who he said he was. Can't have it both ways.

Dunstan Skinner said...

Yes, we should talk about gender and sexual orientation.

Excellent blog; good for you!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

@ Linda -- Sorry for your pain, Linda. I should have caught that hurtful language before publishing the comment.

Liz Hinds said...

Very good! The one about the white conservatives is a good question though.

Ur-spo said...

My parents had one of those white cliche Jesus in their bedroom
My late mentor Brother gave me a very human almost sexy portrait rather. It looks more believable.

Magic Love Crow said...

Great post Debra! Big Hugs!

Fundy Blue said...

Brilliant, Debra! I've often thought about this.

Martha said...

LOVE this. And so true!