Fear, faith and gay Jesus: Interview with author Paul Hartman

Paul Hartman

Revelations that Jesus was gay lead to deeper spiritual insights -- and a deadly chase -- in “The Kairos,” a new suspense novel by Paul Hartman.

He discusses how and why he wrote “The Kairos” in the following in-depth interview with Kittredge Cherry, author of “Jesus in Love,” a novel about a bisexual Jesus. Based in Washington state, Hartman is a Presbyterian elder and retired PBS / NPR broadcast executive and on-air personality.

“The Kairos” addresses the timely issue of homosexuality and religion, but its underlying theme is timeless: Human fear and God’s reassuring response: “Fear not.”

Kittredge Cherry: Readers at Jesus in Love are interested in the idea of a gay Jesus. How does “The Kairos” explore that theme?

Paul Hartman: The Kairos (Greek for “a divine breakthrough into human time”) is a novel premised on seven Dead Sea Scrolls fragments having been hidden by two scholars for forty years.  The two had feared the carbon-dated evidence would explode the faith of a billion Christians worldwide.  Although the revelations were eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ teen years and why He was considered divine by contemporaries, they also stated that He and John, the Beloved Disciple, became intimate life-companions there in Qumran.

Wherever I have a chance, I’ll emphasize that this story is not really about a gay Jesus.  It’s about fear, and more importantly, God’s simple, loving words to us about that basic human emotion.  One “horrible fear” for some would be that the premise could have been true, that Jesus might have been not just sexual, but homosexual.  Two other, more-universal fears are of failure and of death.  These three threats drive the protagonist in The Kairos.  I trust that readers will remember by the end of the story that our loving Creator has addressed every kind of fear in the first divine words in almost every biblically-recorded kairos moment.  Those two words—just like the first two spoken by Bethlehem’s herald angels—are the theme of this novel.

KC: In your book the Vatican and the CIA try to stop the hero from revealing that Jesus was gay. Has anyone tried to stop you from writing the book or accused you of blasphemy yet?

PH: Only one person has tried to stop me from writing and publishing this story: my own fearful self.  Just like the protagonist, I have worried and prayed endlessly for decades that this be used to further God’s Kingdom, not to hurt people or (God forbid!) turn believers into atheists.  And just like God’s first kairos words in stories from Genesis to Revelation, the Divine has understood my fears and repeatedly, lovingly allayed them.  Even if (when!) there are accusations of blasphemy, I’ll keep looking back to our glimpse of Perfect Love and try to live like Him.

KC: Why did you decide to tackle this controversial subject? Is “The Kairos” related to your own coming-out process as a gay man?

PH: The story first came to me during a worship service at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, NY.  I wrote the first words—which survived all revisions and edits almost intact—on the bulletin.  I was in the closet then as I had been for over 30 years, and I remained in that dark fearful place for almost 20 more. Retirement has helped ease the fears, and then nine months ago I found the love of my life.  Even knowing that I should have found courage solely in my faith, being with Bruce has given it to me.  So both the book and I are coming out this year.  Praise God that recent trends in the world and the Church are making this less “courageous” than it would have been even a few years ago.  I’m so thankful to you, Kitt, for your pioneering, among others’.

KC: You’re a Presbyterian elder and lay preacher. What do you believe about Jesus’ sexuality? Was he attracted to other men? Did he have a male lover? What is the evidence or basis for your own beliefs?

PH: My lay preaching and coaching is in the area of stewardship (annual- and capital-campaigns), and I emphasize to fellow Christians that God is not needy but instead commands us to give because He loves us.  As a perfect Parent, God knows the “miser” in us makes us “miserable.”  (I welcome consulting inquiries from open and affirming congregations!  Ok, ok, end of commercial. :-)  )   It’s that same spirit that informs my understanding of Jesus’ entire earthly life, which confirms for me that everything, including our sexual orientation, is a gift to be celebrated and shared.

Do I believe Jesus was sexually active?  All I can say is He would still be my God if so, but of course I don’t know.  With a man or woman?  Same answer.  Two of my favorite chapters in The Kairos explore those questions, all of which hinge on whether we believe He was fully human.  (If we don’t, of course, we subscribe to the Gnostic heresy…the belief that all matter is evil, meaning Jesus wouldn’t have been human but only an apparition.)  Chapter 20 depicts a fundamentalist character’s reaction when she is asked various questions about His physical life.  In exasperation, she ends it exclaiming, “I don’t want to think about Jesus’ penis!”  Well I don’t know anyone who wants to, but if that’s symbolic of our rejection of our God-given physical bodies, then I can’t believe our Creator is happy about that.  He looked out over all that He had made and said it was very good.  Another favorite Kairos chapter, 33, presents one character’s mock debate with himself over the “clobber passage” issues attendant to these questions.

KC: One of the fascinating parts of your book is the “manuscript within a manuscript” -- the seven chapters that read like long-secret Dead Sea Scroll fragments on the sexuality of Jesus. What research did you do to ensure that these sound authentic?

PH: Just two of the seven broach the topic of sexuality; the other five introduce Him to the Qumran community and tell stories showing why the elders and youth alike were astounded at His gentleness, kindness, playfulness.  And His grace.  You might imagine that I approached writing each of these with some…well, fear!  The responsibility of sharing imagined words and actions of Jesus’ was almost crushing.  I felt an overwhelming need to stay close to the core of His life and message as best I know it.  So I spent a lot of time in the Synoptics during those writing periods.  I hope readers will hear echoes of gospel accounts in the words and actions I created, extensions of known sayings and behaviors more than anything brand new.  That is, except for the intimacy hinted at.  

Regarding my research in situ, I spent about 22 days in the Holy Land region in the year 2000, including about four days in Jerusalem and Qumran.  I was a docent at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in 2006 at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center.  That gave me numerous opportunities for close-up examination of scroll fragments and other artifacts.  And I’ve read pretty extensively and watched almost every documentary produced.  The Dead Sea Scrolls absolutely fascinate me.  To see the tetragrammaton in two-millennia-old handwriting …it’s breath-taking.

KC: How has your own spiritual journey been affected by the process of writing “The Kairos”?

PH: I’m probably one of the most progressive “born-again” Christians you’ll ever meet, and have been blessed with a deep faith ever since the day of that spiritual birth.  (Mine was the real-life experience written up as the Eskimo pastor’s in Chapter 51.)  Writing it prompted me to finally make the Trip of A Lifetime to the Holy Land (which is detailed on my website www.CarpeKairos.com).  And deciding to finally publish it has been a leap of faith both financially and in coming out.  Here’s a germane anecdote: I had long thought that I would have to use a nom-de-plume if I published it, to avoid direct questions from the media about my own orientation.  But I finally realized, Duh!?  A book whose theme is “fear not”…written by an author who’s afraid to put his name on it?  How self-contradictory can a guy get?

KC: Without spoiling the surprise, can you offer any words of wisdom for those who will be shocked by the conclusion?

PH: You know, if a story’s conclusion has a powerful effect on a reader—whether leaving them in a flight to joy or a descent to sadness—it means s/he has solidly connected with the protagonist and that character’s driving motivation.  One reader finished this novel and immediately wrote, “You know you have reached people when they have an emotional reaction—lump in throat kind—at the end.”  Those of us who believe in a death-conquering Deity understand that His repeated kairos words are not shallow, whistling-in-the-dark encouragements.  When we embrace them—as the protagonist finally does—they can become truly powerful in our own lives.

By the way, I strongly encourage readers to share their personal reactions after finishing The Kairos.  I’ll send each person who emails me (in the “Contact Us” section of “Sharing Ideas” at www.CarpeKairos.com) a few words that early readers have found helpful…but which I know wouldn’t be appropriate to print following its conclusion.

Animals make peace at Christmas

Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks

Animals often symbolize peace at Christmastime -- from the dove to the ox and donkey in the stable where Jesus was born. Animals are important in the lives of many LGBT people, and sometimes become our “surrogate children,” so I gladly devote this Christmas post to animals.

Jesus tells the story of his birth to animals in the following scene from my novel “Jesus in Love.”

Another vision of animals living in harmony is the painting “Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks, a 19th-century American folk painter and Quaker minister. Hicks’ art is set to music in a video by James Hilden-Minton, a financial analyst and theology student who writes short contemplative songs for churches and spiritual groups.

Jesus is so in tune with nature that he can converse with animals in my novel “Jesus in Love.” While the book is known for exploring Jesus’ bisexual and trangender feelings, many readers say that this retelling of the Christmas story is one of their favorite scenes. The following scene takes place during Jesus’ wilderness fast.

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The cave was filled with animals and angels. The angels were like snatches of melody or wisps of light, singing a prophecy from Isaiah that I had loved since childhood. As they sang, Isaiah’s vision materialized right before my eyes and I was part of it: “The wolf shall live with the lamb. The leopard and the young goat shall lie down together while the lion cub makes friends with the calf, with a little child to guide them. The baby shall play near the cobra’s hole. Nobody will
be hurt or injured on my holy mountain, for the earth will be flooded with the knowledge of God as water fills the sea.”…

The scene reminded me of a story that Mom and Papa-Joe told me about my birth, so I tried to share it with the animals. “I was born in a stable, a place kind f like this cave,” I began. It was tricky translating my thoughts into the vibrations of so many different species at once. Some understood more than others.

“Animals were with me when I was born. There were some like you...and you...and you.” I pointed at the sheep, the goats, the donkeys, and the oxen. “After I was born, I slept in a manger, a place where animals ate their food.”

“Food!” Everyone was interested in this part of my story. We talked about food for a long time, until the sun began to set.

“You are like food. You make me feel good,” Old Snake said to me, and the others sounded their agreement.

_________

A wonderful song about the animals and baby Jesus is “The Friendly Beasts” by an unknown 12th-century author. Thanks to C.W.S., a friend of this blog, for alerting us to the hymn, which begins:

Jesus, our Brother, strong and good,
Was humbly born in a stable rude,
And the friendly beasts around Him stood,
Jesus, our Brother, strong and good.

“I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown,
“I carried His mother uphill and down,
I carried His mother to Bethlehem town;
I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown...

Click here for the whole song
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Turtle by Trudie Barreras

A reminder for pet lovers: Artist Trudie Barreras has generously offered to do a personalized pet portrait for anyone who makes a $25 donation to the Jesus In Love Blog. Click here for details.

Pentecost comes alive with erotic Christ

Today is Pentecost, when the church celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the apostles in tongues of flame. Pentecost is also the final scene in my novel about an erotically alive Christ, Jesus in Love: At the Cross. The book includes a gay love story between Jesus and his disciple John. Here is an excerpt that imagines the first Pentecost from the viewpoint of the risen bisexual Christ.


When the Holy Spirit loved me, our contact produced a ripple of energy similar to a heartbeat. She was ringing me like a bell, and the “sound” would roll on forever.

“It is without end, because it is without beginning,” She said. She rang me again, and this time when the edge of her heart crossed mine, the rapture made me lose control and we melted into One.

Our union was so powerful that the people there could actually see and hear Us, like tongues of fire and a whoosh of wind. Our appearance didn’t scare them because they had been expecting Us. Some of my disciples stopped singing long enough to exclaim, “It’s the Holy Spirit!”

We kissed everyone in the room, being careful to cool Our kisses to a comfortable temperature for humans. We licked them with Our flaming tongues. They welcomed Our electric kisses. Each of them inhaled sharply and deeply in preparation for a sigh. We swept into them as breath, passed through each soul’s new doorway and fertilized the sacred chamber within. At the same time, their sparkling souls penetrated my divine heart and swam into a new womblike space that had just unfurled for them. The glorious friction made me feel flushed. Holy Spirit and human spirit were wedded, catalyzing a chain reaction of power bursts. Every soul in the room ignited in such a way that flames appeared to blaze from each person’s body. They looked around at each other’s auras in astonished admiration.

All that happened on one inhalation. When they exhaled, they could taste how much God loved them as We flowed over their tongues. They let their tongues flutter and writhe in ecstatic abandon. Each one released the tension of the wedding consummation in his or her own unique speaking style. Some of it sounded like gibberish to them as they praised God. Others spoke in exalted words.

For John, it came out as a quotation from the prophet Isaiah: “My whole being rejoices in my God, for He has wrapped me in the robe of justice, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

The Holy Spirit and I rode the sound waves of their voices, still actively making love. We granted everyone within listening range the same gift that I had received that morning: the ability to hear pure thought.

…Two passersby from far-flung Phrygia were the first to speak up. “Hey, do you hear that?” asked one.

“Somebody’s speaking Phrygian! Let’s go see who it is,” the other replied.

They hurried to the upper room and knocked on the door. My disciples were still jabbering their thanks to God, no longer afraid to let others see and hear them. They propped the door open for the crowd that was gathering as the ecstatic voices carried me to people from every nation who were living in Jerusalem.

________
Kittredge Cherry blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts. She offers GLBT and progressive spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org.

Jesus tells Christmas story to animals in novel

Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks

Jesus tells the story of his birth to animals in the following scene from my novel “Jesus in Love/” Jesus is so in tune with nature that he can converse with animals in the novel. While the book is known for exploring Jesus’ bisexual and trangender feelings, many readers say that this retelling of the Christmas story is one of their favorite scenes. Animals are important in the lives of many GLBT people, and sometimes become our “surrogate children,” so I gladly devote this post to animals. The following scene takes place during Jesus’ wilderness fast.

.............................................

The cave was filled with animals and angels. The angels were like snatches of melody or wisps of light, singing a prophecy from Isaiah that I had loved since childhood. As they sang, Isaiah’s vision materialized right before my eyes and I was part of it: “The wolf shall live with the lamb. The leopard and the young goat shall lie down together while the lion cub makes friends with the calf, with a little child to guide them. The baby shall play near the cobra’s hole. Nobody will be hurt or injured on my holy mountain, for the earth will be flooded with the knowledge of God as water fills the sea.”… The scene reminded me of a story that Mom and Papa-Joe told me about my birth, so I tried to share it with the animals. “I was born in a stable, a place kind f like this cave,” I began. It was tricky translating my thoughts into the vibrations of so many different species at once. Some understood more than others. “Animals were with me when I was born. There were some like you...and you...and you.” I pointed at the sheep, the goats, the donkeys, and the oxen. “After I was born, I slept in a manger, a place where animals ate their food.” “Food!” Everyone was interested in this part of my story. We talked about food for a long time, until the sun began to set. “You are like food. You make me feel good,” Old Snake said to me, and the others sounded their agreement.

_________ A wonderful song about the animals and baby Jesus is “The Friendly Beasts” by an unknown 12th-century author. Thanks to C.W.S., a friend of this blog, for alerting us to the hymn, which begins: Jesus, our Brother, strong and good, Was humbly born in a stable rude, And the friendly beasts around Him stood, Jesus, our Brother, strong and good. “I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown, “I carried His mother uphill and down, I carried His mother to Bethlehem town; I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown... Click here for the whole song

Eros & Christ: Sacred vs. secular texts

[Part of a series on Eros and Christ]

By Trudie Barreras

For over a year now, I’ve been talking about, quoting from, and rereading Kittredge Cherry’s incredibly beautiful novel in two volumes, “Jesus in Love” and “At the Cross.” I haven’t tried to “promote” these books to people I perceive to be “unbelievers”. Neither do I seek to share them with the category of “believers” that I suspect are so extremely mired in “Tradition” that they would be scandalized at the mere suggestion that Jesus was truly human in the sense of experiencing erotic love, whether genitally expressed or not. However, I find that even some people who share my perspective that erotic love is not inherently evil tend to balk at the idea that Jesus could have (indeed MUST have, if he was, as the Creed tells us, True Man as well as True God) experienced it.

So this reflection is going to be a plea for honest evaluation of the type of love we call “Eros” and for an acceptance of the fact that if you can read about it in novels about “ordinary people” without considering yourself to be depraved, you should be able to read about it in Cherry’s wonderfully sensitive discussion of how it might have manifest in the ideal human Christians claim Jesus to have been.

Although I don’t “collect” the type of erotically focused romance novel that has become popular fare on the racks of supermarkets and “big box” stores, my daughters do. One of them graciously loans me some of them, including the novels of the extremely popular author Nora Roberts. Although I could cite thousands of examples, here is one chosen from her book “Private Scandals”:

He watched the instant of frantic denial, the stunned panic, the mindless pleasure. Everything she felt echoed inside him. As breathless as she, he lowered himself over her, raining kisses over her glowing face until she was wrapped around him, until her movements grew frantic and his own churning need demanded release.

“Look at me.” He fought the words out of his burning throat. “Look at me.”

And when she did, when their eyes met, held, he slipped inside her. Slowly, his hands fisted in the rug as if he could grip control there, he lowered to her, felt her rise to meet him until they moved together silkily.

When her lips curved, he pressed his face to her throat and took them both over the edge. (p. 244)

For my discussion I’d like to juxtapose this description to a passage from the beginning of “Jesus in Love”:

“Let’s make love,” the Holy Spirit whispered while I was praying.

Each of us was both lover and beloved as everything in me found in the Holy Spirit its complement, its reflection, its twin. We took turns switching roles and switching genders. The momentum of reversing polarities stretched me further and further until I was almost overcome by the force that we had generated.

“Marry me, Jesus,” the Holy Spirit sighed.

Unprecedented pleasure accompanied this most unexpected proposal. When the Holy Spirit kissed my mind and heart, I also felt a tangible touch run down the inner spine of my physical body. Enjoyable arrows of energy shot toward my crotch, concentrating power in my genitals. (p. 33)

Neither of these descriptions is nearly as “anatomically explicit” as many of the scenes in other romance novels. Although in subsequent descriptions in “Jesus in Love” Cherry describes interactions between Jesus and humans such as John and Mary Magdalene, one thing is extremely important. Though the eroticism is real and beautifully described, it always occurs in the context of prayer. This, I believe, is the true genius of Cherry’s writing. She has completely integrated the human Jesus with the divinity of Christ’s being, and the physical and spiritual of our own humanity, in a way that I have never encountered in anything else I’ve ever read. She also fully accepts and celebrates the fact that Eros is indeed divinely created. It is not a “lesser form” of love, somehow tainted. It is that form which was designed by our Creator to enhance human – human relationships as well as to provide the impetus for continuation of life from generation to generation. Eros – Cupid – is depicted in myth as an archer, and I think it is intriguing that in the passage quoted above, the term “arrows of energy” is used.

Another book by which I’m currently enthralled is Sherwin B. Nuland’s “How We Live: The Wisdom of the Body.” Nuland, a medical doctor, writes fascinatingly comprehensible descriptions of many physiological processes, weaving them together with vital philosophical and spiritual insights. In a chapter entitled “The Act of Love” he manages to make the purely biological processes of the formation of ova and sperm cells, the joining of these cells at the time of conception, the subsequent implantation of the zygote, development of the embryo, and the growth of the fetus, into an erotically stimulating narrative. I found it quite as stimulating, in fact, as attempts to produce arousal in novels.

I really, truly believe it is time to use the insights brought to us by medical science, as well as the growing awareness of our own reality as embodied spirits, to stop demonizing our own erotic urges, which need to be comprehended and integrated with our full humanity and brought into the service of creative love in all its forms – procreative, relational, and spiritual. I believe Cherry’s books, as well as Nuland’s and several others I have read recently, make a vital contribution to this endeavor.
________
Writer and artist Trudie Barreras is a member of First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta, Georgia. Her painting “Annunciation” is the logo for this series on Eros and Christ.
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Coming soon: Our summer series on Eros and Christ will continue with reflections on Jesus as lover by gender studies professor Hugo Schwyzer.

Eros & Christ: Mary’s ecstasy in fiction

[Part of a series on Eros and Christ] Mary’s ecstasy at the moment of Jesus’ conception is explored in creative works by two women of faith, Trudie Barreras and myself. The split between sexuality and spirituality in Christian tradition may be healed by considering our reflections on Mary’s experience. Two previous posts covered Barreras’ painting “Annunciation” and her meditation “Miriam’s Journey.” Here a scene from my novel “Jesus in Love” is presented. In the following excerpt, Jesus talks to his mother about the erotic side of spirituality. When I wrote the novel, the words seemed to come “through” me as I opened my heart to Christ. I wanted the scene to express the holy interplay of sex and spirit. Jesus, the narrator, has worked up the courage to ask his mother about it as the scene begins: _____ “Maybe you could tell me what it was like when God ‘overshadowed’ you and you conceived me. I know it’s personal, but it would help me.” “I never even discussed that with Papa-Joe,” she replied rather primly. The first glimmer of dawn must have highlighted the inner turmoil on my face, because she relented. “Well, Papa-Joe didn’t need to know, but you do. I want you to be ready when the Holy Spirit makes love to you.” A wave of sensual longing passed through me. It was like a hot wind that left my heart racing and my whole body tingling with anticipation. We were crossing into a level of intimacy that was unknown in my culture. “When your Father overshadowed me, it felt good in every way—spiritual, mental, emotional…physical, too,” Mom explained. “You said the Holy Spirit felt ‘sexy.’ Yes. I was a virgin, so I didn’t know how it would feel to make love, but sex is no secret to a farm girl like me, who grew up in a one-room house full of people. I did know that it was possible to form a sacred sexual bond with God because I had learned about such mysteries from the elderly matriarchs.” I looked at the ground, feeling bashful. Normally if I felt unsteady in some way, I reached right out in spirit and braced myself against my Father’s being. But what if God decided to appear to me as the Holy Spirit? I wasn’t ready to have this conversation with Her present. Mom continued. “It didn’t happen suddenly or all at once. Your Father paused at every stage as He made love to me to make sure that I wasn’t just saying yes out of duty or fear. He whispered marvelous promises to me over and over. Most concerned His relationship with me, but some were about you.” She smiled at me with a mother’s pride in her offspring, then resumed her story. “They were the same promises from the scriptures that they recite in the synagogue, but while He was making love to me, they seemed incredibly intimate, as if they were just for me. I was very eager. Jesus, it was so real! I had faith before, but this was nothing like that. This was feeling God caress my heart, my breasts, my private parts....” Mom gazed into the sunrise, letting the bliss on her face tell me the rest of the story. Wind ruffled through the wildflowers growing outside the grotto. Mom looked in my eyes and patted my hand. “You will be bonded with God permanently.” _____ I hope that readers are enlivened and enlightened by this creative celebration of Mary’s ecstasy, a part of the Christian story that is often overlooked. Too much of Christian tradition has been sex-negative, but a fresh look at the Virgin Birth may help bridge the gap between sexuality and spirituality. Coming soon: Our summer series on Eros and Christ will continue with “Sunday Confessions,” a poem by New York poet Maruja.

Pentecost comes alive with erotic Christ

Today is Pentecost, when the church celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the apostles in tongues of flame. Pentecost is also the final scene in my novel about an erotically alive Christ, Jesus in Love: At the Cross. The book includes a gay love story between Jesus and his disciple John. Here is an excerpt that imagines the first Pentecost from the viewpoint of the risen bisexual Christ.


When the Holy Spirit loved me, our contact produced a ripple of energy similar to a heartbeat. She was ringing me like a bell, and the “sound” would roll on forever.

“It is without end, because it is without beginning,” She said. She rang me again, and this time when the edge of her heart crossed mine, the rapture made me lose control and we melted into One.

Our union was so powerful that the people there could actually see and hear Us, like tongues of fire and a whoosh of wind. Our appearance didn’t scare them because they had been expecting Us. Some of my disciples stopped singing long enough to exclaim, “It’s the Holy Spirit!”

We kissed everyone in the room, being careful to cool Our kisses to a comfortable temperature for humans. We licked them with Our flaming tongues. They welcomed Our electric kisses. Each of them inhaled sharply and deeply in preparation for a sigh. We swept into them as breath, passed through each soul’s new doorway and fertilized the sacred chamber within. At the same time, their sparkling souls penetrated my divine heart and swam into a new womblike space that had just unfurled for them. The glorious friction made me feel flushed. Holy Spirit and human spirit were wedded, catalyzing a chain reaction of power bursts. Every soul in the room ignited in such a way that flames appeared to blaze from each person’s body. They looked around at each other’s auras in astonished admiration.

All that happened on one inhalation. When they exhaled, they could taste how much God loved them as We flowed over their tongues. They let their tongues flutter and writhe in ecstatic abandon. Each one released the tension of the wedding consummation in his or her own unique speaking style. Some of it sounded like gibberish to them as they praised God. Others spoke in exalted words.

For John, it came out as a quotation from the prophet Isaiah: “My whole being rejoices in my God, for He has wrapped me in the robe of justice, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

The Holy Spirit and I rode the sound waves of their voices, still actively making love. We granted everyone within listening range the same gift that I had received that morning: the ability to hear pure thought.

…Two passersby from far-flung Phrygia were the first to speak up. “Hey, do you hear that?” asked one.

“Somebody’s speaking Phrygian! Let’s go see who it is,” the other replied.

They hurried to the upper room and knocked on the door. My disciples were still jabbering their thanks to God, no longer afraid to let others see and hear them. They propped the door open for the crowd that was gathering as the ecstatic voices carried me to people from every nation who were living in Jerusalem.

________
Kittredge Cherry blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts. She offers GLBT and progressive spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org.

Gay Holy Week series starts Sunday

A queer version of Christ’s Passion will run in daily installments from Palm Sunday (April 5) through Easter (April 12) here at the Jesus in Love Blog. Each daily post features queer Christian art and an excerpt from “Jesus in Love: At the Cross,” a novel about a bisexual Christ by lesbian author Kittredge Cherry. Jesus is in love with his disciple John and faces religious homophobia in the selections from “At the Cross.” The eight-day series covers Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. The dramatic events of Christ’s Passion happen in the context of a gay love story between Jesus and John. Jesus has today’s queer sensibilities and psychological sophistication as he reveals experiences that may have led to the first Easter. “I’m doing the Holy Week 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 spirituality and the arts for GLBT people and their allies. “Christ’s story is for everyone, but GLBT people often feel left out because conservatives use Christian rhetoric to justify hate and discrimination,” she said. The online Holy Week series includes art by F. Douglas Blanchard, Gary Speziale and Becki Jayne Harrelson. Some conservatives labeled Cherry “a hyper-homosexual revisionist” because of the gay love story between Jesus and John. However, her books follow the Biblical text and standard Christian doctrine while speculating on Christ’s erotic inner life. “I get hate mail with warnings such as, ‘Gays are not wanted in the kingdom of Christ!’ This kind of religious bigotry is exactly why the queer Christ is needed,” Cherry said. Meanwhile, secular literary critics and progressive Christians affirm the Jesus in Love series as “profound,” “spiritually mature” and “beautifully written.” Gay spirituality author Toby Johnson praises it as “a real tour de force in transforming traditional myth to modern consciousness.” The Bay Area Reporter called it “revolutionary religious fiction” and Mel White, founder of Soulforce, says, “Kittredge Cherry has broken through the stained-glass barrier… a classic re-telling of the greatest story ever told.” “At the Cross” grows out of Cherry’s own spiritual journey and her experiences as a minister in the LGBT community. She served as national ecumenical officer for Metropolitan Community Churches. One of her primary duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches. Her previous books include “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More,” “Equal Rites” and “Hide and Speak.” The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style. The Holy Week blog series includes art from “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” a compelling set of 24 paintings by New York artist F. Douglas Blanchard. The controversial “faggot crucifixion” by Atlanta artist Becki Jayne Harrelson is also featured, along with drawings by New York artist Gary Speziale. They are among 11 contemporary artists from the United States and Europe who are profiled in Cherry’s book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.”

Jesus tells Christmas story to animals in novel

Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks

Jesus discusses the Christmas story with animals in the following scene from “Jesus in Love” by Kittredge Cherry. Jesus is so in tune with nature that he can converse with animals in the novel. While the book is known for exploring Jesus’ bisexual feelings, many readers say that this is one of their favorite scenes. It takes place during his wilderness fast.

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The cave was filled with animals and angels. The angels were like snatches of melody or wisps of light, singing a prophecy from Isaiah that I had loved since childhood. As they sang, Isaiah’s vision materialized right before my eyes and I was part of it: “The wolf shall live with the lamb. The leopard and the young goat shall lie down together while the lion cub makes friends with the calf, with a little child to guide them. The baby shall play near the cobra’s hole. Nobody will be hurt or injured on my holy mountain, for the earth will be flooded with the knowledge of God as water fills the sea.”… The scene reminded me of a story that Mom and Papa-Joe told me about my birth, so I tried to share it with the animals. “I was born in a stable, a place kind f like this cave,” I began. It was tricky translating my thoughts into the vibrations of so many different species at once. Some understood more than others. “Animals were with me when I was born. There were some like you...and you...and you.” I pointed at the sheep, the goats, the donkeys, and the oxen. “After I was born, I slept in a manger, a place where animals ate their food.” “Food!” Everyone was interested in this part of my story. We talked about food for a long time, until the sun began to set. “You are like food. You make me feel good,” Old Snake said to me, and the others sounded their agreement.

Novels show Jesus from the heart

My Jesus in Love novels about an erotically alive Jesus are compared to the Christ the Lord novels of bestselling author Anne Rice in the following review. I am honored by the comparison made by Atlanta writer Trudie Barreras, and excited about her insight into the books. Trudie chose to write the following piece because she was impressed by the books and the connections between them. She sent her reflection to both Anne Rice and me. So far, Ms. Rice has not responded.

The Wisdom Way of Knowing
by Trudie Barreras

This reflection takes its heading unashamedly from a small volume with the same title published in 2003 by Cynthia Bourgeault. Her book The Wisdom Way of Knowing is subtitled “Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart.” In this book, as in the conferences in a recent retreat I attended which Cynthia directed, she emphasizes the importance of “heart knowledge” as opposed to “head knowledge”. This is not describing “emotion” in the usual sense of feelings of affection or eroticism so much as a deep awareness of the reality of love as a creative force. This is the type of love referred to in 1 John 4:18 (“perfect love casts out fear”).

A deep deprivation that I think current believers have experienced is the failure of our spiritual guides to help us to open up to this heart knowledge. In essence, along with the conflict between science and religion, we have tended to boil everything down to creeds and dogmatic assertions, none of which actually speak to the reality of life as we know it. Also, there is a complete failure to truly experience Jesus as both divine and human. Most especially, in this era of obsession with sexuality, which the churches demonize and the secular world worships, there is a complete refusal to deal with the possibility of the human aspect of Jesus as a sexual being.

Two authors whose works I have read and re-read since January of 2008 deal with this problem in powerful novels. They are Anne Rice, author of Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel (2005) and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (2008), and Kittredge Cherry, who wrote Jesus in Love (2006) and At the Cross (Jesus in Love) (2008).

Although the works are very different in some ways, they are marvelously similar in others. I will share some brief reflections on each to illustrate my thoughts, although I don’t want to go into so much detail that I would “spoil the stories” for anyone who hasn’t read them.

Rice’s first book, meticulously researched from a historical perspective, has to infer a great deal about the way the child Jesus perhaps grew into an awareness of his human/divine nature from very few scriptural clues. I believe she has accomplished a remarkable explication of “how it might have been”, and her story drew me totally into context in which Jesus might have begun to discover his calling. The story is poignant, beautiful, and one I wanted to share with a number of friends and family. Her second book deals with some major cultural factors that might indeed have led Jesus to his “revolutionary” rejection of the legalism and moral judgmentalism of the Jewish culture of his time. Her story begins with the description of what is essentially a “gay bashing” of two innocent young boys, and proceeds to discuss the near destruction of a beautiful young girl because her father thinks she has been “dishonored”. In both her books, Rice describes the difficulties Jesus might have encountered because of the “questionable” manner of his conception and birth. Her perception brings into clear focus the difficulties posed by legalistic attitudes that insist God is more concerned about justice than mercy.

Cherry in essence begins where Rice’s narrative ends, that is, with Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan, the calling of the disciples, and the marriage at Cana. Cherry’s primary objective is to depict Jesus as fully human in terms of sexuality, while maintaining, as Rice does, that Jesus was not genitally sexually active. Her rational for this, which I find marvelously sensitive and cogent, is that Jesus realizes his divine nature would inevitably produce an “imbalance of power” that would not permit the full and free interaction of “consenting adults” which sanctifies all human sexual interaction. Jesus also recognizes, in Cherry’s vision, that he is “married” to the Holy Spirit. After his Resurrection, the consummation of this marriage will in essence allow him to be married to every believer, and to the entire Church, a theme that surfaces powerfully in the Epistles.

I believe that Cherry’s descriptions of the eroticism between Jesus and various of his followers are beautifully and tastefully handled. Most important, I believe her writing truly sanctifies sexual love. I have been waiting a long time for someone to put into such powerful terms a truth that I’ve long felt but have been personally unable to articulate. I have been extremely uneasy that in the years since the “sexual revolution” began – years when Lady Chatterley's Lover went from being the ultimate in risqué to very ho-hum compared to the paperbacks available in every supermarket – the churches and our culture have continued to equate sex with sin. Even Metropolitan Community Church, which I hoped might give us some meaningful progress in terms of developing a sexual ethic in continuity with the Law of Love seems to have been unable to meet the challenge. Cherry’s book, however, in describing vividly and reverently what Jesus might have done, and how he might have perceived himself as a sexual being, provides that long-awaited insight.

I recently shared with Kittredge, and she featured on her Jesus In Love blog, a photograph of my “Nursing Madonna” statuette, and the story about the way in which Mary’s “nudity” was covered up with a Kleenex poncho by some member of the First MCC of Atlanta congregation when I put the statue on display in our meditation chapel. This is, indeed, exactly what I hope that Cherry’s wonderful novels will eventually counteract – a degree of prudishness that fails to deal with the true reality of Jesus as God With Us and the Holy Spirit as the “Beloved” who marries us to our true nature as a community of loving believers in Christ.
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Trudie Barreras is a writer and a member of First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta. She may be contacted by e-mail at: tbarreras@bellsouth.net.

Pentecost comes alive in queer novel

Today is Pentecost, when the church celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the apostles in tongues of flame. Pentecost is also the final scene in my novel about an erotically alive Christ, Jesus in Love: At the Cross. Here is an excerpt that imagines the first Pentecost from the viewpoint of the risen Christ.


When the Holy Spirit loved me, our contact produced a ripple of energy similar to a heartbeat. She was ringing me like a bell, and the “sound” would roll on forever.

“It is without end, because it is without beginning,” She said. She rang me again, and this time when the edge of her heart crossed mine, the rapture made me lose control and we melted into One.

Our union was so powerful that the people there could actually see and hear Us, like tongues of fire and a whoosh of wind. Our appearance didn’t scare them because they had been expecting Us. Some of my disciples stopped singing long enough to exclaim, “It’s the Holy Spirit!”

We kissed everyone in the room, being careful to cool Our kisses to a comfortable temperature for humans. We licked them with Our flaming tongues. They welcomed Our electric kisses. Each of them inhaled sharply and deeply in preparation for a sigh. We swept into them as breath, passed through each soul’s new doorway and fertilized the sacred chamber within. At the same time, their sparkling souls penetrated my divine heart and swam into a new womblike space that had just unfurled for them. The glorious friction made me feel flushed. Holy Spirit and human spirit were wedded, catalyzing a chain reaction of power bursts. Every soul in the room ignited in such a way that flames appeared to blaze from each person’s body. They looked around at each other’s auras in astonished admiration.

All that happened on one inhalation. When they exhaled, they could taste how much God loved them as We flowed over their tongues. They let their tongues flutter and writhe in ecstatic abandon. Each one released the tension of the wedding consummation in his or her own unique speaking style. Some of it sounded like gibberish to them as they praised God. Others spoke in exalted words.

For John, it came out as a quotation from the prophet Isaiah: “My whole being rejoices in my God, for He has wrapped me in the robe of justice, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

The Holy Spirit and I rode the sound waves of their voices, still actively making love. We granted everyone within listening range the same gift that I had received that morning: the ability to hear pure thought.

…Two passersby from far-flung Phrygia were the first to speak up. “Hey, do you hear that?” asked one.

“Somebody’s speaking Phrygian! Let’s go see who it is,” the other replied.

They hurried to the upper room and knocked on the door. My disciples were still jabbering their thanks to God, no longer afraid to let others see and hear them. They propped the door open for the crowd that was gathering as the ecstatic voices carried me to people from every nation who were living in Jerusalem.

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Kittredge Cherry blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts. She offers GLBT and progressive spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org.

Queer Christ novel gets sequel soon

Passio by Gary Speziale

Readers will get to experience the Passion of a queer Christ when my novel At the Cross is published in early 2008.

I’m in the final stages of proofreading the typeset galleys of At the Cross, the sequel to Jesus in Love. As I reread and revise the book for the last time, I feel that this second volume may be the better half because it includes the dramatic Passion narrative.

At the Cross should be available next year in time for Lent, the pre-Easter season when Christians reflect on Christ’s arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and resurrection. In 2008 Lent begins Feb. 6.

Development of the cover for At the Cross is also underway. The image above is a drawing by Gary Speziale, the openly gay New York artist who did the cover illustration for Jesus in Love. Gary and I hope that the cover of At the Cross will embody a similar spirit. Gary is one of the 11 artists that I profiled in my book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.

Originally the two novels Jesus in Love and At the Cross formed one long manuscript, a fictional autobiography of a bisexual Christ. My editor at AndroGyne Press and I decided to split it into two separate books. Readers can choose to focus on Jesus’ upbeat early ministry in Jesus in Love, or to take the darker journey all the way to the cross and beyond.

A passionate Jesus stands up to religious leaders and pays the ultimate price in At the Cross. Speaking with today’s sophistication, Jesus reveals the erotic, mystical experiences that may have propelled his life, death, and resurrection in first-century Palestine. Love stories are interwoven with his Last Supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection, ending on Pentecost. Jesus transcends gender identity, sexual orientation, and ultimately death itself. He leads disciples of both sexes toward ecstatic union with God.