Silencing LGBTQ voices at Methodist conference inspires protest and art

Protests over silencing of LGBTQ voices at the United Methodist Church conference this week inspired a new artwork of a queer Christ.

Dozens of protestors at the UMC General Conference put rainbow duct tape over their mouths in a May 14 protest to symbolize how the church has silenced LGBTQ people and remained silent about them.

LGBTQ protest at Methodist conference (photos by Love Prevails)

Canadian artist David Hayward, also known as Naked Pastor, created a Christ figure with a halo, a crown of thorns -- and the same kind of rainbow duct tape over his mouth. He calls it “The Silencing of the LGBTQ Community.”

The Methodists are reviewing 100 pieces of legislation on the role of LGBT in the church, including allowing ordination of LGBTQ clergy, same-sex weddings and changing the current position that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” So far almost all the LGBT-related measures were voted down in subcommittee meetings, according to news reports. In addition to the duct-tape demonostration, other LGBTQ protests continued throughout the week.

Update: In the end, the Methodists voted to postpone justice by forming a commission (later) to discuss same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy.

More than 100 Methodist pastors, deacons, elders and clergy candidates came out publicly as LGBTQI in a widely circulated letter released one day before the conference began.

The letter closes with these words of prayer:

Our prayer, as the church begins its time of discernment, is that you will remember that there are nameless ones around the world, hungry for a word of hope and healing. LGBTQI people and their families exist in every church in every continent of this denomination. They are seeking to remain in faithful relationship with you, even when you refuse, because they know God’s tender mercies and great faithfulness.

Dear church, our prayers are with you, with all of us, in the coming days. May we all be surprised by the Spirit who continues to breathe new life in unexpected ways. May we find the body of Christ stronger at the end of our time together, not weaker or more deeply harmed. May we provide a powerful witness of finding unity even in our differences to a world fractured by fear and mistrust.

The global 10-day conference ran through May 20 in Portland, Oregon.

“Homosexuals Who Practice” by David Hayward

The Methodist church has struggled with LGBTQ rights for decades. Hayward was prophetic in 2014 when he drew the cartoon “Homosexuals Who Practice” to highlighting the Methodist mistreatment of LGBTQ people. The image was used this year on Facebook to help organize LGBTQ protests at the Methodist conference.

It shows two crucified figures: Jesus and a person whose LGBTQ identity is revealed by a rainbow tunic. Red flames of the Methodist logo flare beside the cross where the rainbow figure hangs. A sign over the crucified queer explains,

A homosexual who practiced!
United Methodist Church
Book of Discipline
Paragraph 304.3

In his blog commentary, Hayward quotes the notorious paragraph, which remains in force at the end of the 2016 conference. It states:

“The PRACTICE of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. The United Methodist Church does not condone the PRACTICE of homosexuality. Therefore self-avowed PRACTICING homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church.”

Hayward has a master's degree in theology and 30 years of pastoral experience. His books include “The Art of Coming Out: Cartoons for the LGBTQ Community” and his autobiography “Questions are the Answer.” Prints of “The Silencing of the LGBTQ Community” are available from Naked Pastor’s online shop.

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Top image credit: “The Silencing of the LGBTQ Community” by David Hayward
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Related links:

Delegates, supporters stand with LGBTQ people (UMC.org)

Outpouring Of Methodist Clergy Pledge Support To LGBT Colleagues (Huffington Post)

Photos of the Methodist protest with rainbow duct tape (Love Prevails)

Methodists postpone debate of gay issues that could split denomination (Religion News Service)

LGBT protest photos and info (Love Prevails)

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This post is part of the Queer Christ series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others.
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Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Queer Kwanzaa: Queer black Jesus icon presented for African American holiday

“Neither” by David Hayward

For a new version of this article, click

Qspirit.net:
Queer Kwanzaa: Queer black Jesus icon presented for African American holiday

A rare icon of a queer black Jesus is presented here for Kwanzaa, a weeklong celebration of African American culture starting Dec. 26. Many families and congregations have adopted Kwanzaa into their spiritual life.

It’s almost impossible to find a Christ figure that expresses both LGBTQ identity AND non-white racial / ethnic identity. “Neither” by David Hayward is one of these uncommon treasures.

“Neither” shows a dark-skinned Jesus who is male on one side and female on the other in the style of the Hindu deity Ardhanarishvara. He/she has a rainbow halo and holds a transgender symbol.

The title “Neither” comes from the Bible: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). Thus it embodies Kwanzaa principles of unity and faith.

People celebrate Kwanzaa by giving gifts, lighting a set of seven candles in the African colors of red, green, and black, and sharing an African feast on New Year’s Eve. Each of the seven days honors a principle from African heritage: unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani). Kwanzaa was created in 1965-66 by Maulana Karenga, chairman of black studies at California State University, in Long Beach based on harvest festivals in Africa.

“Neither” was painted by Canadian artist David Hayward, also known as Naked Pastor. He has a master's degree in theology and 30 years of pastoral experience. His books include “The Art of Coming Out: Cartoons for the LGBTQ Community” and “Questions are the Answer.” Prints of “Neither” are available from Naked Pastor’s online shop.

Black and queer liberation theologies

Black theologian James Cone advocated powerfully for the black Jesus. In his classic 1970 book “A Black Theology of Liberation,” he wrote:

The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering.”

It may be useful to ask: How does this relate to the queerness of God? Cone objected to consistent portrayals of Jesus as white, just as queer theologians question the pervasive heterosexual assumptions about Jesus.

Cone discussed the value the black Jesus in a 1989 interview with USA Today, using arguments similar to what queer theologians say about the queer Christ:

It’s very important because you’ve got a lot of white images of Christ. In reality, Christ was not white, not European. That’s important to the psychic and to the spiritual consciousness of black people who live in a ghetto and in a white society in which their lord and savior looks just like people who victimize them. God is whatever color God needs to be in order to let people know they’re not nobodies, they’re somebodies.

Cone himself sees the connections. In a 2015 interview, he told Huffington Post, “God is red. God is brown. God is yellow. God is gay…I don’t use blackness as a way to exclude anyone.”


Happy Kwanzaa from Kittredge Cherry and Jesus in Love!

A few recent books on LGBTQ African American Christian subjects are highlighted here as an extra Kwanzaa gift:

2016

"Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility” by Ashon T. Crawley.

2015

“Religion, Flesh, and Blood: The Convergence of HIV/AIDS, Black Sexual Expression, and Therapeutic Religion” by Pamela Leong.

“Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology” by Pamela R. Lightsey.

“LGBT: In The Name of God: The Black Church's Response to the LGBT Community” by Christopher James Priest with a foreword by Benjamin L. Reynolds.

2014

“A Queering of Black Theology: James Baldwin's Blues Project and Gospel Prose” by E.L. Kornegay.

“In the Life and in the Spirit: Homoerotic Spirituality in African American Literature” by Marlon Rachquel Moore.

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Related links:
Kwanzaa 2014 (Metropolitan Community Churches)

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This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, 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.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.

Cartoons look at Kim Davis controversy: Conservative Christians vs. marriage equality

Gentle LGBT-affirming humor is needed now as news reports magnify the conflict between conservative Christianity and marriage equality.

Two cartoons by Canadian artist David Hayward may make people smile while pointing out some of the paradoxes behind the headlines:

Kentucky clerk Kim Davis was jailed last week for refusing to issue marriage licenses because granting them to same-sex couples “conflicts with God’s definition of marriage.”

Such conservative Christian certainty about God’s judgment is addressed in a scene at the pearly gates of heaven in one of Hayward’s all-time most popular cartoons. A new arrival insists, “I’m NOT going in there with all those homosexuals!”

The godly gatekeeper replies, “Who said you were going in there?”

Hayward looks specifically at the Kim Davis controversy in a new cartoon with both humor and humanity. She becomes boxed in and separated from Jesus and the rest of humanity by the words she scrawls over and over: “My religious beliefs.”

On his Naked Pastor blog, Hayward explains, “The humble truth is that Kim Davis would believe it is my belief that separates me from her. The problem is belief. Belief is not the way to unity. Is there a way to transcend belief? Is there a way to manifest the union that surely exists between us other than through conformity or compatibility of belief?”

Hayward has a master's degree in theology and 30 years of pastoral experience. His books include “The Art of Coming Out: Cartoons for the LGBTQ Community” and the 2015 autobiography “Questions Are The Answer.”

This week Davis was released, but the controversy -- and the cartoons -- will continue.

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Related links:

Kentucky clerk Kim Davis on gay marriage licenses: ‘It is a Heaven or Hell decision’ (Washington Post)

David Hayward (nakedpastor): How do LGBT people know God loves us?

Queer Kwanzaa: Black Jesus icon by David Hayward honors African American holiday

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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 also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.

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

Queer Kwanzaa: Queer black Jesus icon presented for African American holiday

For a new version of this article, click

Qspirit.net:
Queer Kwanzaa: Queer black Jesus icon presented for African American holiday

“Neither” by David Hayward

A rare icon of a queer black Jesus is presented here for Kwanzaa, a weeklong celebration of African American culture starting Dec. 26. Many families and congregations have adopted Kwanzaa into their spiritual life.

It’s almost impossible to find a Christ figure that expresses both LGBTQ identity AND non-white racial / ethnic identity. “Neither” by David Hayward is one of these uncommon treasures.

“Neither” shows a dark-skinned Jesus who is male on one side and female on the other in the style of the Hindu deity Ardhanarishvara. He/she has a rainbow halo and holds a transgender symbol.

The title “Neither” comes from the Bible: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). Thus it embodies Kwanzaa principles of unity and faith.

People celebrate Kwanzaa by giving gifts, lighting a set of seven candles in the African colors of red, green, and black, and sharing an African feast on New Year’s Eve. Each of the seven days honors a principle from African heritage: unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani). Kwanzaa was created in 1965-66 by Maulana Karenga, chairman of black studies at California State University, in Long Beach based on harvest festivals in Africa.

“Neither” was painted by Canadian artist David Hayward, also known as Naked Pastor. He has a master's degree in theology and 30 years of pastoral experience. His books include “The Art of Coming Out: Cartoons for the LGBTQ Community” and “Questions are the Answer.” Prints of “Neither” are available from Naked Pastor’s online shop.

Black and queer liberation theologies

Black theologian James Cone advocated powerfully for the black Jesus. In his classic 1970 book “A Black Theology of Liberation,” he wrote:

The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering.”

It may be useful to ask: How does this relate to the queerness of God? Cone objected to consistent portrayals of Jesus as white, just as queer theologians question the pervasive heterosexual assumptions about Jesus.

Cone discussed the value the black Jesus in a 1989 interview with USA Today, using arguments similar to what queer theologians say about the queer Christ:

It’s very important because you’ve got a lot of white images of Christ. In reality, Christ was not white, not European. That’s important to the psychic and to the spiritual consciousness of black people who live in a ghetto and in a white society in which their lord and savior looks just like people who victimize them. God is whatever color God needs to be in order to let people know they’re not nobodies, they’re somebodies.

Cone himself sees the connections. In a 2015 interview, he told Huffington Post, “God is red. God is brown. God is yellow. God is gay…I don’t use blackness as a way to exclude anyone.”


Happy Kwanzaa from Kittredge Cherry and Jesus in Love!

A few recent books on LGBTQ African American Christian subjects are highlighted here as an extra Kwanzaa gift:

2016

"Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility” by Ashon T. Crawley.

2015

“Religion, Flesh, and Blood: The Convergence of HIV/AIDS, Black Sexual Expression, and Therapeutic Religion” by Pamela Leong.

“Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology” by Pamela R. Lightsey.

“LGBT: In The Name of God: The Black Church's Response to the LGBT Community” by Christopher James Priest with a foreword by Benjamin L. Reynolds.

2014

“A Queering of Black Theology: James Baldwin's Blues Project and Gospel Prose” by E.L. Kornegay.

“In the Life and in the Spirit: Homoerotic Spirituality in African American Literature” by Marlon Rachquel Moore.

___
Related links:
Kwanzaa 2014 (Metropolitan Community Churches)

___
This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, 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.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.

Cartoon: How do LGBT people know God loves us?

“Gays and Biblical Inspiration” by David Hayward

A new cartoon shows Jesus asking the question that I as a lesbian Christian would want him to ask: “So, Dad, how are gays in the 21st century going to know we love them?”

David Hayward, a Canadian artist who runs the blog “nakedpastor,” imagines the inner dialogue among the Holy Trinity back when the Bible was first being written in his cartoon “Gays and Biblical Inspiration.”

The Holy Spirit wraps ghostly arms around the Biblical writer, who is apparently Paul in prison. God appears as an old man who replies to his son’s desire to communicate love to future LGBT people by explaining: “When he uses words like ‘all,’ ‘world’ and ‘everything,’ wise and loving people will know.”

It’s a bittersweet answer. Yes, wise and loving people today can understand that LGBT people are included in scriptures such as “Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.” (1 Timothy 4:4).

But sometimes it’s frustrating that the Bible’s anti-gay “clobber passages” seem so much more specific. Maybe the implication here is that God did not inspire those verses. Why not a clear message for the not-so-wise and less-than-loving people?  What about the LGBT people who believe the lie that God rejects them? 

Hayward uses the traditional image of God as an old man to critique the way that straight white men dominate Christianity. He started a blog called “nakedpastor” in 2006, offering a progressive look at religion through his art, cartoons and writings.

The artist behind “nakedpastor” literally was a church pastor. After growing up in various denominations, he was ordained a Presbyterian and pastured a Vineyard church. He has a master’s degree in theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a diploma in religious studies and ministry from McGill University in Montreal.

In 2010 Hayward quit the professional paid clergy because, as he puts it, “"the church and I were no longer compatible.” His art, cartoons, writings and book have found their way all around the world to entertain and challenge people. He and his wife Lisa live near Saint John, New Brunswick.

Hayward is the author of two books: “nakedpastor101: Cartoons by David Hayward” and “Without a Vision My People Prosper,” which calls the church back to the priority of fellowship over accomplishments.
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Related links:

The Bible and Gays: Is it a sin to be gay? Did Jesus condemn homosexuality? by Durrell Watkins

nakedpastor on Facebook

Cartoon shows GLBT religious rights on the cross (Latuff)

Jesus and Freddie Mercury: Marriage Made in Heaven cartoon supports equality (Mr. Fish)

Cartoon shows Pope mad at nuns and Jesus for not condemning homosexuality

Cartoon: Jesus saves LGBT kids from jaws of clergy hat) (Mr. Fish)
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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