Jesus Christ

Would the Cathloc Churches be any different today or have a different relationship with the other Middle East Faiths if the image of Christ reflected his DNA heritage?

I would most definately think so. All things considered.

But would the Middle East Faiths have a different relationship and different Faith if the Catholics and Christians had won in the Crusades and not been driven back by the people of the Middle East?

I venture to say that much of the conflict arises out of the fact that people even observe the race/ethnicity/DNA of any god, prophet or messiah in the first place. It is irrelevant. While some of these people may have been real, the myths surrounding them are dripping with metaphor and meant to teach lessons.

If I were to tell the story of Jesus Christ, except that Jesus was a talking elephant instead, would it change the message of the story? What if Buddha was a red-headed white girl? Would the words be more or less true?

Let's not forget that in the story, Jesus was born a carpenter. A person, church, society or entire religion could decide to discriminate against him simply for that reason alone. It is dangerous when people put so much emphasis on something completely arbitrary.

These are my thoughts and opinions, of course. There's no denying that the issue at question has been motivation for more than a few wars in the past.

I completely agree Senan. Which is funny that this comes up since I am currently reading The Book and just finished the Myths by Joseph Campbell. Much of my journal speaks to this. As I put it, Jesus Christ, God, Goddess, etc are all just vehicles for the Divine Source. We each hold a piece of the Divine Energy within us. It doesn't matter what the name is, they are all the same Divine Source, just different vehicles for us to try and understand things better.

You make a great point with what you said. It is arbitrary but still food for thought never the less. We can only really assume what people would have done and would have thought if things were different, but since they are not, we wouldn't know for sure.

Rickie The Grey wrote: Would the Cathloc Churches be any different today or have a different relationship with the other Middle East Faiths if the image of Christ reflected his DNA heritage?

ever heard of the eastern catholic church? They seem to...

Mmm...I don't think it would, all that much. The man, Son of God, or prophet - is not as important as the symbol he became. Part of the real value of that symbol is universality...and a healthy dose of self-identification. Even the different Gospel writers emphasize slightly different things and tell slightly different accounts based on their intended audiences. Without that tailoring, would the story of Jesus lose its potency? I don't believe it would - the lessons behind the symbol remain just as universal.

It's one of the first questions I remember from being a young Catholic kid; how do we know what he looked like? I'm pretty sure I remember the Nun's saying no-one knows, and that the image/idol is not what is important, and that Jesus must be looked for within oneself. In this way statues were meant to remind, ie mnemonics, and not as literal accurate representations. In this context then I guess it would make sense to have local race Jesus's
:woohoo:

Symbolism is an important aspect to culture...
In my opinion, Jesus was black, why did the cultures whitewash sculptures, etc.?
To reflect their ideology...

sidvkili wrote:

Rickie The Grey wrote: Would the Cathloc Churches be any different today or have a different relationship with the other Middle East Faiths if the image of Christ reflected his DNA heritage?

ever heard of the eastern catholic church? They seem to...

Seem to what?....

The white image of Christ is...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Borgia
http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=16991
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090720134325AAJW97X
http://www.israelite.net/image.htm