HOW DO WE SEE HIM

It's definitely getting weird out in protest land. Activist Shaun King has a checkered career including questions of where donations to multiple causes has gone. And if you want to get into some of the details follow the link. But he really delivered a bomb shell this week when he called for all statues of the so called "white" Jesus be pulled down. He also included stained glass windows and murals in the call for destruction. The white Jesus is a symbol of white supremacy. Very long sigh here. This could just be the equivalent of jumping up and down and yelling I'm over here.

This is an Greek Orthodox icon represntation of Jesus. The Greek church was centered in Constantinople and I'm assuming that the city played host to people from all over what was left of the Roman Empire. Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Persians, the ancestors of the modern Turks, Palestinians, Egyptians. Did a quick look online at current Palestinians and complectians range from say dark beige to very fair. All pretty much brunettes.

And I have seen very few blond portraits of Jesus. Most of them tend to a very light brunette. However the image below is from the Book of Kells.

Product of the monks on the island of Lindesfarne. This one is blond but I hardly believe it was meant to be a portrait. The images for the apostles include an eagel and a lion. Actually my problem with most of images in contemporary Bibles and literature run the the ethereal, doesn't like he ever did a days work in his life or hiked alll over the country Jesus.

He was a carpenter they say. Worked with his hands. And if you've caught any of the programs that use traditional tools you wor with your whole body. People walked every where. I've always pictured a wiry man. Calluses on his hands. Maybe some wood shavings in his hair. One reconstruction has him looking something like this. Some authors in the early 1800's theorized Jesus might have resembled Indo Europeans. Say the inhabitants of Northern India. The higher caste ones. 

Some of the current Palestinians are about that shade, some are fairer. Doesn't really matter to me. However I have run across some claims that the folks in the Middle East and Egypt resembled Ethiopians. Overlooking the fact that Egyptian murals, which I assume are fairly accurate as to skin tone so not look like Ethopeans. King even made the remark that when the family fled they went to
Egypt, not Denmark. Mr. King Denmark might as well have been on the moon. Egypt was next door. Denmark was not.

Now down to the nitty gritty. How is this demand to be carried out. I suspect there are very few statues of Jesus on public, tax supported property. Most of that artwork you are attacking is in churches, chapels, universities or hospitals run by various churches and religious orders. In other words off limits. These aren't the years the Reformation when mobs smashed windows, pulled down various images, whitewashed alter screens, walls etc.

Perhaps we should follow the children. Lyrics by A Burt and E Hutson

Some Children See Him"

Some children see Him lily white,
The baby Jesus born this night.
Some children see Him lily white,
With tresses soft and fair.
Some children see Him bronzed and brown,
The Lord of heav'n to earth come down.
Some children see Him bronzed and brown,
With dark and heavy hair.

Some children see Him almond-eyed,
This Savior whom we kneel beside.
Some children see Him almond-eyed,
With skin of yellow hue.
Some children see Him dark as they,
Sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray.
Some children see him dark as they,
And, ah! they love Him, too!

The children in each different place
Will see the baby Jesus' face
Like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace,
And filled with holy light.
O lay aside each earthly thing
And with thy heart as offering,
Come worship now the infant King.
'Tis love that's born tonight!

And in the novel I Heard the Owl Call My Name. The art work in a church serving a First Nations tribe in British Columbia looked just like the congregation.