Jesus in Love Blog

Artist paints holy lesbians and other women: Interview with Angela Yarber

2012-03-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Holy women icons, including some lesbians, are painted in a lively contemporary style by the multi-talented Angela Yarber: artist, scholar, dancer and minister based in North Carolina.

“It is long overdue for LGBT persons to be affirmed and told their lives, bodies, and beings are holy and beloved,” she explains.

Voluptuous, vibrantly alive and life-giving women dance through her paintings. She sees her art as a “redemptive act” because it highlights people whose stories are rarely heard and affirms their alternative forms of holiness.

Yarber is the pastor for Preaching and Worship at Wake Forest Baptist Church at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. She has a PhD in art and religion from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, and is author of Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World's Religions. Yarber has been a professional dancer, artist, and clergywoman since 1999.

In 2010 she began painting an ongoing series titled “Holy Women: Icons.” It includes lesbians such as Sappho, Mary Daly and the Shulamite -- plus a wide variety of historical, Biblical, literary and mythological women. Most are uncanonized by the church, but Yarber’s paintbrush consecrates them to become unconventional saints whose lives inspire people with new models of holiness.

Her artistic style combines swirling patterns reminiscent of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” with scintillating dots and hearts. Like Sister Corita Kent, she uses text as a visual element to reinforce her artistic statement.

Yarber discusses her life and work in the following interview with Kittredge Cherry, art historian and author of the Jesus in Love Blog.

Kittredge Cherry: Why did you decide to do the “Holy Women: Icons” series?

Angela Yarber

Angela Yarber: I was serving as Associate Pastor of Arts and Education at Shell Ridge Community Church in Walnut Creek, CA (2006-2010) while I was finishing my PhD in Berkeley. One of my responsibilities was curating our gallery space. I rotated shows between individual artists and group projects so that the entire congregation could be involved. Our 2010 Lenten theme was “The Many Faces of Jesus” and the gallery was going to host an array of triptychs. I was commissioned to create one triptych and opted to paint Sophia on three canvases. As I worked on the painting, I was also contemplating what I would personally do during Lent (give up chocolate, take on a new piece of choreography, etc). As I created Sophia as a triptych icon, I decided to take on painting more holy women as icons as a Lenten discipline. So, I brainstormed a list of women, created templates, and chose 6 of them to paint during the Lenten season (one each week). After that I was hooked and couldn’t stop creating icons. For my first exhibition of these icons (summer 2010), I opted to name the show “Holy Women: Icons.” I still have many more women I want to create, so I see it as a life-long project.

“Sophia” by Angela Yarber

(Text: “Because she looked into the eyes of fragile humanity and saw the face of Jesus, her heart shattered at the sight of oppression and injustice…so she committed herself to a lifetime of picking up the broken pieces by standing for peace and dancing for justice…And now when she looks into the mirror, she sees the face of Jesus once again.”

KC: How did you choose the particular women in the series?

AY: Some of them are women in my life that are particularly important to me, such as my partner, my mother, or my aunt. Others are women, dancers, scholars, artists, and historical, mythical, or biblical figures whose lives or stories have been influential in my life. A few are commissioned works for friends, students, and colleagues during special life events, such as an ordination, calling, or graduation. All of them would be considered feminists in some way or another.

KC: I read news reports about you with headlines such as “Historic NC Baptist Church Calls Lesbian Pastor.” How does being a lesbian inform and influence your art?

AY: As a sexual minority, I live in world where some of my rights are denied. Whether it is LGBT youth who are not protected from bullying, couples who cannot file for joint adoption, students who are not permitted to learn about their own LGBT history in school, couples who are not afforded the thousands of government privileges of straight married couples, or individuals who risk being fired from their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation, there are countless LGBT voices that are not being heard.

I am a strong believer in the sentiment: “if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” It is for this reason that I am a preacher. It is for this reason that I earned a PhD. It is for this reason that I paint. I do these things because of the myriad LGBT persons who have never seen a preacher who was one of them, a scholar who was one of them, or a painting that depicted them.

Also, as a scholar and artist I think it is past time for feminist and queer theory to work together. My art is one way I put these theories into practice. It is my way of giving voice to persons and communities whose stories are rarely heard. In Saved From Silence Finding Women's Voice in Preaching, Mary Donovan Turner and Mary Lin Hudson propose that “When a person who has been oppressed and silenced stands and speaks, that person experiences redemption.” By painting these women—many of whom are lesbian or queer—and calling them “holy,” it is my hope that I am contributing to their redemption and to the redemption of the LGBT community. In these ways, I see my paintings, much like my preaching, as a redemptive act.

KC: Who is the Shulamite (pictured above) and what does she have to do with queer sexuality?

AY: The Shulamite is a dancer in Song of Songs 7, which says in part, “How beautiful are your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter. The curves of your (quivering) thighs like jewels crafted by artist hands.” I first discovered her when a dance historian mentioned her dance as a form of bellydance. This passing reference led me to translate, exegete, and publish an article about the Shulamite’s bellydance called “Undulating the Holy.” Since bellydance is historically a dance performed by women in the context women, men were rarely permitted to witness bellydance. In other words, it would be an anachronism to propose that the lover doting upon the Shulamite was male. Additionally, many of the women in all female harems performed bellydance and engaged in same-sex relations with other women in the harems. Consequently, the queer history of bellydance, combined with the absence of male pronouns in the poem describing the Shulamite in Song of Songs 7 led me to conclude that the Shulamite’s lover was likely another female.

What is more, the idea of homo and heterosexuality are not transhistorical essences, but instead are relatively recent socio-historical constructs. To say that there were strict sexual binaries in the ancient world in which the Shulamite lived would also be an anachronism. Sexuality was much more fluid. This dance and the poem describing the Shulamite are also very affirming of the female body. In these ways, the Shulamite is holy and empowering not just for women in general, but also for lesbians in particular.

“Sappho” by Angela Yarber

KC: It’s a delightful surprise to see lesbian poet Sappho among your “Holy Women.” She’s not usually known for her holiness, so why did you choose to include her?

AY: I created a Sappho icon for the same reasons I mentioned earlier: if you can’t see it, you can’t be it. It is long overdue for LGBT persons to be affirmed and told their lives, bodies, and beings are holy and beloved. Painting Sappho, in all her beautiful and bodily wisdom, was my way of affirming and redeeming the love and life she represents. There are many ways to be holy. Her life and poetry is an example of this.

“Mary Daly” by Angela Yarber

KC: Feminist philosopher Mary Daly is an especially unusual and inspired choice for an icon. How did your Mary Daly icon come into being? Daly wanted to replace the “masochistic martyrs of sadospiritual religion” in traditional hagiography with “Hag-ography” -- writing/living the real history of women. How does your “Holy Women” series relate to her vision of Hag-ography?

AY: I have a very distinct memory of my first encounter with Mary Daly. I’d learned about her in college and at first I just wasn’t ready for her radical philosophy; it scared me. The more I learned and grew in my understanding of feminism, however, the more I grew to love Mary Daly. Her Amazon Grace, The Church and the Second Sex, and Beyond God the Father were pivotal in my own formation as a scholar, activist, and preacher.

But I first encountered Daly when I attended the American Academy of Religion in Philadelphia in 2005. She was wearing green sweat pants and what looked like house slippers; she took one look at the table for panelists and the rows of chairs and scoffed. She announced that she and the panel wouldn’t use the table and we would put all the chairs in a circle for a more egalitarian discussion. It was both hilarious and meaningful at the same time.

I know that her work is not without its faults. She has a tendency to essentialize and sometimes ignores or sweeps over the voices of women of color. Because I created her as an icon does not mean I think she’s perfect or that I agree with everything she’s ever said or done. But she passed away at the beginning of 2010 when I started the Holy Women Icons project and her influence on my work kept coming to the forefront of my mind. So, I decided that she was a holy woman and deserved a painting in her honor.

There are other radical feminist and womanist scholars that I hope to create in the future. One example is Marcella Althaus-Reid.

KC: The historical Jesus was male, so why did you create a female Christ figure in your triptych “Sophia”?

AY: In Jacquelyn Grant’s White Women's Christ and Black Women's Jesus, she states, “It is my claim that there is a direct relationship between our perception of Jesus Christ and our perception of ourselves.” Many feminist and womanist theologians speak of how Jesus was male, but that the Christ could be female. Jesus was born into a particular socio-historical context. That context was patriarchal and androcentric; a woman’s voice was not valued. The message of Christ—inclusion, justice, peace, welcome, liberation, compassion, love—would not have been heard if it was proclaimed by a female during that time.

Since Sophia is the feminine Greek word for wisdom and often ascribed to the Christ by feminist and womanist theologians, I felt that painting Sophia-Christ-Wisdom was an appropriate embodiment of the theme, “The Many Faces of Jesus” that began this project. Additionally, the church has used the maleness of Jesus to oppress and silence women for centuries. Looking at an image of Christ and seeing yourself in that image (both as a woman and in the broken pieces of mirror that bear your reflection) is empowering. It emboldens us to be the presence of Christ in the world.

KC: How do viewers respond to your “Holy Women: Icons”? Was there any controversy or censorship?

AY: To my knowledge there has not been any major controversy or censorship. That is probably because of the supportive galleries where it was shown, though. My next showing will be at Gaia, a local shop in Winston-Salem, NC starting in April. Since Gaia is the name of the Earth Goddess and it’s a feminist and earth-friendly store, I’m not too worried about controversy there.

Viewers have responded in a myriad of ways. The primary response from people who do not know me is that they ask the gallery owners, “Is the artist an older black woman?” I absolutely love this! I’m actually a 30-something white woman. But I desire so much to be an anti-racist ally and to constantly be aware of my own white privilege. Many of my icons are women of color. Many are also biblical or mythological figures that are traditionally depicted as white in Renaissance paintings, but I find this likely inaccurate due to their historical locations. If our perception of these holy women impacts our perception of ourselves, it’s important for the holy women to portray that beautiful rainbow of diversity of our world. Holy women come in every color, shape, size, and from a diversity of religions. They aren’t just straight, white Christians.

Another common response is to ask about the hearts and the hair of the icons. The heart of each holy woman is essential. The idea of the giant hearts came from the sermon preached by Baby Suggs, holy, in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. She admonishes hearers to love their flesh and all their inside parts, but “more than these, love your heart,” she told them, “for this is the prize.” And the wild hair comes from the idea of Dionysian and Bacchanalian abandon where women are so filled with enthusiasm (literally meaning “having God within oneself” in Greek) that they wave their hair in wild abandon.

KC: Your website describes you as “unapologetically Baptist and unabashedly feminist.” It’s rare to find openly lesbian ministers in the Baptist church (or any church!). Were you raised Baptist? Why is it important for you to be in the Baptist church?

AY: I was not raised Baptist or in any particular religious tradition. I learned about Baptists in a church history course during college. The more I learned about historic Baptist principles—separation of church and state, the priesthood of all persons, local church autonomy, soul freedom—the more I realized that the core Baptist distinctives aligned with feminism. Baptists do not ascribe to any form of hierarchal structure that dictates beliefs or practices. Each individual is free to discern what to believe. And each local church is free to determine where they stand. It is for this reason that we see such extreme versions of Baptists in the media.

With churches like Westboro Baptist Church engaging in the most homophobic, anti-Christian, bigoted behavior, one would wonder why anyone would want to be Baptist! But their “church” isn’t affiliated with any Baptist organization. Because of Baptist polity, no hierarchy can tell them, “stop calling yourself Baptists; you’re giving us a bad reputation and you’re acting like jerks!” In the same way, no hierarchy can tell Wake Forest Baptist Church (where I am pastor) not to be the only Baptist church in the country with two lesbians as head pastors. We are each autonomous.

Wake Forest Baptist Church and I are affiliated with three welcoming and affirming Baptist organizations: the Alliance of Baptists, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.

Historically, Baptists were complete radicals. They were inclusive. They challenged the status quo. I’m proud to be a part of this radical and inclusive tradition along with the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Alvin Ailey, Peter Gomes, and Jimmy Carter.

KC: Have you done any other paintings of special interest to LGBT people?

AY: In addition to the Holy Women you’ve displayed here (Sappho, Sophia, Mary Daly, and the Shulamite), I’ve also painted others that are LGBT. Isadora Duncan had female lovers and she is one of my icons. I’ve also been commissioned to paint other icons for some of my LGBT friends or colleagues for their ordinations.

And I’m hoping to continue and expand this Holy Women Icons project by painting the icons on old doors. One side of the door would be the icon as I currently have them on canvas and the other side of the door would include more written information about the particular woman. Ideally, I’d like door frames to hold each icon so that viewers can physically walk through the door, a metaphorical doorway to divinity, if you will. Doing this is a big (and likely expensive) project though! I’ll probably need to research and find a grant in order to complete it.

KC: Female Christ figures are close to my heart and I wrote about them in my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.” Your Sophia moves me deeply with Her heart made of broken mirrors and your powerful text. How do the words connect to your own life, art and ministry?

AY: Yes, I love your book Art That Dares! The words certainly connect to my own life, art, and ministry. Since Sophia was my first official icon the text was much longer than on the rest, but I still find it fitting. When it was in the Lenten triptych show I had a couple in the congregation approach me and tell me that when they saw Sophia they saw me and all that I stand for. That was probably one of the greatest compliments I’ve received in my art and ministry!

The texts on all the icons embody who I want to be, but more than any of them Sophia is an embodiment of my calling as a woman, lesbian, artist, scholar, and preacher. It’s not descriptive so much as it is constructive. The words are constructing who I want to be in this world; painting and writing them is one step in the process of fulfilling and actualizing them.

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For more on Angela Yarber, watch the video below and visit her website www.angelayarber.com. People can purchase or commission her paintings by contacting her through her website.

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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery.

March is Women's History Month, so women will be especially highlighted this month at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Peter Gomes: Gay black Harvard minister preached "scandalous gospel"

2012-02-28T11:42:00.002-08:00

“The Rev. Peter Gomes, of Plymouth, 1942 – 2011” by Jon Dorn

Peter Gomes was a gay black Baptist minister at Harvard and one of America’s most prominent spiritual voices against intolerance. Gomes reportedly hated being labeled “gay minister,” yet he used his national celebrity to make the religious case for LGBT people. He died one year ago today at age 68 on Feb. 28, 2011.

A man of many contradictions, Gomes became a Democrat in 2007 after decades as a conservative Republican. He even gave the benediction at President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 and preached at the National Cathedral for the inauguration of Reagan’s successor, George Bush.

Gomes (May 22, 1942 - Feb. 28, 2011) was born in Boston to a black African immigrant father and a mother from Boston’s African American upper middle class. He grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, earned a divinity degree at Harvard University, and taught Western civilization at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for two years before returning to work at Harvard in 1970. Four years later he became the first black to hold the historic position of chief minister to Harvard. He held the positions of Pusey minister at Harvard’s Memorial Church and Plummer professor of Christian morals for the rest of his life.

He came out publicly as “a Christian who happens as well to be gay” at a student rally in 1991 after a conservative student magazine at Harvard published a condemnation of homosexuality. “I now have an unambiguous vocation -- a mission -- to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia,” he later told the Washington Post. “I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the 'religious case' against gays.”

In his 1996 best-seller, “The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart,” he showed how the Bible was misused to defend homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and sexism.

His 2007 book “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?” went on to show that Jesus was a subversive whose radical gospel always overturns the status quo.

Among Gomes’s many admirers is artist Jon Dorn, who drew the portrait at the top of this post. Dorn is a cartoonist, filmmaker, and Master of Fine Arts student at Emerson College in Boston. He also serves on the Plymouth Cultural Council.

Gomes’ blend of scholarship, wisdom and accessibility is expressed in a few selected quotations:

“Hell is being defined by your circumstances, and believing that definition.” -- Peter Gomes

“The question should not be ‘What would Jesus do?’ but rather, more dangerously, “What would Jesus have me do?’” -- Peter Gomes in The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?

“To some, the temporal triumph of the Christian community in the world is a sign of God's favor and the essential righteousness of the Christian position. The irony of the matter, though, is that whenever the Christian community gains worldly power, it nearly always loses its capacity to be the critic of the power and influence it so readily brokers.” --Peter J. Gomes in The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?

“The battle for the Bible, of which homosexuality is the last front, is really the battle for the prevailing culture, of which the Bible itself is a mere trophy and icon. Such a cadre of cultural conservatives would rather defend their ideology in the name of the authority of scripture than concede that their self-serving reading of that scripture might just be wrong, and that both the Bible and the God who inspires it may be more gracious, just and inclusive than they can presently afford to be.” -- Peter Gomes in The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart

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Books by Peter Gomes include:

The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart
The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?
Sermons: Biblical Wisdom For Daily Living

The Good Life: Truths that Last in Times of Need

Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living

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Related links:

Remembering Peter Gomes: Black, Gay, Baptist Preacher (Queering the Church)

Rev. Peter Gomes: The Accidental Gay Advocate (Irene Monroe at HuffPost)

Gay, Black, Republican, Baptist Preacher, Rev. Peter Gomes, 1942-2011 (Candace Chellew-Hodge at Religion Dispatches)

Rev. Peter J. Gomes Is Dead at 68; A Leading Voice Against Intolerance (New York Times)

Peter Gomes video Would Jesus Support Gay Marriage? (also posted below)

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This post is part of a new effort to add authors and theologians to the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

“Jesus in Love” novels are now e-books too

2012-02-25T11:50:00.004-08:00

My “Jesus in Love” novels are available as e-books on Kindle starting this month -- just in time for Lent.

The two novels present a fictional autobiography of a queer Christ. They can still be purchased in paperback format too.

“Jesus in Love” covers Christ’s early ministry while “At the Cross,” the sequel, explores the dramatic events of his Last Supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. Many people have enjoyed reading “At the Cross” during Lent, the season of reflection leading up to Easter.

“What a delicious treat on the first Sunday of Lent. I have been yearning to feel closer to Jesus, and this book has been a great help,” says says Dennis O’Neill, Catholic priest and author of Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People.

In both of my novels Jesus, the narrator, blends male and female as he does humanity and divinity. The gender-blind, gender-bending Jesus falls in love with people of both sexes -- and with the Holy Spirit -- in these lyrical novels of spiritual and sexual awakening. He has today’s queer sensibilities and psychological sophistication as he lives out the Christian story in first-century Palestine. He transcends gender identity, sexual orientation, and ultimately death itself.

I don’t have my own Kindle ebook reader yet, so I can’t check them out myself. I would love to hear from others about how my books look in ebook format. Let me know if you find any glitches and I will ask my publisher to correct them. Please review the book for Amazon.com too.

The price for Kindles recently dropped as low as $79, so I added the Kindle to my wish list.

Excerpts from “At the Cross” by Kittredge Cherry are available online in a Holy Week series. The Jesus in Love Blog is offered on Kindle too.
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Related links:

Jesus in Love paperback

Jesus in Love e-book

At the Cross paperback

At the Cross e-book

Ash Wednesday: A day to recall queers executed for sodomy

2012-02-22T00:04:00.000-08:00

“The Shameful End of Bishop Atherton and his Proctor John Childe,” hanged for sodomy in 1641 in Dublin (Wikimedia Commons)

Ash Wednesday is an appropriate time to reflect on the sins of the church and state against queer people, including the execution of thousands for homosexuality over the past 1,000 years.

Christians traditionally put ashes on their foreheads as a sign of repentance on Ash Wednesday, which is observed today (Feb. 22) this year. The ashes can also serve as a sobering way to remember and repent the church’s role in executions for homosexuality, including the burning of “sodomites.”

Terrence Weldon of Queering the Church is doing extensive research on the whole sad history of execution of queer people. He is assembling a chronology called “Burned for Sodomy” with the goal of listing all those killed for homosexuality in church- or state-sanctioned executions. It stretches from the 13th century almost to the present.

Some of the executions for sodomy have been recorded by artists. The image at the top of this post shows John Atherton, Anglican bishop of Waterford and Lismore, and his lover John Childe being hanged for “buggery” in 1640 in Dublin, Ireland. The bishop was executed under a law that he helped to institute! The picture comes from an anonymous 1641 booklet titled “The Shameful End of Bishop Atherton and his Proctor John Childe.” The title tries to shame and blame the victims, but I believe that the shame belongs to the church and society who killed them for who and how they loved.

Four additional historical images are presented below to remember and honor these whose lives were desecrated and cut short.

Balboa executing two-spirit Native Americans for homosexuality in 1513 in Panama -- engraving by Théodore De Bry, 1594 (Wikimedia Commons).

The Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa found homosexuality among the Native American chiefs at Quarqua in Panama. He ordered 40 of these two-spirited people thrown to his war dogs to be torn apart and eaten alive to stop the “stinking abomination.”

The knight of Hohenberg and his servant, accused of sodomy, were executed by burning in Zürich in 1482. (Wikimedia Commons)

The knight of Hohenberg and his servant, accused sodomites, were executed by burning before the walls of Zurich, Switzerland in 1482. Source: Diebold Schilling, Chronik der Burgunderkriege, Schweizer Bilderchronik, Band 3, um 1483 (Zürich, Zentralbibliothek)

Execution of sodomites in Ghent in 1578 -- drawing by Franz Hogenberg (Wikimedia Commons)

Five Catholic monks were burned to death for homosexuality on June 28, 1578, in Ghent, Belguim.

Dutch massacre of sodomites in Amsterdam in 1730-31 (Wikimedia Commons)

A total of 96 gay men were executed for sodomy in the Netherlands years 1730-31.

For the first 1,000 years of church history, Christianity was relatively tolerant of homoerotic relationships. Then came campaigns against heresy, which often used the terms “heresy” and “sodomy” interchangeably. Then hostility began to be directed specifically at same-sex erotic behavior. Weldon locates the fateful period when the atrocities began in a well researched overview titled “Lest We Forget: The Ashes of Our Martyrs”:

In 1120, the Church Council of Nablus specified burning at the stake for homosexual acts. Although this penalty may not immediately have been applied, other harsh condemnations followed rapidly. In 1212, the death penalty for sodomy was specified in in France. Before long the execution of supposed “sodomites”, often by burning at the stake, but also by other harsh means, had become regular practice in many areas.

The church contributed to the deaths of thousands for homosexuality over the next 700 years. Witch burning occurred in the same period and claimed the lives of countless lesbian women whose non-conformity was condemned as witchcraft. (Current events in Uganda prove that some are STILL using Christianity to justify the death penalty for homosexuality up to the present day.) As Weldon concludes,

Obviously, the Catholic Church cannot be held directly responsible for the judicial sentences handed down by secular authorities in Protestant countries. It can, however, be held responsible for its part in fanning the flames of bigotry and hatred in the early part of the persecution, using the cloak of religion to provide cover for what was in reality based not on Scripture or the teaching of the early Church, but on simple intolerance and greed.

It is important as gay men, lesbians and transgendered that we remember the examples of the many who have in earlier times been honoured by the Church as saints or martyrs for the faith. It is also important that we remember the example of the many thousands who have been martyred by the churches – Catholic and other.

Milder forms of anti-LGBT persecution continue in the church. Now it is common to freeze LGBT people out of church leadership positions. Chris Glaser writes about the exclusion from clergy roles as a “fast imposed by others” in the following prayer based on the practice of fasting during Lent, the season of individual and collective repentance and reflection between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

One: Jesus,
     our fast has been imposed by others,
     our wilderness sojourn their choice more than ours.
Many: Our fast from the sacraments,
     our fast from ordination:
     our only choice was honesty.
One: With the scapegoats of the ancient Hebrews,
     sexual sins of generations
     have been heaped upon our backs,
     and we have been sent away,
     excommunicated, into the wilderness to die.
Many: Yet we choose life,
     even in our deprivation
One: Jesus, lead us to discern our call
     parallel to your own:
     rebelling against the boundaries,
     questioning the self-righteous authorities,
     breaking the Sabbath law
     to bring healing.

This prayer comes from “Rite for Lent” by Chris Glaser, published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations. Glaser spent 30 years struggling with the Presbyterian Church for the right to ordination as an openly gay man before he was ordained to the ministry in Metropolitan Community Churches in 2005. He recently launched a new blog for progressive Christian reflections at chrisglaser.blogspot.com.

It is horrifying to remember the "burning times," especially for those like me who count ourselves as part of the Christian tradition. Let us rise from the ashes with these verses from the Bible:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.
[Psalm 51: 10, 17]

Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a you to humble yourself?
Is it to bow down your head like a rush,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under you?
Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to God?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily.
[Isaiah 58:5-8]

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Related links:

“Burned for sodomy” (Queering the Church)

Lest We Forget: The Ashes of Our Martyrs (Queering the Church)

The blood-soaked thread (Wild Reed)

List of people executed for homosexuality (Wikipedia)

BURN BABY BURN: A Knight, a Squire, a Bishop, a Steward, Five RC Monks and Millions of murders initiated by bigots at Church! (Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano Blog)

The Gay Holocaust (Matt and Andrej Koymasky)

Gay chronicles from the beginning of time to the end of World War II (Len Evans)

A History of Homophobia, 3 The Later Roman Empire & The Early Middle Ages (Rictor Norton)

A History of Homophobia, 4 Gay Heretics and Witches" (Rictor Norton)

Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook (Rictor Norton, editor)

“Pilloried” - a poem by Andrew Craig Williams

Book: Homosexuality and Civilization by Louis Crompton

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Image credit:

Ash Wednesday Service in Westminster Cathedral by Mazur at the Catholic Church in England and Wales

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This post is part of the LGBT Holidays series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to LGBT and queer people of faith and our allies.

Marcella Althaus-Reid: Queer theology pioneer

2012-02-20T13:22:00.001-08:00

Marcella Althaus-Reid

Marcella Althaus-Reid was a queer theologian whose controversial books include “Indecent Theology” and “The Queer God.” Born in Argentina, she became the first woman appointed to a chair in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2006. She held that post when she died at age 56 -- three years ago today.

Althaus-Reid (May 11, 1952- Feb. 20, 2009) was baptized as a Roman Catholic and grew up in Buenos Aires. She earned her first theological degree there from ISEDET (Instituto Superior Evangelico de Estudios Teologicos), Latin America’s renowned center for studying liberation theology, which emphasizes God’s “preferential option for the poor.”

Next she gained recognition for working on social and community projects in the slums of Buenos Aires. As she continued her studies, Althaus-Reid applied the principles of liberation theology to women and sexual minorities, including LGBT people.

Her first book, “Indecent Theology,” was published in 2000 and established her international reputation as a self-proclaimed “indecent, Latina, bisexual theologian.” The book challenges the sexual oppression behind traditional Christian concepts of decency and introduces theology rooted in the context of people whose sexual freedom has been limited. In 2003 she wrote “The Queer God,” in which she aims to liberate God from the closet of sex-negative Christian thought and embrace God’s role in the lives of LGBTQ people.

Her writing style is dense and her books continue to be controversial, even among LGBT people of faith. But nobody denies that Althaus-Reid took risks to raise important issues based on queer life and spirituality.

Her originality and flashes of insight are expressed in the following quotation from “The Queer God”:

“Our task and our joy is to find or simply recognise God sitting amongst us, at any time, in any gay bar or in the home of a camp friend who decorates her living room as a chapel and doesn’t leave her rosary at home when going to a salsa bar.”

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Links to book by or about Marcella Althaus-Reid:

Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics

The Queer God

From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology

Liberation Theology and Sexuality

Dancing theology in fetish boots: Essays in honour of Marcella Althaus Reid

More books by Marcella Althaus-Reid

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Related links:

Official website Althaus-Reid.com

Remembering Marcella Althaus-Reid, “Indecent theologian” (Queer Saints and Martyrs - And Others)

Marcella Althaus-Reid: Theology’s bisexual shock jock an queen of obscene (Rollan’s Censored Issues Blog)

Marcella Althaus-Reid (The Dance of the Elements)

Vale Marcella Althaus-Reid 1952-2009 (Michael Carden's Jottings)
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This post is part of a new effort to add authors and theologians to the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Conservatives protest “Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” for lesbian Virgin Mary

2012-02-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Ad for “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” from Queen City Theatre Company

Conservative Christian protestors couldn’t stop a North Carolina production of “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” a gleefully queer play based on the Bible. Despite protest letters and prayer vigils, the comedy is running through Feb. 18 in Charlotte, NC.

“The implication that the Blessed Virgin Mary is a lesbian is gravely offensive to Catholics and to all Christians,” bishop Peter J. Jugis wrote in a Jan. 31 letter asking the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center to cancel the show. Jugis heads Charlotte’s Roman Catholic diocese.

As a lesbian Christian, I must disagree with the bishop. The play uses witty LGBT-oriented humor to express love and the explore human connection to God. I find it appropriate and even inspiring for a play to suggest that the Virgin Mary was a lesbian.

A long-running off-Broadway hit, “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” was written by Paul Rudnick in 1998. It puts a flamboyantly gay twist on the creation story with two same-sex couples: Adam and Steve -- and Jane and Mabel! They share adventures together through the centuries, including a hilarious time on Noah’s Ark and slavery in Egypt under an effeminate Pharaoh who won’t let them go because of his crush on Moses.

The second act finds the foursome in contemporary New York City on Christmas Eve at a party thrown by Adam and Steve as Jane and Mabel wait for their child to be born. When Mabel gives birth, it echoes Mary’s virgin birth, leading to the accusations of blasphemy.

Rudnick is a gay Jewish American writer whose other credits include Jeffrey and Addams Family Values.

About 100 Charlotte Catholics held a peaceful protest in front of the theater on opening night (Feb. 2). The protest is covered in the news video below. Conservatives plan to continue “Holy Hour of Reparation” prayer vigils in homes and chapels during every performance.

Queen City Theatre Company, producer of the play, defended it in a statement quoted in news reports. They say it will “celebrate love, faith, belief, God, and the right to question why we exist and why are on this earth. This production will not be stopped out of fear or pressure.”

Thank you, Queen City Theatre Company! You are making God more accessible to LGBT people of faith and our allies. The protests only prove how important it is to present this vision of the story that is indeed the most fabulous every told.
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Related links:

Catholics protest 'blasphemous' play (Charlotte Observer)

News video: Playful Twist To Creation Story Brings Wrath Of Charlotte Catholics (Fox Charlotte)

Book: “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” by Paul Rudnick

Lesbian couple portrays Madonna (art by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin)

Lesbian Madonna, lover and son affirm Christmas (art by Becki Jayne Harrelson)

Our Lady & Queer Saints art attacked as blasphemy (art by Alma Lopez)

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Special thanks to the Radical Mary Blog for the news tip!

News video:

Saint Valentine: Marriage equality role model

2012-02-14T00:48:00.000-08:00

“Saint Valentine” by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, TrinityStores.com

Marriage equality has a surprising role model in Saint Valentine, a 3rd-century Roman priest who defied the restrictive marriage laws of his era to bless couples who were forbidden to marry. His feast day is, of course, today -- Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14).

Saint Valentine was not gay, but he put love above the law to perform outlaw marriages in his day. He can be an inspiration for the current movement to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Roman Emperor Claudius II thought that he would get more and better soldiers if men were not allowed to marry, so he issued a decree outlawing marriage. Saint Valentine continued to perform weddings in secret until he was arrested and executed for defying the ban on such marriages. Legend has it that he fell in love with a woman who visited him in prison, sending her a letter that ended “From your Valentine” -- the original prototype for today’s Valentine greeting cards.

Saint Valentine also did weddings for Christian couples at a time when the church was persecuted. Now the tables are turned and conservative Christians are sometimes persecuting LGBT people. They are among the most visible opponents of marriage equality.

But brave clergy are following in the footsteps of St. Valentine. They pioneered the blessing of same-sex relationships long before it was on the secular political agenda and continue to face punishment for defying marriage laws. For example, Troy Perry performed what may be the first modern same-sex wedding in 1969, a year after he founded the LGBT-affirming Metropolitan Community Churches. In the latest case, lesbian minister Rev. Jane Spahr was censured on Feb. 21 by the Presbyterian Church for marrying 16 same-sex couples during the brief period when such marriages were legal in California.

While Saint Valentine is not known to have performed same-sex weddings, church history does provide powerful examples of same-sex couples to inspire today’s lovers -- whether or not we have the right to marry. Links to some of them are listed below. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Boris and George: United in love and death

Brigid and Darlughdach: Brigid loved her female soulmate

David and Jonathan: Love between men in the Bible

Hildegard of Bingen and Richardis: Mystic who loved women

John Henry Newman and Ambrose St. John: Did the Pope beatify a gay saint?

Perpetua and Felicity: Friends to the end

Polyeuct and Nearchus: Brothers by affection

Ruth and Naomi: Love between women in the Bible

Sergius and Bacchus: Ancient Roman soldiers and gay lovers

Symeon and John: The holy fool and the hermit who loved each other

Wenceslas and Podiven: Good (gay) King Wenceslas
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Related links:

Saint Valentine and Same Sex Marriage (The Den)

St. Valentine: The politics of love, rights and same-sex marriages (Nigerian Voice)

Valentine’s Day: Same Sex Lovers in Church History (Queering the Church)

A Quiet Struggle Within the Gay Marriage Fight (New York Times)
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Image credits:

“David and Jonathan” by Ryan Grant Long

"Saints Perpetua and Felicity"by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM. © 1996,www.trinitystores.com

“Sts. Sergius and Bacchus” by Plamen Petrov, St. Martha Church, Morton Grove, IL
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This post is part of the LGBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Brothers by affection: Saints Polyeuct and Nearchus

2012-02-13T00:15:00.000-08:00

Saints Polyeuct and Nearchus

Saints Polyeuct and Nearchus were Roman soldiers in 3rd-century Armenia and “brothers by affection.” They are a prime example of same-sex lovers in the early church. Polyeuct’s feast day is today (Feb. 13).

The earliest account of Polyeuct’s martyrdom, a 4th-century Armenian biography, says that they were “brothers, not by birth, but by affection” and enjoyed “the closest possible relationship, being both comrades and fellow soldiers.”

St. Polyeuctus (Wikimedia Commons)

Nearchus was Christian, but Polyeuct was not. The men had a strong desire to spend eternity together, so Polyeuct converted from paganism to Christianity, the faith of his beloved Nearchus. With a convert’s zeal he attacked a pagan procession. He was beheaded for his crime in the year 259 in the western Armenian city of Militene. Shortly before he was executed, he spoke his last words to Nearchus: “Remember our secret vow.” Thus Polyeuct is known as a protector of vows and avenger of broken promises, in addition to his role as a probable “gay saint.”

Yale history professor John Boswell names Polyeuct and Nearchus as one of the three primary pairs of same-sex lovers in the early church. (The others are Perpetua and Felicity and Sergius and Bacchus.) The love story of Polyeuct and Nearchus is told with extensive historical detail in two books, “Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe” by Boswell and “Passionate Holiness” by Dennis O’Neill. He is founder of the Living Circle, the interfaith LGBT spirituality center that commissioned the above icon of the loving same-sex pair.

The icon is by Brother Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar and world-class iconographer known for his innovative icons. It is one of 10 Lentz icons that sparked a major controversy in 2005. Critics accused Lentz of glorifying sin and creating propaganda for a progressive sociopolitical agenda, and he temporarily gave away the copyright for the controversial images to his distributor, Trinity Stores.

Polyeuctus and Nearchus by Jim Ru

Artist Jim Ru was also inspired to paint Polyeuct and Nearchus. His version was displayed in his show “Transcendent Faith: Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Saints” in Bisbee Arizona in the 1990s.

O’Neill reports that French writer Robert Dartois recently took the story of Polyeuct and Nearchus from “Passionate Holiness” and turned it into a libretto, which was then set by the Swiss composer Thierry Chatelain as the oratorio “Polyeucte et Nearchus.”

There are many variations in the spellings of their names, such as Polyeuctus, Polyeuctes, Polyeuktos and Nearchos and Nearch. Polyeuct’s feast day is Feb.13 in the Catholic calendar, but falls on Jan. 9 in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and Jan. 7 in ancient Armenian calendars. The feast day for Nearchus is April 22.

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Related link:

Saints Polyeuct and Nearchos, 3rd Century Lovers and Martyrs (Queer Saints and Martyrs -- And Others)

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
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Icons of Polyeuct and Nearchus and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

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New book shows closeted gay Jesus: "Dark Knowledge" by Kenneth Low

2012-02-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

If Jesus was gay, was he open and self-affirming… or ashamed and secretive?

People who think that Jesus was queer usually assume that he accepted his own homosexuality, but a new book presents a disturbing portrait of a closeted gay Jesus who felt shame over his same-sex relationships.

“Dark Knowledge” by Kenneth Low uses rational arguments to disprove much of the conventional wisdom about Christ. According to Low, Jesus was not heterosexual, not celibate, and not happy with his own identity.

The whole book is an analysis of why Jesus was executed. The standard explanation is that Jesus was crucified for blasphemy. Low dismisses this as too implausible to be believed. Instead he comes to a startling conclusion: Jesus was killed for committing homosexual acts.

Low is a retired physician living in Davis, California and “Dark Knowledge” is his first work. His odd but intriguing book offers no information about the author other than his name. Low’s blog explains that he keeps his background a mystery so that his arguments can be judged purely on their own merits. However Low does admit on his blog, “ ‘Dark Knowledge’ is really a work of vision that is the product of my own personal journey.”

Low presents evidence that Jesus must have been homosexual because he was an unmarried man who surrounded himself with men, including John, his beloved male disciple and sexual partner. Still Low is also clear that Jesus was divine. The following quotation illustrates Low’s viewpoint and detached tone:

In His childhood, Jesus Christ came into His awareness of being the Son of God. His magical authority and other attributes were given to Him as His birthright. As He came into sexual awareness, He discovered Himself to be a homosexual. His awareness of being the Son of God precluded any possibility of denying His sexuality out of some external concern and He began to be sexually active. He was evidently discovered to be a homosexual by people in His hometown and He must have been sharply rebuked and ostracized. He left Galilee and wandered on an endless soulful sojourn seeking a reconciliation of His divinity with His homosexuality. (p. 276)

Low goes on to describe how Jesus brought his life and ministry to its “inevitable conclusion” in Jerusalem. “Just as He couldn’t escape his homosexuality, neither could He keep it a secret forever,” (p. 276) he writes. Low’s version of the Passion story unfolds this way: Judas revealed the “dark knowledge” of Jesus’ homosexuality to the religious authorities, causing a sudden loss of public support for Jesus. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus was “overwhelmed with sorrow because He was filled with shame” about his soon-to-be-revealed homosexual acts. At his trial the normally eloquent Jesus gave evasive answers because, although he was an expert at religious debate, he couldn’t deny the truth of his homosexuality. Wanting to be punished, he pleaded guilty in exchange for dropping the charges against his sexual partner.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is Low’s demonstration of how Jesus’ theology was shaped by being queer. Low argues that Jesus came to identify with the poor and disenfranchised because he was gay:

As the Son of God, Jesus Christ had discovered Himself to be a homosexual and had found celibacy impossible… He also understood that homosexuality was a sexual crime under the Law of Moses. His feeling was that His homosexuality was something He needed to passively accept and He was cast in the role of the disobedient Son of God. His feeling of self-worth required that He find meaning in His disobedience and He came to view Himself as an advocate for the sinful disobedience of the world. (p. 286)

Some of Low’s conclusions seem questionable, especially his assertion that “no one is ever really reconciled with his or her sexuality.” If Jesus was truly divine, then surely he could have found a way to unite sexuality and spirituality, an idea that I explore in my novels Jesus in Love and At the Cross (Jesus in Love). Low also seems to assume that each gospel were written by a single eyewitness, an idea disputed by most Bible scholars. Unlike Low, I find it believable that Jesus could have been executed for blasphemy. Even today LGBT Christians still receive death threats from Christian conservatives who accuse them of blasphemy. Despite its flaws, “Dark Knowledge” makes for stimulating reading and a darkly illuminating vision of a gay Jesus.
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Related links:

“Dark Knowledge” review by Toby Johnson, author of Gay Spirituality

Video on Dark Knowledge

Video book trailer for Dark Knowledge

Newsletter on LGBT spirituality and the arts - sign up now

2012-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Our February e-newsletter is out with these headlines: Top stories of 2011, LGBT art attack at church, Uganda's gay martyr, Saint Brigid and more. Click here to see it.

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Brigid: Saint and woman-loving soulmate

2012-02-01T00:33:00.000-08:00

Saints Brigid and Darlughdach of Kildare

trinitystores.com

St. Brigid and her soulmate Darlughdach were sixth-century Irish nuns who brought art, education and spirituality to early medieval Ireland. Brigid (c.451-525) shares her name and feast day (Feb. 1) with a Celtic goddess -- and she may have been the last high priestess of the goddess Brigid.

Raised by Druids, Brigid seems to have made a smooth transition from being a pagan priestess to a Christian abbess. Today she is Ireland’s most famous female saint. Her name is also spelled Bridget. Legend says that when she made her final vows as a nun, the bishop in charge was so overcome by the Holy Spirit that he administered the rite for ordaining a (male) bishop instead.

A younger nun named Darlughdach served as Brigid’s ambassador and her “anam cara” or soul friend. The two women were so close that they slept in the same bed. Like many Celtic saints, Brigid believed that each person needs a soul friend to discover together that God speaks most powerfully in the seemingly mundane details of shared daily life. The love between these two women speaks to today’s lesbians and their allies. Some say that Brigid and Darlughdach are lesbian saints.

Brigid started convents all over Ireland and became the abbess of the “double monastery” (housing both men and women) at Kildare. Built on land that was previously sacred to her divine namesake, the monastery included an art school for creating illuminated manuscripts.

After turning 70, Brigid warned Darlughdach that she expected to die soon. Her younger soulmate begged to die at the same time. Brigid wanted her to live another year so she could succeed her as abbess. Brigid died of natural causes on Feb. 1, 525. The bond between the women was so close that Darlughdach followed her soulmate in death exactly one year later on Feb. 1, 526.

Both Christians and pagans celebrate St. Brigid’s Day on Feb. 1. It is also known as Imbolc, a spring festival when the goddess Brigid returns as the bride of spring in a role similar to the Greek Persephone. People still celebrate her day by weaving twigs into a square “Brigid’s Cross,” an ancient solar symbol traditionally made to welcome spring.

Brigid’s main symbol was fire, representing wisdom, poetry, healing and metallurgy. The nuns at the Kildare monastery kept a perpetual fire burning in Brigid’s memory for more than a thousand years -- until 1540 when it was extinguished in Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The Order of St. Brigid was reestablished in 1807. Two Brigidine sisters returned to Kildare and relit the fire in the market square for the first time in more than 400 years on Feb. 1, 1993. The perpetual flame is now kept at the Solas Bhride (Brigid’s Light) Celtic Spirituality Center that they founded there. In addition, anyone may sign up to tend St. Brigid’s flame in their own homes through the Ord Brighideach Order of Flame Keepers.

Brigid and Darlughdach are shown with their arms around each other in the above icon by Brother Robert Lentz. He is a Franciscan friar and world-class iconographer known for his progressive icons. The two women are dressed in the white gowns worn by Druid priestesses and Celtic nuns. Flames burn above them and on the mandala of Christ that they carry. It is one of 40 icons featured in his book “Christ in the Margins.”

The icon was commissioned by the Living Circle, a Chicago-based interfaith spirituality center for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community and their friends. Four Living Circle members took the original icon to Kildare with them in 2000 for the flame-lighting ceremony at the recently excavated site of Brigid’s ancient fire temple.

Dennis O’Neill, the priest who founded the Living Circle, includes the icon and an excellent biography of Brigid and Darlughdach in his book “Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People.”

“St. Brigid of 100,000 Welcomes”
by Br. Mickey McGrath
trinitystores.com

Brigid’s spirit of fun and hospitality is expressed in her reputation for loving beer. She made beer for the poor every Easter. “St. Brigid of 100,000 Welcomes” by Brother Mickey McGrath (left) shows her bringing a big glass of beer with a Brigid’s cross in the background. In a well known poem attributed to Brigid, she envisioned heaven as a great lake of beer. Riain also sings a heavenly Ode To Bridget on the video below and on her Celtic Soul album. Here are some of the words to St. Brigid’s Prayer, as translated and performed by Irish singer Noirin Ni Riain:

I’d sit with the men, the women of God
There by the lake of beer
We’d be drinking good health forever
And every drop would be a prayer.

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Icons of Brigid and Darlughdach and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

The following innovative images of Saint Brigid are also available from TrinityStores.com:

“St. Brigid of Ireland” by Lewis Williams, SFO, trinitystores.com

“St. Brigid’s Lake of Beer” by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, trinitystores.com

“St. Brigid” by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, trinitystores.com

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

David Kato: Ugandan LGBT rights activist (1964-2011)

2012-01-26T10:16:00.000-08:00

“David Kato” by Rod Byatt

David Kato, Ugandan LGBT rights activist, was beaten to death one year ago today (Jan. 26). He is considered a father of Uganda’s gay rights movement.

David Kato

Some blame religious rhetoric for his death. American evangelicals helped stir up the hostility that led to Kato’s death because they promoted a law imposing the death penalty for homosexuality. Shortly before his murder Kato won a lawsuit against a Ugandan magazine for identifying him as gay and calling for his execution.

The law never passed and in November Kato’s murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, the anti-gay motive for the murder was covered up in the trial.

Australian artist Rod Byatt drew the portrait of David Kato above. The stark, unfinished quality of the portrait conveys the sense of a life cut short. Byatt posted it on his blog **gasp!** (Gay Artists’ Sketchbook Project) with a reflection that begins, “We grieve over the loss of David Kato. We know that being gay is anathema to Family, Church and State, and increasingly The Media...” Byatt is part of the Urban Sketching movement that seeks to link personal identity to broader social issues.

A new documentary about Kato, “Call Me Kuchu,” will premiere Feb. 11 at the Berlin Film Festival. Watch the trailer for the video below.

Call Me Kuchu - Trailer from Call Me Kuchu on Vimeo.

Below is a news video about Kato from “The Rachel Maddow Show.” It includes scenes from David’s funeral, where Ugandan clergy speak both for and against LGBT rights, and David’s own voice in an NPR interview about homosexuality in Uganda.

On the anniversary of his murder, may those who honor David Kato’s legacy continue to work for justice and equality for all. May he find peace with all the other LGBT martyrs and saints who have gone before.

Related links:

Activists, Filmmakers Mark First Anniversary of David Kato Murder (Towelroad)

Portrait of David Kato by Random Salmon

They will say we are not here (New York Times, Jan. 25, 2012)

Ugandan Activists Commemorate Anniversary of David Kato's Death (Advocate)

David Kato at Wikipedia

In Uganda, a “Fearless Voice” for Gay Rights is Brutally Silenced (Wild Reed Blog)

David Kato: A new Ugandan martyr (Queer Saints and Martyrs - And Others)

Ugandan gay hero remembered (Madpriest)

Martyrs of Uganda (Walking with Integrity Blog)

The Silence of the Wolves (Counterlight's Peculiars Blog)
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Huffington Post features Kittredge Cherry on LGBT Christian art

2012-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

My writing is featured at Huffington Post starting today with my first piece, “Attack on LGBT Christian Art: An Ugly Trend Continues.”

See it now at the following link. Please leave a comment and share the link with friends:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kittredge-cherry/lgbt-christian-art_b_1229585.html

I’m thrilled and honored by my new role as an official blogger in the Gay Voices section of Huffington Post, an Internet newspaper that gets more than 35 million visitors per month. I will continue blogging regularly here at Jesus in Love too.

My first piece at HuffPost examines the recent attack on a gay and lesbian Nativity scene at a Claremont church, putting it into the larger context of an ugly trend targeting LGBT Christian art. I look forward to reading your comments at Huffington Post.

Hate crime targets gay and lesbian Nativity scene at Claremont church

2012-01-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

Gay and lesbian Nativity scene by John Zachary at Claremont United Methodist Church -- before vandals attacked it.

A recent attack on a gay and lesbian Nativity scene at a California church is being investigated as a hate crime by police.

Vandals knocked over the same-sex couples in a manger scene at Claremont United Methodist Church in Claremont, CA, doing $3,000 in damage. The destruction proves the ongoing need for religious images that affirm LGBT people.

The Claremont church dared to re-imagine the Nativity scene as three couples -- gay, lesbian and heterosexual. They stood on the church lawn in life-sized silhouettes built from 600-pound light boxes. Each pair held hands beneath the star of Bethlehem. The words “Christ is born” blazed above them. There was no baby Jesus, but a small tree of life grew atop a statement pointing out that “Christ was the victim of hate and intolerance while he taught love and compassion.” After the attack, only the straight couple was left standing.

The Claremont Nativity has various meanings. It suggests that Christ is born anew to every couple, regardless of their sexual orientation. The scene also implies that queer people today are following the star in search of Christ, hoping that there will be room at the manger for gays and lesbians.

Leaders at the Claremont church emphasized that they wanted to show where Christ might be born today. Since 1993 the church has been a “reconciling” congregation, committed to welcoming LGBT into the full life of the church. “We do believe that Christ is in the world for the outcast and not for the privileged, and so each year we want to represent that through our Nativity scene,” youth minister Rev. Dan Lewis told KTLA-TV news.

For the last six years artist John Zachary has worked with the church to create progressive versions of the Nativity scene, but nobody damaged them until now. Previous versions addressed themes of poverty, war, immigration, racism and prison. When the Holy Family was shown as homeless in an alley full of trash and shopping carts, strangers spontaneously left bags of food and clothing at the Nativity, prompting the church to launch a Christmas homeless outreach.

The gay and lesbian Nativity evoked no such compassion. Police quickly labeled the attack a hate crime because it occurred on church property and targeted a specific group: gays and lesbians. The crime occurred on Christmas Eve and remains unsolved.

I take this attack personally because Christian conservatives made nasty accusations of blasphemy against me for creating my own gay and lesbian Nativity scenes. Like the Claremont church, I was motivated by a desire to communicate the love of God for all. Last month I also coordinated a Queer Nativity project with liberating images from 7 people here at the Jesus in Love Blog. I documented other attacks on LGBT Christian art in my book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More

Claremont’s gay and lesbian Nativity is one of the best that I have seen. Vandals should have stopped to reflect on the message written at the base of its tree of life:

“We must look to all people to discover the prophetic voice that is among us. The ancients looked to Christ as he delivered his radical message of Love. Ironically, Christ was the victim of hate and intolerance while he taught love and compassion. We are living in a time where people need to embrace love instead of fighting and devouring one another. May we open our hearts as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Let us learn to embrace each other with openness and kindness. Let us practice Christ’s teachings by loving those who are different and those who need our compassion and join hands in celebration as brothers and sisters, sharing our voices, and our differences.”

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(Photos provided by Claremont United Methodist Church, claremontumc.org)
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Related links:

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Queer Nativity Project at Jesus in Love, Dec. 2011

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

KTLA-TV news: Non-traditional Nativity scene targeted in hate crime
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St. Aelred: Gay saint of friendship

2012-01-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

St. Aelred of Rievaulx

By Brother Robert Lentz, OFM, www.trinitystores.com

Saint Aelred (1109-1167) is considered one of the most lovable saints, the patron saint of friendship and also, some say, a gay saint. His feast day is today (Jan. 12).

Aelred was the abbott of the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in England. His treatise “On Spiritual Friendship” is still one of the best theological statements on the connection between human love and spiritual love. “God is friendship… He who abides in friendship abides in God, and God in him,” he wrote, paraphrasing 1 John 4:16.

Aelred’s own deep friendships with men are described in “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality” by Yale history professor John Boswell. “There can be little question that Aelred was gay and that his erotic attraction to men was a dominant force in his life,” Boswell wrote.

Boswell’s account inspired the members of the LGBT Episcopal group Integrity to name Aelred as their patron saint. Click here for the full story on how they won recognition for their gay saint.

Aelred certainly advocated chastity, but his passions are clear in his writing. He describes friendship with eloquence in this often-quoted passage:

“It is no small consolation in this life to have someone who can unite with you in an intimate affection and the embrace of a holy love, someone in whom your spirit can rest, to whom you can pour out your soul, to whose pleasant exchanges, as to soothing songs, you can fly in sorrow... with whose spiritual kisses, as with remedial salves, you may draw out all the weariness of your restless anxieties. A man who can shed tears with you in your worries, be happy with you when things go well, search out with you the answers to your problems, whom with the ties of charity you can lead into the depths of your heart; . . . where the sweetness of the Spirit flows between you, where you so join yourself and cleave to him that soul mingles with soul and two become one.”

The icon of Saint Aelred was painted by Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar and world-class iconographer known for his innovative icons. It includes a banner with Aelred’s words, “Friend cleaving to friend in the spirit of Christ.”

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Related links:

12th January: St Aelred of Rievaulx, Patron of Same Sex Intimacy (Queer Saints and Martyrs -- and Others)

A St. Aelred Catechism (Walking with Integrity Blog)

St. Aelred of Rievaulx (Pharsea’s World: Homosexuality and Tradition)
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This post is part of the LGBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
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Icons of St. Aelred and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

Epiphany: Queer eye for the Magi

2012-01-06T00:04:00.000-08:00

“Epiphany” by Janet McKenzie, copyright 2003.
www.janetmckenzie.com
Collection of Barbara Marian, Harvard, IL

Reimagining the three kings as queer or female gives fresh meaning to Epiphany, a holiday celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. It is observed on Jan. 6.

The word “epiphany” also refers to a sudden, intuitive perception. By looking at the Bible and church history from a LGBT viewpoint, people can experience new insights -- their own personal “epiphanies” of understanding. New interpretations of the Magi include:

Queer Magi. Biblical scholarship suggests that the Magi were eunuchs -- people who today would be called gay or transgender.
Female Magi appear in a controversial painting by Janet McKenzie.
Queer gifts are presented to the Christ child in an icon by William Hart McNichols.

Queer Magi

The Magi played the shamanic role often filled by eunuchs, an ancient term for LGBT people, says Nancy Wilson in her book Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible.” She writes:

“They were Zoroastrian priests, astrologers, magicians, ancient shamans from the courts of ancient Persia. They were the equivalent of Merlin of Britain. They were sorcerers, high-ranking officials, but not kings—definitely not kings. But quite possibly, they were queens. We’ve always pictured them with elaborate, exotic, unusual clothing—quite festive, highly decorated and accessorized! …Also, the wise eunuchs, shamans, holy men were the only ones who had the forethought to go shopping before they visited the baby Jesus!

They also have shamanistic dreams. They deceive evil King Herod and actually play the precise role that many other prominent eunuchs play in the Bible: they rescue the prophet, this time the Messiah of God, and foil the evil royal plot against God’s anointed.”

The concept of the queer Magi is amplified by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, author of Omnigender. “My guess is that they were people who today would be termed transwomen,” she writes in the brochure “Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities.”

“Balthazar” by ThriftHorror.com

For a humorous look at the queer Magi, check out “On the 12th Day of Christmas…” at the Thrift Horror Blog. Their photos capture the kitschy, campy and downright queer side of how the Magi appear, even in mainstream manger scenes. As ThriftHorror blogger TV's Jacob explains about the photo above, “Yes, this particular Balthazaar has weird little chicken feet, or possibly stiletto heels, and possibly has a parrot balancing precariously on top of his head, but he is, self-evidently, fabulous. Not everybody can wear Aqua, red, purple, gold, and a parrot and have it come off right. But as a Wise Man, Balthazaar has clearly had special training in fashion, or watched a LOT of “Queer Eye for the Magi.”

Eunuchs and cross-dressers were surprisingly common in the Mediterranean world of the Bible and later. By happy coincidence, a cross-dressing saint happens to have a feast day on Jan. 5, the day before Epiphany. Apollinaria of Egypt, put on men’s clothing and presented herself as a eunuch named Dorotheos in order to live as a monk. For more info on Apollinaria and other cross-dressing saints in early Christian communities, visit Queering the Church.

Female Magi

A multi-racial trio of female Magi visit the baby Jesus and his mother in “Epiphany” by Janet McKenzie. Instead of the traditional three kings or three wise men, the artist re-interprets the Magi as wise women from around the world.

The unconventional portrayal of the Magi makes good theological sense. Barbara Marian, who commissioned the painting, explains: “The story of the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew allowed the Jewish followers of Jesus to imagine the unthinkable -- God’s grace extending to the outsiders, the gentiles. Who are the outsiders in our world? Can we imagine the favor of God extending beyond the human boundaries of race, class, nationality, ethnicity, religious devotion, and gender?”

Marian commissioned “Epiphany” for the Nativity Project, which revisits and revitalizes the Gospel with new images of women. “It’s easy to get so caught up in regal images of Matthew’s night visitors that we miss the core message -- Christ for all people,” Marian says.

Conservative Christians protested against the inclusive “Epiphany” in 2007 when it appeared on the Christmas cards of the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth, Texas, sent a notice to clergy and 2007 convention delegates condemning Jefferts Schori for her choice of art. “Happy Multicultural Feminist Celebration Day,” sneered the headline of a traditional Anglican blog where nearly 100 comments are posted condemning the image as “stupid,” “faux-nouveau hipster theology” and worse. For more info, see our previous post Conservatives blast inclusive Christmas card.

McKenzie denies the accusations that she is trying to be divisive and rewrite scripture. “Of course this is as far from my thinking as possible,” she says. “I feel called to create sacred and secular art that includes and celebrates those systematically ignored, relegated and minimized, and for the most part that is women and people of color.”

The artist continues to be amazed that her loving images provoke so much anger. “Even this gentle image of a loving Holy Mother and Child, with no agenda accept to include and honor us as the nurturing feminine beings we are, surrounded in community with other women, is still misunderstood -- even at this late date,” she says.

McKenzie has weathered even bigger storms before. Her androgynous African American “Jesus of the People” painting caused international controversy when Sister Wendy of PBS chose it to represent Christ in the new millennium.

Critics focus on the content of McKenzie’s art, but her outstanding artistic style is one reason that her work attracts attention. The Vermont artist uses drawing and line with oils to build images that glow. Her painting technique and pastel colors are reminiscent of American Impressionist Mary Cassatt, who is famous for painting intimate scenes of mothers and their children.

The controversy over McKenzie’s work is a reminder of the power of art, and the continuing need for progressive spiritual images. Opposition seems to fuel her passion to paint. “We all need to find ourselves included within the sacred journey of life, and afterlife,” McKenzie says. “I have been surprised to find archaic and out-dated hate still in place, still alive and well and fueled by fear, in response to some of my art. I have made the decision to respond to such hate not in the way it comes to me, but by creating ever more inclusive art that confronts prejudice and hate. The only path open to any of us is the one of love.”

McKenzie’s art is featured in my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More” and her new book “Holiness and the Feminine Spirit.”

(Special thanks to Barbara Marian for permission to quote from her article “Recasting the Magi.”)

“The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child”

Queer gifts

Father William Hart McNichols paints another kind of queer Epiphany. McNichols is a New Mexico artist and Roman Catholic priest whose gay-positive icons have caused controversy. He worked at an AIDS hospice in New York City from 1983-90, when many in the gay community were dying of the disease. During that period he painted “The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child.”

St. Francis and St. Aloysius are the wise men visiting the baby Jesus in this icon. Instead of the usual gold, frankincense and myrrh, the “gifts” they bring to the Christ child are people with AIDS, perhaps gay men. The baby Jesus reaches eagerly to receive these gifts. The child and his mother appear in a form popular in Mexico and other Latino cultures as Our Lady of Guadalupe and El Santo Niño de Atocha. The halo around them echoes the colors of the rainbow flag of the LGBT community. McNichols offers a prayer with this icon:

Dearest Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Mother of the poor and the oppressed,
we watch full of reverence
and joy as St. Francis and
St. Aloysius bring the gifts of
these two people afflicted with AIDS
to the Holy Child in your arms,
who is so eager to receive them.
Teach us to find and embrace
your Son Jesus in all peoples,
but most especially those who
are in greatest need and
who suffer most.
Amen

In closing, the question arises: What gifts are queer people bringing today to Christ, the church and the world?
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Related links:

Three Queers from the East: Thoughts for the Epiphany (Queering the Church Blog)

LGBTQ Nativity 4: Queer Magi visit Mary, Josephine and Jesus

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This post is part of the LGBT Holidays series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to LGBT and queer people of faith and our allies.

Welcome the New Year with Bridge of Light!

2011-12-31T16:18:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Welcome the new year with Bridge of Light, a new winter holiday honoring LGBT culture.

Rainbow Arch candle holder

People celebrate Bridge of Light by lighting six candles, one for each color of the rainbow flag, on New Year’s Eve -- or from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, one candle per day.

Each candle stands for a spiritual principle and its expression in the lives and history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. The candles are intended to provide a starting point for individual and group meditations on these principles:

1. Red - The Root of Spirit (Community)
2. Orange - The Fire of Spirit (Eros)
3. Yellow - The Core of Spirit (Self-Esteem)
4. Green - The Heart of Spirit (Love)
5. Blue - The Voice of Spirit (Self-Expression and Justice)
6. Purple - The Eye of Spirit (Wisdom)
7. All Candles - The Crown of Spirit (Spirituality)

Together these colors form a rainbow, a time-honored symbol of a bridge between two worlds: heaven and earth, East and West, male and female, queer and non-queer.

The principles are beautifully expressed in a new benediction prayer written for Bridge of Light by Yewtree (Yvonne Aburrow) of the Dance of the Elements Blog:

Let us embody the values of the rainbow flag of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Red is the root of spirit, found in beloved community,
Orange is for Eros, the fire of spirit, the experience of erotic connection,
Yellow is for self-esteem, the strong core of spirit,
Green is for love, the heart of spirit, the verdant growth of the soul,
Blue is for self-expression, the voice of spirit, calling out for justice,
Purple is the eye of spirit, which sees inwardly with the eye of wisdom.
And all the colours together form the crown of spirit, the experience of spirituality.

Joe Perez, author of “Soulfully Gay,” founded Bridge of Light in 2004. It has obvious parallels to Kwanzaa, the African-American cultural holiday started by Ron Karenga in 1966.

“Bridge of Light is an interfaith and omni-denominational cultural and spiritual tradition,” Perez says. “The annual winter ritual...has helped to draw attention to the positive contributions made by members of the LGBT community in the areas of spiritual growth, inner transformation, and religious leadership.” His most recent post on the subject is “Why I (still) celebrate the Bridge of Light.”

Bridge of Light continues to evolve. Aburrow suggested adding sacred foods, such as “rainbow-tinted marble cake maybe, or one food of each colour?”

I like the idea of doing a daily candle for each color, but every year Dec. 26-31 is such a busy week for me! I wonder if Bridge of Light could also be celebrated at the summer solstice in connection with LGBTQ Pride?

This year I compiled a new, more detailed summary of the seven principles of Bridge of Light. It includes historical time periods, foods and more about the chakras, the energy centers of the human body. I synthesized and developed this info based on the resource links at the end of this post. For Jesus in Love readers I highlighted Christian history with links to LGBT Saints and theologian Patrick S. Cheng’s models of Christ that arise from the experiences of LGBT people.

1. Red - The Root of Spirit (Community)

Red evokes life, energy and blood. Shadow side: violence/death.

Time period: Before Christ / Before the Common Era
Celebrate same-sex love in goddess worship, paganism and other pre-patriarchal spiritualities, in ancient myths and cultures, and in the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament.

Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots

David and Jonathan

Ruth and Naomi

Foods: Root vegetables (carrots, beets, potatoes, etc.), protein-rich foods, sweet and spicy tastes.

2. Orange - The Fire of Spirit (Eros)

Orange evokes fire, passion and relationships. Shadow side: lust/addiction.

Time period: 1st - 4th centuries
Celebrate same-sex love in the life of Christ, among early Christians, in the late Roman Empire and other cultures.

Historical Jesus and the Beloved Disciple

Erotic Christ (sin as exploitation; grace as mutuality)

Mary and Martha

Sergius and Bacchus

Perpetua and Felicity

Foods: Foods growing from ground-level to 2 feet (melons, strawberries, squash, etc.), sweet and salty tastes.

3. Yellow - The Core of Spirit (Self-Esteem)

Yellow evokes confidence and personal power. Shadow side: fear/anger.

Time period: Middle Ages, 4th - 15th centuries
Celebrate same-sex love in medieval times. Queer medieval Christians include pairs of lovers in monasteries and convents, writers of homoerotic verse, and cross-dressing women. Medieval mystics describe erotic-ecstatic union with God.

Out Christ (sin as the closet; grace as coming out)

Brigid and Darlughdach (c.451-525)
Symeon of Emessa and John (c. 522-c. 588)
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Aelred of Rievaulx (c.1110-1167)
Rumi (1207 - 1273)
Julian of Norwich (1342-c. 1417)

Foods: Foods growing 2-6 feet above the ground (grains, sunflower seeds etc.), bitter and minty tastes.

4. Green - The Heart of Spirit (Love)

Green evokes growth, nature, balance and compassion. Shadow side: jealousy/greed, hatred.

Time period: Renaissance, 15th-17th centuries (c. 1400-1699)
Celebrate same-sex love in the era that included the Age of Discovery, the Protestant Reformation and the invention of the printing press.

Compassionate Christ, healer and lover of outcasts.

Joan of Arc (c.1412-1431)
John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Juana de la Cruz (1648-1695)
Gay Popes, Papal Sodomites (Queering the Church Blog)

Foods: Green leafy vegetables (broccoli, spinach, green tea, etc.), sour and savory tastes.

5. Blue - The Voice of Spirit (Self-Expression and Justice)

Blue evokes peace, communication and independence. Shadow side: depression/arrogance.

Time period: Modern, 1700 to 1950
Celebrate same-sex love in modern times, including gender role evolution in Romanticism, Transcendentalism, secular philosophy, and the movements for women’s suffrage and abolition.

Liberator Christ (sin as apathy; grace as activism)

Bernardo de Hoyos (1711-1735): Mystical same-sex marriage with Jesus
John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and Ambrose St. John
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
We’wha of Zuni (1849-1896)

Foods: Food that grows 6 feet or more above ground (apples, oranges, avocadoes, etc.), sour and salty tastes.

6. Purple - The Eye of Spirit (Wisdom)

Purple evokes vision, intuition and understanding. Shadow side: passivity/nightmares.

Time period: 1950 to present
Celebrate same-sex love and gender role defiance in recent LGBT, queer, feminist and black liberation movements, including the struggle for LGBT religious rights. LGBT-affirming churches and religious institutions are founded. Pluralistic expressions of sexuality and gender multiply, but some are martyred in anti-gay hate crimes.

Transgressive Christ (sin as conformity; grace as deviance)

Saints of Stonewall
Harvey Milk
Bayard Rustin
Mychal Judge: Gay saint of 9/11
Matthew Shepherd
Mary Daly
Audre Lorde

Foods: Dark purple foods (blueberries, purple grapes, red wine, etc.), subtle tastes (poppyseed, lavender, etc.).

7. All Colors / White - The Crown of Spirit (Spirituality)

When all the colors of the rainbow mix, they create white light, evoking universal consciousness.
Time period: Now and the future
Celebrate same-sex love now and in the future! Be a witness of love in all its expressions. Sainthood is a state to which all are called.

Hybrid Christ (sin as singularity; grace as hybridity)

Foods: Fasting. Instead of eating, inhale incense and smudging herbs such as sage. Or… Celebrate with a slice of rainbow cake!

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Links to other resources for Bridge of Light:

Each principle has a “Correspondence in LGBT history” according to the “Revisions to Bridge of Light” by Joe Perez

Same Sex Lovers in church history (Queering the Church)

The Story of the "Queer Saints and Martyrs" by Terence Weldon

Foods that Fuel Your Chakras

Author Carolyn Myss connects the seven chakras with the seven sacraments of the church in her book “Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing.”

CD set of meditations based on the chakras, “Activating Your Chakras Through the Light Rays.” It’s definitely “new age,” but it’s the best of its kind.

Happy Bridge of Light, everybody! Be renewed and refreshed as the New Year begins! May 2012 bring everyone peace, health and prosperity!

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Image credits:
Top: “Rainbow Stripes Background” by Philippa Willitts

Chakra images by Anodea Judith of SacredCenters.com

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This post is part of the LGBT Holidays series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to LGBT and queer people of faith and our allies.

David and Jonathan: Biblical men who loved each other

2011-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

“David and Jonathan” by Ryan Grant Long

Intense love between men is celebrated in the Bible with the story of David and Jonathan. They lived about 3,000 years ago, but they still inspire LGBT people of faith -- and many others. David’s feast day is today (Dec. 29).

David, the second king of Israel, was an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet. He is credited with composing many of the psalms in the Bible. The gospel genealogies list David as an ancestor of Jesus.

Jonathan and David
by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM
www.trinitystores.com

The modern idea of sexual orientation didn’t exist in Biblical times, but the powerful love story of Jonathan and David in 1 and 2 Samuel suggests that same-sex couples are affirmed and blessed by God.

The love between the two men is honored in a controversial golden icon by Brother Robert Lentz. Unlike most images of Jonathan and David, the Lentz icon shows Christ above blessing their relationship. It is one of 10 Lentz icons that sparked a major uproar in 2005 when conservative Roman Catholic leaders accused Lentz of glorifying sin.

The story of Jonathan and David gets more chapters in the Bible than any other human love story. The two friends met when David was a ruddy young shepherd and Jonathan was the privileged eldest son of Saul, Israel’s first king. David was taken to see King Saul right after beheading the Philistine giant Goliath. Jonathan fell in love at first sight of the handsome hero. As the Bible says, “The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.” (1 Samuel 18:1)

Artists throughout the ages have tried to capture the romantic moment described in 1 Samuel 18:3-4: “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.”

“David and Jonathan” by Italian painter Cima da Conegliano, 1505-1510 (Wikimedia Commons)

Ryan Grant Long, a young gay artist based in Wisconsin, emphasizes the homoeroticism of the gesture as Jonathan strips off his robe and wraps it around David with a kiss on the neck in the image at the top of this post. For more about Long, see our previous post Artist paints history's gay couples.

“Jonathan Made
a Covenant with David”
by Trudie Barreras
Collection of
First Metropolitan
Community Church
of Atlanta

A more traditional view is presented by 16th-century Italian painter Cima da Conegliano (above). In both images David is still carrying the head of Goliath as he bonds with his new friend Jonathan, hinting at the union of violence and eroticism. In contrast Atlanta artist Trudie Barreras shows the new friends putting aside their armor to make a covenant with each other (left).

The Bible chronicles the ups and downs of David and Jonathan’s relationship over the next 15 years, including tears and kisses. An 18th-century German “friendship medal” (below) captures another highlight as Jonathan pledges to David, “I will do the desires of your heart” (“Ich will die thun was dein Herz begehrt”) from 1 Samuel 20:4.

German friendship medal of Jonathan and David by Philipp Heinrich Müller, c.1710 (Wikimedia Commons)

David and Jonathan became so close that it looked like someday they would rule Israel together. But that day never comes because Jonathan was killed in battle. David mourned deeply for him with his famous lament from 2 Samuel 1:26:

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.

Jonathan and David embrace.
Manuscript illustration, circa 1300
La Somme le roy

Gay-positive Bible scholars have written extensively about the relationship between David and Jonathan. The classic book on the subject is “Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times” by Thomas Horner.

The love between the two men is celebrated in the classic poem “The Meeting of David and Jonathan” by 19th-century English poet John Addington Symonds. He is known as an early advocate of male love (homosexuality) and wrote many poems inspired by his own homosexual affairs. In “The Meeting of David and Jonathan” he writes:

There by an ancient holm-oak huge and tough,
Clasping the firm rock with gnarled roots and rough,
He stayed their steps; and in his arms of strength
Took David, and for sore love found at length
Solace in speech, and pressure, and the breath
Wherewith the mouth of yearning winnoweth
Hearts overcharged for utterance. In that kiss
Soul unto soul was knit and bliss to bliss.

The full poem appears in “Many Moods: A Volume of Verse” by Symonds.

It’s impossible to know whether David and Jonathan expressed their love sexually. Some consider David to be bisexual, since the Hebrew scriptures also recount how he committed adultery with Bathsheba and later made her one of his eight wives. There is no doubt that many people today do honor David and Jonathan as gay saints.

Their story is used by contemporary LGBT Christians to counteract conservatives who claim that the Bible condemns homosexuality. The “David loved Jonathan” billboard below is part of the Would Jesus Discriminate project sponsored by Metropolitan Community Churches. It states boldly, “David loved Jonathan more than women. II Samuel 1:26.” For more info on the billboards, see our previous post, “Billboards show gay-friendly Jesus.”

David loved Jonathan billboard from GLBT Christian billboards from WouldJesusDiscriminte.com and WouldJesusDiscriminte.org

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Related links:

David and Jonathan: Why did God focus on their intimate partnership? (GayChristian101)

Pharsea’s World: Homosexuality and Tradition: David and Jonathan

Subjects of the visual arts: David and Jonathan (glbtq.com)

David the Prophet and Jonathan, His Lover (Queer Saints and Martyrs - And Others)

Bible story of David and Jonathan’s first meeting: 1 Samuel 18

Bible story of Jonathan’s death: 2 Samuel 1

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
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Icons of Jonathan and David and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

Holy Innocents Day: Queer genocide?

2011-12-28T12:17:00.000-08:00

Massacre of the Innocents by Giotto from Wikimedia Commons

Today is Holy Innocents Day, honoring the baby boys killed by King Herod in order to avoid losing his throne to the newborn Jesus, the king foretold by the Magi. Some see the Massacre of the Innocents continuing today in the form of female infanticide, the search for a “gay gene” and other attempts to enable the selective abortion of unborn LGBT people.

The Biblical story of the slaughter of the innocents (Matthew 2:16-18) has a silver lining: Jesus escapes. His parents got him out of Bethlehem before the massacre. People may try to systematically destroy groups through infanticide and genocide, but it’s not 100 percent effective. Someone always escapes.

The genocide of queer people is also explored in our previous post, “Ex-Gay movement as genocide.” The ex-gay movement fits the definition of genocide as outlined by the United Nations, according to startling new scholarship that may help prevent mass murder.Most people think of genocide as mass murder of a group, but the “social death” inflicted on LGBT people by the ex-gay movement is a form of genocide that can lead to mass murder, according to a ground-breaking article by professors Sue E. Spivey and Christine M. Robinson of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Edited comments from a previous discussion of Holy Innocents Day at the Jesus in Love Blog:
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Turtle Woman said...
I have another theory that many children of god were born, but the girls were killed. Thus, patriarchy killed many girl messiahs along the way. Think about it.

KittKatt said…
I once read a moving short story by feminist Christian Reta Finger about how Jesus was born a girl in ancient Palestine and was killed soon after birth.

pennyjane said...
the story of the murdered female Jesus really does hit home. i fear, sometimes, that modern science will discover a cause for transsexualism and offer a "solution" to pregnant mothers...perhaps the option of a pill that would bring the mind and body into congruence while yet in the womb. what mother wouldn't accept that option? (poof) the end of us.

for some...perhaps most...it would seem like progress....to me, it's more like genocide.

what would Jesus do?

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Consider the implications as you experience Coventry Carol, the solemn Christmas carol based on this tragedy. This version is by Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt’s version from her “Midwinter Night’s Dream” album (video below).

John the Evangelist: The man Jesus loved

2011-12-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

www.trinitystores.com

Many believe that John the Evangelist was Jesus’ “beloved disciple” -- and possibly his lover. His feast day is today (Dec. 27).

John was an apostle of Jesus and is the presumed author of the Gospel of John, Book of Revelation and Epistles of John. The Bible describes their warm relationship in depth. Jesus called John “son of thunder.” John participated in many of the main events in Christ’s ministry, and was the only male disciple present at the crucifixion. From the cross, Jesus entrusted John with the care of his mother. Many believe that John was the “beloved disciple” who sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper and rested his head on Jesus’ chest. There is even a medieval European tradition that John and Jesus were the bridal couple at the Cana wedding feast.

Reputable Bible scholars have explored the controversial idea that Jesus and John were lovers. An excellent analysis is included in “The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament” by Theodore Jennings, Biblical theology professor at Chicago Theological Seminary. He finds the evidence “inconclusive” as to whether the beloved disciple was John, but it leaves no doubt that Jesus had a male lover.

“A close reading of the texts in which the beloved disciple appears supports the hypothesis that the relationship between him and Jesus may be understood as that of lovers. As it happens, both Jesus and the beloved are male, meaning that their relationship may be said to be, in modern terms, a ‘homosexual’ relationship,” Jennings writes (p. 34).

After Jesus left the earth, John went on to build a close, loving relationship with his disciple and scribe, Prochorus, bishop of Nicomedia. For more info, go to “St John the Evangelist and Prochorus” at the Queer Saints and Martyrs (and Others) Blog.

The love between John and Jesus is illustrated in the icon above, “Christ the Bridegroom,” by Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar known for his innovative icons. Author-priest Henri Nouwen, famous but struggling with a secret gay identity, commissioned it in 1983. He asked for an icon that symbolized the act of offering his own sexuality and affection to Christ. Research and reflection led Lentz to paint Christ being embraced by his beloved disciple John, based on an icon from medieval Crete.

“Henri used it to come to grips with his own homosexuality,” Lentz said in an interview for my book “Art That Dares,” which includes this icon and the story behind it. “I was told he carried it with him everywhere and it was one of the most precious things in his life.” Nouwen’s goal was celibacy and he did not come out publicly as gay before his death in 1996. The icon takes the Biblical theme of Christ as bridegroom and joins it to the medieval motif of Christ with John. The resulting image expresses their intimate friendship with exquisite subtlety.

Becki Jayne Harrelson painted an especially realistic and loving version of Jesus and the Beloved at the center of her “Last Supper” (beloa). She is a lesbian artist who uses LGBT people as models in her religious art. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian family, she uses art to express her passion for justice.

Detail from Study for The Last Supper
by Becki Jayne Harrelson

Another intimate icon of Jesus and the beloved disciple was painted by Jim Ru (below). It was displayed in his show “Transcendent Faith: Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Saints” in Bisbee Arizona in the 1990s.

“Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” by Jim Ru

I also wrote about John as the beloved disciple in my novels “Jesus in Love” and “At the Cross.” In honor of John’s feast day, I post this scene from “Jesus in Love: A Novel.” Jesus, the narrator, remembers the day he met John:

I became distracted by the not unwelcome presence of somebody standing close behind me, closer than necessary in the loosely packed crowd. I sensed that it was John, and spun around to see him planted there like a tall cedar tree. He leaned against me, eyes flashing. “I can’t wait for the Messiah to come. I’ve seen him in visions.”

“Really? Tell me what you remember.” It was exciting to find someone who was aware of God’s efforts to communicate.

“The Messiah is like a gentle lamb who sits on a throne with a rainbow around it. And yet his eyes flame with fire, and a sharp sword comes out of his mouth to strike down evildoers.”

“The truth is large,” I said.

“Are you saying my vision isn’t true?” he challenged.

“No, I’m not saying that. I expect that you will see more.”

When John smiled, his faced crinkled into a fascinating landscape of wrinkles. His eyes felt black and mysterious like the midnight sky as they roamed over me. “Do you want a prayer partner tonight?” he asked.

If anyone else had asked, I would have said no, but I looked again at John’s handsome, bejeweled soul and his long, sinewy body.

“Sure,” I agreed impulsively.

Only then did I notice that the Baptist had finished preaching. John steered me toward the caves where the Baptist and his inner circle of disciples lived. Lower-ranking disciples were ready with water vessels and towels to assist everyone with ritual purification before we ate a spartan meal of locusts and wild honey. One of them approached me.

“Wash up, and we’ll get together after supper,” John said as we parted.

More images of John by TrinityStores.com artists are posted below.
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Related links
Dec. 27: John the (Queer) Evangelist (Queering the Church Blog)

Pharsea’s World: Homosexuality and Tradition: Jesus, John and Lazarus

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
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Icons of Christ the Bridegroom, John the Evangelist and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

Below are more contemporary images of John the Evangelist. All are available from TrinityStores.com.

“St. John the Evangelist” by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, TrinityStores.com

“St. John the Evangelist” by Louis Glanzman, TrinityStores.com

Merry Christmas from the Jesus in Love Blog!

2011-12-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

From
Kittredge Cherry
Jesus in Love

(That's me on the right at age 4 in 1962, putting zoo animals into a Nativity scene in Iowa City. More info)

The gorgeous poinsettia in the photo was growing in the yard near my home.

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Click the headlines below to enjoy more queer cheer and Christmas highlights from the Jesus in Love Blog.

Queer Nativity scenes show LGBT love

Seven people from 3 countries sent images for the 2011 Queer Nativity project at the Jesus in Love Blog. They present Christ's birth in an amazing variety of liberating, loving new ways.

Good (gay?) King Wenceslas

There’s good reason to believe that Good King Wenceslas was gay. Yes, the king in the Christmas carol. Many details in the carol are pious fiction, but historical research documents the love between the king and his page Podiven. More info

Lesbian couple portrays Madonna (Photo by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin)

The Madonna and her female lover are portrayed by a real lesbian couple, seven months’ pregnant through artificial insemination in “Annunciation” by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin.

Lesbian Madonna, lover and son affirm Christmas (Painting by Becki Jayne Harrelson)

Two lesbian mothers cuddle the Christ child in “Madonna, Lover and Son” by Becki Jayne Harrelson.

Transwoman Jesus tells Christmas story

Jesus’ angelic birth highlights the holiness of EVERY birth in the following scene from the controversial new play “Jesus, Queen of Heaven” by transsexual Jo Clfford.

Conservatives blast inclusive Christmas card

Conservatives attack an Episcopal bishop’s gender-bending Christmas card because it shows a multi-racial trio of female Magi visiting the baby Jesus and his mother (“Epiphany” by Janet McKenzie).

Inclusive Christmas tree: Anti-gay DVDs become ornaments

DVDs against same-sex marriage are being recycled now as decorations for the inclusive Christmas tree of Minnesota artist Lucinda Naylor.

Can you imagine? A gay Nativity scene

Video and commentary on Amsterdam’s gay Nativity scene with live actors

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
What if the child of God was born to a lesbian or gay couple? Because, after all, LOVE makes a family, including the Holy Family.

Animals make peace at Christmas

Animals symbolize peace at Christmas, so the Jesus in Love Blog gladly dedicates a special post to animals.

Alternative Christmas art shown
Nine artists mix Christmas imagery with a progressive vision of GLBT rights, racial and gender justice, and a world without war, poverty or pollution

Christmas offering: Give to Jesus In Love Blog
The Jesus in Love Blog is collecting a Christmas offering to support LGBT spirituality and the arts. Your $10 gift pays for 100 visits to our blog and lets one person get our newsletter for a year.

May God be born anew
in unlikely places
this holiday season!

Queer Nativity 8: Jesus has two daddies

2011-12-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

“Jesus has Two Daddies” (2011) by Andrew Craig Williams

Two happy fathers smile over their new son Jesus in photos by Andrew Craig Williams as the 2011 Queer Nativity series ends at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Seven people from three countries created more than a dozen images to reimagine the first Christmas in liberating, loving new ways that affirm LGBT people. I hope that you had as much fun looking at these pictures as we had creating them! Contributors came from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Some are artists while others created a kind of “folk art” out of the desire to decorate their homes with Nativities that express their faith as LGBT Christians.

Williams is an artist and writer based in Wales who blogs at andrewcraigwilliams.blogspot.com. Jesus really did have two daddies -- Joseph and the God whom he referred to as his “Father in heaven.” Williams provide a joyful, holy image of what gay fatherhood can look like. His gay Nativity scenes restore the childlike wonder of Christmas, a spirit that has been lost by many LGBT people due to discrimination by churches. Every child is the Christ child, including the queer children and the children of gay parents.

These photos grow out of Williams own love for toys. He actually creates toys and other objects as an artist, but in this case he bought a toy Nativity set. Here is how he described it on his blog: “After seeing some lovely pictures of gay and lesbian nativity scenes on Jesus in Love, I wanted my own. It took me two years to find a set I really loved, and finally I now have one. It’s a Fisher Price nativity set, with an extra Joseph ordered from America.”

Happily his gay Nativity set is now out on display in my home, Williams say, “as it will be for years to come.”

In addition to his brightly colored manger scene, Williams played with filters to make the pictures appear old, like photos from the 1950s or 60s. His purpose was “to show that a gay nativity is not new or shocking, just something that people have been celebrating for years.”

“Gay Nativity” (1950s-60s style) by Andrew Craig Williams

“Jesus has Two Daddies” (1950s-60s style) by Andrew Craig Williams

His old-style photos inspired me to dig out a 1962 photo of myself playing with a manger scene as a little girl. Now it’s included in the Queer Nativity series too.

A more adult-oriented queer Nativity by Williams can be seen in our previous post Matthew and Joseph are pregnant.

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:
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Queer Nativity 1: Manger scene as gay adoption party

“Blaine and Patrick's Adoption Party 1” by Baub Alred

The image highlights the radical nature of Christ’s birth in two ways -- by presenting his parents as an inter-racial couple as well as a same-sex couple.

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Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

Queer Nativity 6: A lesbian look at the virgin birth

“We Were All Set to Go with the Artificial Insemination Option” by Madpriest and Kittredge Cherry

A humorous lesbian look at the virgin birth is presented in a fun picture of two Madonnas
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Queer Nativity 7: 1962 photo of 4-year-old Kitt playing with manger scene

I dug out a 1962 photo of myself at age 4 playing around with a Nativity scene. I was a lesbian-to-be adding elephants, hippos, lions, frogs, skunks and other creatures to the manger scene. How queer!
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For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Queer Nativity 7: 1962 photo of 4-year-old Kitt playing with manger scene

2011-12-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

Kittredge Cherry, age 4, (right) and her friend play with manger scene in Iowa City, 1962

I dug out an old photo of me as a child playing around with a Nativity scene for the LGBT Nativity project at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A series of queer manger scenes are being posted here before Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

We girls look like little cherubs as we add elephants and other animals to the Nativity set. I was a lesbian-to-be putting yellow and green elephants atop the stable above the angel. I’ve been playing around with manger scenes for a lifetime! We also added hippos, lions, frogs, ducks and even skunks. How queer! Who would have guessed that this childhood game would lead to the Queer Nativity project at the Jesus in Love Blog about 50 years later?!

Note: I played with the cast of characters, but baby Jesus is still at the center.

I hunted through old photo albums for this picture after artist Andrew Craig Williams sent me some queer Nativity photos that he purposely “aged” to make them look like they were taken in the 50s or 60s. He wanted to show that gay Nativity scenes are nothing new.

I still have some of these same rubber animal erasers that were in the old photo. I want to add them to my current Nativity scene and shoot some new photos!

As you can tell, I’ve always loved the animals at the manger scene. I also imagined it in a scene from my novel “Jesus in Love.” It is reprinted in my previous post Animals make peace at Christmas.

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:
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Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

Queer Nativity 6: A lesbian look at the virgin birth

“We Were All Set to Go with the Artificial Insemination Option” by Madpriest and Kittredge Cherry

A humorous lesbian look at the virgin birth is presented in a fun picture of two Madonnas
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For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Queer Nativity: Marius, Joseph, Jesus and the gay shepherds

2011-12-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

“Tim and Jon with their lamb Carl” by Baub Alred

Mixing and matching Nativity sets to create queer scenes can encourage LGBT people to approach Christmas with a childlike spirit again. Baub Alred brings back the fun of the season as the LGBT Nativity series continues at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A series of queer manger scenes are being posted here before Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

Baub Alred, a digital artist living and working in Champaign, IL. He brings some queer cheer and fun to Christmas, which can be a lonely time for LGBT folk who may be estranged from family and the hyper-hetero imagery of the typical manger scenes.

His playful photo of gay shepherds is a reminder that surely there were a few shepherds who felt same-sex attractions while keeping watch over their flocks by night in the field around Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The modern names suggest that the story is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

Alred’s inter-racial manger scene (below) shows Jesus with two fathers. A price tag is visible, perhaps hinting at the price that Jesus will pay at the cross. Traditionally this somber reminder is provided by a Magi who brings the baby a gift of myrrh, a spice used for embalming.

“Marius, Joseph and Jesus” by Baub Alred

See more art by Alred in our previous post Queer Nativity 1: Manger scene as gay adoption party

or click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Queer Nativity 6: A lesbian look at the virgin birth

2011-12-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

“We Were All Set to Go with the Artificial Insemination Option” by Madpriest and Kittredge Cherry

A humorous lesbian look at the virgin birth is presented in a fun picture of two Madonnas by Madpriest and Kittredge Cherry as part of the LGBT Nativity series here at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A series of queer manger scenes are being posted here before Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

What did the lesbian Madonna say to the dog in the gingerbread house? “We were all set to go with the artificial insemination option. But then Mary popped into a praise service at one of those charismatic churches.”

Madpriest (also known as Jonathan Hagger) is a Church of England priest who blogs at Of Course, I Could Be Wrong (revjph.blogspot.com/). He added this witty text in a balloon to my photo of two Marys in my “Love Makes a Holy Family” series. His words highlight the power of God to work miracles in the lives of those who pray and praise.

I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake! Obviously this is not about historical accuracy, but I believe that they are true to the spirit of the Christmas story in the Bible: God’s child conceived in an extraordinary way and born into disreputable circumstances. Love makes a family -- including the Holy Family. Everyone should be able to see themselves in the Christmas story. My original image is posted below.

The connection between lesbians and virgin birth has been addressed seriously by other artists. For example, the Madonna and her female lover are portrayed by a real lesbian couple, seven months’ pregnant through artificial insemination in “Annunciation” from the famous “Ecce Homo” series by Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin. Two lesbian mothers cuddle the Christ child in “Madonna, Lover and Son,” an oil painting by Atlanta artist Becki Jayne Harrelson.

Lesbians can relate to the story of Mary’s virgin birth because they use artificial insemination to have babies without heterosexual sex. Pro-woman views of the virgin birth go back at least as far as the famous 1851 speech by abolitionist Sojourner Truth who had been born into slavery. “Where did your Christ come from?” Truth asked. “From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”

“Lesbian Nativity Scene with Dog” (Love Makes a Holy Family series) by Kittredge Cherry

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:
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Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

Queer Nativity 5: Matthew and Joseph are pregnant

“Matthew and Joseph are Pregnant” by Andrew Craig Williams

Christmas is about a miraculous pregnancy: a baby born to a virgin. If God can do that, then why not make a man pregnant? Andrew Craig Williams envisions a man carrying the Christ child in his womb.
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For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Queer saints on Huff Post! Interview with writer Noah Michelson

2011-12-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

Noah Michelson

Queer saints are going mainstream with a major article at Huffington Post, a news website that gets more than 35 million visitors per month.

“Joan of Arc and 9 Other ‘Queer’ Saints” by Noah Michelson was posted there this month for Christmas. It is a valuable overview with a slideshow of 10 queer saints (all names listed below).

Michelson introduces the concept of queer sainthood by saying, “While many would freely admit that most of the men and woman of yore were not gay or transgender as defined by our modern standards, they would assert that these people were involved in non-heteronormative relationships, presented non-traditional gender identities, or understood, approached, and complicated aspects of faith with relation to sexuality and/or gender identity.”

This week I interviewed Michelson, who is the editor of Gay Voices at Huffington Post. He received his MFA in Poetry from New York University and his poems have been featured in The New Republic, The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present, and other publications. Before joining the Huffington Post, Noah served as Senior Editor at Out magazine and he has also contributed to Details and served as a commentator for the BBC.

Kittredge Cherry: Why did you decide to write about queer saints?

Noah Michelson: I grew up in a strange environment as far as religion is concerned: I was raised half Jewish (my father), half Lutheran (my mother) and I attended Catholic school for 10 years.

So, I had a lot of religion -- and a lot of conflicting ideas -- coming at me from the very beginning.

I learned to love aspects of all three religions and I was obsessed with the saints when I was younger. There was something so simultaneously morbid and hopeful about their lives that mystified me.

So, that's part of the reason and the other part is that as someone who has a background in queer theory and queer activism, I think it's important to approach, understand, complicate, and re-appropriate history when and where possible in order to see ourselves.

So much of queer history has been deleted, bleached, and hidden and so a piece like the Queer Saints slideshow lets us (re)consider what it might mean for there to have been figures in history who were living what we might now call "queer lives."

KC: What reactions did you get from Huff Posts editors and readers?

NM: Many people found the piece incredibly intriguing and hadn't heard of queer saints before.

Some thought it was unfair to examine or classify these people's lives in this way as they didn't live "queer lives" as we understand them today.

And there were some who were offended by it.

However, to those people I ask what is offensive? The idea that religious figures could have been queer? I find _that_ to be offensive.

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Click here to go to “Joan of Arc and 9 Other ‘Queer’ Saints” at HuffingtonPost.com

The 10 queer saints in the HuffPo slideshow are:
Joan of Arc
Wilgefortis/Uncumber
Sergius and Bacchus
Anselm of Canterbury
Apollinaria/Dorotheos
Alcuin Of Tours
Cardinal Newman
Julian of Norwich
Paulinus Of Nola
Symeon of Emesa and John

Most of these same saints are also covered in the LGBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Queer Nativity 5: Matthew and Joseph are pregnant

2011-12-21T11:55:00.000-08:00

“Matthew and Joseph are Pregnant” by Andrew Craig Williams

Christmas is about a miraculous pregnancy: a baby born to a virgin. If God can do that, then why not make a man pregnant? Andrew Craig Williams envisions a man carrying the Christ child in his womb as the LGBT Nativity series continues at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A series of queer manger scenes are being posted here before Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

Williams is an artist based in Wales who blogs at andrewcraigwilliams.blogspot.com. Look closely and you will see a baby curled up in fetal position inside the belly of a man, while his male partner stands lovingly behind him. The gay couple will be raising the baby Jesus together.

Williams is re-imagining the night the angel visits Joseph to tell him Mary is pregnant. In Williams version, Joseph’s partner is not Mary, but a man named Matthew. “Which one is Joseph? It doesn't matter - the couple will raise the new baby Jesus as a pair, and that's what's important,” Williams says.

The nudity suggests that the gay partners stand naked before God, ready like Mary was to say, “Let it be done unto me according to Your will.” The angel is not visible, but can be inferred from the light and the facial expressions of awe and joy. Stripped of clothing, they could come from any place or time, including our own. It’s especially wonderful that they are black men, because the love between people of color is too often denigrated in mainstream culture.

“Families are made and kept together with love, and I believe that all families should be celebrated,” explains.

Williams’ original image with full frontal nudity can be seen at this link on his blog. The image posted at Jesus in Love is adapted for general audiences. He created it in the same style as some digital art that he did for the Shout LGBT Festival in Birmingham, England, two years ago. The images were projected onto various landmark buildings in the city.

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:

Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

LGBTQ Nativity 4: Queer Magi visit Mary, Josephine and Jesus

“Queer Nativity” by Marie-Louise Thurton

Three queer Magi bring gifts to Mary, Josephine and baby Jesus in a Nativity scene sculpted by Marie-Louise Thurton. Instead of the traditional three kings, her Magi are a drag king, a drag nun and a LGBTQ-rights activist.
__________________________________________

For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Happy Hanukkah from the Jesus in Love Blog!

2011-12-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

"Pride Minyan" by נמר ערבות סיבירי (nmr 'erbvt sybyry) from Wikimedia Commons

A photo of a LGBT celebration of Hanukkah is posted here to honor the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, which begins at sundown today (Dec. 20, 2011).

It shows an egalitarian orthodox LGBT congregation welcoming the sabbath (Kabalat Shabat) on the second Shabat of Hanukkah. One additional candle is lit each night on the nine-branched menorah to commemorate the battle for freedom that ended in reclaiming the Temple in Jerusalem. Here a rainbow menorah sits on a rainbow flag symbolizing LGBT pride.

Happy Hanukkah!

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Related link:

Eight Ways LGBT Families Can Deepen the Meaning of Chanukah by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Ruth and Naomi: Love between women in the Bible

2011-12-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

Love between women is honored in the lives of Biblical figures Ruth and Naomi. Some churches observe their feast day today (Dec. 20).

Ruth’s famous vows to Naomi are often used in weddings -- heterosexual as well as same-sex unions. Few people realize that these beautiful words were originally spoken by one woman to another:

““Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

Born to a pagan family, she married the Jewish man Boaz and is honored in Judaism as a convert. Ruth is an ancestor of Jesus Christ, listed in his genealogy in the gospel of Matthew. It reports mostly a male lineage, and Ruth is one of only four women who are included.

Naomi was the mother-in-law of Ruth and Orpah. After their husbands died, Naomi urged both of them to remarry. The painting by Trudie Barreras shows Orpah leaving while Ruth stays with Naomi.

A billboard featuring Ruth and Naomi is part of the Would Jesus Discriminate project sponsored by Metropolitan Community Churches. It states boldly, “Ruth loved Naomi as Adam loved Eve. Genesis 2:24. Ruth 1:14.” For more info on the billboards, see our previous post, “Billboards show gay-friendly Jesus.”

Ruth and Naomi billboard from from WouldJesusDiscriminte.com and WouldJesusDiscriminte.org

The painting below, “Whither Thou Goest” by Trudie Barreras, was commissioned in 2004 by Rev. Paul Graetz, pastor of First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta, for a sermon series that he was doing on the Book of Ruth.

“Whither Thou Goest” by Trudie Barreras, 2004
Acrylic, 18” x 14.” Collection of First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta, GA.

For more on Ruth and Naomi, visit the following links:

Queering the Church: Ruth & Naomi

Pharsea’s World: Homosexuality and Tradition: Ruth and Naomi

Stroppy Rabbit Blog: Naomi and Ruth in art

Conjubilant with Song Blog: “Song of Ruth” hymn by Fanny Crosby, 1875

Top image credit: Ruth and Naomi from ChristianImageSource.com

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

LGBTQ Nativity 4: Queer Magi visit Mary, Josephine and Jesus

2011-12-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

“Queer Nativity” by Marie-Louise Thurton

Three queer Magi bring gifts to Mary, Josephine and baby Jesus in a Nativity scene sculpted by Marie-Louise Thurton as the LGBT Nativity series continues at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A series of queer manger scenes are being posted here before Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

Thurton describes herself as “a young, queer, genderqueer woman of colour in Toronto, Canada.” She blogs about LGBTIQ catholic issues at Radical Mary (http://www.radicalmary.ca/). Thurton started from scratch and used plasticine to create a Nativity in which everyone’s gender is ambiguous. Instead of the traditional three kings, her Magi are a drag king, a drag nun and a LGBTQ-rights activist.

Thurton’s vision is grounded in historical reality. Biblical scholarship suggests that the Magi were eunuchs -- people who today would be called gay or transgender. The Magi played the shamanic role often filled by eunuchs, an ancient term for GLBT people. For more about queer Magi, see our previous post “Epiphany: 3 kings or 3 queens?”

Thurton updates the symbolism of the three Magi by creating these characters:

Queer Magi by Marie-Louise Thurton

Gold is for Jesus as king. Queer kin(g)ship is represented by a mustachioed Magi who is a drag king or maybe a transman.

Frankincense is for Jesus as priest. The orange drag nun Magi is Sister Unity of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. “She is someone who represents priestly-ness to me,” Thurton explains.

Myrrh foretells the death of Jesus. The activist Magi wears a pink triangle and commemorates those lost to HIV/AIDS, homophobia and transphobia.

The Magi visit a Holy Family named Jesus, Mary and Josephine. “I gave Mary suspenders because you can't tell if it's with a skirt or pants. Josephine could be wearing a dress or a robe, whatever you like! They all have halos because halos symbolize the aura of love. Jesus is holding the world because Jesus loves everyone in it. I also added a mirror to his crib because I felt that the colour was political...so I figure it's better to make room at the Inn for all of us,” Thurton says.

Queer Holy Family by Marie-Louise Thurton

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:

Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

Queer Nativity 3: No room at the manger for LGBT people

“Nativity Bouncer” by Jon Trouten

There was no room at the inn for the Holy Family, and there is no room in many churches today for LGBT people who want to get closer to Jesus.

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For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Queer Nativity 3: No room at the manger for LGBT people

2011-12-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

“Nativity Bouncer” by Jon Trouten

Exclusion of LGBT people by the church is critiqued in “Nativity Bouncer” by Jon Trouten. His photo is the newest installment in the LGBT Nativity series at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A variety of queer manger scenes are being posted here before Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

Jon Trouten writes Jon’s Blog (www.jontrouten.blogspot.com) and lives in Iowa with his husband and their two sons. His image shows a gay contemporary couple holding hands as they walk toward a typical manger scene far in the distance. But their path is blocked by two “Nativity bouncers” -- tough guys with their arms crossed. Their sign warns, “Limited seating in the manger. VIPs only.”

Trouten dares to use the symbolism of the manger scene for social commentary, pointing out the hypocrisy of conservative Christians who stop LGBT people from full participation in the church. There was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph 2,000 years ago, so Jesus was born in a lowly stable. Likewise there is no room in many churches today for LGBT people who want to get closer to Jesus. “Nativity Bouncer” is a metaphor of the ongoing struggles for same-sex marriage, ordination of LGBT clergy and full religious rights for queer people. The image suggests that the journey is far from over. The gay couple is moving forward, surrounded by a halo of white light. It looks like they have a good chance of breaking through the red-rope barrier to reach the manger, Jesus, and love incarnate.

Trouten assembled his queer manger scene in his own bedroom using cut-out photos and a classic Nativity set. Then he took a photo of his creation to share with the world through the LGBT Nativity project at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:

Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

“Adam and Steve, the Gay Shepherd Couple” by Archbishop Mark Shirilau

Some of the shepherds in Bethlehem on the first Christmas must have felt same-sex attractions... An outdoor light-up Nativity scene.

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For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Lazarus: Jesus’ beloved disciple?

2011-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

The Raising of Lazarus by Vincent van Gogh, 1890

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jajankie/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Some believe that Lazarus of Bethany was the “beloved disciple” of Jesus -- and maybe even his gay lover. His feast day is today (Dec. 17).

Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus in a dramatic miracle told in John: 11. The Bible identifies him as a man living in the village of Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. Lazarus falls ill, and the sisters send a message to Jesus that “the one you love is sick.” By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead in his tomb for four days. Jesus weeps at the tomb, then calls, “Lazarus, come out!” To the amazement of all, Lazarus is restored to life.

Some scholars believe Lazarus was also the unnamed “one whom Jesus loved,” also known as “the beloved disciple,” referenced at least five times in the Gospel of John. The term implies that Jesus was in love with him, and perhaps they shared the kind of intimacy that today would be called “gay.”

The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament by Theodore Jennings is an comprehensive book that explores the possibility of Lazarus as Jesus’ lover -- and all the other major queer theories about the beloved disciple.

More queer ideas about Lazarus come from the controversial Secret Gospel of Mark, a recently discovered gospel that goes into homoerotic detail about Jesus’ relations with the “naked youth” who is often identified as Lazarus. Recently Secret Mark has been discredited as a possible hoax in books such as The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of Secret Mark by Stephen C. Carlson.

Maybe Lazarus’ unusual family also included lesbians. Rev. Nancy Wilson, moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, raises this possibility in her brochure “Our Story Too:Reading the Bible with New Eyes,” which says:

“Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary and Martha. What drew Jesus to this very non-traditional family group of a bachelor brother living with two spinster sisters? Two barren women and a eunuch are Jesus’ adult family of choice. Are we to assume they were all celibate heterosexuals? What if Mary and Martha were not sisters but called each other ‘sister’ as did most lesbian couples throughout recorded history?”

In my “Jesus in Love” novels, the beloved disciple is John, while Lazarus is a young gay friend. To honor Lazarus on his feast day, I will close with the scene from my novel “Jesus in Love: At the Cross” where Jesus raises him from the dead:

I had counted on getting instructions from the Holy Spirit as soon as I reached the tomb, but no word came. The finality of the tomb scared me. When people healed in my presence, it was their own faith that made them whole—but that wasn’t happening now. Lazarus had crossed the line and no matter how much faith he had, his soul seemed severed from his corpse.

I crouched on the earth in sorrow and supplication. The crowd around me began to murmur. “Look how much he loved him!”

Then came the inevitable naysayers. “Nah—if he really loved him, he would have kept him from dying.”

The tears that I had been holding back overflowed. I blocked out the sounds and sights around me and felt the grief that seemed to be tearing a hole in my divine heart. The impact of my tears on the earth set up a tiny vibration. I tuned into it and recognized the husky whisper of the Holy Spirit. I was surprised that I couldn’t distinguish Her words, but then I realized that She wasn’t talking to me.

Lazarus’ soul was listening intently. I was able to decipher part of the Holy Spirit’s message to him: “Arise, my darling, my beauty, and come away.”

I sighed as I let my friend go. “Okay, take him wherever You will,” I prayed.

Suddenly part of Lazarus’ soul reconnected with the physical world, like a boat dropping anchor. I knew what it meant.

I dashed to the tomb and tried to roll the stone away, but it was too heavy for me. “Let him out!” I shouted, pounding on the stone. I directed my fury against death itself, which took my beloved cousin, but wasn’t going to get away with Lazarus, too.

Martha came up behind me, speaking gently. “Rabbi, there’s already a stench. He died four days ago.”

“Love is as strong as death,” I replied, gritting my teeth as I strained hard against the stone. “Stronger!”

Then John stepped up and positioned himself to push along with me. He placed his long, gnarled fingers next to my younger ones on the stony surface. I turned to look in his eyes. We were reconciled in a single glance. Moving as one, we heaved the stone aside and unsealed the tomb.

The cave gaped open, revealing a darkness as opaque as soot. There was indeed a stink—and a
rustling sound, too.

“Lazarus, come out!” I called.

Everyone gasped as a slim figure wrapped in grave clothes hobbled out of the tomb. Strips of linen cloth prevented him from moving his arms and legs much, and his face was covered by a linen scarf. It puffed in and out slightly with each breath. The wind blew the stench away, leaving the air fresh.

I touched Lazarus’ shoulder gently. “It’s me, Jesus,” I said as I began to unfasten his headscarf.

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Related link:

Pharsea’s World: Homosexuality and Tradition: Jesus, John and Lazarus
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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

2011-12-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

“Adam and Steve, the Gay Shepherd Couple” by Archbishop Mark Shirilau

Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple, are part of an outdoor manger scene at the home of Mark Shirilau. Now they are also part of the LGBT Nativity series at the Jesus in Love Blog.

A variety of queer manger scenes will be posted here between now and Christmas to reimagine the Holy Family in liberating, loving new ways.

Archbishop Mark Shirilau is the founder of the Ecumenical Catholic Church. He reports that the gay shepherd couple in his photo have been part of his family’s Nativity set since before he even knew what a gay couple was. Over the years he gained an extra shepherd and a gay consciousness. The results are reflected in his Christmas lawn ornaments.

The three-foot-high lighted plastic Nativity statues were common in the 1960s, but over the years they have become rare and weathered, giving them a more solemn quality. Their inner light now comes from state-of-the-art energy-efficient bulbs. In Shirilau’s photo, the grotto-like natural setting enhances the sense of mystery. Joseph’s face is completely hidden, allowing the viewer to consider the divine parentage of the baby Jesus and even imagine the possibility that Jesus had two mothers.

Some of the shepherds in Bethlehem on the first Christmas must have felt same-sex attractions. The identical shepherds in Shirilau’s photo really do look like a gay couple. Can we say “Castro clones”?

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

To share your queer Nativity scene on the Jesus in Love Blog, please email JPEG images to info@jesusinlove. Click here for details.

For more about the lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see our previous posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family
(My reflection on how and why I started doing queer manger scenes)

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Video: Gay and lesbian manger scenes show love makes a family

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Keep coming back for more queer Nativity scenes now through Christmas at the Jesus in Love Blog !

Queer Nativity 1: Manger scene as gay adoption party

2011-12-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

“Blaine and Patrick's Adoption Party 1” by Baub Alred

Photos by Baub Alred launch the LGBT Nativity series at the Jesus in Love Blog. A variety of fun and beautiful photos of queer manger scenes will be posted here between now and Christmas.

Five people submitted images for our LGBT Nativity contest, and more are expected soon. They reimagine the Holy Family in liberating new ways because, after all, love makes a family. Their creations can free viewers to experience the divine in new ways and empower those who have been excluded by church tradition.

“Blaine and Patrick’s Adoption Party” is a three-part series by Baub Alred, a digital artist living and working in Champaign, IL. His images highlight the radical nature of Christ’s birth in two ways -- by presenting his parents as an inter-racial couple as well as a same-sex couple. The figures obviously come from a traditional Nativity set, but Alred expands their meaning beyond Bethlehem with a witty title suggesting that this could be a contemporary gay adoption.

Mixing and matching Nativity sets to create queer scenes can encourage LGBT people to approach Christmas with a childlike spirit again. Alred brings back the fun of the Christmas, which can be a lonely time for LGBT folk who may be estranged from family and the hyper-hetero imagery of the typical manger scenes.

Surely the love between parents and child is sacred now as it was 2,000 years ago, even if the parents are queer. Alred succeeds in expressing their love by placing the two fathers close together in a realistic pose that brings the toy figures to life. The photos are tinted yellow with darkened edges, evoking the antique feeling of old-fashioned Daguerreotype photography. One image focuses tightly on the Holy Family, while the rest of the series presents a larger view, either with animals or with human visitors.

“Tim and Jon with their lamb Carl” by Baub Alred

Alred’s playful photo of gay shepherds (above) is a reminder that surely there were a few shepherds who felt same-sex attractions while keeping watch over their flocks by night in the field around Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The modern names suggest that the story is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

His inter-racial manger scene (below) shows Jesus with two fathers. A price tag is visible, perhaps hinting at the price that Jesus will pay at the cross. Traditionally this somber reminder is provided by a Magi who brings the baby a gift of myrrh, a spice used for embalming.

“Marius, Joseph and Jesus” by Baub Alred

“Blaine and Patrick's Adoption Party 2” by Baub Alred

“Blaine and Patrick's Adoption Party 3” by Baub Alred

Click here to view the whole 2011 Queer Nativity series.

Click the following headlines to see other images in the Queer Nativity series:

Queer Nativity 2: Adam and Steve, the gay shepherd couple

Dark Night of a Gay Soul: John of the Cross

2011-12-14T08:46:00.000-08:00

St. John of the Cross

Courtesy of www.trinitystores.com

“The Dark Night of the Soul,” a spiritual classic with homoerotic overtones, was written by 16th-century Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross, also known as San Juan de la Cruz. His feast day is today (Dec. 14).

Like other mystics, John of the Cross used the metaphor of erotic love to describe his relationship with Christ. With Christ as male, his poetry inevitably celebrates same-sex love. Hear how passionately John speaks about Jesus in these verses translated by A.Z. Foreman:

O night that can unite
A lover and loved one,
A lover and loved one moved in unison.

And on my flowering breast
Which I had kept for him and him alone
He slept as I caressed
And loved him for my own.

(The poem is reprinted in full at the end of this post)

“The Dark Night of the Soul” is open to various interpretations, but is usually considered to be a metaphor of the soul’s journey to union with God. John wrote the poem, which is recognized as one of the world’s most beautiful mystical poems, while imprisoned in a latrine for trying to reform the church.

Gay writers explore the queer dimensions of the poem at the following links:

Toby Johnson, ex-monk, gay spirituality author and activist, connects the Dark Night of the Soul with gay consciousness at TobyJohnson.com.

Terence Weldon explains why John of the Cross is important for gay Catholics at the Queer Spirituality Blog.

In the icon for this post, Brother Robert Lentz shows John with the living flames that he described in this poetry. The inscription by his head puts his name in Arabic to honor the Arabic heritage that John received from his mother.

New Age singer Loreena McKennitt created a lovely musical version of “The Dark Night of the Soul.” Watch the video with Loreena’s singing accompanied by images from nature.

The Dark Night of the Soul

By John of the Cross

From: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, revised edition (1991). Copyright 1991 ICS Publications.

1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.

3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.

5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.

6. Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.

7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.

8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, heroes and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
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Icons of John of the Cross and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon

2011-12-12T10:04:00.000-08:00

Encuentro (Encounter) by Alma Lopez

Our Lady of Guadalupe brings a message of holy empowerment that speaks to LGBT people -- and angers Christian conservatives. Queer art based on Guadalupe is shown here for her feast day today (Dec. 12). She is an Aztec version of the Virgin Mary that appeared to Aztec peasant Juan Diego outside Mexico City on Dec. 12, 1531.

Many controversies have erupted over the queer Guadalupe, including protests last summer by conservative Catholics. They launched a censorship campaign against an exhibition of “Our Lady” by Latina lesbian artist Alma Lopez at an Irish university in June 2011. Thousands of negative emails compromised the university’s email system, but the show continued as planned.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
by Lewis Williams
(traditional icon)
TrinityStores.com

Even standard icons of Guadalupe are subversive because they show the Virgin as a dark-skinned Mexican, challenging the Euro-centric images of her as a blue-eyed white lady. A good example is the version shown here by Lewis Williams of TrinityStores.com. Those who took the vision a step further to create queer Guadalupe art include Alex Donis, Alma Lopez, and Jim Ru.

In Juan Diego’s original vision, the dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe spoke to Juan Diego in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, addressing him as if he were a prince. It was astonishing because Mexico had been conquered 10 years earlier by Spaniards who claimed to have the one true faith. An icon of her, looking just as Juan Diego described, was imprinted on his cloak as a miraculous sign. Our Lady of Guadalupe became a popular symbol of dignity and hope for the native people of Mexico, and by extension to indigenous people everywhere.

The hill where Juan Diego had his vision used to be the site of an ancient temple to the Aztec mother goddess Tonantzin. Her temple was destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors. Our Lady of Guadalupe asked for a church to be built in her honor right there, among the conquered people. That shrine is now the most popular Catholic pilgrimage destination, receiving more than 6 million visitors per year.

Lupe and Sirena in Love
by Alma Lopez

Erotically alive, feminist and lesbian versions of Our Lady of Guadalupe are a common theme in the art of Alma Lopez, a Chicana artist and activist born in Mexico and raised in California. A huge controversy arose over her “Our Lady,” a digital print showing a semi-nude Virgin of Guadalupe draped in roses and exalted by a bare-breasted butterfly. Lopez says she intended it as a tribute to Our Lady, “inspired by the experiences of many Chicanas and their complex relationship to La Virgen de Guadalupe.”

“Our Lady” by Alma Lopez

Catholic authorities have been trying to censor the image for more than a decade. They tried to have Lopez’ “Our Lady” removed from an exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2001. Death threats, censorship efforts, and violent protests brought national and international attention to the print as artistic freedom clashed with freedom of religion. The debate is covered in the new book “Our Lady of Controversy: Alma Lopez’s ‘Irreverent Apparition.’” The anthology is edited by Alma Lopez and Alicia Gaspar de Alba. The two women were married in 2008, during the brief period when same-sex marriage was legal in California.

"Our Lady of Controversy" cover

The Ireland controversy erupted in June after the book was published. For more info, see our previous post Our Lady and Queer Saints art attacked as blasphemy - Show support now!

“Our Lady of Controversy” may seem tame compared to some of the more explicitly lesbian images of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Lopez made. She shows a lovely romance unfolding between Guadalupe and a mermaid in artworks such as “Lupe and Sirena in Love.”

“Mary Magdalene and Virgen de Guadalupe” (from “My Cathedral”) by Alex Donis

Alex Donis painted the Virgin of Guadalupe kissing Mary Magdalene as part of “My Cathedral,” a series that showed people of opposite viewpoints kissing in same-sex pairs. Donis was familiar with contradictions from his own “tri-cultural” identity: pop, queer, and Latino. Born to Guatemalan parents, he grew up in East Los Angeles.

His “My Cathedral” exhibit caused a frenzy when it opened in San Francisco in 1997. Heated arguments erupted in the gallery, followed by threatening phone calls and letters. Vandals smashed two of the artworks: Jesus kissing the Hindu god Rama, and guerilla leader Che Guevara kissing labor organizer Cesar Chavez. Most people overlooked his painting of Guadalupe kissing Mary Magdalene, but it remains a potent, beautiful expression of the union of sexuality and spirituality. It is included in my book “Art That Dares.”

"Virginia Guadalupe" by Jim Ru

Jim Ru painted a bearded drag queen version of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Titled “Virginia Guadalupe,” the painting was displayed in his show “Transcendent Faith: Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Saints” in Bisbee, Arizona in the 1990s.

This bold painting certainly gives new meaning to the title bestowed upon Guadalupe by Pope Pius XII: “Queen of Mexico.” If the Virgin Mary could appear to an Aztec as an Aztec, then why not show up to a queer as a queer?
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Various icons of Our Lady of Guadalupe and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series and LGBT Holidays series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, heroes and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year in the Saints series. The Holidays series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to LGBT and queer people of faith and our allies.

Gay rights are human rights: Hillary Clinton speaks for Human Rights Day on religion and LGBT rights

2011-12-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

“Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in a speech at the United Nations in Geneva this week. She gave the groundbreaking speech about LGBT rights in honor of Human Rights Day, which is today (Dec. 10.)

Clinton is magnificent in outlining and overcoming all objections to LGBT rights as human rights -- including the religious reasons. She stated that religion must not be used to justify violence against LGBT people, but can and should instead serve as a source of compassion.

I see her speech as a dramatic breakthrough for LGBT rights, based on my own experience advocating justice for queer people at the World Council of Churches in the early 1990s as ecumenical director for LGBT-affirming Metropolitan Community Churches.

Kittredge Cherry at the World Council of Churches headquarters in Geneva, where she advocated for LGBT rights, February 1994

In a sense I helped pave the way for Hillary Clinton’s LGBT rights speech! The WCC and the United Nations are both based in Geneva and have somewhat similar international structures leading to similar worldviews.

All hell broke loose at the World Council of Churches in 1993 when I asked their human rights committee to address lesbian and gay issues. Now almost 20 years later the U.S. Secretary of State herself has brilliantly answered the many objections they raised. Her speech provides the exact kind of carefully worded ideas that are needed by LGBT rights advocates in international organizations such as the WCC and UN.

Watch her speech on video or read the whole text at this link. Here I will simply quote the section where Clinton talks about religious justifications for violating the rights of LGBT people:

The third, and perhaps most challenging, issue arises when people cite religious or cultural values as a reason to violate or not to protect the human rights of LGBT citizens. This is not unlike the justification offered for violent practices towards women like honor killings, widow burning, or female genital mutilation. Some people still defend those practices as part of a cultural tradition. But violence toward women isn't cultural; it's criminal. Likewise with slavery, what was once justified as sanctioned by God is now properly reviled as an unconscionable violation of human rights.

In each of these cases, we came to learn that no practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us. And this holds true for inflicting violence on LGBT people, criminalizing their status or behavior, expelling them from their families and communities, or tacitly or explicitly accepting their killing.

Of course, it bears noting that rarely are cultural and religious traditions and teachings actually in conflict with the protection of human rights. Indeed, our religion and our culture are sources of compassion and inspiration toward our fellow human beings. It was not only those who’ve justified slavery who leaned on religion, it was also those who sought to abolish it. And let us keep in mind that our commitments to protect the freedom of religion and to defend the dignity of LGBT people emanate from a common source. For many of us, religious belief and practice is a vital source of meaning and identity, and fundamental to who we are as people. And likewise, for most of us, the bonds of love and family that we forge are also vital sources of meaning and identity. And caring for others is an expression of what it means to be fully human. It is because the human experience is universal that human rights are universal and cut across all religions and cultures.

A few LGBT leaders have criticized Clinton’s speech as hypocritical, considering the ongoing violations of LGBT rights in the United States. However, Clinton acknowledged in the speech, “I speak about this subject knowing that my own country's record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect….We, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home.” I see her speech as a big step in the right direction.

Artist paints history’s gay couples: Interview with Ryan Grant Long

2011-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

“Saints Sergius and Bacchus” by Ryan Grant Long, ryangrantlong.blogspot.com

Historical men who loved men, including some gay saints, are painted by artist Ryan Grant Long in a new series titled “Fairy Tales.”

Spanning more than 4,000 years, the series includes 3rd-century Christian martyrs Sergius and Bacchus and Biblical hero David with his beloved Jonathan. The 12 scenes present a diverse and balanced assortment of a dozen male couples in various time periods, cultures and religions, starting in Egypt in 2400 BCE with the first recorded same-sex couple Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum. All are real people and most are widely accepted to have been homosexual or bisexual.

Long created “Fairy Tales” in a calendar format for his Master of Fine Arts thesis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also earned a certificate in LGBT studies in 2009. “Fairy Tales” is available for purchase as a handsome 2012 calendar at Deviantart.com under his pseudonym “Eshto.”

The artist makes the past come alive by showing historical figures in unusual, informal slice-of-life moments. It’s almost like he was there taking candid snapshots. For example, saints Sergius and Bacchus are usually portrayed in static icons, side by side staring straight at the viewer. But Long catches them gazing into each other’s eyes during a private moment in their prison cell (above). In another image, Jonathan is depicted at the very moment he fell in love with David, soon after the young hero beheaded the giant Goliath (below).

“David and Jonathan” by Ryan Grant Long

The “Fairy Tales” series moves across the globe with figures ranging from a Chinese emperor to an Arab poet, a Japanese samurai warrior and Mayan athletes. He also presents famous pairs from Western culture: artist Leonardo Da Vinci with his assistant Salai, and poet Walt Whitman with his comrade Peter Doyle. The series continues to the present era with civil-rights leader Bayard Rustin holding hands with his partner Walter Naegle (below).

“Bayard Rustin and Walter Naegle” by Ryan Grant Long

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Long is currently working as an assets and concept artist for mobile video games. His art covers a wide variety of subjects, but his other religion-themed work includes a design commissioned to promote “In from the Wilderness” by Rev. David Weekley. The book chronicles his journey coming out as a transgender minister in the United Methodist Church.

Recently Long took time to discuss his art with Kittredge Cherry, art historian and author of the Jesus in Love Blog.

Kittredge Cherry: Why did you decide to depict male same-sex affection throughout history?

Ryan Grant Long
in his Noah's Ark spoof
"You Shall Not Octopass"

Ryan Grant Long: My MFA was the end of my academic career, and I wanted my final project as a student to represent the culmination of all that I had learned throughout my college experience. Aside from art, I had focused on LGBT studies, sociology and anthropology. Most people do not get a formal education in LGBT issues, so I wanted to bring what I had learned into the public sphere, and use my skills as an artist to make it visually engaging and accessible to lay people. I also do not relate to much of the gay art I see, so I wanted to make something I would personally respond to as a viewer.

KC: How did you choose which couples to show?

RGL: I started by looking at the representative examples of historical lovers one would be exposed to if they took an intro college course on LGBT history. Sergius and Bacchus were a big deal in my LGBT studies classes because of how they challenge conventional notions of Christianity’s attitude toward homosexuality. I also wanted a wide breadth of cultures and time periods, to really make the point that homosexuality is not some modern invention or fluke, it’s an essential part of the human existence and has been around as long as humans have walked this planet. In general, I did not find it necessary for there to be absolute proof that the subjects had been gay as we understand it. I was looking for enough evidence to make a reasonable historian concede that they could have been lovers; and that if we saw the same affection in two people of the opposite sex, it would no doubt be taken for granted that they were romantically involved.

KC: Even in your MFA exhibition, the images are displayed as a calendar. Why did you present it in calendar format?

RGL: In keeping with my intention of normalizing and mainstreaming same-sex affection, I chose one of the most ubiquitous popular art formats I could think of. I wanted to make art that would be affordable and freely hung in homes and college dorm rooms, to facilitate getting the information out to people who wanted it. This decision put me at odds with the “fine art” mentality of my MFA program. I was pressured to blow the images up to comically huge sizes for the MFA exhibit, so they would function as museum art objects. But in truth the project was always designed with the intention of being available for everyone to purchase in a standard calendar form.

KC: Your series includes two couples that are popular with many of our readers: David/Jonathan and Sergius/Bacchus. What attracted you to those pairs in particular? How did you pick which scenes to paint from their lives?

RGL: I wanted each couple to have its own unique romantic theme based on what I felt was the most intense or characteristic moment in their respective stories. When I researched the story of David and Jonathan I was struck by the image of Jonathan removing his clothes and putting them on David. There was a humility there. The head of Goliath is included as an homage to similar depictions of David throughout art history, and I also found it a bit contradictory and amusing to contrast this violence with a very sweet gesture. It seemed to capture something of the contradictory tone of the Old Testament, being that it contains great beauty and poetry, but also some pretty horrible things like genocide and slavery. As for the saints, the moment where the ghost of Bacchus appears to his dying lover was not only very romantic, it was also a direct shot at the prevailing belief that gay people are not welcome in the Christian heaven. So like many of the images, it served the dual purpose of honoring same-sex affection, while challenging some of the common preconceptions that give rise to homophobia.

KC: Why didn't you include women who loved women? Do you have any plans to do a lesbian version? Or do you know of a female version by another artist?

RGL: This is a criticism that I received at the opening of the show, and it sort of mystified me as to why anyone would expect me, a gay man, to make art that speaks for lesbians. I think it would be wonderful if another artist tackled this subject, but not being a woman or a person who falls in love with women, I really do not have much passion for the subject matter.

KC: How have others reacted to your "Fairy Tales" project? What did your professors think? Did you face any opposition, controversy or attempts to censor it?

RGL: What’s interesting, and perhaps a bit unfortunate, is that a lot of people were thrown off by the “PG” nature of the images. So much gay art is focused on sex and “otherness”. I think most people were expecting Tom of Finland, but I made this series because I was tired of this stereotype. Being gay is a whole human experience. It’s not just about sex or minority status, but also love, friendship, community, etc. I wanted to see the same kind of celebrations of same-sex affection that heterosexual people take for granted. Also as I mentioned, my interest in popular art and illustration ran up against some of the faculty’s notions of what “fine art” is supposed to be, so I had to fight and compromise to get the idea approved.

KC: How does your perspective as an openly gay man influence "Fairy Tales"?

RGL: Well as I said, I was a bit tired of seeing gay art that was overtly sexual and superficial. And that’s not all gay-themed art but it seems to me like it is overrepresented. I was born in a small tourist town and raised with relatively conservative social values. I wanted to normalize gay relationships and same-sex affection, and make this information relatable to people who don’t necessarily identify with stereotypically urban gay culture. Despite that these are infamous historical figures, I wanted the depictions of their affections to be down-to-earth, heartwarming, inspiring - human - not shocking or outrageous or confusing, as so much contemporary art is, especially when the subject matter is alternative sexualities. As you said, they look like candid “slice of life” snapshots, and that is exactly what I was going for.

“Kukai” by Ryan Grant Long

KC: I was especially drawn to your picture of the Japanese Buddhist monk Kukai because I lived in Japan for three years as a young adult, and because some of our readers are Buddhists. Why didn't you include Kukai in the calendar? What are the legends about Kukai's homosexuality?

RGL: I needed twelve images to complete the calendar theme, and I just felt Kukai’s story was not as engaging in an intimate way as the other couples I ended up with. Even Abu-Nuwas, who was known to be quite promiscuous and downright filthy at times, was passionate about his lovers and his story lent itself to an interesting romantic image, but Kukai’s story didn’t have much in the way of romantic tropes. According to legend Kukai introduced homosexuality to Japan. It’s a fascinating tale, but I didn’t find anything about actual relationships and what their character might have been.

KC: What did you personally learn from researching and painting "Fairy Tales"?

RGL: Since I had been studying LGBT history throughout my undergrad and grad careers, the information I learned while researching this was fascinating, but not exactly mind-blowing; I was generally familiar with it. Most of what I learned while creating the project had to do with how to overcome formal and technical concerns in designing the images, and then getting blowing them up and printing them at a large size. After the show I had to completely revisit the formatting in order to fit the work to the calendar dimensions required by the DeviantArt website, where it’s currently available for purchase. That is when I added an extra vertical information bar on the right of each image, which was not present at the MFA show.

KC: When we planned this interview, you said that use of your images must be for a clear secular purpose that both religious and non-religious people can share in. Please explain for our readers why you have this policy.

RGL: A straightforward reason is that I am an atheist and often critical of religion, so I would not want my images to be used to promote a worldview or ideology I simply do not agree with. But I am also a humanist and progressive, and I think it’s imperative to build bridges between others who are interested in social justice. This is part of how I ended up making art for Reverend David Weekley. David had seen the Noah’s Ark spoof I created for shirt.woot.com, which had widespread appeal among both Christians and non-Christians. He thought it was cute and funny, and his wife approached me about designing a t-shirt to celebrate his book In from the Wilderness (ISBN: 978-1-60899-544-8).

Ryan Grant Long’s design
for “In From the Wilderness”

Despite that I am not a Christian, I absolutely loved the book, and I found David’s story to be perfectly accessible and engaging on a human level; I have recommended it to theist and non-theist friends alike as well as university professors teaching LGBT studies courses. Despite our differences, David and I probably agree on political and social issues 90% of the time, and so I have much more in common with someone like him than, say, a libertarian atheist like Penn Jillette. And generally the ways in which we will get to equality will be the same for everyone, I think. Education, legal and economic fairness, and (speaking as an American here) keeping the United States a secular nation in which religion is separate from politics and nobody has the right to impose their personal beliefs on others. So I can freely count many gay-affirming Christians among my friends and allies, even if we disagree on religious matters. And since my goal is a secular society where everyone is free to hold their own beliefs, I want my art to be enjoyed by everyone, not just those who follow a particular ideology.

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To see all 12 images in the “Fairy Tales” series, visit
http://ryangrantlong.blogspot.com/2009/08/mfa-show_21.html
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery.

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