There is something wrong with this picture... of Jesus

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I am a pretty slow learner here. I see so many new things every day that my subconscious does most of the processing work and pops up with interesting conclusions about things that I usually wasn't even thinking about that I should have realized from the beginning. Today I had a revelation about Jesus.

In the Phippines christianity is the biggest religon, and with about 80% of the population being Catholic there are pictures of Jesus and Mary just about everywhere. Standing today, looking into the serene eyes of a Jesus staring out at my from a driveway, while I was waiting for my companions to catch up it hit me - why are Jesus's eyes blue?

On the jeepney drive to our activity I thought about it - almost all of the images of Jesus I have seen in this country are white. I have seen one statue of a brown Jesus, and there is a saint worshipped here called Sainto Nino who seems to be a brown toddler Jesus, but in almost every room of every house I have been in there are pictures on the walls of a man who could easily share my genetics. The Jesus in these images is a tall man, with sandy brown, sometmes practically blond hair, and light blue eyes. His skin is typically the colour of mine mid-February, when it hasn't had sun for 3 months. All of this even though Filipinas are much closer then me to the natural colouring of a man who was from Nazareth.

I understand the colonial origins of this phenomenon. Catholism came with the Spanish, and so was euro-centric... But the Spanish left more then a hundred years ago and the white Jesus is still here.

I never thought I would find the face of Jesus unnerving, but now I feel awkward with this sweet, historically inacurate man looking out at me from so many flat surfaces. It is upsetting to realize that these images present the subconsious idea that I am closer to Jesus then the average Filipina. No wonder so many of the younger kids are scared to look at or touch me when they first meet me. The whole thing is ludicrous. In comparison to the ocean of faith shown by most Filipinas I barely have spring run-off.

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Photos

White Jesus... Brown Town
Suburban houses in Manila are set up in the Spanish style - they have high walls and gated driveways, that house lovely little homes and flowered courtyards.
Hung on the wall beside the gate, above the shrubs and hibiscus flowers, there are usually religious reliefs. The reliefs, usually intricate and beautiful, also make a statement about the colonial past of the country.

Comments

[H U N T E R]

hello
good observations and conclusions.about the brown santo nino, its not a saint. santo in spanish is holy and not a saint so that it is the "holy child" jesus. the reason why it is brown or to some dark its because it use to be white when portuguese explorer magellan landed in the country and gave it the queen of cebu. i guess 40 years later, another spanish explorer landed in the islands to successfully colonized the country as it actually did. they returned to cebu and waged war with the natives. the natives went to the uplands leaving their houses behind. the spaniards burned their houses and afterwards a spanish soldier found an image totally charred amongst the ashes that was believed to be among the images brought by magellan in 1521. to the natives it was a miracle that the image of the "holy child" was not destroyed to the point that they never dare clean the image but still adore it just as it is today. you don't have to worry that your skin is like jesus' skin because we all know that jesus was born in israel and not a malay colored-brown skin. filipinos don't stare you basing from "religious perspective" because of your skin that matches to jesus but because your skin is rarely seen in a country that tourists (whites) don't frequently go and bec. the country is so americanized attributing to the fact that it was a former US colony, anything US is "perfect" for them.