Jesus is looking a little bit more, erm, voluptuous than usual.
The National Church of Iceland sparked a furious controversy with a recent Sunday school advertisement that shows Jesus cheerfully dancing in front of a rainbow with a full beard, makeup, and breasts.
The ad, which drew immediate condemnation from faith groups, was created as part of a broader effort on the Church of Iceland’s behalf to be more inclusive.
A representative from the Church said that “We're trying to embrace society as it is. We have all sorts of people and we need to train ourselves to talk about Jesus as being 'all sorts' in this context… It's really important that each and every person see themselves in Jesus and that we don't stagnate too much.”
The ad, initially posted on Facebook, set off a firestorm of outraged comments, and Christian blogs and websites reported on what they perceive as offensive imagery, with some calling it blasphemous.
The ad was quickly pulled from the Church of Iceland’s Facebook page, but will remain on buses and other advertising spaces in Reykjavik for at least two weeks.
Jesus Gets Diverse
While depicting Jesus as a trans or genderqueer person might anger some, there's nothing wrong with challenging the traditional image of Christ, say supporters of the ad.
“Each person interprets something in this picture,” one Icelandic minister told reporters. “Some people interpret it as a trans-Jesus, others as a woman. Some see Mary with a beard, and others see a genderqueer person. Views within the church are just as diverse as elsewhere.”
This is hardly the first time an organization’s come under fire for depicting Jesus Christ in a 'nontraditional' way. Just last year, Netflix was on the receiving end of outrage for a Christmas film that depicted Jesus as a flamboyant gay man. A petition demanding Netflix take down the film received nearly 2.5 million signatures, and continues to receive signatures to this day.
If you were a moviegoer back in 1988, you might remember that acclaimed director Martin Scorsese faced international criticism for his film The Last Temptation of Christ, which showed Jesus as a flawed individual internally struggling with his reluctance to die on the cross and as a man tempted by sins of the flesh.
For showing Jesus engaged in sexual activity, hundreds of Christians protested outside the headquarters of Universal Studios and local theaters across the country were picketed by Christians for weeks.
It seems that in our postmodern society, everything is ripe for reinterpretation – and that means, yes, even the holiest of religious figures.
Lily White Savior
Here's a question posed by supporters of a reinterpreted Jesus: if folks are going to get up in arms any time Christ is imagined in a way that isn’t 100% accurate to the biblical text, then how do they reconcile depicting Jesus as white?
While there’s no agreed-upon consensus of what Jesus looked like, most experts agree that he likely would resemble other Judeans of his time. That means brown or olive skin, dark hair, and brown eyes. A far cry of the fair-skinned, blue-eyed depiction of Jesus that hangs on the mantelpiece in grandparents’ houses across the country.
We’ve already got Jesus' race wrong. Is it really that big of a leap to depict Jesus as a woman? As gay? As transgender?
What do you think? Should faith groups expand their conception of Jesus to be more inclusive? Or is Jesus with breasts simply a step too far?
56 comments
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Donna Marie Sailer
Nah... Scripture says, "To you, a SON will be born." Nothing in any portion of Scripture says the SON of God is anything other than a male. The color of Jesus is not a church issue, it's a generational issue. Jesus was portrayed as a white, blue eyed man at a time when that was perceived as the most perfect rendition of God's people. Those of us that were brought in between that generation and this generation have the understanding and intelligence to know that Jesus was a Jewish man with all the Jewish characteristics. BUT, Scripture says Jesus was the Son of God and the Son of Man. Scripture also says that Jesus was tempted as He lived here on earth with all us sinners, but He did not give in to temptation. The way people dressed back then could be misunderstood by some as Jesus wearing a dress, but it was a robe. He was wearing a loincloth on the cross. He was with God in the beginning and LOVED the creation of God, but the love spoken about here was AGAPE love, not sexual love. Jesus was a man with many desires, but not one of those desires included sexual intimacy. He was the Word that God spoke when God created the universe, so He LOVED His creation. All of it. Man and woman. Adult and child. Perfect people and sinners. Oh, wait. We are none of us perfect. Iceland can reinterpret the replica of Christ as well as white Europeans reinterpreted the replica of Christ. But, until we are face-to-face with Him in heaven, no one will ever get it right. Enough with the vitriolic rhetoric that you have no way of proving. God is. God was. And God will always be. But, man (meaning humans) are always changing to fit the times. Change is good according to the experts of today. Change is constant. The only thing that never changes is change. According to the experts. Let's just stop judging and let God do His job
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
Scripture doesn't state that Jesus was a manly or masculine man. And my guess, considering my study of the Kybalion of Hermes Trismegistus by three initiates, if Jesus really existed, he must have been perfectly balanced in every way. Everyone possesses masculine and feminine characteristics (as I learned in my study of yin yàng), and those characteristics manifest in different ways in different people. Therefore, in a perfect deity such as Jesus, he was surely both manly and womanly, and it wouldn't surprise me if he also had physical characteristics of that perfect balance, as well as in his sexual orientation. And atleast some of his twelve merry men did leave their wives to be with him. They might have all been sexually balanced, and some with bigger tits than others.
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Bobby Soup
The main argument about Jesus having big breasts is that... it would have been said in the bible if he did- that's not a detail you can leave out.
A man with c-cups in the days before silicoln implants would have stood out. He wouldn't have been able to wander around unnoticed. The Romans wouldn't have had to have Judas point him out, it would have been pretty obvious who Jesus was by his boobs.
No, Jesus having breasts or other obvious feminine characteristics outside the norm for people is not correct per the bible. Giving Jesus breasts was done for one purpose: to make a political point.
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Larry Scott
Why do progressives always try to change to update scripture that is thousands of years old to fit whatever they feel it should be now ? Let's be realistic a perfect being is not whst Jesus was all about he grew up from boy to man and experienced that life. But as a man. Yes man has both genetics of both sees but that was not God design to teach thru a medium to all. Back then Men were the voice of God. Maybe not today but back then Jesus lived and spoken God's word and all people listened who wanted to hear the word ogmf God. It is not up to any church to see the idea of Jesus as its not anyone's way to do but to follow the teachings as best as we can. Whether youu believe or not the teaching and how we present it is all the ad we need to give followers hope in all troubling times. Lets quit doing the devils work by corrupting the message with false and misleading serial orientated nonsense and keep the just and innocence for our youth
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David Steventon
Comment removed by user.
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David Steventon
Donna Marie, my complements for your eloquent and sensible response.
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Minister Mike
Amazing how many "good" christians are offended by anything that doesn't fit their personal image of "god".
Yup, Jesus is supposed to be the "son", but nowhere is he described as not having large pecs or not dancing or even not smiling. Seriously, I know pecs bigger than Kim Kardashian's.
In the end, though, some folk just need to get a grip on reality. Failing that, a grip on themselves.
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Doctor Loyal
Jesus wept.
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Minister Mike
Yeah? So?
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Doctor Loyal
Please accept my humble apologies, I replied to the wrong conversation. Have a great day !
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John C Carpenter
A lot of churches direct a great deal of hatred at those with gender differences. When someone puts up a picture of Jesus with breasts, they are making a comment about His universal love of all people, not only those who look/act/dress/relate in conformity with them.
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flugo
'johnny c c': Wrong, again! ' . .. . . . universal love . . . ' is a crock! Jesus said the wrath of God abides over the unbelievers - John 3:36; He hates evildoers - Psalm 5:5; sexually immoral He hates - Leviticus 18:19; He has hatred for the coveters - Psalm 10:31 These are just a few of many instances refuting 'universal love'! To avoid further embarrassment, you'd do well to do your homework before posting unrelible blather.
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David Steventon
But Flugo, you miss the fact that after all the text of the Old Testament, God made the move to extend salvation beyond his “chosen people” and blessed all willing to accept Jesus Christ as their saviour, with eternal life. The New Testament reveals that God is not only just, but also a loving deity.
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flugo
. . . . . . and justifiably 'wrathful'! Too much consideration of God's benevolence, goodness, and love. It's a lopsided viewpoint society gets of God today.
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Robert A Stiff
Flugo, dude, you seemed strangely hooked on the 'wrathful' side of "christian" religion. I bet you have all those wrathful parts picked out and underlined, right?
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Bobby Soup
Your examples: Old Testament. Old Testament. Old Testament.
Which, yes, the bible does include the Old Testament, and depending on which denomination you are, the Old Testament is still either to be strictly followed, or is to be completely ignored because you believe God made a new covenant with man by sending down Jesus that overwrites everything that was said in the OT. Some people pick and choose which parts of the Old Testament is valid or not based on other reasons.
So depending which interpretation of the bible you believe in, your quotes are either completely valid, or irrelevant. It's all down to interpretation.
So is God all loving or does he have wrath? That's a completely debatable thing with no clear answer.
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Shawn Conan Scott
I think He had both love and wrath. What parent doesn't?
The Messiah actually taught and clarified what Christians call the Old Testament, so it should not be discarded out of hand, But He also taught us that the two laws God has handed down to us from that Bible are to love Him with all our hearts, and to have no other gods before Him, and to love each other as we love ourselves. He further clarified that to include showing that love for one another, to be a beacon and example. This is the same Son of Man who beat the moneychangers in the Temple for defiling the House of God. So, I see it as "like Father, like Son."
As to did he have boobs - who REALLY knows? Until I meet him in person, and have no doubt of the meeting, I can't say for sure. My guess, and thus conceptualization, is, he was obviously male [to aid in spreading God's Word, as probably few men would listen to a priestess back in those days), swarthy complected (semitic ancestry, in a desert environment), and kind-hearted (after all, He healed and resurrected people free of charge, and gave much of what He and his disciples collected in alms as alms). What else is needed?
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Mya-Lia Sharizyn
The direction the holy spirit gave to Lot and his family to go to Sodom and Gomorrah due to the evil practice of homosexuality there needing to receive the opportunity to turn into heterosexuals heels priority over two things. The first is the story of Lot giving the army officers his teenage daughter to have sex with rather than going outside himself to get raped, the other is that cannibalistic societies were not that much further away, and they weren't led there to preach about any of that. ?
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flugo
Where in the Scriptures is there ANY indication the Holy Spirit gave Lot and his family direction to travel? Where?
'Army officers'? No . . . inhabitants of the city
NO evidence Lot want to avoid being raped. He was trying to protect the angels.
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Lionheart
God must have had a real queer sense of humor giving men nipples, but no breasts to go with them. 🤪
🦁❤️
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Mya-Lia Sharizyn
Since when, and why, is being sexual considered unholy?? Sexuality and the natural expression of it should be honored and not considered offensive. I don't relate to the bible declaring that the many words in it are from "God" when the bible states that the use of many words hold sin, especially given the point that all matter is manifested by vibration which proves that the single "word" of "Ohm" which is the root word of "Amen" was the word-vibration that began the creation of the world. And why should they care anyway, since the worship of idols is banned? Another contradiction point blank. JC said that he would exist within ANYONE who accepted him as being the son...or is that another parable-type reference with the actual meaning being about himself as the Sun, the original worshipped giver of life? After all, his reference to himself as The Light would confirm this. My point is, anyone who knows him, as he said, would have his presence within themself with ONLY GOD AS THEIR JUDGE. Those who have not sinned are not to throw stones at others, as that is self righteous and excludes the admonishing he gave to love others as you want to be loved and to act with forgiveness towards others as each will be judged according to their own ways. Love Jesus? Go for it.
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Philip Joseph Ryan
Bjork was Icelandic; that says it all, really.
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flugo
This is a blasphemous, indescribably foul and wretched display of immeasurable proportions! The holy, sovereign, and righteous Father will NOT overlook this utterly disdainful portrayal of His Son Jesus!
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Brien
ROFL!!! Tell me o' wise one...how do you know this? Did the mythical being appear onto you with a sign that said no LGBT allowed? The fact that this actually bothers the "righteous " gives me no end of joy 🤣🤣🤣
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Ilmenheru Terikson
Since the J man was not in any way the messiah, and christianity is based entirely on other older faith traditions, cant really see how anything you spew here on a secular church site is other then invalid.
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Edwin Merle Waltz
Maybe these transgenders and homosexuals ought to read the Bible a little more. God condemn it. The Koran says execute them
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Ilmenheru Terikson
Edwin you must not be a very well read theological scholar or biblical scholar. It is literally understood and accepted outside of the false far right christian cult, that the story of Sodom and the punishment the Sodomites had dealt to them by god, was due to their lack of hospitality and showing nothing but love and welcome to strangers aka the angels in the story.
Homosexual intercourse and long term relationships at the time of Jesus were as normal as hetero ones. Among all the peoples of the regions of that time. It is far far more likely that the man called Jesus was biting the pillow for every one of his pretty boy followers as not.
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Brien
Yeah, let's not use the Koran as an example here, the other book is bad enough. I know I have asked this before but who did God inform of this position? I mean if the argument is "because God says so ", who got that phone call? You see, I will not believe the words of man, people lie and make stuff up. But if you can get the all powerful to sit down for a discussion, I would be happy to keep an open mind 😉
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Chaplain Shawn
Greetings,
A common Western interpretation is a portrait of Our Lord and Savior as a blonde or dirty blonde haired blue-eyed man. We all know Jerusalem is located in the Middle-East, as is Bethlehem. A misrepresentation of Christ is as old as the hills. Accuracy is what is missing. Aman would not want to depicted as a woman. Jesus identified himself as the Son of God, not a daughter of God. I think it is fair to say any LGBTQ who identifies a certain way wants to be acknowledged in accordance to how they identify. Depicting Christ with breasts violates how many modern LGBTQ feel, and would be possible discrimination.
The question becomes as the world acquiesces to how an individual chooses to identify, does that give the LGBTQ community or sympathizers the right to disparage individuals who are heterosexual and identify as the sex they were born as? There is something very sinister and evil depicting a self-identifying male in a manner the person would not identify with. Another immoral act by people like this is to display their ad-hominem attacks against the hetero and Christian community. If the White, Heterosexual, and Christian communities portray LGBTQ in a manner different from how they identify they cry a river ands demand justice for discrimination. Well, what happens if the White, Heterosexual, and Christian communities are outraged over matters like this depiction of Christ? We are told to "suck it up buttercup." Where is justice for the White, Heterosexual, and Christian communi8ties that are disparaged by the LGBTQ communities and their sympathizers?
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T Kosse`
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEScIUcvz0
CAESAR'S MESSIAH: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus - OFFICIAL VERSION
YouTube.com/watch?v=IMado9ukLt0
Was There A Real Jesus Christ? – Pagan Christ- Timeline
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Douglas Robert Spindler
How do we know the son of God did not have large breasts? If you have been to a pool or the beach I'm sure you have seen a lot of "guys" who have breasts. What determines if someone is male or female? Is a man someone who has small breasts and a penis? Do all women have large breasts and a uterus? What do you call a person who has a penis and a uterus? Medically they are called hermaphrodites. In the past Christians called them freaks. But are they? They are just as human as you and I and God just made a mistake giving them both sexes. What should people be called that God didn't give an external penis to? Are they a man or women? What do we call women who are born with a penis that later develops into a uterus? Or a man who is born without a penis? But at the time of puberty grows one?
These intersex people are God's product so why do Christians vilify them? If you know more than 300 people then you have meet at least one intersex person.
We could use DNA to determine sex. But God doesn't make that easy either. While most of God's children are XX or XY. But do we call someone who is XO, XXX, XXY, XYY, XXXY, or XY/XXY?
Have you meet or are friends with any of God's intersex people? It's highly likely as intersex occurs in 1 of every 300 of God's children.
Why is it so many Christians dislike God's intersex children? That's not what being a Christian is all about.
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Clay Serenbetz
I sense much self-righteous closed minds contributing so far. Interpretations of biblical texts from such people is a disservice to Christian faith. None of us is perfect including: 1. those who passed down knowledge retold with naturally faulty memories in giving testimony of Jesus life. 2. Those whose politics influenced which scriptures were included in the Holy Bible and those omitted (e.g. Gnostic gospels). 3. Those interpreters who translated the ancient scrolls. God loves all his children as he made them. Maybe, God at the time when Jesus walked the earth chose a son to represent him because that was the most influential way for him to spread His Word to society, as it existed in ancient times. Our society today no longer represents society, knowledge, behavior that existed during Jesus' life. Just as ancient Hebrew laws of the time are now known to lack the benefits of modern scientific knowledge. When a Rabbi blesses a chocolate eclair to make Kosher, we now know that does not make the chocolate eclair healthy. Blind adherence to faulty, dated knowledge does a disservice to God.
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Richard Lee Cornell
Ever been to a deep Southern Black church. Jesus does not look blond hair, blue eye. Jesus as of the year 2000 was no taller, blonder, blue eyeier then the rest of the Jewish people living at that time. Five foot two in his wet saddles Being a God, Son of a God or just a half blood was common in those times. Ever ruler in that time was a Son of one of their favorite Gods. Similar to your favorite preacher who seems to have a insight to the meaning of the Bible and that any other preacher is in the league with Satan. It would seem that any Son of a God could assume any sex, sharp or age of any human alive at that time. So this Jesus just might reflect a Jesus that appeals to everyone..
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
It might be better to burn all holy books, except for the Satanic Bible, and start using common sense for a change, instead.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
All is contained within The All. God, The All, can only be all-inclusive, and perfectly balanced in every way. If anything was removed from the totality of existence, nothing would exist, which is impossible, believe it or not.
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Lilly Servus
The Bible tells us Eve is the first example of human cloning but the fun doesn’t stop there. If we take the Genesis account in it’s literal meaning, as conservative Christians demand that we do, she is also the first case of a transgender woman. God reached into Adam, pulled out a bit of rib bone, and grew Eve from that XY DNA into Adam’s companion. She was created genetically male, and yet trans-formed into woman.
Then along comes Jesus and the whole pattern is both repeated and reversed. The first couple’s refusal to cooperate is turned around by Mary’s yes, and the second act of cloning occurs. The Holy Spirit comes upon the second Eve, and the child takes flesh from her and is born. Born of her flesh. Born with XX chromosome pairing. Born genetically female, and yet trans-formed into man.
Jesus was a transgender man, that's his gender identity, however we can't really say what his sexual orientation is, can we?
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Bobby Soup
Interesting theory about Eve being the first transgender woman; but if we're talking about an all powerful God (and let's face it, if you can turn a human rib bone into a new human you've got some impressive tricks up your sleeve), there is no reason to believe that taking the rib bone to create Eve was anything more than symbolic on God's part. Whatever God would have done with that rib bone, he could certainly have changed the DNA in it before crafting it into a human,
Let's face it, if you can pull a rib bone out of a man without harming it, and transform it into a fully grown woman, changing the DNA in that ribbone to be XX instead of XY is probably a piece of cake. Let's not forget that according to the bible, Adam didn't need any donor material from any other being in order to create Adam. He made him from nothing.
Without divine intervention, remember a transgender woman can not give birth, so Eve being a non trans woman seems logical. (We know Eve begat two boys.) I'm going along with the theory there was nothing manly about Adam's bone by the time he crafted Eve out of it.
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Shawn Conan Scott
This reminds me of the debate hosted in the monastery in the movie The Name of the Rose, he question in that story was, "Did Jesus own the clothes he wore?"
Whether Jesus had visible mammaries (or pecs - whichever) or not is a question that loses sight of his messaging: Love God with all your heart, holding no other gods before Him. Love others as you would love yourself. Show your love for each other as an example and a beacon.
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Vincent Kegler
It's a distracting debate.
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Earl Thompson
Follow the bible teaching and what it says u people have a weird sense of reality opinions are like eye bals everybody got 2 just be glad we have a savior to trust in u mockers of god will burn in hell forever
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Daniel W. Dewar
The Bible will not be re written, it needs to be re read!! This is ridiculous, we've lost the true meaning of the gospel and what Christ came to do!! We are not to judge anyone, however changing Our Lord into a transgender is NOT the message that needs to be out there.
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Estrella Alvarez Tinch
Good grief! What difference does it make what Jesus looked like? After all, he came to us during a time that no one captured his likeness. Maybe this was by design, so the focus would be on the message of forgiveness, love and acceptance of ALL people, regardless of race or gender. To try to depict him with breasts and dancing around a rainbow shows a lack of spiritual understanding of who HE is. Let's live by example; let our actions speak for themselves. A picture may speak a thousand words and these may be the wrong words to convey.
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Gary Winfred Mac Kendrick
Is any of this worthy of much harangue? Sex is sex, however it is. And not wrong unless manipulated and\of abusive or hurtful. We have enough problems being who we are without all the dogma of dogberel. In the long haul it is about an Agape' Love that transforms preconceptions into a vision of caring for all people, regardless of creed or rigidity of thought that diminishes us all! GWK
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Patricia Ann Wileman
This is so wrong. It says He was a man. It didn't not say any other crap there trying to push. Don't mess with God or Jesus it will come back and bit you in a way your not going to like.
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John P Maher
BRIAN YOU HIT the NAIL on the HEAD, NO PUN INTENDED, HYPOCRITICAL RIGHTOUS of ANY RELIGION are the BIG POLITICAL PROBLEM, LETs GET RELIGION OUT of EVERYTHING and BACK INSIDE THEIR HOUSES of WORSHIP, WHERE and ONLY WHERE IT BELONGS, RELIGION is ANOTHER WARMONGER..........
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Takaya Kovani Sweeney
Ummm...isn’t this the very image of Satan’s As Above So Below statue???
Things that make you go hmmmm indeed.
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Jeanette Harlow
Seriously? Just one word...seriously? Why are we so obsessed with everything sexual? Just let Jesus be Jesus. There are plenty of women, plenty of gays, plenty of transgender people who are welcome to God/Goddess's love. We really don't need to change one of them or any of them. Let's get real people. Stop messing around with what is not important and remember what Jesus stood for. Love your self...love your neighbor. And as for me love the earth also!
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George Hook
It doesn't fall to me to say who is right or who is wrong about the person of Jesus and, yet, I am no more offended by such depictions as the Islandic Church depicts him than I am of thedepictions of Jesus as a white, Anglo-Saxon male. Even when I was a child I recognized that Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew. No way was he white or blue eyed.To my view, the greates sin of the Christian Church is to presuppose EVERYTHING about Jesus as if we know all there is to know about the man (and, yes, I just said, 'man'). We seem to forget his activities: sharing a meal with the poor, the beggardly, the despised tax-collector and prostitutes. We forget that he said he came to "fulfill the Law" (Matt. 5:17) and to give us a "New Commandment" (John 13:34) that we are to love one another. He doesn't say, "except." He's quite clear. "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself." This begs the question, who is my neighbor? Jesus said, "Come unto me ALL of you..." not "some of you." That means, EVERYONE, no exceptions. How someone depicts Jesus doesn't offend me. Why should it? I am not a fundamentalist who gets so worked up over an offense against God that I want to murder the infidel! If that's what it takes to make me a child of God, or to be a Christian, then I don't want any part of it. My salvation is dependent upon my devotion to my concept of the holy; of my belief in and love for Jesus as the Christ and reflecting that love to the world.
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TarotTerry
True!! 💯
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Yanel Jay Laroche Jr.
I am the Rock Angel Yanel Jay Laroche Jr. that is a savior of sinners according to 1 Timothy 1:15 which reads, "This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: "Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners." - and I am the worst of them all."' 1 Timothy 1:8-11 New Living Translation 8 We know that the law is good when used correctly. 9 For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. 10 The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders,[a] liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching 11 that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.
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Samantha Dawn Hemberger
The Bible says IN john 3:16 "that God so loved the world as to give his only begotten son.....". Not daughter or tranny, SON!!!
C'mon brothers and sisters get with your Bible!
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Thom
Jesus was not a white male but a brown skinned male. He was straight because he was married to Mary Magdalene (I know this is a whole different argument). Jesus was a being who many like to make into the image they see him as and not stick to the standard. If they believe Jesus was gay then, let them believe it. We, the normal thinkers, will just sit back and grin and laugh and some may be offended. Well, it will do no good to be offended so go on with your life and let them live theirs. If someone tells me Jesus was gay, I will ask them to prove it. Of course they will not be able too.
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Dennis Wayne Starr
Yeah lets "Be More Inclusive" just as long as it only offends every Christian on the face of the earth. 2021 years of history and NOW we have to give breasts to Jesus? Does this somehow PROVE inclusiveness? We don't see other genitalia of Jesus, only breasts, so why does it succeed in being inclusive? Does Jesus only have hooters but nothing else since he never chose to show us his naked nether region. This is nothing more than rank sensationalism in trying to prove a very a sick point. How did society every reach this point in evolution when every thing sacred, historical, religious, societal and cultural is being challenged? Is there some greater good that I am not seeing. Does non reproducing "Gays" do overall society any benefits by allowing them to marry? And then when it fits then religious is then used to justify anything and everything. What would Jesus do is nothing but silly mouthing of the foolish when nothing else works. The big guys ten commandments say "THOU SHALL NOT KILL" but then the rationalization comes in that some found in the bible that justifies killing, (Keep in mind every passage justifying killing animals for food is written by prophets....Not Jesus...Not his disciples... and NOT GOD because he has already spoken). I guess I missed the exception to the "BIG TEN" written by GOD!
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Carl A. Hankins
Just because Jesus came to save you from sin doesn't mean he's going to change his countenance with God... People have an evil way about them. They always want to throw others into their ways and say it's for the best or persecute you because you refuse those ways. The proving the right ways is the ways. The deciples was trying to show the right ways the best they could but the people refused to see. Just like the majority of today. Remember what was said..I know you not. Why did he shun such trivial things then ? And where is he today about such things.
OMG, how funny. Jesus was a brown skinned man based on where he was from, his spoken language and the people who were his ancestors. It's only the American White Supremacist Christian churches which continue the propaganda of him being a white man and heterosexual. We really don't know his sexual identity. Jesus never addressed it nor spoke about it. It's only mentioned in one passage in the Jewish Bible. So what if the Church of Iceland portrays him in a dress? People who gnash their teeth are insecure and go screaming at the sky and losing their minds rather than focus on the teachings of the man. If more people who claim to be Christians would follow his teachings, the world might be in a better place. I say be outraged about the number of homeless and hungry people in our land while the TV evangelists are flying around in multi million dollar jets, living in mansions and divide us.
We know he was male and based on the culture of the time and biblical beliefs, LGTBQ didn’t even get a look in. Plus the likelihood that the occupying Romans would have shut down any attempt to hold a gay pride day!
The Romans would have been perfectly fine with homosexuality. Bisexuality (or at least heteroflexibilty) was the norm not the exception, especially amongst the land-owning Romans. Married Roman men would often conclude a buisness deal with some good old-fashioned sodomy to seal the pact. It's more likely the Jewish people themselves would have a problem with homosexuality than the Romans. The local leaders might have had rules against gay sex (although banning gay sex seems to be a fairly modern development in human history).
So let's assume the Romans didn't allow gay sex in Israel to keep the local Jewish leaders happy. (I've actually no idea about the Jews, if they cared what people did in bed or not, but for sake of argument, let's assume they did).
Does that mean gay sex wouldn't have happened? To figure that out, let's look at other places where gay sex was illegal. Did people have gay sex in Texas 30 years ago? Yes, they did. Did people have gay sex in victorian Britain? Oscar Wilde certainly thinks they did. Do people have gay sex in Russia and in some countries in Africa today where it is illegal... you bet your arse-cherry they do!
In conclusion: Gay sex certainly existed back in the Roman days (prior to the Romans, the Greeks even celebrated Man-Boy love as being more pure than Man-Woman love). If gay sex was banned in Israel, it had nothing to do with the Romans (who were perhaps the most bisexual empire in history). But even if it were illegal, it still would have happened.
That said, there is no conclusive evidence that Jesus would have benefitted from poppers being invented earlier in history.