Top LGBT Christian arts stories of 2014 named at Jesus in Love Blog

“The Resurrection” by Eny Roland (Courtesy of ArtCenter/South Florida) was featured in the year's top story

Art museums exploring queer Latino Christian imagery on both coasts became the most popular LGBT spiritual news story for 2014 at the Jesus in Love Blog.

In a close race for the top three spots, the second-ranked article was “Homosexuality of Jesus explored by 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham.” A round-up of the year’s best LGBTQ Christian books came in third.

The top stories of the year were named today by Kittredge Cherry, founder of the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT Spirituality and the Arts. The ratings are based on page views reported by Google Analytics.

The blog’s most popular classic story, a blockbuster reposted every year in various forms since 2008, continued to be a Holy Week series based on the gay Passion of Christ paintings of Douglas Blanchard with reflections by Cherry. The paintings present Jesus as a contemporary gay man in a modern city. “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” a book based on the blog series, was published in fall 2014 and became the year's bestselling book at the Jesus in Love Blog.

The most popular saints of 2014 were all early Christian martyrs. Sergius and Bacchus took first place, followed by Perpetua and Felicity. The most popular transgender story was Saint Wilgefortis.

The year’s most popular alternative saints were 20th-century author-priest Henri Nouwen and 13th-century Sufi mystic Rumi. They were followed by poet Christina Rossetti, Quaker preacher Jemima Wilkinson (Universal Publick Friend), theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid and author Radclyffe Hall.

Saint Sebastian was a wildly popular saint at Santos Queer, a blog offering Spanish-language translations of Jesus in Love. His profile got more than 10,000 page views in 2014, about three times more than any post in English.

The blog's biggest splash on Facebook came from an article about African American winter holiday Kwanzaa. It introduced a rare icon of a black queer Christ by David Hayward, and it was quickly shared and went viral.

“Jesus in Love has become the go-to place for new and innovative material on the gay Jesus and queer saints,” Cherry said. “Readers love the pioneering LGBT Christian art and groundbreaking historical research presented here. It is hard to find anywhere else except at Jesus in Love.”

Here is a list of the year’s top stories in a variety of categories. Click the headlines to go to the original posts at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Top new stories of 2014

1. Art museums explore queer Christian themes in new exhibits

2. Homosexuality of Jesus explored by 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham

3. Top 25 LGBTQ Christian books of 2014 named

4. Mystical same-sex marriage affirmed in Renaissance art and new book "Saintly Brides and Bridegrooms”

5. Rainbow Christ Prayer goes nationwide at churches, seminaries and events

Most popular classic stories in 2014