Please, let’s focus on the message

by Jane Gilvary
Daily Local
Wednesday, December 31, 2008

In response to Ms. Karen Porter’s recent letter to the editor citing how the cré�che outside of the Chester County Courthouse is offensive because it portrays Jesus as non-Middle Eastern, I’d like to point out that Ms. Porter, who claims to be a lifelong Christian, is indeed correct. Jesus was a Jew from the town of Nazareth, which is located in the Middle East. Ms. Porter’s accuracy ends there.

Nazareth’s first inhabitants were Canaanites, Israelites, and Galilean Jews, all of whom were primarily white. And while many Middle Easterners are indeed darker skinned, most ancient and modern depictions are of Jesus as a white male. While definitive proof of Christ’s skin color might never be proven until He comes again in glory, riding on a cloud, shining like the sun as the trumpets roar, I hardly think it offensive that a manger scene portrays him as white. Are we about changing history for the sake of political correctness? True Christians know that Jesus died for everyone, not just white people.

As a “lifelong Christian” perhaps Ms. Porter should direct her spiritual and editorial energies to praying for the folks behind the “atheist tree” that looms over the cré�che, obscenely proclaiming that both God and Christ are frauds. At Christmas, nothing could be more offensive than to mock the faith of devout believers by placing a “Tree of Knowledge” next to the infant Savior.

More important than Christ’s ethnic origin, however, is his message to “love one another” and it is God’s greatest commandment. Taking the focus off of that message by complaining about a couple of statues is just plain wrong.