SHOULD CHRISTIANS, BLACK OR WHITE REMOVE ALL GRAVEN IMAGES OF JESUS?

1. Pictures of Jesus a Black is considered by some white Christians as a lie. Similarly a picture of a White Jesus is considered by some Black Christians as a lie. Therefore you have the tension of the two calling each other a liar over the color of Jesus.

Negative results; A Black Christian who Believes that Jesus was Black would not sit in a White church with pictures of a white Jesus because that Black Christian is not going to lie to his or herself (especially while praying).

Solution; Remove the pictures, therefore, both Groups can comfortably pray within the church and can mentally portray Jesus what ever color they want, But the Picture does not have to stare them in the Face to Force them to accept a certain color.

When the pictures are removed in this scenario, the members can picture in their minds their own personal Jesus and can portray him any color they want, but to Put up Pictures is to ask other Members to Accept a Certain color of Jesus without respecting their differing views which can cause tensions within the church and even cause certain members to seek a church which meets their views.

2. You will rarely find a White Christian praising a Black Jesus Icon. A discomfort may be felt by a Black Christian when asked to praise a White Jesus Icon.

Negative results; Again this will cause tensions and may again result in goers with opposing views seeking to go elsewhere to give thanks.

Solution; Removing the Black Icon or White Icon will again ease the tensions. My theory also is that these Icons can have a Major effect on the attitudes of the goers.

3. The pictures in a church that portray life in Heaven with a group being one color For example, if we View Here we see that Heavenly Members are portrayed as exclusively White while if we See Here, evil Biblical figures are portrayed as Dark in Skin, or non-White.

Negative results; This Effect gives a Non-Verbal Message to the black goers that they will not be in Heaven. If Heaven exclusively or Majority include White people and Hell includes a Majority of Black people according to the Pictures, then this gives a loader message then the Priest.

Solution; Removal of the bios pictures, if a church must keep them, then integrate the pictures, this will have to include many races including Asian.

It is the classical good person bad person stereotyping that the pictures emit, when the pictures are removed then you are just left with persons and nothing portraying one group better then the other.

This is All confirmed by Scholars in Effects of Images such as; Philip Myers (1992), Bryant Zillman (1982), Glen Fisher (1989), O'Donnell & G. Jowett (1986) and More

Above, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is photographed with Adlai Stevenson and President John F. Kennedy, 17 December 1962.
Dr. King had a Dream to end Racism, let us not let his life's work be in vain, let us contact the churches with the mono-color images and politely ask them to remove the images based on psychological ethical reasons, and also contact pro-white Christian groups listed on the Internet.

Also ask them politely to end the racism, we are all humans, with One Creator.

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No. I feel that young african kids in our church need to see an image of their lord that resembles them in their church. It will help curb an inferiority complex I find present in many minorities within the western world. A image of Christ resembling them is as important as having a scripture in their native language.
" A image of Christ resembling them is as important as having a scripture in their native language."

That sounds nice but its unbiblical.
However if you dont believe that Jesus is divine - then most definately thats OK. But the teachings of God tell us NOT to make any images of anything in heaven.
Is that so?
And in a system of white supremacy(that is the western world) the only way to have an African kid in a healthy relationship with Jesus early on is to portray Jesus as looking like them.
Exodus 20:4
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Acts 17:29
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Anthony,

You answered your question lol. It is true that we do not know what anything looks like that is in the place where HaShem dwells, but, you must not forget that Hebrews saw space as heaven as well. So, creating images of worship out of stars, moon, and planetary things, is idolatry. Therefore, we can conclude that when scriptures say "or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above", it is referring to the stars, and planetary systems.
Acts 17:29 ESV

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Great topic Scott!!!

Graven Image (merriam webster)
an object of worship carved usually from wood or stone

Scott, has anyone ever asked you these questions:

Would the ark of the covenant be considered a type of graven image?
If not, would the angels on it be considered graven images?


Was the ark an image that was worshipped or was it a symbol of the one that Israel worshipped (God the Father)

If that is the case, then is an empty cross or a crucifix a graven image or a symbol of God?

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Should Christians patronize establishments where graven images are present: asian restaurants, asian nail salons, etc.
Yes, because any graven image goes against the commandments of God.
HE and His family hid amongst the Egyptians, the ancient Egyptians were people of color as they are today
Gods army, I asked a couple of questions. Which one did you reply Yes to??

Evg. Fugett, around the time of 911 twin towers I dated an Egyptian (Coptic). He looked like that long wavy haired Egyptian hero on the movie The Mummy. He had to shave his beautiful hair bcuz of the nations outrage behind 911. A lot of people thought he was Iranian and therefor a terrorist. Anywho we both considered him a person of color. Like most "Blacks" in America the peeps in his family ranged from light bright and nearly white to black as night.

When we talk about races or ethnicities we must remember that there has been so much interracial mixing by choice, by force and it is also a war tactic that was practiced by the Assyrians ( I forgot what that tactic is called)

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