This is a very good synopsis of what has happened to “religion” in general, at least in the U.S. and likely elsewhere.

The people who understand it the least, and practice it most poorly, have given it a reputation for being the exact opposite of what its deepest and most original essence was and still is.

The sad irony is that its innate purpose is to help correct that very tendency to pervert and destroy every redeeming influence on human nature.

Sadder and more ironic still, is that atheists - the folks who pride themselves on superior reasoning powers - are working right alongside these perverters of redemption, to help tear down any hope of salvation from the cruel hand that nature dealt Homo sapiens.

That is just so going to annoy the white evangelicals of the United $tates of Absurdity.

A generic middle eastern man.

No more an 'image of Jesus Christ' than a generic Englishman would be an 'image of Isambard Kingdom Brunel'.

Any evidence for the existence of Christ is, at best, dubious. The Romans were excellent record keepers, but they don't mention him until after the event, and only then as second hand reports of what early christian believers were stating.

Posting a picture of a 'real Jesus Christ' is like posting a picture of a 'real Lord Voldemort'.

Sure, the white, blue eyed, bearded, long haired Jesus so popular in the westen (particularly American) branches of christianity are bullshit - but that doesn't make this proposed image any less bullshit itself.

That's clearly Naveen Andrews, aka Sayid Jarrah from LOST.

To be fair, you go to a church in Japan, Jesus looks oriental. Also, would not say he was an immigrant. He was born and died within the borders of the Roman Empire. Also, Jesus Christ himself was not perfect lovey dovey guy. He cursed his apostles, chased a moneychanger out with a whip even though he was earning an honest living, when Judas asked Jesus if they could sell the spikenard and give the money to the poor, Jesus essentially said “fuck the poor,” etc. Also, what’s wrong with enforcing our borders? The US is not the world’s dumping ground. Most of all, not even sure if Jesus actually existed.

He looks like Hassan, my Pakistani gas station owner who insists on pumping the gas for me. He calls me grandma and hands out peppermint candies to Lia, my granddaughter. He asks other customers if I am okay and sends his regards. We talk politics only when Lia is not with me. ( He says she is too young for those topics.
He is a Muslim. What a nice man!

Actually, there is NO "historical data" about somebody named Jesus, or anybody doing anything remotely like what is reported in the Babble until about 300 years after his supposed death. Romans kept meticulous records,and there is not one single contemporary mention of any such person.
Your pic may be an historically accurate composite of what a person from that area, in that time frame, might have looked like, but nothing more.
Nor do I care for your attempt to make people think there was such a person.......

I always told my kids when they was little that Jesus looked like Snoop Dog, turns out I was pretty close on that one......

So many people believe this crap. I do not care how they came to think this image would be true if you assume Jesus really existed. I look at this image and the guy does remind me of Bennie, a man I used to work with.

This guy in the sketch bears more than a passing resemblance to Yoshua the Goat Fucker, aka Yoshi the Chicken Fucker, cops are on the look out for this sexual predator.
Now if you examine the historic evidence that proves the existence of Jesus of Nazareth in any guise, you come up with a couple of vague accounts written by historians who were born after Jesus had already been crucified and nothing more until you get to the Holy Scriptures or Bibble for short. The Romans were very good at keeping records, especially tax records and if there was a biblical Jesus then he was either a tax evader or a vagrant who never paid a dime in taxes, owned a plot of land or showed up in a census.

If you look at any culture they all have stories from the past about people that were better than we were, some were also flawed like us to show us we could also be better. I am thinking of the Arthurian legends, the legends out of Italy and Greece of heroes who were also half gods who rose up against their trials of life and became "like unto the Gods of old" The Australian Aboriginals have their dream time myths to teach ways to behave and to explain how things are like they are.

I think it is in human nature to create stories to explain the unknown the problem is when a central character gets used all of the time "because people know the character" and so stories from over centuries are all compressed into the life of one person.

But he is right that the jesus these people say they are following would be disgusted with them.
I still laugh at the thought some woman is praying to Ewan McGregor.
They whitewash the image because the real image does not sit well with them.

My Jesus is from Ecuador, and he mows my lawn every Tuesday. (Seriously.)

The church people have a different Jesus.....not like the real Jesus whom they despise.

Nah, that's a guy called Waleed Ali, a TV show presenter on one of the Commercial Channels here in Australia.

I don't know if J. Christ existed or not but, if he did, definitely was a desert man and looked very closely to the image you shared.

He DOES resemble Jesus who always brings the pizza late.

"Shut up, Wesley".

We honestly don't know what jesus looked like.

1. This is what a person born in Bethlehem near the time of Jesus's birth MIGHT look like. The people there did not all look the same, so putting a particular face on Jesus is ridiculous.
2. The photo is what he MIGHT look like from Mary's DNA. The other half of his DNA would have come from God, and nobody has ever sequenced God's DNA. He may have been green with purple polka dots for all we know.