Jim,

Thanks for being able to see that difference in approaches...

However, if I may take a friendly exception to one thing you said:

You wrote that I had started from the premise that "Jesus actually did look like something, maybe not what has been traditionally assumed"...

I would suggest that the key word here is "traditionally".

What is traditional for one people may not traditional for other people. If we replaced the word 'traditional' with 'customary' which I believe it often means, I would agree that it has long been customary in the United States to portray Jesus as a White man with long brown hair...

However,just because this is the customary practice [in the United States] does not mean that this how the historical Jesus actually looked.

Also, [and this is a far less important point], maybe because 'male'is the default gender on Internet discussion forums, probably because Westerners are unfamiliar with my name {though this Swahili name is rather well known elsewhere as it is Arabic version Aziza"}, and certainly because there aren't any visuals of posters as blogging, I would like to note that I am a "she" and not a "he".

therefore I signing this as
Ms. Azizi

:O))