Jesus in Love Blog

Today Jesus In Love celebrates seven years of supporting LGBT spirituality and the arts. I founded it on Nov. 17, 2005 to present a positive spiritual vision for queer people and our allies.

To send a birthday gift, click the “GoFundMe” button below or visit my donate page.

Crowdfunding

Jesus In Love promotes artistic and religious freedom and teaches love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or religious faith. It is needed because Christian rhetoric is often misused to justify hate and discrimination against LGBT people.

I launched JesusInLove.org with a news release titled “New Website Dares to Show Gay Jesus.” Since then it has grown to serve more people in more ways.

Traffic at the Jesus in Love Blog more than doubled this year with 97,000 visits and 187,000 page views. Subscriptions to the free Jesus in Love e-newsletter continue to grow, recently surpassing 800 subscribers.

The content has also expanded beyond the original emphasis on the queer Christ, and now includes a wider variety of artists, holidays and my popular LGBT saints series.

Jesus in Love has won many honors -- and I also get a lot of hate mail from conservative Christians. A typical negative comment is, “Gays are not wanted in the kingdom of Christ! They are cast into the lake of fire.”

The ongoing religious bigotry proves that Jesus In Love is needed now as much as ever. Readers call it “the most radically progressive and life affirming Christian LGBT site on the Internet” and “one of the most refreshing voices I currently encounter online.”

Thank you for your support over the years. I look forward to another year of bringing joy and justice to LGBT people of faith and our supporters.

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Image credit: Birthday cake from Eyehook.com.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Transgender Day of Remembrance by Mikhaela Reid

http://www.mikhaela.net/

Transgender Day of Remembrance (Nov. 20) commemorates those who were killed due to anti-transgender prejudice. At the Jesus in Love Blog we also celebrate transgender visions in art, theater, religion and spirituality today.

Religious violence against transgenders goes back at least as far as medieval times, when St. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for cross-dressing and St. Wilgefortis was crucified for being a bearded woman.

This day serves the dual purpose of honoring the dead and raising public awareness of hate crimes against transgenders — that is, transsexuals, crossdressers, and other gender-variant people. It was founded in 1999 to honor Rita Hester. Her murder on Nov. 28, 1998 led to the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a candlelight vigil in San Francisco. Since then it has grown into an international phenomenon observed around the world.

Political cartoonist Mikhaela Reid pictures some of the more prominent victims of anti-transgender violence in the illustration above. We light memorial candles here for them and others like them.

candle rust animated Pictures, Images and Photos

In memory of: Gwen Araujo, Rita Hester, Brandon Teena (subject of the movie “Boys Don’t Cry”), Chanelle Picket, Nakia Ladelle Baker, Debra Forte, Tyra Hunter, Joe Stevens, Logan Smith, Jessica Mercado, Terrianne Summers, Venus Xtravaganza, Chanel Chandler... and all others who died due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.

****

Transgender Pride Flag

Other spiritual resources for Transgender Day of Remembrance are available at TransFaith Online, including this prayer by Rabbi Reuben Zellman, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco, CA:

God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.

As many as we can name, there are thousands more whom we cannot, and for whom no prayers may have been said. We mourn their senseless deaths, and give thanks for their lives, for their teaching, and for the brief glow of each holy flame. We pray for the strength to carry on their legacy of vision, bravery, and love.

And as we remember them, we remember with them the thousands more who have taken their own lives. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance, and cruelty that grow despair. And we pray, God, that all those who perpetrate hate and violence will speedily come to understand that Your creation has many faces, many genders, many holy expressions.

Blessed are they, who have allowed their divine image to shine in the world.

Blessed is God, in whom no light is extinguished.

___

Click the headlines below for more about transgender spirituality. Not all of these people self-identified as transgender, but their stories are offered here as an inspiration for transgenders and their allies.

Jemima Wilkinson: Queer preacher reborn in 1776 as “Publick Universal Friend”
Jemima Wilkinson (1752-1819) was a Quaker preacher who woke from a near-death experience in 1776 believing she was neither male nor female. She changed her name to the “Publick Universal Friend,” fought for gender equality and founded an important religious community.

Ethiopian eunuch: A black gay man was the world’s first convert to Christianity

Pauli Murray: Queer saint / activist for civil rights and gender equality
Human rights champion Pauli Murray (1910-1985), a recent addition to the Episcopal books of saints, described herself as a man trapped in a woman’s body and took hormone treatments in her 20s and 30s.

Joan of Arc: Cross-dressing warrior-saint
Joan of Arc was a cross-dressing teenage warrior who led the medieval French army to victory when she was 17.

Image credit: Saint Joan of Arc by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM., www.trinitystores.com

We'wha of Zuni: Two-spirited Native American
We’wha was a two-spirit Native American Zuni who served as a cultural ambassador for her people, including a visit with a U.S. president in 1886.

Image credit: “We’wha” by Jim Ru

Religious threats to LGBT people exposed in Jerusalem photos
Religion-based oppression of LGBT people is revealed in “Jerusalem,” a photo exhibit by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin. It includes “Tranny,” a portrait of a drag queen from Jerusalem. Biblical words against crossdressing are projected behind her.

Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon
Queer art based on Our Lady of Guadalupe includes a bearded drag queen version titled “Virginia Guadalupe” by Jim Ru.

St. Wilgefortis: Bearded woman saint
St. Wilgefortis prayed to avoid marriage to a pagan king -- and her prayers were answered when she grew a beard!

300 protest transsexual Jesus play
More than 300 conservative Christian protesters picketed the Scottish opening of “Jesus, Queen of Heaven,” a play about a transsexual Jesus by Jo (formerly John) Clifford.

Transgressing gender in the Bible
“Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible” is an LGBT-positive play by Peterson Toscano.

Transvestite Jesus appears in photo project
A transvestite Jesus appears in a series of alternative Christ photos by Colorado artist Bill Burch

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Attacks on transgenders are nothing new. An excellent summary of Trans Martyrs throughout church history is posted at the Queer Saints and Martyrs Blog. The trans martyrs include Joan of Arc, crossdressing monks, and the “bearded woman” Wilgefortis.

More spiritual and religious resources for transgenders include:

Omnigender: A Trans-religious Approach

by Virginia Mollenkott

Trans-Gendered: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith (Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry)

by Justin Tanis

Transgendering Faith: Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality

by Leanne Tigert (editor)

Call Me Malcolm

(video)

Dignity USA's Transgender Resource Page:
http://www.dignityusa.org/transgender

Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) Transgender Resource Page:
http://mccchurch.org/ministries/transgender/

Trans Faith In Color Conference
http://transfaithincolor.org/

Call me Malcolm Video and Training Guide (United Church of Christ)

Voices of Witness: Out of the Box (Episcopal film)
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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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Icons of Joan of Arc, We’wha of Zuni and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

Happy Thanksgiving from Kittredge Cherry and the Jesus in Love Blog!

I give thanks for the many people who read and support my blog on LGBT spirituality with their time, talent and resources. Thank you!

Today this scripture expresses the song in my soul: “Sing and make music from your heart to God, always giving thanks to the Creator for everything.” (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving with an excerpt from “Thanksgiving Rite” by Zalmon Sherwood, published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations

:

Reader: With the rainbow we celebrate the vibrance and diversity of lesbian and gay pilgrims. We’re everywhere. Every day. And we are forever the pilgrims in this land.

All: Blessed be, blessed be. We’ve always been here. We always will be. Pilgrims in this land.

Reader: As gay and lesbian pilgrims, we believe it is a matter of faith to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. We believe in recognizing equally and loving all members of the human family, whatever their race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, or physical or mental capacity. We believe the Earth, its creatures, and the universe are good, beautiful, and sacred parts of creation that must be protected and cared for. We believe that we are born to accept responsibility, to take a stand on vital issues, and to work to secure freedom, justice, and love for all persons.

All: We believe it is the divine power within us that gives us courage and stamina to face the truth and to live it, even to die for it. Let us go forth, continuing this celebration in the knowledge that we are pilgrims, that hope for a new world is in our hearts, that the struggle for justice is our calling. Let us greet each other with open arms, with heads held high. Grab hold of the future and change the world as pilgrims in this land.
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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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

“Harvey Milk of San Francisco” by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM. (TrinityStores.com)

Pioneering gay rights activist Harvey Milk was assassinated 34 years ago today on Nov. 27, 1978. Milk is the first* and most famous openly gay male elected official in California, and perhaps the world. He became the public face of the LGBT rights movement, and his reputation has continued to grow since his death. He has been called a martyr for LGBT rights -- and for all human rights.

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country,” Milk once said. Two bullets did enter his brain, and his vision of LGBT people living openly is also coming true.

Milk (1930-1978) served only 11 months on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before he was killed, but in that short time he fought for the rights of the elderly, small business owners, and the many ethnic communities in his district as well as for the growing LGBT community.

Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 after three unsuccessful election attempts. Haunted by the sense that he would be killed for political reasons, Milk recorded tapes to be played in the event of his assassination. His message, recorded nine days before his death, included this powerful statement:

“I ask for the movement to continue, for the movement to grow, because last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and my election gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And after all, that's what this is all about. It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power — it's about giving those young people out there in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, hope. You gotta give them hope.”

Shots fired by conservative fellow supervisor Dan White cut Milk’s life short. More than 30 years later, the hope and the movement for LGBT rights are more alive than ever.

Milk has received many honors for his visionary courage and commitment to equality. He is the only openly gay person in the United States to have an official state holiday in his name. Harvey Milk Day is celebrated in California on Milk’s birthday, May 22. The bill establishing Harvey Milk Day was signed in to law in fall 2009. State employees still have to work on Harvey Milk Day, but California public schools are encouraged to teach suitable commemorative lessons about the gay rights activist.

In 2009 Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was included in the Time “100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century” for being “a symbol of what gays can accomplish and the dangers they face in doing so.”

He is the subject of two Oscar-winning movies, “Milk

” (2008) and “The Times of Harvey Milk

” (1984), as well as the book “The Mayor of Castro Street

” by Randy Shilts.

The Harvey Milk icon painted by Robert Lentz (pictured above) was hailed as a “national gay treasure” by gay author/activist Toby Johnson. Milk holds a candle and wears an armband with a pink triangle, the Nazi symbol for gay men, expressing solidarity with all who were tortured or killed because of their sexual orientation. It is one of 40 icons featured in the book “Christ in the Margins

” by Robert Lentz and Edwina Gateley.

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. All 10 are now displayed there as a collection titled “Images That Challenge.”

The icon has also been criticized for portraying Milk, a secular Jew, in a iconographic style rooted in Christian tradition. “The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, that my friends, that is true perversion!” He is honored in the interfaith LGBTQ Saints series here as a martyr who died in the struggle for gay rights.

[*Note: When Milk was elected, two gay politicians were already in office: lesbian Massachusetts State Representative Elaine Noble and Minnesota State Senator Allan Spear, who came out after he won re-election.]

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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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

“Corpus Christi” photo by EJ Camp, courtesy of 108 Productions

Blasphemy charges were filed against the actors, producer and director of the gay Jesus play “Corpus Christi” in Greece this month after violent protests forced cancellation of the show.

Greek Orthodox priests and members of the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party protested outside the Hytirio theater in downtown Athens almost daily for weeks, according to news reports by Reuters and others. Protestors blocked the theater entrance and clashed with police, forcing the premiere of “Corpus Christi” to be cancelled twice before the whole production was shut down.

Blasphemy laws are rarely enforced in Greece, but director Laertis Vasilio and the cast could face several months in jail if convicted of “malicious blasphemy” and “insulting religion.”

Corpus Christi

has been causing controversy since 1998, when bomb threats from religious conservatives almost prevented its Off-Broadway opening. Written by American playwright Terrence McNally, the updated Passion play retells the gospel with Jesus as a gay man in 1950s Corpus Christi, Texas.

“Corpus Christi” continues to be produced around the world, including an international revival tour by 108 Productions that has continued to sell-out audience since 2006.

“We are not involved with the Greek production but have stayed acutely aware of its progress and certainly keep them all in our prayers and thoughts,” said James Brandon, producer, director and actor at 108 Productions, which is based in America. “Although we may get thousands of protest emails daily we are blessed and lucky not to be able to be charged!”

Controversy over the play is explored on film in “Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption,” a new documentary from 108 Productions (trailer below). The film follows the troupe, playwright and audiences across the United States and around the world on a five-year journey as protestors and supporters clash over a central issue facing the LGBT community: religion-based bias.

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Related links:

Blasphemy charges filed over gay Jesus play in Greece (Reuters)

Greece Prosecutes Corpus Christi for Blasphemy (Greek Reporter)

Rehearsal photos from the Greek production of “Corpus Christi” (Facebook)

Gay Jesus kiss: "Corpus Christi" play behind the scenes (Jesus in Love)

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This post is part of the Queer Christ series series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

“The Mystical Marriage of Blessed Fr. Bernardo de Hoyos y Sena, SJ”

By William Hart McNichols © www.fatherbill.org

Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos y Sena is an 18th-century Spanish priest who wrote vividly of his mystical gay marriage to Jesus. He was beatified in 2010 and his feast day is today (Nov. 29).

Bernardo (1711-1735) was 18 when he had a vision of marrying Jesus in a ceremony much like a human wedding. He described it this way:

Always holding my right hand, the Lord had me occupy the empty throne; then He fitted on my finger a gold ring.... “May this ring be an earnest of our love. You are Mine, and I am yours. You may call yourself and sign Bernardo de Jesus, thus, as I said to my spouse, Santa Teresa, you are Bernardo de Jesus and I am Jesus de Bernardo. My honor is yours; your honor is Mine. Consider My glory that of your Spouse; I will consider yours, that of My spouse. All Mine is yours, and all yours is Mine. What I am by nature you share by grace. You and I are one!”
(quoted from “The Visions of Bernard Francis De Hoyos, S.J.” by Henri Bechard, S.J.)

Bernardo’s vision inspired artist-priest William Hart McNichols to paint an icon of Bernardo’s wedding with Jesus.

“I was so taken with this profoundly beautiful account of Jesus’ mystical marriage with Bernardo, including all the symbols of a human wedding,” McNichols wrote.

Bernardo de Hoyos
(Wikimedia Commons)

Official Roman Catholic accounts emphasize how Bernardo went on to become “the first apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Spain,” but the church downplays the queer vision that inspired him. Bernardo’s marriage with Christ can justifiably be interpreted as a “gay Jesus” story.

Bernardo spent nine years in the Jesuit formation process and was ordained in January 1735. His pastoral ministry was cut short later that same year when he died of typhus on Nov. 29, 1735. Some call him a “boy saint” because he only lived to be 24. His dying words indicate that he felt the presence of his Spouse Jesus at the end. Bernardo’s last words were, “Oh, how good it is to dwell in the Heart of Jesus!”

After his death Bernardo’s reputation for holiness continued to grow, but church politics slowed his path to sainthood until recently. His beatification ceremony was held in April 2010 in the northwestern Spanish province of Valladolid, where Bernardo spent his entire life.

While the Catholic church refuses to bless same-sex marriages, the lives and visions of its own saints tell a far different story -- in which Christ the Bridegroom gladly joins himself in marriage with a man.

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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.

It is also part of the Queer Christ series series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Patrons of the AIDS Pandemic by Lewis Williams, SFO
www.trinitystores.com

World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 supports everyone affected by HIV. The day is dedicated to prevention and treatment, and honors those who died of AIDS -- more than 25 million people worldwide.

World AIDS Day holds great personal meaning for me. I lost many friends to AIDS when I was ministering in the LGBT community of San Francisco in the late 1980s. Back then there were no effective treatments and many gay men were dying of AIDS.

For those who want to learn about -- or remember -- what it was like, I recommend the new documentary We Were Here

. With honesty and grace, the film revisits the arrival and impact of AIDS on San Francisco, revisiting the devastation of a gay generation lost to AIDS. For me everyone in the movie looked like someone I knew. ALL the faces were familiar! Watching it is both heartbreaking and inspirational.

I wrote about some of my AIDS ministry experiences for Christian Century magazine in an article titled “We Are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS.” The article is reprinted in the book The Church with AIDS: Renewal in the Midst of Crisis

, edited by Letty Russell.

The icon “Patrons of the AIDS Pandemic” by Lewis Williams shows two pairs of medieval male saints who faced disease epidemics together with friendship and faith. Their man-to-man bonds speak to the gay community, where AIDS has a disproportionately large impact. The couples stand on each side of a chestnut tree, a symbol of life after death.

“It is hoped that they offer solace to companions who have survived a loved one’s death, or to friends\family burdened by the death of two companions,” says the text accompanying the icon.

On the left are 13th-century Franciscans who ministered in an Italian leper colony: Blessed Bartolo Buonpedoni and Blessed Vivaldo. Bartolo got leprosy while caring for the sick, so he had to live in segregated housing. His loyal friend Vivaldo moved into the leper house with him, even though he himself did not contract the ailment. They lived together for 20 years until Bartolo’s death. Today there are effective treatments for leprosy, now known as Hansen’s disease. AIDS has taken its place as a dreaded and stigmatized disease.

On the right stand 14th-century Carmelite monks St.Avertanus and Blessed Romeo, traveling companions who died together of the plague. Avertanus felt inspired to go to Rome, so he got permission to take Romeo with him. They faced rain and snow as they made an adventurous pilgrimage over the Alps from France to Italy. No Italian city would let them in, for an epidemic of plague was raging. Avertanus died first, followed a week later by Romeo.

The icon was painted by New Mexico artist Lewis Williams of the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO). He studied with master iconographer Robert Lentz and has made social justice a theme of his icons.

Let us join in the following AIDS prayer by Diann L. Neu, Diann, cofounder and codirector of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER). It was published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations

:

____
One Person: Compassionate Holy One, open our hearts and minds and hands so that we may connect ourselves to the global community of others responding to AIDS as we pray:
We remember all the women, men, and children in this country and around the world who are living with AIDS.

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

One: We remember all who care for people living and dying with AIDS in their homes, in hospices, and in support centers.

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

One: We remember all who are involved in research and hospital care that they may respect the dignity of each person.

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

One: We remember all partners who are left mourning for their beloved ones.

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

One: We remember all parents who learn the truth of their children’s lives through their process of facing death….
We remain vigilant,
Until a cure for AIDS is found,
Until those dying with AIDS are comforted,
Until truth sets us free,
Until love drives out injustice.
We shall not give up the fight.
____

In memory of: Brian Dose, Rev. Ron Russell-Coons, Scott B, Stephen Clover, Richard O’Dell, Bruce Bunger, Scott Galuteria, Kevin Y, Harold O, Ric Hand, Paul Francis, Rev. Larry Uhrig, Rev. Jim Sandmire, David C, Wayne Mielke, Rev. Dan Mahoney, Bill Knox, Sue H, Tom, Jesse Oden, Jim Veilleux, John from Axios, Robert P, Daven Balcomb, Dave Eckert, Martin Lounsberry, Mark S, David Castagna, Kevin Calegari, Rev. Rick Weatherly, Don K, Michael Mank, David Ward, Rev. Howard Wells, Rev. Howard Warren, Ken Bland, Lanny Dykes, Rob Eichberg, Virgil Hall, Randy Cypherd, Charles Hosley... and all others who lost their lives to HIV and AIDS.

****

More spiritual resources for World AIDS Day are available at:
World AIDS Day Campaign's Faith Advocacy Toolkit

MCC Global HIV and AIDS Ministry

Another beautiful artwork supporting people with AIDS is “Il Martir (The Martyr)” by Armando Lopez (pictured at left). For the story behind the painting, see my previous post, “Art honors AIDS martyrs on World AIDS Day.”

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, 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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Patrons of the AIDS Pandemic and many other icons are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores

“Rainbow Mysteries" photo by Kittredge Cherry

Today marks the first day of Advent, a time of expectant waiting for Christ’s birth. Advent celebrates the mystery of the Word made flesh -- an important concept in queer spirituality.

“This Advent I am reflecting on what it might mean for us as LGBTIQ people to give birth to, and to reveal to the world, the Queer Face of God in our time, and in our culture,” spirituality author Michael Bernard Kelly told the Jesus in Love Blog. He is the author of "The Erotic Contemplative" video/lecture series and Seduced by Grace: Contemporary Spirituality, Gay Experience and Christian Faith

.

Kelly will lead an Advent retreat for gay men Dec. 7-9 at Easton Mountain, an interfaith, gay spiritual retreat center in upstate New York. As he was preparing for the retreat, he offered these Advent reflections for readers of the Jesus in Love Blog:

Can we have the trust, the surrender and the courage of Mary, carrying the Divine Word within us in silence and hope, waiting for Divine Love to gestate in our hearts, allowing our bodies, our souls and our life journeys to birth grace for the world? Just as the body of Mary gave flesh, blood and bone to Incarnation of God growing within her, can we, in every choice we make, in every word we say, in every act we perform, and in the surrender of our very selves, give flesh and blood to God’s Word of justice, of inclusion, of embodied joy, and of queer holiness? Can our queer lives become the very revelation of God’s love in our time?

This is the mystery and challenge of Advent – and the great wonder is, this is not a mighty, exhausting project that we have to plan and execute. Rather, this is all about allowing ourselves to become pregnant with God, saying the radical “Yes” that will allow the Holy Spirit to do her own work within us, and trusting utterly that love is always born, moment by moment and breath by breath, in the most unlikely of places and in the most hidden of hearts. May we feel the Divine seed stir within us this Advent and may we rejoice with the queerest joy, as Christ is born for us, through us, within us, and as us.

Another queer way to celebrate Advent is offered by Chris Glaser, a gay Christian minister, activist and author of LGBT spirituality books including Coming Out to God: Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men, Their Families and Friends

. Here is an excerpt from his “Rite for Advent,” published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations

:

One: The closet may be a fertile place:
creativity bursts out of a lonely hell,
and from a closet fertilized with hope,
the spirit leaps from a monastic cell.

Many: Those born in darkness
have seen life.

One: Out of dark soil sprouts new life,
from darkness springs embodied hope.
Both stretch for the illumination
of the cosmic landscape.

Many: Those born in darkness
have seen life.

One: Dear God,

Many: We seek your Word embodied
in life rooted in fertile darkness.
In life stretching for illumination,
we await your transforming Word.

For more info on the Advent retreat for gay men, visit Easton Mountain Retreat Center (www.eastonmountain.org).
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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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Looking for just the right gift for that LGBTQ loved one? You don’t even have to be queer to love the innovative icons on sale til Dec. 9 at TrinityStores.com.

And for the hard-to-please queer who already has everything, check out the Top 20 Gay Jesus books. Nobody has them all!

I use Trinity icons of same-sex couples and queer saints all year long as part of the LGBT Saints series here at Jesus in Love. Now they are having a “Buy 2 - Get 1 free” holiday sale through Dec. 9. They have got cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, and framed prints with more than 850 images by world-class artists such as Robert Lentz and Lewis Williams. Nine favorites of Jesus in Love readers are shown here. There are many more, from Joan of Arc to We-Wha of Zuni. Click the titles or click here to visit TrinityStores.com.

Saints Perpetua and Felicity by Robert Lentz

Sergius and Bacchus; Harvey Milk; and Perpetua and Felicity

From TrinityStores.com

Sts. Polyeuct and Nearchus by Robert Lentz

Sts. Brigid & Darlughdach by Robert Lentz

Polyeuct and Nearchus; Brigid and Darlughdach; Boris and George

Hildegard of Bingen and Richardis by Lewis Williams

St. Wencelaus and Podiven by Lewis Williams

Jonathan and David; Hildegard and Richardis; and Wenceslas and Podivan

All icons from TrinityStores.com by Robert Lentz or Lewis Williams

Gay Nativity

Don’t forget my Gay and Lesbian Nativity cards. They show two Marys and two Josephs at the manger with the baby Jesus. Right-wing religious blogs attacked the cards, so you know that they must be good! Click to visit the card shop or get info.

Lesbian Nativity

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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 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

“Inside Out” by Verlena Johnson, 2006. Acrylic, 40" x 30"

Lesbians in church and in touch with their own spiritual power stand out in the paintings of Los Angeles artist Verlena Johnson. Many wear halos to show their divinity.

“I believe part of my purpose is to remind myself and others that we are all divine,” Johnson said. She is an African American (biracial) lesbian artist who paints spiritual portraits, primarily women with halos. They gaze into the viewer’s eyes like the saints in Byzantine icons.

“One could say all of them are lesbians (although there are no visible markers of this, e.g. labrys, two women in an intimate embrace, etc.), as many of them to varying degrees are self portraits or in some way represent me. In fact, many of my portraits are self-portraits and I am an out lesbian,” she explained.

With verve and versatility, Johnson gives visual form to her unique fusion of mysticism, spirituality, feminism, queer theory and popular culture.

She explores the role of LGBT people in the church with “Inside Out,” pictured above. A woman gazes out at the viewer, stone-faced, with the rest of the church far behind her. A rainbow earring symbolizes her lesbian sexual orientation. The minister raises his arm while the choir and congregation are watching her. She appears to be emotionally and physically distant from the congregation. Her halo is almost invisible. The spiritual lesbian is in the church, but not of the church.

A stained-glass window of Mary with white skin dominates the worship space of the black congregation pictured in “Inside Out.” Not only does this church deny LGBT people, but members aren’t fully embracing their own ethnic identity either. The lesbian has dark skin but her eyes are blue and her hair color is light, making her an outsider on race as well as sexual orientation.

Johnson recalled that when she painted “Inside Out,” she was reflecting on the various ways that LGBT people are “out” or “closeted” in churches.

“I was also thinking about how many church communities to varying degrees embrace their LGBT members and how this conditional and limited acceptance emotionally and psychologically affects LGBT people,” she said. “What does it mean to be an outside member of a community? What does it mean to quietly listen to various church leaders and members express their homophobic views, specifically that homosexuality is an abomination? How do LGBT people reconcile these views from their church community and how do they know and experience true love?”

Sinister Wisdom
cover by Verlena Johnson

Born and raised in the Midwest, Johnson earned a master’s degree in Afro-American studies (art history, 1996) from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a master of fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (sculpture, 2001). Her work has been exhibited at galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities. A wide variety of publications have featured her art, including the Journal of Lesbian Studies and Sinister Wisdom, the oldest surviving lesbian literary journal.

“I Am” by Verlena Johnson, 2006. Acrylic, 36" x 36"

One of Johnson’s most powerful self-portraits is a titled simply “I Am.” An androgynous, brown-skinned figure stares boldly into the eyes of the viewer. Her golden halo glows within a circular mosaic of lavender. The title echoes the name of God in the Hebrew scriptures. When Moses asked the burning bush to reveal God’s name, the answer was: “I am that I am.”

“I believe the ‘I am’ statement is very powerful and acknowledging my own divinity in this way reinforces this knowing,” Johnson said.

“Spiral Woman” by Verlena Johnson, 2001. Acrylic,32" x 20"

Once again a holy lesbian gazes out at the viewer in Johnson's “Spiral Woman,” but this time she is surrounded with spirals. A black bird sits at her side. “This divine being depicted is shown with a faint halo,” Johnson explained. “Spirals for me represent infinity and change and in the case of the dual spiral emanating from her chest, LOVE. “

“Spirit Love” by Verlena Johnson, 2006. Mixed media with acrylic, 24" x 36"

The halo is particularly prominent in Johnson's symmetrical self-portrait titled “Spirit Love.” “I have taken the halo as a symbol found in early European and North and East African paintings and used them to more generally symbolize divinity and our connectedness with the Universe (or Love),” she said.

“Untitled” by Verlena Johsnon, 2012. Mixed media, 17” X 24”

Johnson’s currently evolving series of spiritual portraits include untitled painting above. “The paintings are connected thematically and represent various degrees of sadness and serenity, as well as, emotion generally,” she said. “I am thinking SO much these days about the issue of divinity, perfection, and how to reconcile what we think we know about ourselves and the world around us and what we KNOW (on a Spirit level).”

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Related link:
Artist’s website: www.verlenajohnson.com

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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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

As the December nights grow longer, an emerging lesbian poet writes about the spirituality of darkness in the Poem of the Month at Writers at Work.

“What If the Sea Told Us” by Audrey Lockwood begins:

What if the sea told us
look to the eastern sky?
Look up at the moon through
a spider’s web spread delicately
backed by blackest night and
golden light?

What if we listened to its darkness?
Danced to its backlit spider’s moonlight?
What then would we feel?
Would we be shocked at the knowledge
of distant orange so slight? Awakened
the gentle, touched by the anvil
sheltered by light? ...

Audrey Lockwood
(photo by Jennifer Abod)

Click here to read the whole poem at Writers At Work, a respected literary website and creative writing center in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1997 by Terry Wolverton, author of Stealing Angel and Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Women's Building.

Lockwood will also participate in a poetry reading tonight (Dec. 6) at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center by members of the My Life is Poetry autobiographical poetry workshop. Steven Reigns teaches the workshop to help LGBTQ seniors find their voices and reclaim their pasts through poetry.

Full disclosure: I love this poem and I love Audrey, who happens to be my life partner. I’m so proud of her poetry successes!

Audrey, Kittredge Cherry and Alma Lopez with her life-sized “Our Lady”

Artist Alma Lopez, who painted the controversial “Our Lady” and other queer saints, opened her studio to guests for one wonderful weekend in November. I visited with my partner Audrey, who wrote the following report on our experience.

A Visit to Alma Lopez’ Studio

By Audrey

After two years of Kitt’s efforts writing about artist Alma Lopez on the Jesus in Love Blog, we decided it was time to take a field trip to meet the artist in person and see her wonderfully wild and colorful paintings of Our Lady, mermaids, Dyke revolutionaries and Aztec-influenced goddesses.

She invited us to visit when she and her spouse Alicia Gaspar de Alba opened their studio to visitors during Inglewood Open Studios in November.

The adventure began as we navigated the usual Los Angeles freeways, dramatically driving past oil derricks pumping away. It was a beautiful post-election Sunday afternoon in November.

I must admit, I had ulterior motives. I’d seen Lopez’ stunning painting “Anima Sola Sirena” online. It shows a mermaid, or in Spanish a sirena—brilliant almost to the point of iridescence. The work was 3 x 4 feet, but even on a small computer screen, it stood out and drew me in.

Kittredge Cherry and Alma Lopez with her painting “Anima Sola Sirena”

The subject matter of the all-powerful Siren luring this intrepid lesbian duo, made it doubly worthwhile.

Alma’s studio was in a strip-mall complex with other studios just around the corner from the famous Randy’s Donuts restaurant with the giant donut in front. The Mapquest directions should have said “make a right at the donut,” but obviously the Shell gas station had paid for the ad in Mapquest, so it was right at the Shell station instead. Hey, a seashell is the symbol of the goddess of the sea, and she is cunning in how she communicates with mere mortals.

Helpfully, Mapquest pointed out that if we drove past Isis Street we had gone too far. Clearly lesbian goddess energy had a wild sense of humor in this department.

Alma welcomed us with a gentle sophisticated charm; her large one-room studio was alive with colorful mermaids, Che Guevara-era butch women, an erotic portrait of one woman licking the ear of her lover --- ode to love and revolution, and a large poster of Our Lady of Controversy herself.

We felt instantly at home.

Studio of Alma Lopez and Alicia Gaspar de Alba

Alma explained that an Aztec motif in the cape worn by Our Lady hinted at the matrilineal roots of Guadalupe. A large disk carved with the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui, dismembered, was literally dug up in Mexico City in the 1970s. The woman who made this historic anthropological discovery was a lesbian.

Alma’s eyes flashed in frustration when she told how people protested her vision of Our Lady with her belly and legs exposed, but Jesus is worshiped wearing only a loincloth.

As we conversed about monarch butterflies migrating from Mexico, as we gazed at a butch Siren holding a huge butterfly over her body, the power of women was alive in the form of insects, sea-women and political commentary about the meaning of immigration itself.

Audrey with big paintings by Alma Lopez, including a butch mermaid in the center.

Alma’s spouse Alicia was away during our visit, but Alma introduced us to her books, including the lesbian historical novel Sor Juana’s Second Dream. Other powerful lesbians drifted or maybe flew into the studio and were drawn into the circle of love. Alma introduced Kitt as the blogger who got people to write letters of support when an Our Lady show in Ireland was attacked by Christian fundamentalists. A film maker had us pose for a photo right in front of the life-sized Our Lady of Controversy. She got all of us to show off our dyke attitude with flair, just as Our Lady did.

To say that I was completely intoxicated with the power and mystery of the fish-women of the sea is an understatement.

Alma’s big banners of “queer saints” hung on one wall. The women in the studio grew quiet as Alma told us their stories, like how Santa Lucia’s eyes were plucked out when she refused to marry. Alma explained that these martyrs protected their virginity to the death not so much out of faith, but because they were lesbians--and that she would do the same if forced to marry a man!

Professor Lopez had triumphed over right-wing attacks on her work, and had stood as firm as the pre-Columbian Goddess herself. In fact, she stood solidly with just as much dyke attitude as Our Lady!

After our time travel to goddess-time, Alma and Kitt exchanged books and autographs companionably. The signed poster of Our Lady will make a welcome addition to our home, but the real question is, “How will we be able to handle all this powerful lesbian energy? And where do we go from here?”

Kitt with Our Lady

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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.

Adele Starr (photo by Brian van der Brug, Los Angeles Times)

After her son came out in 1974, Adele Starr helped launch the group that became Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. She overcame her negative perceptions about homosexuality to become an unflagging champion for LGBT rights and PFLAG’s first national president. Starr died two years ago today on Dec. 10, 2010 at age 90.

I am including Starr in my LGBT Saints series for her courage and dedication in speaking up for her gay son and for all LGBT people.

I started looking for “patron saints of straight allies” because I noticed that some of the most enthusiastic readers here are parents or children of LGBT people. Finding them has been difficult. One challenge is that the LGBT Saints series honors only those who have died, and many of the most prominent allies are still living. Two saintly candidates who come to mind are PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford, who turned 92 last week on Dec. 4, and Bishop John Shelby Spong

, age 81. (Is there a link between long life and being a straight ally?)

“Saint Augustine and Saint Monica”
by Ary Scheffer (Wikimedia Commons)

Among the traditional saints, Saint Monica is a possibility because her son, Saint Augustine of Hippo, was in love with another man. But she was not exactly an ally for queer rights. Monica encouraged her son’s conversion to Christianity, which led him to condemn homosexuality in writings that are still influential today. Some Catholic websites even list Monica as the “patron saint of disappointing children.”

The life of Adele Starr may provide clearer, more contemporary inspiration for today. She was a mother of five living in Los Angeles, California, when her son Philip Starr came out to his parents in 1974. At that time many people still considered homosexuality to be a mental illness, and parents were often blamed for causing it. She was upset, so her son urged her to attend a support group that later evolved into PFLAG.

Two years later she started the Los Angeles chapter of PFLAG, loosely based on a group in New York. She hosted the first meeting in her home with 35 parents. The group grew quickly and soon moved to the Methodist church in Westwood where it still meets almost 40 years later.

Starr spoke at the 1979 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Two years later she was elected as the first national PFLAG president, serving in the early years of the AIDS crisis until 1986.

Starr explained her motivations with powerful eloquence at PFLAG’s 10th anniversary conference: “We did it out of love and anger and a sense of injustice, and because we had to tell the world the truth about our children.”

PFLAG is now a Washington-based national non-profit organization with 200,000 members and supporters and more than 350 affiliates in the United States and abroad. It provides support, education and advocacy for LGBT people, their families, friends and allies.

Please leave comments to suggest other patron saints of heterosexual allies. I’m looking for saints who are parents of LGBT children, children of LGBT parents, spouses married to LGBT people, and all the other variations. I am already planning to write a profile of Saint Paulinus of Nola and his wife Therasia. They have been called the patron saints of gay men married to women because they both did missionary work while he wrote homoerotic poetry.
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Related links:

Adele Starr dies at 90; unflagging gay-rights activist (Los Angeles Times)

PFLAG Mourns the Death of First-Ever PFLAG National President Adele Starr (PFLAG.org)

Jeanne Manford, PFLAG Founder, Turns 92 (Huffington Post)

Tribute to Mrs. Edith Allen (Mom) Perry, mother of MCC founder Rev. Troy Perry and thousands of people in Metropolitan Community Churches (revtroyperry.org)

Straight Parents, Gay Children: Keeping Families Together

by Robert A. Bernstein

The Other Side of the Closet: The Coming-Out Crisis for Straight Spouses and Families, Revised and Expanded Edition

by Amity Pierce Buxton.

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, 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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

“Same power, different attitude” ad from Powershop

The Pope blessing a gay marriage?! This startling image is the newest ad for a New Zealand power company. It points to a whole different kind of power: the sacred power of love to overcome religious bigotry.

The two happy grooms make a handsome interracial couple as they exchange rings over an open Bible with a Papal blessing. Everyone is smiling and daisies surround them in a joyful burst of flower power.

I celebrate this bold image of the realm of God that is coming into being: A place where love between couples is honored and blessed by church and society, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation. I believe that same-sex couples already have marriage equality in the eyes of God. This image provides a picture of what it can look like here on earth.

It’s part of Powershop’s ad campaign with the slogan, “Same power, different attitude.” Their main website shows other witty images with a progressive twist, including wartime President Nixon with an afro hairdo wearing a peace sign.

Powershop’s same-sex marriage ad appears on billboards in New Zealand and is being debated now at a micro-site that they set up to receive comments. A company statement there explains that Powershop’s founding principle of individual choice can apply to LGBT weddings as well as to electricity:

“The latest version of Powershop’s long-running campaign is intended to be both thought provoking and satirical. Kiwis have widely debated the issue of marriage equality over the last year, so we’ve used the issue to point out that large institutions can sometimes lose touch with their modern constituents. The power industry is dominated by crusty utilities, many of whom remain resistant to the changes happening in our world.”

Powershop granted me permission to share their ad on the Jesus in Love Blog, but asked me to state that the views I express are my own and not the views of Powershop as an organization. More power to them!

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Related links:
Pope gay marriage ad not targeted at Catholics (New Zealand Herald)

Cartoon shows Pope mad at nuns and Jesus for not condemning homosexuality (Jesus in Love)

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Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

“Our Lady” 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. This year her feast happens to be on 12-12-12, seen by some as a date of spiritual significance.

In Juan Diego’s 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 (or in Spanish Nuestra Señora de 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.

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. The foremothers of the Mexican Guadalupe include the Black Madonnas, especially the medieval Spanish Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremdaura, Spain.

Those who took the liberating vision a step further to create queer Guadalupe art include Alex Donis, Alma Lopez, and Jim Ru.

"Our Lady of Controversy" cover

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 erupted over her “Our Lady,” a digital print showing the Virgin of Guadalupe in a bikini made of roses, 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.”

Encuentro (Encounter)
by Alma Lopez

Death threats, censorship efforts, and violent protests brought national and international attention to Lopez’ “Our Lady” over the years as artistic freedom clashed with freedom of religion. In one of the most recent conflicts, thousands of negative messages compromised the email system of an Irish university that dared to exhibit it in 2011. (For details, see my previous post Our Lady and Queer Saints art attacked as blasphemy - Show support now!).

“Lupe and Sirena in Love”
by Alma Lopez

In 2001 Catholic authorities tried to have Lopez’ “Our Lady” removed from an exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. The debate is covered in the new book “Our Lady of Controversy: Alma Lopez’s ‘Irreverent Apparition

.’” It will be published in April by University of Texas Press. 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” may seem tame compared to some of the lesbian images of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Lopez made. Her website, almalopez.net, includes images of a romance between Guadalupe and a mermaid in artwork 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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Related links:
A Visit to Alma Lopez’ Studio: Finding lesbian saints, mermaids, revolutionaries and goddesses (Jesus in Love)

Decolonizing Sexuality and Spirituality in Chicana Feminist and Queer Art by Laura E. Perez (Tikkun)
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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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

"St. John of the Cross" by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM, 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 (1542-1591) 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 whole poem is reprinted in the original Spanish and in English at the end of this post). John, a Carmelite friar who worked with Theresa of Avila, wrote these beautiful verses while imprisoned in a latrine for trying to reform the church.

“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 LGBT people of faith 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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Original Spanish

En una noche oscura

por San Juan de la Cruz

1. En una noche oscura,
con ansias, en amores inflamada,
¡oh dichosa ventura!,
salí sin ser notada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada;

2. a escuras y segura
por la secreta escala, disfrazada,
¡oh dichosa ventura!,
a escuras y encelada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada;

3. en la noche dichosa,
en secreto, que naide me veía
ni yo miraba cisa,
sin otra luz y guía
sino la que en el corazón ardía.

4. Aquesta me guiaba
más cierto que la luz del mediodía
adonde me esperaba
quien yo bien me sabía
en parte donde naide parecía.

5. ¡Oh noche que guiaste!
¡oh noche amable más que la alborada!;
¡oh noche que juntaste,
Amado con amada,
amada en el Amado transformada!

6. En mi pecho florido,
que entero para él solo se guardaba,
allí quedó dormido,
y yo le regalaba,
y el ventalle de cedros aire daba.

7. El aire del almena,
cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía,
con su mano serena
en mi cuello hería,
y todos mis sentidos suspendía.

8. Quedéme y olvidéme,
el rostro recliné sobre el Amado;
cesó todo y dejéme,
dejando mi cuidado
entre las azucenas olvidado.

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, 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.

A Spanish version is available at:
San Juan de la Cruz: Noche Oscura del Alma Gay (Santos Queer)

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts
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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

Gay Nativity scene in Columbia at the home of Andrés Vásquez Moreno and Felipe Cárdenas Gonzalez

A gay Nativity display in Columbia was condemned by the national Catholic Church as “sacrilege” while thousands of Columbians are criticizing the gay Nativity on social media websites.

A storm of controversy erupted when a gay couple in Columbia displayed a Nativity scene with two Josephs at their home in Cartegena this week.

Andrés Vásquez Moreno, a political analyst, and Felipe Cárdenas Gonzalez, an entrepreneur, set up the gay manger scene in hopes of helping their country move toward marriage equality. The couple was united in a civil union four years ago, and Columbia is considering laws to legalize same-sex marriage.

I have been in touch with them, and Moreno told me, “Thanks for your message and support, in Colombia has been very violent against us.” He gladly gave permission to share their photo of the gay Nativity scene here on the Jesus in Love Blog.

The attacks prove the ongoing need for religious images that affirm LGBT people. I believe that queer Nativity scenes 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.
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Special thanks to Colin for alerting me to this news story.

Related links:
Nativity Scene With Two Josephs Enrages Conservative Colombians (Advocate)

Outrage over gay couple’s homosexual Nativity scene with two Josephs and no Mary (Daily Mail)

Hate crime targets gay and lesbian Nativity scene at California church

Vandals knocked over the same-sex couples in a manger scene at a church in Claremont, California in 2011. Police investigated the attack as a hate crime.

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.

Conservatives attack my lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Nasty accusations of blasphemy were hurled when conservative bloggers discovered my gay and lesbian Nativity scenes. “Love..is NOT the criteria for making a ‘Family,’,” said one of the critics.

Can you imagine? A gay Nativity scene

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

Queer Nativity project

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.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Detail from “Stripped of Linen, Stripped of Lord” by Eric Martin, 2012

Gay artist Eric Martin spent a lifetime wondering about the “naked young man” who ran away when Jesus was arrested in Mark’s gospel. His search for the nameless nude is presented here in honor of Lazarus of Bethany, whose feast day is today (Dec. 17).

Some Bible scholars believe that Lazarus was the naked man in Mark 14:51-52. The mysterious man has inspired speculations that he was the “beloved disciple” of Jesus -- and maybe even his gay lover.

Eric Martin is a gay poet, artist, and church organist in Burlington NC. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. Here is his story.

My Search for an Artistic Heritage

By Eric Martin

As a child I was intrigued by the painted portrait of John Mark in the book "Our Christian Heritage." That head-to-waist image was of a bare-chested youth furtively standing with his back to a dark wall and looking cautiously over his shoulder. The text explained that "ancient legend maintains that John Mark is referring to himself, when he writes in his Gospel about a young man whose robe was pulled off in the scuffle in Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested."

This year I remembered that erotic picture which had somehow been allowed to be embedded in a children's book. I began searching for the book in my attic, libraries, and thrift shops. An eBay purchase brought a copy of the book to me, but the portrait of John Mark therein was not the one I remembered. It was a 'new' John Mark.

Also this year I read theologian Patrick Cheng's Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology, which cites gay priest Robert Williams' hypothesis "that the mysterious nude young man in Mark 14:51-52 was in fact Jesus' lover." Not just John Mark; not just, as some have said, a symbol of Christ-less vulnerability; but Jesus' lover! This vibrant notion reinforced my fascination.

I recovered a computer-saved picture that spoke to me with the selfsame passion that the 'old' John Mark had spoken. So, I took it upon myself to do a watercolor of this image: a head-to-knees frontally-nude young man peering over his shoulder and seemingly grasping to find handhold in the wall behind him. THIS was MY John Mark. It was done with my memory-picture in mind, and with adjustments made for the puberty of the subject and for my "positive adulteration" [my term for "queering"] of him.

And so, I present "Stripped of Linen; Stripped of Lord." (pictured above)

Detail from
“Betrayal of Christ”
by Giuseppe Cesari, 1597

I found that even in the classical art depicting this young man, he was rarely shown actually naked. One notable exception is Giuseppe Cesari's "The Betrayal of Christ" painting, which shows a nude yet marginally faceless young man being stripped of his linen by the guard pursuing him in anger. (I am struck by the thematic similarity of this detail of Cesari's presentation with my own "Breakthrough" piece - a streaker confounding the security guards - which I had done before I had researched Cesari.)

“Breakthrough” by Eric Martin, 2012

Our Christian Heritage, 1964

But wait! Here is my success of November. While rummaging through my attic for items for a friend's book drive, I finally found my original version of "Our Christian Heritage: A Treasury of Inspiration for the Christian Family" (Good Will Publishers, Inc., Gastonia NC, 1964). The book indeed includes that provocative image of a young John Mark, hiding due to his nakedness, that so intrigued me as a child.

“John Mark, after Sune`”
by Eric Martin, 2012

The portrait is attributed to Alberta Rae ("Sune'") Richards. Ms. Richards (1912-1990) was a nationally known Wisconsin photographer, artist, and minister. (Note that she is not to be confused with artist June Egan who was better known by her Tongan name “Sune.”) Alberta believed that the physical appearances and personal characteristics of the disciples of Jesus could be found in modern people. She spent fourteen years searching for these counterparts, photographing them, and retouching their images with layers of paint. I have since replicated Ms. Richards’ John Mark in my work.

Our Christian Heritage, 1967

Later versions (e.g. 1967) of "Our Christian Heritage" replace Sune's portrait with that rendered by George Malick, a Pennsylvania artist whose work mirrors the style of Norman Rockwell. Malick’s presentation here is a remarkably homoerotic painting of a clothed yet enticing young John Mark with an older man's hand resting on the boy's shoulder.

Cheng's work led me to the Robert Williams book Just As I Am: A Practical Guide to Being Out, Proud, and Christian. Williams' inquiry into the lost Gospel of Mark identifies Lazarus as Jesus' lover; furthermore, Lazarus is described as "wearing a linen cloth over his naked body." Is Lazarus, then, by association, the one whose scriptural nakedness had been attributed to John Mark?

If so, then in honor of Lazarus, I can suggest an alternative title to my work: "Stripped of Linen; Stripped of Love."

Either way, I am encouraged that others are seeking the meaning I still seek almost fifty years after my family's Southern Baptist pastor gave us the simple little book "Our Christian Heritage."

May Lazarus continue to teach us to let go the linen stripped from us by those who think us unworthy, and the linen wrapped around us by those who think us dead.

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Postscript: Eric Martin’s artistic quest was inspired in part by the loss of a friend. The October 2011 death of gay artist Shay Adams, Martin’s best friend of 16 years, rendered the loneliness that opened a gate for Martin seriously to pursue art, and provided, by way of inheritance, Shay’s art supplies to help make the endeavor possible. Shay’s mother, Libby Adams, having seen this December the scores of mixed media works that Martin has produced since February, said to a friend, “It’s as if all this was in Eric, just waiting to come out.” He concludes, “Thus be it, and thus may it continue. I miss you Shaybird.” He wishes to thank photographer Kadie Maness for her assistance.

The full image of “Stripped of Linen, Stripped of Lord” can be seen at this link. Warning: adult content / full frontal nudity.

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The best-known story of Lazarus is how Jesus raised him from the dead. For more about Lazarus, see these related links:

Lazarus: Jesus’ beloved disciple? (Jesus in Love)

Jesus, John and Lazarus (Pharsea's World)
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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.

“Time for Jesus to come out” billboard from St. Matthew-in-the-City

A gay baby Jesus with a rainbow halo lights up a new billboard for a church in New Zealand.

“It’s Christmas. Time for Jesus to come out,” says the billboard installed this week by St. Matthew-in-the-City, a progressive Anglican church in Auckland.

I experienced joyous revelation when I first saw baby Jesus smiling at me with a rainbow glow from his manger. I have created and written about queer Nativity scenes since 2009, but showing the infant Christ as gay never even crossed my mind. The baby Jesus has been displayed with two mommies, two daddies, queer Magi and gay shepherds -- but this is the first time that I’ve seen the Christ child himself presented as queer.

And yet a queer baby Jesus actually makes more sense historically than some of the other queer Nativities, because some Bible scholars do believe that Jesus experienced same-sex attractions and perhaps even a male lover. And if Jesus was gay, he must have been born that way.

“This year we invited discussion and debate on the sexual orientation of Jesus,” said St. Matthew’s clergy Rev. Glynn Cardy and Rev. Clay Nelson in a statement about the billboard on the church’s website.

They got their wish as international controversy erupted over the billboard on the Internet and in news reports. The gay baby Jesus billboard appears at a time when legislation to allow same-sex marriage is being considered by the New Zealand parliament. Another new billboard on the subject shows the Pope blessing a gay marriage.

I contacted Nelson about the billboard and he gave permission to share it on the Jesus in Love Blog “with our blessing.”

His official statement on the church website raises a provocative question. “Some scholars have tried to make the case that he might have been gay” says Nelson. “But it is all conjecture. Maybe gay, maybe not. Does it matter?”

It does to me. Every community presents Jesus in their own way. There’s black Jesus, Asian Jesus -- and now queer Jesus to heal the damage being done by homophobes in Christ’s name. It makes my Christmas much merrier.

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Special thanks to Andrew Craig Williams for the news tip.

Related links:
Gay Jesus Ad Causes Outrage: Jesus Should 'Come Out,' Claims New Zealand Church (Christian Post)

Gay Nativity scene in Columbia sparks outrage

Top 20 gay Jesus books

Pope blessing a gay marriage?! See it now in ad for New Zealand power company

Rainbow Christ Prayer by Kittredge Cherry

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This post is part of the Queer Christ series series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others. More queer Christ images are compiled in my book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More

Jesus in Love Blog has been around long enough to create some new Christmas cyber-traditions. Click the headlines below to enjoy past Christmas highlights from my blog.

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.

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.

Christina Rossetti: Queer writer of Christmas carols and lesbian poetry

Christina Rossetti was a 19th-century English poet and “queer virgin” whose work includes the Christmas carol “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

Hate crime targets gay and lesbian
Nativity scene at California church

Vandals knocked over the same-sex couples in a manger scene at a church in Claremont, California in 2011. Police investigated the attack as a hate crime.

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 2008 gay Nativity scene with live actors.

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

Nursing Madonna honors body, spirit and women

A nursing Madonna affirms the goodness of the human body, although some are shocked by her bare breasts.

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New in 2012:

Gay baby Jesus comes out on Christmas billboard

Gay Nativity scene in Columbia sparks outrage

Celebrate the season of giving with a gift to my Christmas offering for Jesus in Love.

Top image is

Hanging Christmas Star (christmasstockimages.com) / CC BY 3.0

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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 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
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