A few weeks back I asked what your picture of Jesus looked like. Recently, I looked at the sidebar of Matt Stone’s blog, Glocal Christianity—a goldmine of Christian and religious imagery. He’s organized the images into culturally distinct sections that range from Christian Art | Esoteric to Christian Art | Asian.

Here’s one of the pictures from the Christian Art | Animated section:

Somehow I doubt Ditko drew that panel….

And here’s one from the Christian Art | Political category:

You can find all of the categories on the righthand side of his blog. What’s interesting to me is how many different ways Jesus is represented. He runs the gauntlet of skin colors, hairstyles and political ideologies; yet he’s still extremely recognizable. And when he’s not depicted on the cross, he’s usually granting his approval or disapproval to a person or statement.

The big question this cornucopia of Christs raises in my mind concerns the ways we use and abuse Jesus to sell our worldview. There are plenty of images in those archives that I disagree with, but I’m sure I’m just as guilty of painting a picture of Jesus that others could criticize. And I’m sure we can all find verses to support our outlook.

How have you seen an image of Jesus used to promote a certain viewpoint or worldview recently? Is it always offensive to use Jesus in this way? After all, even a picture of Jesus gathering the children to him can say say a lot about the artist and the culture he or she lives in.

Other thoughts?