Too pretty? Easter poster depicting a handsome, fresh-faced Jesus prompts criticism in Spain
Too pretty? Easter poster depicting a handsome, fresh-faced Jesus prompts criticism in Spain
A poster in the southern Spanish city of Seville that depicts a young, handsome, Jesus wearing only a loincloth has unleashed a storm on social media.
A poster in the southern Spanish city of Seville that depicts a young, handsome Jesus wearing only a loincloth has unleashed a storm on social media, with some calling it an affront to the figure of Christ and others posting lewd remarks and memes poking fun at the image.
The poster by internationally recognized Seville artist Salustiano García Cruz shows a fresh-faced Jesus without a crown of thorns, no suffering face and minuscule wounds on the hands and ribcage. It was commissioned and approved by the General Council of Brotherhoods, which organizes the renowned and immensely popular Holy Week processions ahead of Easter in Seville.
As soon as it was unveiled last week criticism of it went viral on social media and a debate erupted over how a resurrected Christ should be depicted. Many called it a disgrace, inappropriate, too pretty, modernist and out of line with Seville’s Easter tradition.
Spain is predominantly Catholic and church traditions such as marriage, baptisms and religious parades are immensely popular both among believers and nonbelievers. A campaign on Change.org to have the poster of Jesus withdrawn was signed by some 14,000 people from around the country.
Stupid, sexy Jesus...
Hey if you are going to take the body of Christ in your mouth...
Nothin’ at all! . . .
. . . Nothin’ at all! . .
You want a Jesus movie starring Jared Leto? Because this is how you get a Jesus movie starring Jared Leto.
“No! Too sexy!” - The, How Do You Say, Ah Yes, Show
Can't help but notice that no one's mad about him being white, but being hot is out of the question.
People really need to drop the whole "people in the middle east in the first century couldn't be white" thing.
2 Kings 5:27 is literally about a subpopulation who have ancestrally passed skin as white as snow.
Lamentations 4:7 is about how pre-captivity there were people with skin like milk and a ruddy appearance.
Dead Sea Scroll fragment 4Q534 is either describing Noah or the Messiah as having red hair.
One of the more fascinating finds in this tomb, one that has not received much attention, was the preservation of a sample of Jewish male hair. The hair was lice-free, and was trimmed or cut evenly, probably indicating that the family buried in this tomb practiced good hygiene and grooming. The length of the hair was medium to short, averaging 3-4 inches. The color was reddish.
- The Only Ancient Jewish Male Hair Ever Found (from the same century as Jesus)
The tradition is also really concerned with skin checks and describes what may be skin cancer as its leprosy. Something that occurs at a much higher rate in redheads.
There's even a scene where the eponymous founder of Edom ('red') who is born with hair all over his body and named Esau either because of that hair or the reddish porridge he ate, either gives away or has his birthright/blessing stolen from him by the guy later renamed 'Israel' in the Bible.
There's a lot more to this and the underlying history, but the notion that the middle east was a monolith of appearances and that no one with pale skin or lighter hair were present is preposterous and a modern falsification of historical realities.
Jesus was probably darker skinned and haired than typically depicted, but it is by no means a certainty as it is popularly presented as.
Because its really not about whether or not the historical Jesus was or could have been white - its about the fact that white cultures will almost exclusively portray Jesus as being their own race for reasons that have nothing to do with historical interpretation of demographics is the middle east in ~0ad
People calling out White Jesus arent doing so because of a 'notion that the middle east was a monolith of appearences', but instead because of a hypocrisy of many Christian groups - in particular in the evangelical American right - to almost literally whitewash Jesus to look more like themselves, while often dehumanizing the people that look like Jesus 'probably' looked like.
Its really not about a historical question of the average middle-eastern skin colour two millenia ago. I assure you that the vast majority of 'White Jesus' portrayers have not engaged with that question and do not care about the answer. So to look to that as a refutation of the criticism is really missing the point.
Yeah Herodotus talks about a lot of peoples with different physical characteristics too. Although TBF like the old testament, it's written centuries before Jesus, I'm not sure the same applies to both time periods.
Reminded me of this passage:
"You've never seen a crucifix with a Jesus who wasn't almost naked. You've never seen a fat Jesus. Or a Jesus with body hair. Every crucifix you've ever seen, the Jesus could be shirtless and modeling designer jeans or men's cologne...
Nobody wants to worship you if you have the same problems, the same bad breath and messy hair and hangnails, as a regular person. You have to be everything regular people aren’t. Where they fail, you have to go all the way. Be what people are too afraid to be. Become whom they admire. People shopping for a messiah want quality. Nobody is going to follow a loser. When it comes to choosing a savior, they won't settle for just a human being."
-Survivor by Palahniuk
One of his best books. Gotta love his innovative writing style. Each book has a unique format.
This doesn't seem to apply to republicans 🙃
But Jesus’ light skin and blues eyes suggest that he is not Middle Eastern but European-born. And the faux-Hebrew script embroidered on Mary’s cuffs and hemline belie a complicated relationship to the Judaism of the Holy Family.
Oh yeah
You’ve gotta remember that Jesus is half god and as we know god is white.
They just wanted something that people would look at and think:
Oh. My. GOD.
Handsome, fresh faced, and not especially Semitic.
The ONE thing the bible says about his appearance is that he was average looking
fax
I was like huh does the Bible really say that? It doesn't use those words, but yeah it says he was born as a baby and then grew physically larger as he grew up
This was average back then! We're actually getting fuglier as a species
The artist says he used his son as a model: https://elcorreoweb.es/maspasion/un-cristo-joven-y-resucitado-anuncia-la-semana-santa-de-sevilla-de-2024-BF9117056
It may be hard to understand but the Holy Week in southern Spain is not really about religion (as in faith). It's kind of like football: people are fucking crazy about it, it has it's lore and it's huuuge but honestly, you're not going to see a single priest during the whole event and no one goes to church or prays. It's like a religion themed festival. Sexy Jesus fits perfectly. People can relax about it.
Throw the nuns and monks a bone. If they can't spontaneously orgasm looking at Jesus' groin and abs, after years of abstentinence, early morning mass becomes a bit of slog. I mean orgasm metaphorically of course, because they're so devout.
I'll quote Saint Teresa of Jesus:
In his hands, I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one’s soul content with anything but God. This is not a physical but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it—even a considerable share.
Fictional character is reimagined and fanboys are annoyed, water is wet.
Fictional?
Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically.
Churches in the US South have been rocking the Aryan poster boy version for decades.
eh, Buddy Christ did it better
Come on, he died at 33 and was propably at least charismatic... Now find a palestinian that looks as this and you are good (that's the tricky part, but not impossible).
"Easter poster depicting a handsome, fresh-faced White Jesus prompts criticism in Spain"
ftfy
Yeah in Sevilla Easter is THE holiday so I'm sure this is gonna play out fascinatingly well...
I'm an atheist, but I was raised Roman Catholic.
These people that attempt to paint Jesus as some clean cut, light skinned fashion model is some prosperity gospel shit that intentionally glosses over the teachings of Jesus Christ as written in the New Testament.
Jesus had disdain for those that reveled in greed and decadence. He basically told them they wouldn't be welcome in heaven as they were. If Jesus were real, I can't imagine he'd be pleased being portrayed as some stylish, vain douche of means.
If Christians actually practiced the teachings of Jesus Christ of the new testament, I might not have been so quick to run away. That would involve praising selflessness, acceptance of different cultures, and giving till it it hurts, and shunning greed, gluttony, vanity, and self-interest though, so it was always a non-starter.
The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth are just plain wholly incompatible with the modern global economy, which is human civilization's true god.
The urge for power and refusal to admit fault was the reason why I started to doubt Christianity as a whole, despite growing up Catholic.
I can't understand how it can be so easy for some to preach love, acceptance, and hope while simultaneously using such ideas to push hate or fear.
Regionwise he should look middle eastern, dark skinned and short, much harrier.
But technically he could look like anything you want since "jesus" never actually lived.John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down 300 rounds of 25mm GAU-12 gatling cannon fire at 3600-4200 rounds per minute and 7 GBU-32 450 kg Joint Direct Attack Munitions for one’s friends.
It's widely agreed Jesus was a real person.
Yeah he's my angry mexican neighbor; Hesus..
Personally, I think it's fairly likely that Jesus was a real person, or possibly the amalgamation of the myths of several people who were well known at the time. I just don't think he was the son of God etc, all the angels and shit. It seems likely he was a grass roots activist amongst an oppressed population experiencing military occupation. Probably got put to death for it too, and then somehow his posthumous reputation got mixed up with religion and hits exaggerated biography was tacked onto the Jewish bible and became the new testament.
No need to believe in all the miracles and shit, it just seems more likely that he was an activist who got famous than that someone sat down and wrote a piece of fiction and managed to found a religion based on it. Although TBF I guess Hubbard did that so who really knows?
There is no historical record of jesus, only the bible claims him. And his death & resurrection is a stolen myth from Mithras in Egypt. Most of the bible is stolen from other religions.
https://www.jesusneverexisted.com/gospel-mithras.html
Well considering Jesus is as real as Bugs Bunny I really don't see the issue.
I don't know about as real. I've seen pictures and movies of Bugs Bunny. I know what Bugs Bunny sounds like. Also, if I do something Bugs doesn't like, he gets revenge. He doesn't send me to a fictional land where I burn for eternity.
Bugs definitely seems more real to me.
Fair enough.
There is historical evidence that a man named Jesus existed at the time. Not quite 100% conclusive, but probably as good as it will get when looking for evidence from 2000 years ago.
Whether that human was also divine is a matter of faith, of course. Most scholars who are serious about this make a distinction between the historical Jesus and the divine one from Christian beliefs. The only two events that have this general historical consensus are that the historical Jesus was baptized, and that Pontius Pilate (who most definitely did exist) had him executed. Everything else around Jesus from the Bible can't really be verified one way or another.
Yeah, I got most of this from a Wiki link. So what. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_for_the_historicity_of_Jesus
There is historical evidence that a man named Jesus existed at the time. Not quite 100% conclusive, but probably as good as it will get when looking for evidence from 2000 years ago.
There is more evidence of Bigfoot and yet I doubt you believe in it.
.>The only two events that have this general historical consensus are that the historical Jesus was baptized,
Paul didn't mention that. Why not? It would have certainly helped his case.
and that Pontius Pilate (who most definitely did exist) had him executed
And yet for no reason whatsoever didn't kill the rest of the 12 and let them openly operate.
I'm fascinated by the decolonization of Christianity, because it's clear that (at the time) the Jesus movement was revolutionary and political. The Jesus movement wasn't just a sectarian split from Judaism, it was a rebellion against both the Roman empire and the doctrine of an elite chosen people, presenting salvation universally to the masses. For the first time, everyone could be saved as long as they were faithful. That's why the ruling class killed him.
I say we give him like the deepest cum gutters possible.
Bugs Bunny?
I'm sure they'll take the opinion of random internet atheist edgelords to heart.
Maybe they should consider arguments and evidence on their own merits instead of demand perfect messengers. You know avoiding basic logical fallacies.
Nah, too complicated for skydaddy followers.
He's got those swimmers lats.
I wonder if this Jesus would let me nibble his toes, gobble his penis and gargle his balls?
Permanently Deleted
Carl H Christ from ATHF