I didn’t have the heart to tell my Catholic driver in Hanoi that Jesus didn’t look like me, except for the beard. Since Christians, most of whom are Catholic, are a minority in predominantly Buddhist Vietnam, I’m intrigued whenever I see Mary or Jesus hanging from the rearview mirror.

This is the same Jesus I got to know growing up in a lily-white Christian environment. That was in an era when “flesh” crayons looked like my skin color, as if there were no other colors. (I don’t recall meeting a person of color until I was in high school, an example of my sheltered childhood.)

Wherever you see a “white” Jesus, you’ll find the legacy of colonialism. In Vietnam’s case, Christianity was imported primarily by the French starting in the 17th century. Catholics comprise about 7% of the population of 101 million.

This image is closer to what Jesus looked like. In 2001, forensic anthropologist Richard Neave created a model of a Galilean man for a BBC documentary, Son of God, working on the basis of a skull found in the region.

An artist painted the image of Jesus below based on Richard Neave’s work.

A Semitic Jesus is the one who should be hanging in churches and from rearview mirrors.

Peace, MAA