New gay Jesus novel comes out on National Coming Out Day

A new novel with a gay Jesus theme is coming out today for National Coming Out Day. “The Kairos” by Paul Hartman is a suspense novel in which Dead Sea Scrolls name Jesus’ life partner John and spark a deadly chase. It’s a wild ride that reads like a gay version of “The DaVinci Code.”

The author is a Presbyterian elder and retired PBS / NPR broadcast executive and on-air personality.  An interview with him will be posted soon here at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Here is the official description of the book from the author’s website:

In 1991 Dr. Lute Jonson, one of two co-directors of the Dead Sea Scrolls International Study Team in Jerusalem, decides to reveal explosive news contained in 2000-year-old fragments he and his friend and co-director Father Sean O’Derry have kept secret for 40 years. The seven fragments contain carbon-dated evidence of where the teenaged Jesus of Nazareth lived, and who He loved. Fr. O’Derry vehemently objects to their release, arguing that the faith of a billion Christians could be destroyed if this “spiritual virus” were released. Lute steals the originals and escapes to America to make the announcement. A deadly global chase ensues, leaving a wake of astounding revelations about a new kairos, a new “breakthrough by God into human time.” The Kairos is a suspense novel with a sexual subject that’s timely and a human-spirit theme that’s timeless.”

Coming out the closet as a lesbian played a huge role in my life, so I celebrate National Coming Out Day today with a video, links, prayer and book except.

Ever since National Coming Out Day was founded in 1988, LGBT people have been encouraged to come out and be honest about themselves on Oct. 11. In recent years the scope has been broadened.

“Whether you’re lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or not, be proud of who you are and your support for LGBT equality this Coming Out Day!” says the Human Rights Campaign, which manages the event.

I wrote about the process in depth in my book Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide, which is also available in a Polish translation.

My book Hide and Speak tells positive ways to come out to yourself, create a circle of supporters and deal with family, job and school. Each chapter includes real-life examples and tested, highly effective exercises that I used in coming-out workshops nationwide. Readers will learn how to live proud, free and balanced.

Here is an excerpt from Hide and Speak:

“Many people, myself included, assumed that LGBT visibility would make books like this obsolete. That day is still well in the future. The difficulties of coming out in the twenty-first century hit home for me recently when a younger relative finally told me he was gay. His big sister, a lesbian activist, had come out to the family twenty years before, but her example didn’t seem to make it any easier for her brother. “It was something I had to figure out and deal with on my own terms,” he explained to me. The newly visible LGBT community is no more appealing to him than the old stereotypes had been to me and my peers.”

I reflect on my own coming out process in the short video below. It’s still my most popular video, with 2,755 views. I made it for the Human Rights Campaign’s 2007 video contest.



I’ll close with an excerpt from a Coming-Out Liturgy by Malcolm Boyd, from the book Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations:

“Leader: Have you been forced to play a dishonest role in order to survive?

Participant: I have. My family seemed often to require it, at least to desire it. At school it was necessary, and whenever I dropped my mask I was punished. The same was true of my life at work where I sought acceptance and advancement. What I had to confront made me feel confused, emotionally fatigued, and often worthless. Any kind of a relationship posed a threat and a danger. I wondered how much rejection I could stand. When I reached out for understanding or help, I usually received yet another rebuke. However, I just could not be who I'm not. It nearly killed me when I tried so hard and found it hopeless.

Community: We offer you validation for yourself as you have been created and celebration of your gayness as a gift of God.”

Out Christ / Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People

“Sermon on the Mount” (from Ecce Homo) by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin

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

By Patrick S. Cheng, Copyright © 2010

            The second christological model of sin and grace for LGBT people is the Out Christ.  The Out Christ arises out of the reality that God reveals Godself most fully in the person of Jesus Christ.  In other words, God “comes out of the closet” in the person of Jesus Christ; it is only through the incarnation, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we understand the true nature of God (for example, God’s solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed).  Indeed, the notion of the Out Christ as the revelation of God is supported by Jesus Christ’s description in the Fourth Gospel as the logos or Word of God.

            Chris Glaser, the gay theologian and Metropolitan Community Church minister, has written about the Out Christ in his book Coming Out as Sacrament.  In that book, Glaser describes Jesus Christ as nothing less than God’s very own coming out to humanity:  “The story of the New Testament is that God comes out of the closet of heaven and out of the religious system of time to reveal Godself in the person of Jesus the Christ.”[2]

            For Glaser, God reveals God’s solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed of the world in Jesus Christ.  For example, God comes out as an infant who is born in “a strange town and in a land and culture dominated by a foreign power, the Roman Empire.”  God also comes out in solidarity with the oppressed through the ministry of Jesus, who “defends women and eunuchs and those of mixed race (Samaritans) and responds to other races (the Roman centurion, the Syrophoenician woman).”  In the crucifixion, God comes out by extending “an inclusive paradise to a crucified criminal.”  And finally, in the resurrection, God comes out as one who “lives despite human violence, a true survivor of human abuse and victimization.”[3]

Sin as the Closet

            If the Out Christ is understood as the One through whom God most fully reveals Godself to humanity, then sin – as what opposes the Out Christ – can be understood as the closet, or the refusal to reveal oneself fully to one’s families, friends, co-workers,  and other loved ones.  Not only does the closet prevent a person from truly connecting with others, but it has a corrosive effect on the self-esteem and well-being to the extent that she is constantly forced to keep her life a secret to others.

            Many LGBT people have written about experiencing the sin of the closet.  For many LGBT people of color, coming out to families and friends can be a particularly difficult process as a result of condemnation from theologically-conservative churches, cultural expectations of traditional gender roles, and the anxieties of bringing shame to their families and ethnic communities.  Furthermore, LGBT people of color often experience an additional closet – the ethnic closet – in trying to hide or downplay their minority status within the predominantly white LGBT community.

Grace as Coming Out

            By contrast, grace in the context of the Out Christ can be understood as the courage to come out of the closet, or sharing one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity with others.  For LGBT people, the process of coming out can be understood as grace, or a unmerited gift, on the part of God.  There is no one correct pattern or single path to coming out.  Some people come out very early in life; others wait until much later.  For some people it is a slow and private process.  For others, it is a fast and public announcement.

            Regardless of how one ultimately comes out, the act of coming out reflects the very nature of a God who is also constantly coming out and revealing Godself to us in the Out Christ.  Coming out is a gift that is accompanied by other gifts such as self-love, the love for others, and the overcoming of shame and internalized homophobia.  The grace of coming out is not something that can be “willed” or “earned”; it can only happen as an act of grace from God.

---

[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] Chris Glaser, Coming Out As Sacrament (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 85.

[3] Glaser, Coming Out As Sacrament, 82-84.

Come back next week for Part 3: the Liberator Christ by Patrick S. Cheng.

Click here to see the whole series so far.

Editor’s note from Kittredge Cherry: The photo for this post, “Sermon on the Mount,” was taken in a famous cruising park in Stockholm with LGBT people from local leather clubs as models. “It was fantastic to walk with ‘Jesus’ to the photo spot. People were looking and a little shocked,” recalls photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin in my book “Art That Dares.”

Come out for equality on National Coming Out Day

Coming out the closet as a lesbian played a huge role in my life, so I celebrate National Coming Out Day today with a video, links, prayer and book except. Ever since National Coming Out Day was founded in 1988, LGBT people have been encouraged to come out and be honest about themselves on Oct. 11. This year  the scope has been broadened. “Whether you’re lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or not, be proud of who you are and your support for LGBT equality this Coming Out Day!” says the Human Rights Campaign, which manages the event. I wrote about the process in depth in my book Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide, which is also available in a Polish translation. I reflect on my own coming out process in the short video above. It’s still my most popular video, with 2,679 views. I made it for the Human Rights Campaign’s 2007 video contest. My book Hide and Speak tells positive ways to come out to yourself, create a circle of supporters and deal with family, job and school. Each chapter includes real-life examples and tested, highly effective exercises that I used in coming-out workshops nationwide. Readers will learn how to live proud, free and balanced. Here is an excerpt from Hide and Speak:

“Many people, myself included, assumed that LGBT visibility would make books like this obsolete. That day is still well in the future. The difficulties of coming out in the twenty-first century hit home for me recently when a younger relative finally told me he was gay. His big sister, a lesbian activist, had come out to the family twenty years before, but her example didn’t seem to make it any easier for her brother. “It was something I had to figure out and deal with on my own terms,” he explained to me. The newly visible LGBT community is no more appealing to him than the old stereotypes had been to me and my peers.”

I’ll close with an excerpt from a Coming-Out Liturgy by Malcolm Boyd, from the book Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations:

“Leader: Have you been forced to play a dishonest role in order to survive? Participant: I have. My family seemed often to require it, at least to desire it. At school it was necessary, and whenever I dropped my mask I was punished. The same was true of my life at work where I sought acceptance and advancement. What I had to confront made me feel confused, emotionally fatigued, and often worthless. Any kind of a relationship posed a threat and a danger. I wondered how much rejection I could stand. When I reached out for understanding or help, I usually received yet another rebuke. However, I just could not be who I'm not. It nearly killed me when I tried so hard and found it hopeless. Community: We offer you validation for yourself as you have been created and celebration of your gayness as a gift of God.”

___ 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.

National Coming Out Day -- hooray!

Coming out the closet as a lesbian played a huge role in my life, so I celebrate National Coming Out Day today with a video, links, prayer and book except. I wrote about the process in depth in my book Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide, which was recently translated into Polish. I reflect on my own coming out process in the short video above. It’s my most popular video, with 2,383 views and counting. I made it for the Human Rights Campaign Fund’s video contest. This year I also submitted it to the coming-out campaign of the Equality March being held this weekend in Washington, DC. My book Hide and Speak tells positive ways to come out to yourself, create a circle of supporters and deal with family, job and school. Each chapter includes real-life examples and tested, highly effective exercises that I used in coming-out workshops nationwide. Readers will learn how to live proud, free and balanced. Here is an excerpt from Hide and Speak:

“Many people, myself included, assumed that LGBT visibility would make books like this obsolete. That day is still well in the future. The difficulties of coming out in the twenty-first century hit home for me recently when a younger relative finally told me he was gay. His big sister, a lesbian activist, had come out to the family twenty years before, but her example didn’t seem to make it any easier for her brother. “It was something I had to figure out and deal with on my own terms,” he explained to me. The newly visible LGBT community is no more appealing to him than the old stereotypes had been to me and my peers.”

I’ll close with an excerpt from a Coming-Out Liturgy by Malcolm Boyd, from the book Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations:

“Leader: Have you been forced to play a dishonest role in order to survive? Participant: I have. My family seemed often to require it, at least to desire it. At school it was necessary, and whenever I dropped my mask I was punished. The same was true of my life at work where I sought acceptance and advancement. What I had to confront made me feel confused, emotionally fatigued, and often worthless. Any kind of a relationship posed a threat and a danger. I wondered how much rejection I could stand. When I reached out for understanding or help, I usually received yet another rebuke. However, I just could not be who I'm not. It nearly killed me when I tried so hard and found it hopeless. Community: We offer you validation for yourself as you have been created and celebration of your gayness as a gift of God.”

Cleve Jones of "Milk" tells coming-out story

Cleve Jones, the gay-rights activist with an important role in the new movie “Milk,” is interviewed in my book “Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide.” Directed by Gus Van Sant, “Milk” is based on the true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official. Sean Penn plays Milk and Emile Hirsch plays Jones, who helped launch his campaign and worked on his staff. In “Hide and Speak,” Jones talks about his coming-out journey and how he got the idea to create the Names Project AIDS quilt. He tells how he overcame the shame he felt as a teenager about his sexual orientation. The following excerpt from the book describes a turning point in his life:

……………

Cleve was attending a national convention of a group in which he was politically active: the Society of Friends. He noticed a sign announcing a meeting of lesbian and gay Friends. “I remember pacing outside the door, and finally just taking a breath, opening the door, and walking in. All my favorite people were in the room! All the Quakers I thought were the neatest – men and women – they were all there. Except my lover. I walked in. A few people chuckled. Somebody said, “Welcome.” Somebody else said “We were wondering if you were going to join us.” I just started laughing. That was the first time I said, “I’m gay.” It was just such a strong sense of homecoming. That night all the Quakers gathered in a big circle and sat in silence for a long time and then sang, which is not very typical. They sang “Amazing Grace.” Coming up in a Quaker family, I had never heard this song before. The words, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see,” were all just so meaningful.

…………… Jones is interviewed in the video above about his coming-out journey, the “Milk” move, Harvey Milk, the Names Project quilt, and gay history. It was made by CastroInTheStreets.com.

Reflections on National Coming Out Day

Coming out the closet as a lesbian played a huge role in my life, so I celebrate National Coming Out Day today with a video, links and book except. I wrote about the process in depth in my book Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide, which was recently translated into Polish. I reflect on my own coming out process in the short video above. It’s my most popular video, with 2,383 views and counting. I made it for the Human Rights Campaign Fund’s video contest in 2007. This year HRC changed the rules. Only people aged 18 to 25 are allowed to submit videos, the theme is “come out and vote,” and the contest runs all the way to Oct. 20. I do look forward to seeing what the young people say now about coming out. My book Hide and Speak tells positive ways to come out to yourself, create a circle of supporters and deal with family, job and school. Each chapter includes real-life examples and tested, highly effective exercises that I used in coming-out workshops nationwide. Readers will learn how to live proud, free and balanced. I’ll close with an excerpt from Hide and Speak:

“Many people, myself included, assumed that LGBT visibility would make books like this obsolete. That day is still well in the future. The difficulties of coming out in the twenty-first century hit home for me recently when a younger relative finally told me he was gay. His big sister, a lesbian activist, had come out to the family twenty years before, but her example didn’t seem to make it any easier for her brother. “It was something I had to figure out and deal with on my own terms,” he explained to me. The newly visible LGBT community is no more appealing to him than the old stereotypes had been to me and my peers.”