Queer Christmas gifts and cards

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.

        

Sergius and Bacchus; Harvey Milk; and Perpetua and Felicity

From TrinityStores.com

                

Polyeuct and Nearchus; Brigid and Darlughdach; Boris and George

             

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

Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes today!

Nasty accusations of blasphemy poured in today after some conservative bloggers discovered the gay and lesbian Nativity scenes that I created.

“Love..is NOT the criteria for making a ‘Family’. A REAL Family is a MAN & a WOMAN producing a child or children,” commented one of the naysayers. Others accused me of “vile blasphemy” that is “replusive to true Christians.”

All because I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake! I made a video of my alternative manger scenes, asking the question, “What if the child of God was born to a lesbian couple… or a gay couple? Because, after all, LOVE makes a family. Including the Holy Family.”

I created the video way back in 2009, but today it’s hot news on some conservative blogs. They use religious language to justify hate and discrimination against LGBT people, even though Jesus taught love for all.

Here are some highlights -- or low points:

From Apprising Ministries blog:

“Я U READY FOR THE LESBIAN NATIVITY SCENE?

What would lesbians have to do with the manger scene? Sadly, the more you make a study of the godless pro-gay lobby now well within the visible church you quickly find that nothing’s sacred to such as these. … So the time has now arrived to take up your Sword of the Spirit and go out to meet them full on.”

From WorldNetDaily:

“GOD HAS 2 MOMMIES
Jesus, Mary and ... Josephine? It's lesbian Nativity at church
'A slap in the face to the Holy Family and Christians around the world'

“That event inspired Kittredge Cherry, who calls herself a lesbian Christian author and minister from Los Angeles, to pick up the mantle and create in December 2009 her own non-living "gay" Nativities she continues to promote on YouTube.”

Most of the hateful comments were posted at YouTube. Click here to go to the YouTube page where they are posted. Instead of deleting them, I’m leaving them there as evidence.

I’m trying to see it as a badge of honor to be attacked by religious authorities. After all, Jesus was also accused of blasphemy for teaching about God’s love for all.

For more about lesbian and gay Nativity scenes, see my related posts:

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family

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

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Update: Click here for our Queer Nativity series, Dec. 2011

Hate crime targets gay and lesbian Nativity scene at Claremont church 

Lesbian Nativity Scene with Dog (Love Makes a Holy Family series) by Kittredge Cherry ©2009

Gay and lesbian Nativity cards

Gay and lesbian Nativity scenes are on Christmas cards at the Jesus in Love Store (Photo by Kittredge Cherry)

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.

Our popular gay and lesbian Nativity Scenes are now available as Christmas cards. See all 5 designs! Visit card shop.

The cards are true to the spirit of Christmas: God’s child conceived in an extraordinary way. They show two Marys and two Josephs at the manger with the baby Jesus -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake! Everyone should be able to see themselves in the Christmas story, including the growing number of LGBT parents and their children.

For more about how and why I made these the queer manger scenes, see our previous post “Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family.” You can see them on video too.

The Jesus in Love Store has also added lots of gifts, plus new LOW prices on our T-shirts. Our logo appears on mugs, hats, key chains, cards, buttons, stickers, tote bags, mouse pads, ties, even pet clothing!

Show your pride and faith! Wear the stylish JesusInLove.org logo, which includes a pink triangle as the “V” in the word “love.” You can also get a design with the face of Christ inside a pink triangle. Gay prisoners wore pink triangles in Nazi concentration camps. Following Christ’s example, JesusInLove.org joins queer people in transforming suffering into power.

I’m posting this announcement on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in America, when huge crowds of Christmas shoppers help retailers become profitable (“in the black”). I had to cover Black Friday every year when I was a newspaper reporter during the 1980-82 recession.

It was always the same: Local merchants boasted about how much they sold on the day after Thanksgiving, and predicted that this would be their best year ever. I wrote an accurate article with their rosy predictions. After Christmas, I was sent to interview them again, and it always turned out that their sales figures were dismal, far below expectations. Then they blamed ME! They claimed that if my articles had been more enthusiastic, then shoppers would have flooded into their stores.

Every year when I see news reports about Black Friday sales, I always feel grateful that it’s not me doing the reporting anymore. I hope you enjoy shopping at the Jesus in Love Store.

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Update on 11/27/10: Terence Weldon at the Queering the Church Blog has posted “For a Queer Christmas – Send Gay / Lesbian Cards,” an excellent analysis of the gay and lesbian Nativity cards, including this expanded definition of procreation: “I would add the observation by the Catholic theologians Salzmann & Lawler, in “The Sexual Person”: procreation refers not only to the physical production of an infant, but also the the subsequent care and nurturing of the child. Procreation by same-sex couples is not nearly as far-fetched as some people would have us believe.”

Update on 11/28/10:
I hereby issue a general call for submissions: Hey, everybody, please send me your own photos of gay and lesbian Nativity scenes that you create. They will be posted here at the Jesus in Love Blog. Pictures showing the Holy Family as people of color are especially encouraged.

Update from August 2011:
Right-wing religious blogs attacked these cards, so you know that they must be good! See my post Conservatives attack our lesbian and gay Nativity scenes!

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Related links:
Hate crime targets gay and lesbian Nativity scene at Claremont church

Gay Nativity scene in Columbia sparks outrage



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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

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

What if the child of God was born to a lesbian couple… or a gay couple? Because, after all, LOVE makes a family. Including the Holy Family.

I made a video of my new gay and lesbian nativity scenes. One has two Marys at the manger with the baby Jesus, and the other has two Josephs with the Christ child.

I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake!

It’s only 26 seconds long, and I believe it follows the spirit of the Christmas story. For more info on why I did it, see my previous post, “Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family.”

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Update on Nov. 26, 2010: The gay and lesbian Nativity scene is available now as a Christmas card at the Jesus in Love Store.

Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family

For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Queer Nativity scenes show love makes a family

Gay and Lesbian Nativity Scene (Love Makes a Holy Family series) by Kittredge Cherry ©2009
More photos below

I created my own gay and lesbian nativity scenes this Christmas season. One has two Marys at the manger with the baby Jesus, and the other has two Josephs with the Christ child.

I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake!

Obviously this is not about historical accuracy, but I believe that they are true to the spirit of the Christmas story in the Bible: God’s child conceived in an extraordinary way and born into disreputable circumstances. Love makes a family -- including the Holy Family. Everyone should be able to see themselves in the Christmas story, including the growing number of LGBT parents and their children.I also filmed a video about my gay and lesbian manger scenes and even made them available as Christmas cards.

Go ahead and imagine that Jesus has two mommies. According to the Bible story, Joseph was an adoptive father anyway. The Virgin Mary had Jesus without sex with a man -- much like lesbian mothers who use artificial insemination.

I invite others to make their own queer nativity scenes. It’s not hard. Just get two standard nativity sets, then mix and match. Please email me a photo of your creation and I’ll post it at the Jesus in Love Blog.

I bought identical nativity sets, but I’d love to see couples that come from different sets -- a dark-skinned Mary with a light-skinned Mary, for example.

Actually, rearranging the Holy Family is not as simple as it seems. Be sure to buy a set with freestanding figures. In many cases Mary, Joseph and Jesus are wedded together in one inseparable, three-headed blob. What does that say about our attachment to idealized, sanctified heterosexuality?

I got the idea for queering the crèche last year when I heard that a gay and lesbian Nativity scene was planned for the 2008 “Pink Christmas” festival in Amsterdam. Live actors were supposed to play a pair of Marys and a pair of Josephs. I had my own lesbian Christian spiritual awakening while waiting for the event.

I remembered going to a huge exhibit of Nativity scenes back when I was a young lesbian in seminary. They had hundreds of statues of Mary, Joseph and baby portrayed as every conceivable racial and ethnic identity. Not once did I consider that my own community was missing -- there was no lesbian version with Mary and another woman. Nor was there a gay version with Joseph and another man.

Looking back some 20 years later, it finally occurred to me that LGBT families should be represented in the mix. I had a personal breakthrough as I realized that my mind was still trapped in heterosexual assumptions about the cast of characters at Jesus’ birth.

I imagined that the Amsterdam LGBT community would enact Nativity scenes of loving lesbian and gay families like those that I have known. Scenes of a lesbian Madonna and her female partner with the baby Jesus have been created by artists such as Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin of Sweden and Becki Jayne Harrelson of Atlanta. But this was the first time that I’ve seen a gay Joseph and his male partner with the Christ child.

The Pink Christmas event turned out to be a disappointment to me. It featured a drag queen and a leather daddy who seemed like a parody of themselves, with no loving “family” connection to each other whatsoever. You can see photos and videos of it in my post from last year, “Can you imagine? A gay nativity scene.”

But the Amsterdam event planted the idea in my mind for making the manger scene my own as a lesbian Christian. I feel more connected to God every time I look at the loving lesbian and gay manger scenes in our living room. My partner and I even toyed with the idea of getting two sets of Nativity lawn decorations and turning our yard into a big old queer Christmas display. Maybe next year.

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Update: I also hope to do other gay and lesbian Nativity scenes with racial diversity in the future. Until then, enjoy these images from the Queer Nativity project that I sponsored.

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Queer Nativity 1: Manger scene as gay adoption party

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

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

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Queer Nativity 5: Matthew and Joseph are pregnant

“Matthew and Joseph are Pregnant” by Andrew Craig Williams

Christmas is about a miraculous pregnancy: a baby born to a virgin. If God can do that, then why not make a man pregnant? Andrew Craig Williams envisions a man carrying the Christ child in his womb.
__________________________________________

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

“Queer Nativity” by Anonymous

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

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Update: Conservative bloggers attacked my lesbian and gay Nativity scenes
___
Related links:

Hate crime targets gay and lesbian Nativity scene at Claremont church

Gay Nativity scene in Columbia sparks outrage

Queer Nativity contest (7 artists)

Lesbian Nativity Scene (Love Makes a Holy Family series) by Kittredge Cherry ©2009

Gay Nativity Scene (Love Makes a Holy Family series) by Kittredge Cherry ©2009

Lesbian Nativity with Dog

Gay Nativity with Dog

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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

Can you imagine? A gay Nativity scene

Gay Nativity scene at Pink Christmas in Amsterdam

I got excited when I first heard that a gay and lesbian Nativity scene was planned for the 2008 “Pink Christmas” festival in Amsterdam. Live actors were supposed to play a pair of Marys and a pair of Josephs.

I let my imagination run free envisioning new variations on the familiar manger scene. Love makes a family -- including the Holy Family. Everyone should be able to see themselves in the Christmas story, including gay and lesbian people.

I postponed writing about the gay and lesbian Nativity until it was staged. Now I’m glad that I waited because the reality fell far short of what I expected.

My heart sank when I saw the photos and video of the gay Nativity with two men (NOT two Josephs). They were a stereotypical drag queen and leather daddy. A male entertainer named “Miss Wendy” Mills posed as Mary in a blonde wig and black, high-heeled boots. I have nothing against transvestites and leather folk, but these guys seemed like a parody of themselves, with no loving “family” connection to each other whatsoever. Apparently there was no lesbian version at all.

Naturally I found out about the gay manger scene from news reports on Christian conservatives trying to stop it. Queer Christians almost never make the news unless somebody is opposing us. Conservative Christians complained that the gay manger scene mocked Christianity, but I feel that it makes a mockery of GLBT life.

Oh, well.

Frank van Dalen, head of the ProGay group that organized the festival, said that the queer Nativity was meant to encourage people to think about homosexuality and religion. It did have that effect on me. I had my own lesbian Christian spiritual awakening while I was waiting for the event.

While waiting for the event, I imagined that the Amsterdam GLBT community would enact Nativity scenes that showed loving lesbian and gay families like those that I have known. Scenes of a lesbian Madonna and her female partner with the baby Jesus have been created by artists such as Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin of Sweden and Becki Jayne Harrelson of Atlanta. But this was the first time that I’ve seen a gay Joseph and his male partner with the Christ child.

Why not? According to the Bible story, Joseph was an adoptive father anyway. The Virgin Mary had Jesus without having sex with a man -- much like lesbian mothers who use artificial insemination.

I had a personal breakthrough as I realized that my mind was still trapped in heterosexual assumptions about the cast of characters at Jesus’ birth. I remembered going to a huge exhibit of Nativity scenes when I was a young lesbian in seminary. They had statues of Mary and Joseph with the Christ child portrayed as every conceivable racial and ethnic identity. Not once did I consider that my own community was missing -- there was no lesbian version with Mary and another woman. Nor was there a gay version with Joseph and another man. Only now, some 20 years later, did it occur to me that LGBT families should be represented in the mix.

Inspired by the Amsterdam example, I suddenly realized how easy it would be to make my own lesbian or gay Nativity scene. All I would have to do was buy two standard Nativity scenes, and switch the figures around. It would be easy to put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake! My partner and I toyed with the idea of getting two sets of Nativity lawn decorations and turning our yard into a queer Christmas display.

However, rearranging the Holy Family is not as easy as it might seem. In many cases Mary, Joseph and Jesus are wedded together in one inseparable, three-headed blob. What does that say about our attachment to idealized, sanctified heterosexuality?

During the recent after-Christmas sales, I ordered two Nativity sets with freestanding figures. Yes, I’m going to do it. You’ll see my reconfigured lesbian and gay Nativity scenes on this blog next Christmas.

Meanwhile, you may watch Amsterdam’s gay Nativity scene captured live on video.



Update Dec. 22, 2010: Gay and lesbian Nativity scenes are available now as Christmas cards at the Jesus in Love Store.

AltXmasArt 7: Joseph and the Christ Child

“Joseph and the Christ Child” by Father John Giuliani www.bridgebuilding.com

Respect for fatherhood and for Native Americans combine in “Joseph and the Christ Child” by Father John Giuliani. Religious Christmas images usually focus on the Madonna and child, often leaving Joseph out entirely. This icon does great service by affirming men as loving father figures, gentle enough to nurture a baby. Giulani’s icon also reverses the terrible history of Christian missionaries forcing their religion upon Native Americans with violence and cruelty. Instead of turning Native Americans into Christians, Giuliani turns Christian subjects into Native Americans. Joseph gives up his traditional Middle Eastern robes and dons a typical Navajo chief blanket, beaded necklace and headband. The baby Jesus is naked. Both have skin, hair and features that appear Native American. All they kept is their halos. Nobody would even recognize them as Joseph and the Christ child without the icon’s title -- and maybe that’s the point. All people are created in God’s image. Can you see the face of Christ in an ordinary Navajo man and his baby? Giuliani is an Italian-American Catholic priest who has made dozens of Christian icons with Native American imagery from a variety of tribes. He studied icon painting under a master in the Russian Orthodox style, but wanted to expand the concept of holiness to include Native Americans as the original presence of the sacred on the continent. “I suddenly began to wonder what I was doing using traditional Byzantine aesthetics and forms, living as I do in North America in the late 20th century,” he says in an interview in Sojourner Magazine. “Then the idea came to me of using the images of the continent’s original peoples in icons, as a way of celebrating the spiritual gifts they have given to the world.” The son of immigrants from a poor agricultural town near Naples, Giuliani attributes his affinity for Native Americans to a shared sense of connection to the earth and the cycles of nature. He lives in a monastic community in rural Connecticut “Even though I’m not Native American, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the varied indigenous cultures of this land,” says Giuliani. “Their understanding of the world of nature and of God, their emphasis on being caretakers rather than exploiters of the land—all that is wonderfully consonant with the best of Christian thought and tradition. In my work I try to celebrate a union of a common spiritual understanding, to show how a single mystery can be approached through diverse cultures.” Please come back tomorrow for AltXmasArt 8: “Mary Most Holy Mother of All Nations” by Father William Hart McNichols

AltXmasArt 6: San José (Saint Joseph)

“San José (Saint Joseph)” by Armando Lopez, 2008. Oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches. www.armandolopez.com

The Christ child is usually pictured with his mother, but he makes a rare father-and-son appearance in “San José (Saint Joseph)” by Armando Lopez. Treasuring this scene of fatherly bonding is a way to reclaim the tender, nurturing side of men. The painting provides an important balance to the flood of Madonna-and-child images that circulate during the Christmas season. The Bible provides scant information about Joseph, but the few references do suggest that he was a working man of faith, kindness an compassion. According to the gospel of Matthew, Joseph was shocked to find out that his fiancé Mary was pregnant -- before they had “come together.” He decided to divorce her, and do it quietly to avoid exposing her to public disgrace. Then an angel came in a dream to reassure Joseph that Mary was carrying God’s own son. Joseph stood by Mary, perhaps saving her from being stoned to death for adultery. The rest is history. There is even less information about how Joseph interacted with Jesus. The lack of historical record leaves artists free to imagine Jesus and Joseph together. Lopez paints a Jesus who is no baby, but appears to be a young boy. The father and son are deeply connected, almost becoming one body. They face each other, but their gazes do not quite meet, for Jesus is looking upward past Joseph, perhaps toward his heavenly father. Lopez is a Tarascan native born in the small village of Santa Maria in the southwest Mexican state of Michoacan. Now living in Mexico, he uses both native Tarascan and Catholic imagery in his art, which has been featured in exhibitions across the Americas. The rich colors and stylized bodies, especially Joseph’s elongated neck in “San José,” also call to mind the work of popular 20th- century Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Please come back tomorrow for AltXmasArt 7: “Joseph and the Christ Child” by Father John Giuliani