Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon

“Coyolxauhqui Returns as Our Lady disguised as La Virgen de Guadalupe to defend the rights of Las Chicanas” by Alma Lopez

“Chulo De Guadalupe” by Tony de Carlo

Our Lady of Guadalupe brings a message of holy empowerment that speaks to LGBT people -- and angers Christian conservatives. Queer art based on Guadalupe is shown here for her feast day today (Dec. 12). She is an Aztec version of the Virgin Mary that appeared to Aztec peasant Juan Diego outside Mexico City on Dec. 12, 1531.


For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon

In Juan Diego’s vision, the dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe spoke to Juan Diego in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, addressing him as if he were a prince. It was astonishing because Mexico had been conquered 10 years earlier by Spaniards who claimed to have the one true faith. Following her instructions, he gathered roses in his cloak. An icon of her, looking just as Juan Diego described, was imprinted on the cloak as a miraculous sign. Our Lady of Guadalupe became a popular symbol of dignity and hope for the native people of Mexico, and by extension to indigenous or oppressed people everywhere.

The hill where Juan Diego had his vision used to be the site of an ancient temple to the Aztec mother goddess Tonantzin. Her temple was destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors. Our Lady of Guadalupe (in Spanish Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe or Virgen de Guadalupe) asked for a church to be built in her honor right there, among the conquered people. That shrine is now the most popular Catholic pilgrimage destination, receiving more than 6 million visitors per year.

Even standard icons of Guadalupe are subversive because they show the Virgin as a dark-skinned Mexican, challenging the Euro-centric images of her as a blue-eyed white lady. The foremothers of the Mexican Guadalupe include the Black Madonnas, especially the medieval Spanish Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremdaura, Spain.

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

“Our Lady” by Alma Lopez

"Our Lady of Controversy" cover

Erotically alive, feminist and lesbian versions of Our Lady of Guadalupe are a common theme in the art of Alma Lopez, a Chicana artist and activist born in Mexico and raised in California. A huge controversy erupted over her “Our Lady,” a digital print showing the Virgin of Guadalupe in a bikini made of roses, exalted by a bare-breasted butterfly. Lopez says she intended it as a tribute to Our Lady, “inspired by the experiences of many Chicanas and their complex relationship to La Virgen de Guadalupe.”

Encuentro (Encounter)
by Alma Lopez

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

“Lupe and Sirena in Love”
by Alma Lopez

In 2001 Catholic authorities tried to have Lopez’ “Our Lady” removed from an exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. The debate is covered in the 2011 book “Our Lady of Controversy: Alma Lopez’s ‘Irreverent Apparition.’” from University of Texas Press. The anthology is edited by Alma Lopez and Alicia Gaspar de Alba. The two women were married in 2008, during the first brief period when same-sex marriage was legal in California.

“Our Lady” is erotic, but there is more overt lesbian content in some of the other images of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Lopez made. Her website, almalopez.net, includes images of a romance between Guadalupe and a mermaid in artwork such as “Lupe and Sirena in Love.”

The Aztec moon goddess Coyolxauhqui has been interpreted as a lesbian deity by Chicanas such as writer-activist Cherrie Moraga. Lopez paints Coyolxauhqui, machete in hand, as Guadalupe in the image at the top of this post: “Coyolxauhqui Returns as Our Lady disguised as La Virgen de Guadalupe to defend the rights of Las Chicanas.”

“Mary Magdalene and Virgen de Guadalupe” (from “My Cathedral”) by Alex Donis

Alex Donis painted the Virgin of Guadalupe kissing Mary Magdalene as part of “My Cathedral,” a series that showed people of opposite viewpoints kissing in same-sex pairs. Donis was familiar with contradictions from his own “tri-cultural” identity: pop, queer, and Latino. Born to Guatemalan parents, he grew up in East Los Angeles.

His “My Cathedral” exhibit caused a frenzy when it opened in San Francisco in 1997. Heated arguments erupted in the gallery, followed by threatening phone calls and letters. Vandals smashed two of the artworks: Jesus kissing the Hindu god Rama, and guerilla leader Che Guevara kissing labor organizer Cesar Chavez. Most people overlooked his painting of Guadalupe kissing Mary Magdalene, but it remains a potent, beautiful expression of the union of sexuality and spirituality. It is included in the book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More by Kittredge Cherry..”

Guadalupe as Chenrezig by Ralfka Gonzalez

Outsider artist Ralfka Gonzalez adds an androgynous Buddhist interpretation by painting Guadalupe as the embodiment of compassion known as Chenrezig, Avalokiteshvara or Kwan Yin. Tradition says the compassionate bodhisattva is both male and female. In the Gonzalez image, he/she is wrapped in Juan Diego's cloak.

Pictured here is the first of many “Buddha Lupe” images painted by Gonzalez. He is a self-taught Chicano artist and gay Latino activist who divides his time between Oaxaca, Mexico and San Francisco. He often paints Mexican and/or gay themes in a colorful folk-art style.

Artist Tony de Carlo affirms the holiness of gay love with bright, festive paintings of queer saints, Adam and Steve, same-sex marriage and much more. His genderbending “Chulo De Guadalupe” appears near the top of this post. In Mexican slang “chulo” refers to someone who is cute and, in some cases, sexy.

De Carlo, who died in 2014, was a native of Los Angeles. His work is exhibited regularly in museums and galleries throughout the United States.For more on Tony De Carlo and his art, see my previous post: Gay saints, Adam and Steve, and marriage equality art affirm LGBT love: Tony De Carlo Interview.

"Virginia Guadalupe" by Jim Ru

Jim Ru painted a bearded drag queen version of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Titled “Virginia Guadalupe,” the painting was displayed in his show “Transcendent Faith: Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Saints” in Bisbee Arizona in the 1990s. He discusses it in a 2015 video.



These bold paintings certainly give new meaning to the title bestowed upon Guadalupe by Pope Pius XII: “Queen of Mexico.” If the Virgin Mary could appear to an Aztec as an Aztec, then why not show up to a queer as a queer?

Guadalupe tends to dominate discussions of Latina/o depictions of Mary, but other icons of the Virgin tend to be more important outside Mexico, such Our Lady of Lujan in Argentina. And artists are making queer versions of these other Virgins too. For example, Giuseppe Campuzano (1969-2013) of Peru cross-dressed as Our Lady of Sorrows in art portraits that appear in his book “Museo Travesti del Peru (The Peruvian Transgender Museum).”
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Related links:
Virgen de Guadalupe Contemporary Art (Feminist Texican)

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

A Visit to Alma Lopez’ Studio: Finding lesbian saints, mermaids, revolutionaries and goddesses (Jesus in Love)

Giuseppe Campuzano and the Museo Travesti del Perú (Hemisperic Institute)

To read this post en español, go to Santos Queer:
La Virgen de Guadalupe Queer: Artistas reinventan un icono

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Various icons of Our Lady of Guadalupe and many others are available on cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, mugs, and more at Trinity Stores



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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series and LGBT Holidays series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, heroes and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year in the Saints series. The Holidays series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to LGBT and queer people of faith and our allies.

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

Transgressive Christ / Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People

The Crucifixion of Christ by Becki Jayne Harrelson

“Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today,” a liberating five-week series by Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng, continues today with “the Transgressive Christ.”

[Update: A new book based on this series, “From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ” by Patrick Cheng, was published in spring 2012.]

Every week Cheng will present one of five models that arise out of the experiences of LGBT people:

1) Erotic Christ (sin as exploitation; grace as mutuality)
2) Out Christ (sin as the closet; grace as coming out)
3) Liberator Christ (sin as apathy; grace as activism)
4) Transgressive Christ (sin as conformity; grace as deviance)
5) Hybrid Christ (sin as singularity; grace as hybridity)

Cheng, theology professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, adapted the series for the Jesus in Love Blog based on his essay in the new book “Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection (Second Edition),” edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas.

Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today[1]

Model Four: The Transgressive Christ

By Patrick S. Cheng, Copyright © 2010

            The fourth christological model of sin and grace for LGBT people is the Transgressive Christ.  The Transgressive Christ arises out of the reality that Jesus Christ was crucified by the religious and political authorities of his day for refusing to conform to their standards of behavior.  Indeed, Jesus is constantly seen in the gospels as transgressing the commonly-accepted religious and legal boundaries of his day.  In a world obsessed by purity codes, he touches those who are unclean, including lepers, bleeding women, and the differently abled.  He eats and drinks with outcasts such as tax collectors and sinners.

            Jesus also challenges the religious authorities with respect to their teachings (such as healing on the Sabbath, and the grounds for divorce).  He rejects his biological family, and he is rejected by his hometown.  Many of his parables are about those who are on the margins of society, such as Samaritans.  As such, the Transgressive Christ can be understood as God’s solidarity with the suffering of LGBT people and others who refuse to conform to the rules of the principalities and powers of this world.

            Robert Shore-Goss, the gay theologian and Metropolitan Community Church minister, has written about the Transgressive Christ in his groundbreaking books on LGBT christology, Jesus Acted Up and Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus Acted Up.[2]  In Jesus Acted Up, which was an angry theological response to the silence and inaction of both civil society and the Church with respect to the HIV/AIDS crisis, Shore-Goss argued that Jesus Christ is a model for “transgressive practice” with respect to advocating for sexual justice.

            Specifically, Shore-Goss compared Jesus’ actions in driving out the animal merchants and overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple to the ACT UP/New York protest in St. Patrick’s Cathedral during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in which a protester crumbled up a consecrated host instead of eating it.  For Shore-Goss, both actions “violated sacred space, transgressed sacred ritual, and offended sensibilities.”  Yet, according to Shore-Goss, both acts exhibited a “profound reverence for the sacred based on God’s justice-doing.”[3]  Indeed, in Queering Christ, Shore-Goss argues that the idea of transgression can be seen as a metaphor – if not the metaphor – for  queer theologies today.[4]

Sin as Conformity

            If the Transgressive Christ is understood as the One who is tortured and executed for daring to break society’s rules, then sin – as that which opposes the Transgressive Christ – can be understood as mindless or blind conformity with the rules of the ruling majority.  The sin of conformity is something that occurs within all groups, including the LGBT community.  For example, it is easy for gay men to get caught up in the white, middle-class gay male “scene” in which superficial standards of beauty, body types, and material possessions are the only measure of a person’s worth.

            There is also the destructive behavior of “mainstream” lesbians and gay men who look the other way – or fail to speak up – with respect to the sufferings of other people on the margins (LGBT or otherwise), whether it be issues of racism, social and economic injustice, or hostility towards marginalized elements (such as transgender and bisexual people) within the LGBT community itself.  In fact, the sin of conformity can easily lead to mob violence against an innocent scapegoat or even the genocide of entire groups.  Sadly, just because a group has suffered from discrimination in the past does not mean that it is immune from the sin of conformity, particularly when it tries to distance itself from those who are deemed to be too different, just to “fit in.”

Grace as Deviance

            By contrast, grace in the context of the Transgressive Christ can be understood as deviance, or the willingness to transgress social, legal, and religious boundaries and norms. As in the case of coming out, one’s ability to challenge such boundaries and norms is not something that can be “willed” or “earned,” but is rather a gift of grace from God.  Although there is always the very real risk of crucifixion for challenging societal norms, there is also the promise of resurrection on the other side in terms of being true to one’s own God-given sexual orientation and gender identity.

            The grace of deviance can be seen in various sub-communities within the LGBT community that normally are marginalized, such as the transgender community, the bisexual community, and the leather, fetish, and BDSM community.  These communities are gifts to the wider LGBT community.  For example, Kaui, a transgender woman of Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino, and Samoan descent, has described the Mahu (that is, trans people in Hawai’i) as a gift of grace to the world: “We’re actually angels.  We were sent down to earth to soak up all of man’s sins.  I was set up to earth to make people laugh and happy, to give them counseling that they need.”[5]

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[1] Copyright © 2010 by Patrick S. Cheng.  All rights reserved.  The Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng is the Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This essay is adapted from his article, “Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today,” in the second edition of Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection, edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas.  For more information about Patrick, please see his website at http://www.patrickcheng.net.

[2] See Goss, Jesus Acted Up; Robert E. Goss, Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus Acted Up (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2002).

[3] Goss, Jesus Acted Up, 149-50.

[4] See Goss, Queering Christ, 223-38.

[5] “Kaui,” in Andrew Matzner, ‘O Au No Keia: Voices From Hawai’i’s Mahu and Transgender Communities (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation, 2001), 112-13.

Come back next week for Part 5: the Hybrid Christ by Patrick S. Cheng.

Click here to see the whole series so far.

Editor’s note from Kittredge Cherry: The image for this post, “The Crucifixion of Christ” by Becki Jayne Harrelson, shows Jesus labeled a “faggot” and executed for daring to break society’s rules. “Look at the word ‘faggot’ on the cross. You could substitute the word ‘nigger,’ ‘Jew boy,’ ‘honkie,’ ‘redneck’ or ‘bitch’—it all means the same. Anytime anyone rises up in condemnation, hatred, or violence against another, Christ is crucified,” Harrelson explains in my book “Art That Dares.”

Smithsonian censors gay artist when conservatives attack

Christ with Ants from the David Wojnarowicz video “A Fire in My Belly”

In an outrageous and unprecedented act of censorship, the Smithsonian Institution recently removed a video by gay artist David Wojnarowicz from exhibition after a few hours of pressure from religious and political conservatives.

Titled “A Fire in My Belly,” the video combines various images of loss, pain and death as a metaphor for the suffering caused by AIDS. The four-minute video was denounced as anti-Christian “hate speech” by the Catholic League because it includes a scene of ants crawling over Jesus on a crucifix. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the incoming House speaker, called it a misuse of taxpayer dollars.

The video had been on display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC since Oct. 30 as part of the LGBT-themed show “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” the first national art exhibit about sexual orientation and gender identity in American art. Smithsonian president Wayne Clough decided to pull the video on Nov. 30, claiming that he didn’t want controversy to distract people from the rest of the exhibit.

People protest censorship
at the National Portrait Gallery.
Photo from Transformer Gallery.

A Smithsonian spokesperson said that this was the first time that the gallery has pulled an artwork from an exhibit because of complaints from the public. About 100 people protested the removal with a silent march to the Smithsonian on Dec. 2 organized by Washington’s Transformer Gallery.

The censorship of David Wojnarowicz is a hostile act against artists and the whole LGBT community. The attacks on the video seem to be based on homophobia more than religious sensibilities. I doubt that the religious right would have objected to those scenes of ants on the cross if they weren’t part of a major LGBT-affirming art exhibition.

The Smithsonian set a terrible precedent by caving in to pressure from conservatives. The gallery agreed to limit free speech in the name of protecting religious sensibilities. I worry that it signals renewed debate in Congress over federal funding of the arts. Another battle in the culture wars is brewing.

Criticism from conservative groups exploded after CNS News Service published a detailed report titled, “Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts.” The CNS article quotes the Smithsonian-published exhibit catalog as saying, “Wojnarowicz earned a reputation for public, and for many, an utterly cathartic, portrait of rage.”

National Portrait Gallery director Mark Sullivan issued a statement saying, “I regret that some reports about the exhibit have created an impression that the video is intentionally sacrilegious. In fact, the artist’s intention was to depict the suffering of an AIDS victim. It was not the museum’s intention to offend.”

The video, nicknamed the “Anty Christ” by some jokers, is hard for me to watch, but not because of any blasphemy. It’s not sacrilegious. By putting ants on a crucifix, it fits into the respected Christian tradition of showing Jesus’ persecution and suffering on the cross in grisly detail. Angry critique of religious institutions is also a time-honored Christian tradition established by Jesus himself. For me, the ants on the cross are among the least upsetting images in the video.

Rather like Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion,” the Wojnarowicz video hammers home its point with horrific images of bloody violence. It shows the bloody mouth of a man having his lips sewn together (based on the ACT-UP slogan “Silence=Death”), a bowl of blood, mummified human remains and a man’s genitals.

Born in 1953, Wojnarowicz is recognized as the first American gay artist to respond to the AIDS crisis with angry moral outrage. His video is too gruesome for my taste. However, he makes an important statement about AIDS. Once the gallery decided to put it on display, they should have kept it there.

A differently edited version of the “Fire in My Belly” video can be seen at YouTube. (Warning: For mature audiences.) Unlike the Smithsonian version, the YouTube version also includes a scene of a man masturbating. Both short versions are edited from Wojnarowicz’ 13-minute original.

Wojnarowicz made the video in 1987 as a tribute to his lover Peter Hujar, who died of AIDS that year. The artist often used ants and other insects in his art to symbolize the interactions of human society. Wojnarowicz was an important part of the East Village art scene in New York City before dying of AIDS in 1992 at age 37.

“Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” is the largest and most expensive exhibit in the history of the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit itself was privately funded, but tax money pays for general operations of the Smithsonian Institution, which got $636 million in federal funds in 2010. Located just seven blocks away from the White House, the National Portrait Gallery is a major tourist attraction because it houses famous portraits of presidents and first ladies.

The online version of “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” is well worth a visit. It puts gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer portraits into historical context with a beautiful, professional presentation. The exhibit begins with 19th-century works by Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent. It arcs through the 20th century with such as major artists as Romaine Brooks, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Annie Leibowitz and Keith Haring, with special attention to the contemporary LGBT rights movement.

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Update on Jan. 19, 2011:

Insightful essays continue to be written about the Smithsonian’s censorship of gay artist David Wojnarowicz’ video “Fire in the Belly” because of its controversial ant-covered crucifix.

I have come to believe that conservative Christians condemned the Wojnarowicz video precisely because it equates Christ’s torment with queer / LGBT suffering. They do NOT want Christ to be identified with lesbian, gay, bi and trans people at all.

Here are highlights from some of the best new essays on the controversy and its LGBT Christian meanings. Click the titles to see the whole essay:

X-Ray of Civilization: David Wojnarowicz and the Politics of Representation
“What seems to be truly unconscionable for critics of Wojnarowicz’s art is its forceful imputation of the analogy between the Biblical torment of Christ and the contemporary suffering of queer bodies and subjects.”
by Leon Hilton of bullybloggers: the queer bully pulpit

Art, Censorship, and the Scandal of the Cross
“God doesn’t need Christians to act as intellectual property watchdogs.”
by Patrick S Cheng, gay Asian American theologian and author of Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology

Wojnarowicz’s Ant-Covered Jesus: Blasphemy or Religious Art?
“That Christ on the cross is actually dead, and the body so dead that ants might eat it, is both the most orthodox Christian statement, and the most scandalous.”
by S. Brent Plate, religion professor and author of Blasphemy: Art that Offends

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Related links:

David Wojnarowicz books at Amazon.com

Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr (2012 biography)
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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. It is also part of the GLBT Saints series. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Liberator Christ / Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People

Jesus Rises (from The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision) by F. Douglas Blanchard

“Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today,” a liberating five-week series by Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng, continues today with “the Liberator Christ.”

[Update: A new book based on this series, “From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ” by Patrick Cheng, was published in spring 2012.]

Every week Cheng will present one of five models that arise out of the experiences of LGBT people:

1) Erotic Christ (sin as exploitation; grace as mutuality)
2) Out Christ (sin as the closet; grace as coming out)
3) Liberator Christ (sin as apathy; grace as activism)
4) Transgressive Christ (sin as conformity; grace as deviance)
5) Hybrid Christ (sin as singularity; grace as hybridity)

Cheng, theology professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, adapted the series for the Jesus in Love Blog based on his essay in the new book “Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection (Second Edition),” edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas.

Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today[1]

Model Three: The Liberator Christ

By Patrick S. Cheng, Copyright © 2010

            The third christological model of sin and grace for LGBT people is the Liberator Christ.  This model is rooted in the liberation theologies of Latin American and Black theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez and James Cone.  In other words, Jesus Christ is understood as the One who frees all those who are enslaved to systematic oppressions, including heterosexism and homophobia.

Indeed, Jesus Christ announces at the beginning of his ministry that his mission is to set the oppressed free.  By reading from the Book of Isaiah, Jesus proclaims that he has been anointed by God to “bring good news to the poor,” to “proclaim release to the captives,” and to “let the oppressed go free.”  The work of the Liberator Christ is reinforced by the parable of sheep and goats in Matthew 25, in which Jesus declares that whoever ministers to those who are hungry, thirsty, outsider, naked, sick, and/or imprisoned has actually ministered to him.

Like the Exodus event in which the ancient Israelites were set free from their bondage to their Egyptians slaveholders, the Christ event liberates LGBT people from the bondage of heterosexism and homophobia.  For example, Robert E. Shore-Goss, a gay former Jesuit priest and current Metropolitan Community Church minister, has written in his book Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto about the importance of deconstructing traditional christologies.  For Shore-Goss, LGBT people are called to move from the erotophobic and sex-negative “Christ the Oppressor” to the LGBT-empowering “Jesus the Liberator.”[2]

Other LGBT theologians, such as Gary David Comstock, also have written about the need to be liberated from traditional notions of a hierarchical Jesus that lords over us.  In his book Gay Theology Without Apology, Comstock argues that Jesus liberates us from seeing him as a “master.”  Rather, Jesus invites us to be his “friend.”  Jesus gives us a “nudge to get on without him,” and he urges us to take on the ethical responsibility of loving one another.[3]

Sin as Apathy

            If the Liberator Christ is understood as the One who frees those who are enslaved to systemic oppressions, then sin – defined as that which opposes the Liberator Christ – can be understood as apathy.  That is, sin with respect to the model of the Liberator Christ can be seen as the refusal to work towards the elimination of the systemic oppressions that affect all members of the LGBT community, including those LGBT people who are “least among us,” such as the socio-economically disadvantaged, recent immigrants, and undocumented workers.

Many LGBT people have come out of the closet and succeeded in their work and careers.  Indeed, they end up living a comfortable middle- to upper-class existence in urban gay enclaves such as San Francisco and New York.  However, like the goats in Jesus’ above parable, these individuals are often blinded by the sin of apathy and fail to address issues of economic injustice, racism, sexism, and ablelism, both inside and outside of the LGBT community.  Despite the fact that these individuals have benefitted greatly from the liberation work of past LGBT activists (e.g., our courageous transgender ancestors at the Stonewall Riots), many of these “A-Gays” do very little – if anything – towards the further liberation of all who suffer from systemic oppressions.

Grace as Activism

            By contrast, grace in the context of the Liberator Christ can be understood as activism, or the willingness to challenge the powers and principalities that result in systemic oppressions.  That is, grace can be understood as a willingness to challenge not only traditional LGBT issues, but also many other issues that result in social and economic injustices.

For example, the grace of activism can be seen in the grass-roots work of many LGBT communities of color that acknowledge the interconnected nature of systemic oppressions.  For example, the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), the national coalition of queer Asian organizations, is committed not only to addressing traditional LGBT issues of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, but NQAPIA also addresses issues of racism and classism within the LGBT community as well as immigration reform.  The grace of activism is a gift from God that recognizes that we are all interconnected within the Body of Christ and that we cannot say to another that “I have no need of you.”

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[1] Copyright © 2010 by Patrick S. Cheng.  All rights reserved.  The Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng is the Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This essay is adapted from his article, “Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today,” in the second edition of Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection, edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas.  For more information about Patrick, please see his website at http://www.patrickcheng.net. 

[2] See Robert Goss, Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 61-85.

[3] See Gary David Comstock, Gay Theology Without Apology (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1993), 91-103.

Come back next week for Part 4: the Transgressive Christ by Patrick S. Cheng.

Click here to see the whole series so far.

Editor’s notes from Kittredge Cherry: The Liberator Christ is Patrick Cheng’s newest model - so new that it does not appear in his published essay in “Sexuality and the Sacred.” He developed the model after submitting his manuscript for publication there. I am honored that he chose to introduce the Liberator Christ through the Jesus in Love Blog.

The image for this post, “Jesus Rises” shows Jesus setting prisoners free on Easter morning. It comes from “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by F. Douglas Blanchard, which presents Jesus as a contemporary gay man. “Jesus Rises” and other selections from the Gay Passion series appear in my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.”

Saints bring hope on World AIDS Day

Patrons of the AIDS Pandemic by Lewis Williams, SFO © 2006
Courtesy of www.trinitystores.com
Collection of the Living Circle, Chicago, IL

Today, on World AIDS Day, we support everyone affected by HIV. We applaud prevention and treatment efforts, and we honor those who died of AIDS -- more than 25 million people worldwide.

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

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

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

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

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

World AIDS Day holds great personal meaning for me. I ministered in the LGBT community of San Francisco in the late 1980s, back when there were no effective treatments and AIDS deaths were common . I wrote about the experience for Christian Century magazine in an article titled “We Are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS.” The article is reprinted in the book The Church with AIDS: Renewal in the Midst of Crisis, edited by Letty Russell.


I lost many friends to AIDS. In their memory, I am pleased to add this post to the LGBTQ Saints series here at the Jesus in Love Blog.

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

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

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

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

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

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

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

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

All: Justice demands that we remember and respond.

One: We remember all parents who learn the truth of their children’s lives through their process of facing death….
We remain vigilant,
Until a cure for AIDS is found,
Until those dying with AIDS are comforted,
Until truth sets us free,
Until love drives out injustice.
We shall not give up the fight.
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In memory of: Brian Dose, Rev. Ron Russell-Coons, Scott B, Stephen Clover, Richard O’Dell, Bruce Bunger, Scott Galuteria, Kevin Y, Harold O, Ric Hand, Paul Francis, Rev. Larry Uhrig, Rev. Jim Sandmire, David C, Wayne Mielke, Rev. Dan Mahoney, Bill Knox, Sue H, Tom, Jesse Oden, Jim Veilleux, John from Axios, Robert P, Daven Balcomb, Dave Eckert, Martin Lounsberry, Mark S, David Castagna, Kevin Calegari, Rev. Rick Weatherly, Don K, Michael Mank, David Ward, Rev. Howard Wells, Rev. Howard Warren, Ken Bland, Lanny Dykes, Rob Eichberg, Virgil Hall, Randy Cypherd, Charles Hosley... and all others who lost their lives to HIV and AIDS.

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If you want to add more names, leave them as a comment and I will insert them with the candles later.

More spiritual resources for World AIDS Day are available at mccchurch.org.

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

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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.

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