Los Angeles, CA -- Nov. 1, 2011 -- Today JesusInLove.org launches four major new web pages on LGBT saints, holidays, artists and the queer Christ. They are announced now for All Saints Day.
“We created the new pages to give people an easy way to find the LGBT spiritual resources that they want,” says Kittredge Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org. The website promotes LGBT spirituality and the arts.
The new pages provide user-friendly lists of links to resources at the Jesus in Love Blog. The new pages are:
The LGBT Saints page (http://jesusinlove.org/saints.php) honors 44 traditional Christian, alternative and interfaith saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people and our allies. The page lists 29 traditional and 15 alternative figures from the LGBT Saints Series by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. People on the list include well known historical figures such as Jonathan and David and Joan of Arc, non-Christians such as Krishna and Rumi, and contemporary “saints” such as Harvey Milk.
The Holidays page (http://jesusinlove.org/holidays.php) celebrates 66 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. The chronological list includes LGBT events such as Pride Month as well as queer interpretations of mainstream religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
The Queer Christ page (http://jesusinlove.org/queer-christ.php) begins with a short introduction that starts, “Every community presents Jesus in their own way. There’s black Jesus, Asian Jesus -- and now queer Jesus to heal the damage done in Christ’s name. The queer Christ embodies God’s wildly inclusive love for all.” The page features a list of links to 29 profiles of artists, writers, theologians and others who present the queer Christ. They include gay theologian Patrick Cheng, lesbian artist Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin, trans playwright Jo Clifford, and many more.
The Artists page (http://jesusinlove.org/artists.php) highlights 33 artists who create LGBT and queer spiritual and religious images. Their art is needed now because conservatives are using religious rhetoric to justify discrimination against queer people. The page includes a wide variety of up-and-coming contemporary artists, historical figures such as Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, and controversial newsmakers such as Alma Lopez and David Wojnarowicz.
All of these resource pages link to profiles and reflections written by Kittredge Cherry for the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts. The pages are works in progress and more material will be added later.
JesusInLove.org promotes artistic and religious freedom and teaches love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or religious faith. Founded by Cherry in 2005, it has grown to include a popular blog, e-newsletter, videos, image archive and an informal online community. For more info, visit Jesusinlove.org.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Gay Passion of Christ series runs online (4/8/11)
Los Angeles, CA -- April 8, 2011 -- A gay vision of Christ’s Passion will run in daily installments from April 8-29 at the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com).
Each daily post features art by gay New York painter Douglas Blanchard, text by lesbian author Kittredge Cherry of Los Angeles, and a short Bible passage. The three-week blog series includes all 24 paintings in Blanchard’s epic masterpiece “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision.”
The images show Jesus as a contemporary gay man jeered by fundamentalists, tortured by Marine look-alikes and rising again to enjoy homoerotic moments with God and friends. He faces forms of rejection that feel familiar to contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. He stands up to priests, businessmen, lawyers, and soldiers—all of whom look eerily similar to the people holding those jobs today.
“We are posting the gay Passion series to make Christ more accessible to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and our allies,” said Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org. The website promotes artistic and religious freedom by supporting LGBT spirituality and the arts. “Christ’s story is for everyone, but queer people often feel left out because conservatives use Christian rhetoric to justify hate and discrimination,” she said.
Cherry wrote the reflections and prayers specifically to accompany Blanchard’s paintings. Blanchard’s gay Passion series has built a reputation since its completion in 2005, but Cherry’s text will make its first public appearance with this series.
The posts are timed so that Christ dies on Good Friday (April 22) and rises again on Easter itself (April 24). The series covers the dramatic events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. It will run through Lent, Holy Week, Easter and beyond.
Blanchard, an active Episcopalian who teaches college art history, spent four years painting the gay Passion. He started in summer 2001, but it took on new meaning on Sept. 11 when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center near his studio on New York’s Lower East Side. “I understand that a lot of people rediscovered religious faith after September 11th. I had the opposite reaction,” he said. “I was horrified by the religious motivation of those attacks.” He used the paintings to address this conflict, concluding that Christ’s resurrection reverses the “grim arithmetic of power.”
The gay Jesus himself appears surprisingly accessible in Blanchard’s art. “I didn’t want him to seem in any way remote and unapproachably sacred,” he explained. Each of the Passion pictures is oil on wood panel, 18 inches by 14 inches.
Cherry is the author of six books, including “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More,” a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. “Art That Dares” is filled with color images by 11 contemporary artists from the U.S. and Europe, including selections from Blanchard’s gay Passion series.
The New York Times Book Review praised Cherry’s “very graceful, erudite” writing style. Her other books include “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations” and “Jesus in Love: A Novel.” Her books have been translated into German, Polish, Chinese and Japanese. Cherry was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer.
Cherry founded JesusInLove.org in 2005 to support LGBT spirituality and the arts and show God’s love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. With a focus on gay Jesus and queer saints, Jesus in Love grew quickly into an online community with a popular blog, videos, e-newsletter and image archive.
For more info, visit the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com) or JesusInLove.org, or contact info@JesusInLove.org.
###
Click here to view the Gay Passion of Christ series.
Each daily post features art by gay New York painter Douglas Blanchard, text by lesbian author Kittredge Cherry of Los Angeles, and a short Bible passage. The three-week blog series includes all 24 paintings in Blanchard’s epic masterpiece “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision.”
The images show Jesus as a contemporary gay man jeered by fundamentalists, tortured by Marine look-alikes and rising again to enjoy homoerotic moments with God and friends. He faces forms of rejection that feel familiar to contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. He stands up to priests, businessmen, lawyers, and soldiers—all of whom look eerily similar to the people holding those jobs today.
“We are posting the gay Passion series to make Christ more accessible to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and our allies,” said Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org. The website promotes artistic and religious freedom by supporting LGBT spirituality and the arts. “Christ’s story is for everyone, but queer people often feel left out because conservatives use Christian rhetoric to justify hate and discrimination,” she said.
Cherry wrote the reflections and prayers specifically to accompany Blanchard’s paintings. Blanchard’s gay Passion series has built a reputation since its completion in 2005, but Cherry’s text will make its first public appearance with this series.
The posts are timed so that Christ dies on Good Friday (April 22) and rises again on Easter itself (April 24). The series covers the dramatic events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. It will run through Lent, Holy Week, Easter and beyond.
Blanchard, an active Episcopalian who teaches college art history, spent four years painting the gay Passion. He started in summer 2001, but it took on new meaning on Sept. 11 when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center near his studio on New York’s Lower East Side. “I understand that a lot of people rediscovered religious faith after September 11th. I had the opposite reaction,” he said. “I was horrified by the religious motivation of those attacks.” He used the paintings to address this conflict, concluding that Christ’s resurrection reverses the “grim arithmetic of power.”
The gay Jesus himself appears surprisingly accessible in Blanchard’s art. “I didn’t want him to seem in any way remote and unapproachably sacred,” he explained. Each of the Passion pictures is oil on wood panel, 18 inches by 14 inches.
Cherry is the author of six books, including “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More,” a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. “Art That Dares” is filled with color images by 11 contemporary artists from the U.S. and Europe, including selections from Blanchard’s gay Passion series.
The New York Times Book Review praised Cherry’s “very graceful, erudite” writing style. Her other books include “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations” and “Jesus in Love: A Novel.” Her books have been translated into German, Polish, Chinese and Japanese. Cherry was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer.
Cherry founded JesusInLove.org in 2005 to support LGBT spirituality and the arts and show God’s love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. With a focus on gay Jesus and queer saints, Jesus in Love grew quickly into an online community with a popular blog, videos, e-newsletter and image archive.
For more info, visit the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com) or JesusInLove.org, or contact info@JesusInLove.org.
###
Click here to view the Gay Passion of Christ series.
Monday, January 10, 2011
LGBT spiritual site marks 5th anniversary (11/17/10)
Los Angeles, CA -- Nov. 17, 2010 -- JesusInLove.org is celebrating its fifth anniversary as an online resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) spirituality and the arts.
“Christian rhetoric is often misused to justify hate and discrimination against LGBT people,” says Kittredge Cherry, the lesbian author and minister who founded JesusInLove.org. “We believe that God loves everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. That message is just as important today as it was five years ago.”
In honor of its birthday, the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com) is starting a new series on “Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today” by Patrick S. Cheng, theology professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. The series begins Wed., Nov. 17.
Since its launch on Nov. 17, 2005, JesusInLove.org has grown to serve more people in more different ways. The Jesus in Love Blog receives 30,000 visits per year and its e-newsletter recently surpassed 500 subscribers. It showcases a wider range of art and writing by more diverse contributors. The content has also grown beyond the original emphasis on gay Jesus art, and now includes a popular series on queer saints.
“We have won many honors for promoting religious and artistic freedom -- and we also get a lot of hate mail from conservative Christians,” Cherry says. 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 JesusInLove.org is needed now as much as ever. Jesus loved everyone, including sexual outcasts,” she says.
JesusInLove.org grew out of Cherry’s own personal journey to reconcile being lesbian and Christian. Cherry was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer. One of her main duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches. Her books include “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More” and “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies and Celebrations.” The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style.
JesusInLove.org is a grassroots effort, with more than 99% of its funding coming from individuals, not institutions. This frees JesusInLove.org to present cutting-edge art and nurture each person’s unique spiritual journey.
“We take creative risks and show controversial material that most websites won’t touch,” Cherry says. “We specialize in new GLBT Christian art that is too queer for churches and too religious for GLBT organizations.”
For more info, visit the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com), JesusInLove.org, or contact info@JesusInLove.org.
###
“Christian rhetoric is often misused to justify hate and discrimination against LGBT people,” says Kittredge Cherry, the lesbian author and minister who founded JesusInLove.org. “We believe that God loves everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. That message is just as important today as it was five years ago.”
In honor of its birthday, the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com) is starting a new series on “Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today” by Patrick S. Cheng, theology professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. The series begins Wed., Nov. 17.
Since its launch on Nov. 17, 2005, JesusInLove.org has grown to serve more people in more different ways. The Jesus in Love Blog receives 30,000 visits per year and its e-newsletter recently surpassed 500 subscribers. It showcases a wider range of art and writing by more diverse contributors. The content has also grown beyond the original emphasis on gay Jesus art, and now includes a popular series on queer saints.
“We have won many honors for promoting religious and artistic freedom -- and we also get a lot of hate mail from conservative Christians,” Cherry says. 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 JesusInLove.org is needed now as much as ever. Jesus loved everyone, including sexual outcasts,” she says.
JesusInLove.org grew out of Cherry’s own personal journey to reconcile being lesbian and Christian. Cherry was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer. One of her main duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches. Her books include “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More” and “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies and Celebrations.” The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style.
JesusInLove.org is a grassroots effort, with more than 99% of its funding coming from individuals, not institutions. This frees JesusInLove.org to present cutting-edge art and nurture each person’s unique spiritual journey.
“We take creative risks and show controversial material that most websites won’t touch,” Cherry says. “We specialize in new GLBT Christian art that is too queer for churches and too religious for GLBT organizations.”
For more info, visit the Jesus in Love Blog (www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com), JesusInLove.org, or contact info@JesusInLove.org.
###
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