Is God A "white Man" In A Robe?

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by cavalier

I don't have a picture for God, but in my head Jesus is a white guy, fairly tall and handsome, longish brown hair, and a well cared for beard.
I never gave this depiction much thought until I went to Kenya. Not only did their pictures show Jesus as a white man, but that he was snow white, and also rather effeminate.
IMO this is wrong for 2 reasons,
1. Though not accepted by all, there is a wideheld view in Kenya (perhaps all of Africa, it is also common in Asia) that white people are somehow superior. I t must make it more difficult to leave this entirely incorrect and rather destructive view behind when your ultimate role model is literally whiter than white.
2. The efiminate nature of these depictions adds weight to the notion that Christ was a weak person. Yes, he taught us to turn the other cheek and to forgive 70 times 7 times, but the idea that Christ was or that Christians should be people who smile at everything and never take (sometimes angrily) a stand is imo just wrong.

You know cavalier, your words are so true. I too feel that we are humans before we are anything else. We have to learn to be other things along our life cycle.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by cavalier

I don't have a picture for God, but in my head Jesus is a white guy, fairly tall and handsome, longish brown hair, and a well cared for beard.
I never gave this depiction much thought until I went to Kenya. Not only did their pictures show Jesus as a white man, but that he was snow white, and also rather effeminate.
IMO this is wrong for 2 reasons,
1. Though not accepted by all, there is a wideheld view in Kenya (perhaps all of Africa, it is also common in Asia) that white people are somehow superior. I t must make it more difficult to leave this entirely incorrect and rather destructive view behind when your ultimate role model is literally whiter than white.
2. The efiminate nature of these depictions adds weight to the notion that Christ was a weak person. Yes, he taught us to turn the other cheek and to forgive 70 times 7 times, but the idea that Christ was or that Christians should be people who smile at everything and never take (sometimes angrily) a stand is imo just wrong.

Well put my cavalier

[wil]

Originally Posted by YO-ELEVEN-11

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://heraghty.diaryland.com/images/femchrist.jpg&imgrefurl=http://heraghty.diaryland.com/taoist.html&h=259&w=345&sz=20&hl=en&start=3&tbnid= TgWAu5W5hljeXM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFemale%2BJesus%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den %26lr%3D

I found this depiction..It may be a little racy, but a depiction none the less.

Any thoughts?

art and artist....whew.

I am not a prude.

I am not gender biased.

I appreciate art and nudes.

This offended me. Which intrigues me. Why, why did it offend me?

It also allows me to understand that I can't be required to understand why others say they are offended at something that doesn't offend me....I must accept that. And why something that does offend me, doesn't offend others, I must also accept that.

Art, sometimes it pushes our buttons...pushes the envelope....makes us think.

There is value in that. I wish I didn't click on it, then I wouldn't have to contemplate my reaction.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Wil, I really appreciate your honest reaction to that..
The idea of this thread was to challenge views of what you feel is a good depiction of GOD.

Just to give you some idea of how I came to realize GOD is everywhere.
One day a little girl ran up to me and said "Why do you live alone?
I did not know how to react, because she could not have known that I lived alone at the time because people always would come by and visit.
To make a long story short, I realized that GOD is everywhere and in all things. I have learned to hear GOD in all forms from people in all walks of life from homeless people to children to the sick. There is no doubt in my mind that GOD is watching you, in some very unexpected places

[Dondi]

I have to admit, I was a bit putoff by that image of a female christ.
I don't know what the artist's intention for dipicting that female christ. If it was for shock value, it was initially startling in several ways. The idea of a female christ is disturbing enough, but for it to be bare-breasted seemed almost obscene.

But then I was thinking that this Roman means of execution probably applied to females as well as males back in the time of Jesus, so what we see here is probably not an unrealistic portayal.

But then it also reminded me that we are all on that cross, no matter the gender. (I'm speak as a Christian now). If Christ was our substitute, then we should be up there, men and women. It also reminds me that we all carry our crosses.

Funny, wil, that after the initial shock at something, a curious intrigue causes us to pause and wonder.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Attached Images
http://www.comparative-religion.com/...g?d=1157036299
Attached Images

Kinda looks like a serial killer to me. People with blue eyes have always scared me. The eyes remind me of the KKK guys that used to march downtown in the town I am from. Also he looks as if he is ready to kill his next victim. That's just my opinion though.

Funny story
When I was a teenager, me and a friend of mine were coming out of the mall from the arcade and were parked next to an older woman. We just so happened to be going to our car at the same time she was going to her's. She saw us walking in the same direction as she was and she took off running and jumped in her car and locked the door and looked at us as if we were going to harm her in some way. We smiled at her and got in our car and drove off. For the life of me, I could not figure out what was so scarry looking about me. When I got home and looked in the mirror, I still could not see the "scarryness" in my face or body. Being the (baby/youngest) in my family, I was always told, that I could not scare a Fly away with a fly swatter. LOL

I guess that just goes to show that some images that seem scarry to some are not scarry for others and that people see things differently.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by wil

art and artist....whew.

I am not a prude.
I am not gender biased.
I appreciate art and nudes.
This offended me. Which intrigues me. Why, why did it offend me?
It also allows me to understand that I can't be required to understand why others say they are offended at something that doesn't offend me....I must accept that. And why something that does offend me, doesn't offend others, I must also accept that.
Art, sometimes it pushes our buttons...pushes the envelope....makes us think.
There is value in that. I wish I didn't click on it, then I wouldn't have to contemplate my reaction.

By the Wil, I senaked a peak at your photo book at Zaada.com
In one of those pictures you kinda got the whole long hair thing going there. You could pass for one of the deciples in a good movie.

Just jokin wit ya.

You have a very good looking family. GOD has really blessed you in many ways.

[Caimanson]

Originally Posted by wil

It also allows me to understand that I can't be required to understand why others say they are offended at something that doesn't offend me....I must accept that. And why something that does offend me, doesn't offend others, I must also accept that.

Don't know what the original intention of the picture was, the excerpt from the gospel in my eyes redeems the picture, and I even kind of like it.

Part of the reason I think is that in my old evangelical church, images of god or Jesus were always seen as pointless and idolatrous, so I suppose with that kind of mindset I don't feel defensive about it.
The bottom line for me, is that this picture is as unreal as any other picture of Jesus.

[China Cat Sunflower]

I like the picture of the female Christ because it suggests the underlying eroticism that's always been part of the crucifix image, except it's not an effiminate looking man, it's a woman. I imagine her lifting her head and singing, if I could turn back time...

Chris

[cavalier]

Originally Posted by Caimanson

The bottom line for me, is that this picture is as unreal as any other picture of Jesus.

I can understand that.

It reminded me of a movie, "Sirens" Hugh Grant, Sam O'Neil, Elle MacPherson, Portia de Rossi.
Hugh Grant is an Anglican vicar who has recently arrived in Australia. He is sent to see an artist (O'Neil) and dissuade him from painting religiously "offensive" pictures. He ususally paints nudes and in one has used his naked wife to represent Christ on the Cross.
I think I remember his argument was that the naked body is a beautiful God create thing, and that his wife was just as good a representation of Christ as anyone else.

[Quahom1]

Yo, the picture is, disturbing.

[Caimanson]

Originally Posted by cavalier

I think I remember his argument was that the naked body is a beautiful God create thing, and that his wife was just as good a representation of Christ as anyone else.

Something on those lines is what I got from that excerpt from the gospel of Thomas, that I have "arrived" when I stop making all kind of human distinctions.
So in that context, that female crucifixion makes me feel that christ is beyond male or female, it forces me to look at the inner not the outer.
So a picture like that in my eyes could be classed as iconoclast.


Alvaro

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by Caimanson

Something on those lines is what I got from that excerpt from the gospel of Thomas, that I have "arrived" when I stop making all kind of human distinctions.
So in that context, that female crucifixion makes me feel that christ is beyond male or female, it forces me to look at the inner not the outer.
So a picture like that in my eyes could be classed as iconoclast.


Alvaro

ah, yes...The Gospel according to "doubt"...

[Caimanson]

Originally Posted by Quahom1

ah, yes...The Gospel according to "doubt"...

Doubt? Quahom, I never knew that about you, welcome to my club!

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Quahom1

Yo, the picture is, disturbing.

Q, why do you find it disturbing?