Je suis Charlie: Solidarity with those killed for religious images at Paris newspaper

I post “Je suis Charlie” in solidarity with the journalists and artists killed in the attack on the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo Jan. 7.

It is French for “I am Charlie” – because I am a journalist and publisher of controversial religious art here at the Jesus in Love Blog. I honor the memory of all 12 who died in the Paris shooting and offer sympathy to their family and friends.

I am also a person of faith who opposes the use of religion as a justification for violence. The terrorists claimed that they were killing in God’s name.

Like the staff of Charlie Hebdo, I get hate mail from religious fundamentalists for what I publish -- although they usually threaten me with hellfire in the afterlife, not violence. Islamist radicals are not the only ones who feel threatened by “irreverent” images.

For example, Bill Donahue of the Catholic League responded to the Paris shootings by issuing a news release titled “Muslims are right to be angry.” (At least he begins by saying, “Killing in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned.”)

It’s easy for English-language readers to mistake the social media slogan “Je suis Charlie” for “Jesus is Charlie” – a revealing slip. It suggests that when they killed the Charlie Hebdo staff, Jesus was crucified again.

Jesus is Charlie?! I can imagine Jesus answering, “I am,” – the holy phrase God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and that Jesus used multiple times to declare himself in John’s gospel. Jesus himself was charged with blasphemy. It was one of the charges that led to his crucifixion.

The deaths at Charlie Hebdo echo the martyrdom story of the Passion. I wrote about the crucifixion (and resurrection) of Jesus in my new book “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision.” It features art that Doug Blanchard painted while grappling with his own faith struggles as a gay New Yorker who witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The purpose of reflecting on the Passion is not necessarily to worship Christ, but to remember the ongoing cycle of human violence, and to seek a way to move from suffering to freedom. The Passion story invites each viewer to stand at the cross as a compassionate witness—and to take up their own cross, whatever it may be.

On the Facebook page for “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Visison,” Doug spoke for both of us when he posted this message today:

“Of course we are Charlie! How could we be anything else? Our book takes on matters of religion, sexuality, and politics. Some people love us and some hate us.”

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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
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series includes a section on censorship of religious art.

Jeanne Manford: PFLAG founder who loved her gay son

Jeanne Manford in 1993 with a photo of her gay son Morty

Jeanne Manford loved her gay son so much that she founded Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). She died on this date (Jan. 8, 2013) at age 92.

For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Jeanne Manford: PFLAG founder who loved her gay sonr


Her son, the late Morty Manford, was beaten during a gay rights protest in April 1972.  She responded by writing a letter to the New York Post stating, “I have a homosexual son, and I love him.” A couple months later she and her son marched in New York's Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade. These actions and the support she received led to the founding of PFLAG in 1973.

PFLAG has grown to 350 chapters with 200,000 members, and Jeanne Manford is an inspiration to many. President Obama talked about her in his 2009 speech to the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner in 2009.

Thank you, Jeanne, for your courage and your love! You are counted among the LGBT saints for the huge positive impact that you had on queer people and straight allies everywhere.

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Related links:

Jeanne Manford, 92, Who Stood Up for Her Gay Son, Inspiring Others, Dies (New York Times)

PFLAG Founder Jeanne Manford Dies at 92 (Advocate)

PFLAG.org

Patron saints for straight allies of LGBT people: Adele Starr of PFLAG and others (Jesus in Love)

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, 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.

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

Major LGBT magazine covers Passion book censorship as religion versus free speech

Intriguing analysis of Facebook censorship of the new gay Passion of Christ book appears in the latest issue of an important national magazine, the Gay and Lesbian Review / Worldwide.

“It’s not the visual images but the idea of Jesus as a gay man that’s being suppressed,” editor-in-chief Richard Schneider Jr. notes in his “BTW” column for the January/February 2015 issue.

He sees it as an example of “a syndrome that’s been identified by writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens: the peculiar immunity of religious ideas from the free speech protections that apply to every other realm of life.’

Facebook initially blocked ads for “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Kittredge Cherry when the book was released in October, but reversed the decision after pressure from the LGBT community and news media.

The book features Doug Blanchard’s paintings of Jesus as a gay man of today in a modern city. As Schneider points out, “in most of the book’s illustrations it’s not all that obvious that the central figure is even ‘gay.’”

The Gay and Lesbian Review is a bimonthly magazine of history, culture and politics for thinking LGBT people and allies. Library Journal described it as “the journal of record for LGBT issues.” It has a circulation of 11,000.

I left the following comment on the Passion article at glreview.org, which is under the subhead "Book versus Facebook":

You raise an important point when you say that the Facebook suppression of our Passion book illustrates “the peculiar immunity of religious ideas from the free speech protections that apply to every other realm of life.” Traditional religious ideas do get enshrined and exempted from the usual rigors of public debate. But what about alternative religious ideas?

Far from receiving “peculiar immunity,” Christians like me who believe that Jesus may have been queer find our sincerely held religious idea is suppressed as “anti-Catholic,” “blasphemy,” “offensive” or even “hate speech.” The debate often gets framed as if our religion is nothing more than free speech that desecrates religion. Meanwhile OUR religious images and texts are deprived of customary protection granted to mainstream religions. Overtly LGBT-positive religious images and ideas tend to be silenced or ridiculed.

LGBT-affirming Christians have had to put up with garbage, and aren’t we religious too? A powerful example is included in this same issue of the Gay and Lesbian Review – the 1973 photo of Rev. Troy Perry in the rubble of the burnt-down Metropolitan Community Church where he dared to preach God’s love for all people, including sexual minorities. (See “The Revolution was Photographed.” )

On the bright side, Facebook reversed its decision and “resurrected” the ads after pressure from the LGBT media and community.

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Related links

Book website: passionofchristbook.com

Facebook u-turns to allow gay Jesus crucifixion ad (Gay Star News)

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

Epiphany: Three kings or three queens?

“Epiphany” by Janet McKenzie, copyright 2003.
www.janetmckenzie.com
Collection of Barbara Marian, Harvard, IL

Reimagining the three kings as queer or female gives fresh meaning to Epiphany, a holiday celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. It is observed on Jan. 6.

The word “epiphany” also refers to a sudden, intuitive perception. By looking at the Bible and church history from a LGBT viewpoint, people can experience new insights -- their own personal “epiphanies” of understanding. New interpretations of the wise ones known as the Magi include:

• Queer Magi. LGBT church leaders suggest that the Magi were eunuchs -- people who today would be called gay, queer or transgender.
• Female Magi appear in a controversial painting by Janet McKenzie. Epiphany is also known as Women’s Christmas.
• Queer gifts are presented to the Christ child in an icon by William Hart McNichols.

For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Queer Epiphany: Three kings or three queens?


Queer Magi

Although they are often called the “three kings,” the Magi stand in contrast to worldly King Herod who sought world domination by massacring the “holy innocents” who might grow up to take his throne. The wise Magi who followed the star to find the newborn Jesus were wizards who provide a higher wisdom and astrologists with expertise in cosmic balance.

The Magi played the shamanic role often filled by eunuchs, an ancient term for LGBT people, says Nancy Wilson in her book Outing the Bible: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Christian Scriptures.” She writes:

“They were Zoroastrian priests, astrologers, magicians, ancient shamans from the courts of ancient Persia. They were the equivalent of Merlin of Britain. They were sorcerers, high-ranking officials, but not kings—definitely not kings. But quite possibly, they were queens. We’ve always pictured them with elaborate, exotic, unusual clothing—quite festive, highly decorated and accessorized! …Also, the wise eunuchs, shamans, holy men were the only ones who had the forethought to go shopping before they visited the baby Jesus!

They also have shamanistic dreams. They deceive evil King Herod and actually play the precise role that many other prominent eunuchs play in the Bible: they rescue the prophet, this time the Messiah of God, and foil the evil royal plot against God’s anointed.”

The concept of the queer Magi is amplified by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, author of Omnigender. “My guess is that they were people who today would be termed transwomen,” she writes in the brochure “Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities.”

Eunuchs and cross-dressers were surprisingly common in the Mediterranean world of the Bible and later. By happy coincidence, a cross-dressing saint happens to have a feast day on Jan. 5, the day before Epiphany. Apollinaria of Egypt, put on men’s clothing and presented herself as a eunuch named Dorotheos in order to live as a monk.

Three stylish Magi wear fabulous outfits on a 1972 German Christmas stamp (Wikimedia Commons)

Female Magi

Female Magi have been envisioned by artists in a gender-bending move that sometimes causes controversy. Epiphany itself is celebrated as “Women’s Christmas” (Nollaig na mBan) in Ireland, where men assume the household duties for the day so women can celebrate together at the end of the holiday season.

A multi-racial trio of female Magi visits the baby Jesus and his mother in “Epiphany” by Vermont artist Janet McKenzie. Instead of the traditional three kings or three wise men, the artist re-interprets the Magi as wise women from around the world.

Jan Richardson, an artist and Methodist minister in Florida, also portrays the Magi as women of different races in “Wise Women Also Came,” an image that appears on the cover of her book “Sacred Journeys: A Woman's Book of Daily Prayer.”

The unconventional portrayal of the Magi makes good theological sense. Barbara Marian, who commissioned the McKenzie painting, explains: “The story of the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew allowed the Jewish followers of Jesus to imagine the unthinkable -- God’s grace extending to the outsiders, the gentiles. Who are the outsiders in our world? Can we imagine the favor of God extending beyond the human boundaries of race, class, nationality, ethnicity, religious devotion, and gender?”

Marian commissioned “Epiphany” for the Nativity Project, which revisits and revitalizes the Gospel with new images of women. “It’s easy to get so caught up in regal images of Matthew’s night visitors that we miss the core message -- Christ for all people,” Marian says.

Conservative Christians protested against the inclusive “Epiphany” in 2007 when it appeared on the Christmas cards of the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth, Texas, sent a notice to clergy and 2007 convention delegates condemning Jefferts Schori for her choice of art. “Happy Multicultural Feminist Celebration Day,” sneered the headline of a traditional Anglican blog where nearly 100 comments were posted condemning the image as “stupid,” “faux-nouveau hipster theology” and worse. For more info, see my previous post Conservatives blast inclusive Christmas card.

McKenzie denies the accusations that she is trying to be divisive and rewrite scripture. “Of course this is as far from my thinking as possible,” she says. “I feel called to create sacred and secular art that includes and celebrates those systematically ignored, relegated and minimized, and for the most part that is women and people of color.”

The artist continues to be amazed that her loving images provoke so much anger. “Even this gentle image of a loving Holy Mother and Child, with no agenda except to include and honor us as the nurturing feminine beings we are, surrounded in community with other women, is still misunderstood -- even at this late date,” she says.

McKenzie has weathered even bigger storms before. Her androgynous African American “Jesus of the People” painting caused international controversy when Sister Wendy of PBS chose it to represent Christ in the new millennium.

Critics focus on the content of McKenzie’s art, but her outstanding artistic style is one reason that her work attracts attention. The Vermont artist uses drawing and line with oils to build images that glow. Her painting technique and pastel colors are reminiscent of American Impressionist Mary Cassatt, who is famous for painting intimate scenes of mothers and their children.

The controversy over McKenzie’s work is a reminder of the power of art, and the continuing need for progressive spiritual images. Opposition seems to fuel her passion to paint. “We all need to find ourselves included within the sacred journey of life, and afterlife,” McKenzie says. “I have been surprised to find archaic and out-dated hate still in place, still alive and well and fueled by fear, in response to some of my art. I have made the decision to respond to such hate not in the way it comes to me, but by creating ever more inclusive art that confronts prejudice and hate. The only path open to any of us is the one of love.”

McKenzie’s art is featured in my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More” and her book “Holiness and the Feminine Spirit.”

(Special thanks to Barbara Marian for permission to quote from her article “Recasting the Magi.”)

“The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child”

By William Hart McNichols © 1984

Queer gifts

Father William Hart McNichols paints another kind of queer Epiphany. McNichols is a New Mexico artist and Roman Catholic priest whose gay-positive icons have caused controversy. He worked at an AIDS hospice in New York City from 1983-90, when many in the gay community were dying of the disease. During that period he painted “The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child.”

St. Francis and St. Aloysius are the wise men visiting the baby Jesus in this icon.  Instead of the usual gold, frankincense and myrrh, the “gifts” they bring to the Christ child are people with AIDS, perhaps gay men. The baby Jesus reaches eagerly to receive these gifts. The child and his mother appear in a form popular in Mexico and other Latino cultures as Our Lady of Guadalupe and El Santo Niño de Atocha. The halo around them echoes the colors of the rainbow flag of the LGBT community. McNichols offers a prayer with this icon:

Dearest Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Mother of the poor and the oppressed,
we watch full of reverence
and joy as St. Francis and
St. Aloysius bring the gifts of
these two people afflicted with AIDS
to the Holy Child in your arms,
who is so eager to receive them.
Teach us to find and embrace
your Son Jesus in all peoples,
but most especially those who
are in greatest need and
who suffer most.
Amen

In closing, the question arises: What gifts are queer people bringing today to Christ, the church and the world?
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Related links:

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

Nursing Madonna honors body, spirit and women

“Wise Women Also Came” and Women’s Christmas by Jan Richardson

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This post is part of the LGBT Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to 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

Welcome the New Year with rainbow candles! Bridge of Light honors LGBT culture

"Rainbow Reflections" by Kittredge Cherry

Welcome the new year by lighting rainbow candles for Bridge of Light, a new winter holiday honoring LGBT culture.

Rainbow Arch candle holder

People celebrate Bridge of Light by lighting six candles, one for each color of the rainbow flag, on New Year’s Eve -- or from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, one candle per day.


For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Welcome the New Year with rainbow candles! Bridge of Light honors LGBTQ culture

Each candle stands for a spiritual principle and its expression in the lives and history of LGBT and queer people. Feel free to improvise other methods, such as using colored paper to fold origami cranes.

The candles are intended to provide a starting point for individual and group meditations on these principles:

1. Red - The Root of Spirit (Community)
2. Orange - The Fire of Spirit (Eros, sexuality, passion)
3. Yellow - The Core of Spirit (Self-esteem, courage)
4. Green - The Heart of Spirit (Love)
5. Blue - The Voice of Spirit (Justice, self-expression)
6. Purple - The Eye of Spirit (Wisdom)
7. All Candles - The Crown of Spirit (Spirituality)

Together these colors form a rainbow, a time-honored symbol of a bridge between two worlds: heaven and earth, East and West, male and female, queer and non-queer.

The principles are beautifully expressed in a new benediction prayer written for Bridge of Light by Yewtree (Yvonne Aburrow) of the Dance of the Elements Blog:

Let us embody the values of the rainbow flag of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Red is the root of spirit, found in beloved community,
Orange is for Eros, the fire of spirit, the experience of erotic connection,
Yellow is for self-esteem, the strong core of spirit,
Green is for love, the heart of spirit, the verdant growth of the soul,
Blue is for self-expression, the voice of spirit, calling out for justice,
Purple is the eye of spirit, which sees inwardly with the eye of wisdom.
And all the colours together form the crown of spirit, the experience of spirituality.

Joe Perez, author of “Soulfully Gay,” founded Bridge of Light in 2004. It has obvious parallels to Kwanzaa, the African-American cultural holiday started by Ron Karenga in 1966.

“Bridge of Light is an interfaith and omni-denominational cultural and spiritual tradition,” Perez says. “The annual winter ritual...has helped to draw attention to the positive contributions made by members of the LGBT community in the areas of spiritual growth, inner transformation, and religious leadership.” One of his articles on the subject is The Seven (Revised) Principles of Bridge of Light. (GaySpirituality.com)

The following summary of the seven principles of Bridge of Light includes historical time periods, foods and more about the chakras, the energy centers of the human body. I synthesized and developed this info based on the resource links at the end of this post. For Jesus in Love readers I highlighted Christian history with links to LGBT Saints. The seven principles are also matched with the seven models of the queer Christ from gay theologian Patrick S. Cheng’s new book “From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ.. A variety of systems have developed to associate each chakra with a power animal. A few are suggested here, but feel free to follow your intuition.

1. Red - The Root of Spirit (Community)

Red evokes life, energy and blood. Shadow side: violence/death.

Time period: Before Christ / Before the Common Era
Celebrate same-sex love in goddess worship, paganism and other pre-patriarchal spiritualities, in ancient myths and cultures, and in the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament.

Living and Self-Loving Christ (sin as shame, grace as pride)

Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots

David and Jonathan

Ruth and Naomi

Foods: Root vegetables (carrots, beets, potatoes, etc.), protein-rich foods, sweet and spicy tastes.

Animals: Elephant, snake, mole, underground creatures.

2. Orange - The Fire of Spirit (Eros)

Orange evokes fire, passion, sexuality and relationships. Shadow side: lust/addiction.

Time period: 1st - 4th centuries
Celebrate same-sex love in the life of Christ, among early Christians, in the late Roman Empire and other cultures.

Erotic Christ (sin as exploitation; grace as mutuality)

Historical Jesus and the Beloved Disciple

Mary and Martha

Sergius and Bacchus

Perpetua and Felicity

Foods: Foods growing from ground-level to 2 feet (melons, strawberries, squash, etc.), sweet and salty tastes.

Animals: Crocodile, dolphin, underwater creatures.

3. Yellow - The Core of Spirit (Self-Esteem)

Yellow evokes courage, confidence and personal power. Shadow side: fear/anger.

Time period: Middle Ages, 4th - 15th centuries
Celebrate same-sex love in medieval times. Queer medieval Christians include pairs of lovers in monasteries and convents, writers of homoerotic verse, and cross-dressing women. Medieval mystics describe erotic-ecstatic union with God.

Out Christ (sin as the closet; grace as coming out)

Brigid and Darlughdach (c.451-525)
Symeon of Emessa and John (c. 522-c. 588)
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Aelred of Rievaulx (c.1110-1167)
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Rumi (1207 - 1273)
Julian of Norwich (1342-c. 1417)

Foods: Foods growing 2-6 feet above the ground (grains, sunflower seeds etc.), bitter and minty tastes.

Animals: Ram, bear, birds, flying creatures.

4. Green - The Heart of Spirit (Love)

Green evokes growth, nature, balance and compassion. Shadow side: jealousy/greed, hatred.

Time period: Renaissance, 15th-17th centuries (c. 1400-1699)
Celebrate same-sex love in the era that included the Age of Discovery, the Protestant Reformation and the invention of the printing press.

Transgressive Christ (sin as conformity; grace as deviance)

Joan of Arc (c.1412-1431)
John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Juana de la Cruz (1648-1695)
Gay Popes, Papal Sodomites (Queering the Church Blog)

Foods: Green leafy vegetables (broccoli, spinach, green tea, etc.), sour and savory tastes.

Animals: Antelope, wolf, mammals.

5. Blue - The Voice of Spirit (Justice and Self-Expression)

Blue evokes peace, communication and independence. Shadow side: depression/arrogance.

Time period: Modern, 1700 to 1950
Celebrate same-sex love in modern times, including gender role evolution in Romanticism, Transcendentalism, secular philosophy, and the movements for women’s suffrage and abolition.

Liberator Christ (sin as apathy; grace as activism)

Bernardo de Hoyos (1711-1735): Mystical same-sex marriage with Jesus
Jemima Wilkinson / Publick Universal Friend (1752-1819) Queer American preacher
John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and Ambrose St. John
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) Poet who wrote Christmas carols
We’wha of Zuni (1849-1896)

Foods: Food that grows 6 feet or more above ground (apples, oranges, avocadoes, etc.), sour and salty tastes.

Animal: White elephant, personal power animal, humanity.

6. Purple - The Eye of Spirit (Wisdom)

Purple evokes vision, intuition and understanding. Shadow side: passivity/nightmares.

Time period: 1950 to present
Celebrate same-sex love and gender role defiance in recent LGBT, queer, feminist and black liberation movements, including the struggle for LGBT religious rights. LGBT-affirming churches and religious institutions are founded. Pluralistic expressions of sexuality and gender multiply, but some are martyred in anti-gay hate crimes.

Interconnected Christ (sin as isolation, grace as interdependence)

Saints of Stonewall
Harvey Milk
Bayard Rustin
Mychal Judge: Gay saint of 9/11
Matthew Shepherd
Pauli Murray

Foods: Dark purple foods (blueberries, purple grapes, red wine, etc.), subtle tastes (poppyseed, lavender, etc.).

Animal: None. Ancestors and spirit guides.

7. All Colors / White - The Crown of Spirit (Spirituality)

When all the colors of the rainbow mix, they create white light, evoking universal consciousness.

Time period: Now and the future
Celebrate same-sex love now and in the future! Be a witness of love in all its expressions. Sainthood is a state to which all are called.

Hybrid and All-Encompassing Christ (sin as singularity; grace as hybridity)

Animal: Egg, eagle, Rainbow Serpent.

Foods: Fasting. Instead of eating, inhale incense and smudging herbs such as sage. Or… Celebrate with a slice of rainbow cake!

“Rainbow Cake with Jelly Beans” (Flickr.com)

Bridge of Light continues to evolve. Aburrow suggested adding sacred foods, such as “rainbow-tinted marble cake maybe, or one food of each colour?”

I like the idea of doing a daily candle for each color, but every year Dec. 26-31 is such a busy week for me! I wonder if Bridge of Light could also be celebrated at the summer solstice in connection with LGBTQ Pride?

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Links to other resources for Bridge of Light:

Rainbow Christ Prayer: LGBT flag reveals the queer Christ (Kittredge Cherry and Patrick Cheng)

"Seven Shrines of the Body" by artist Richard Stott

Animal Chakra Symbols

The Story of the "Queer Saints and Martyrs" by Terence Weldon

Author Carolyn Myss connects the seven chakras with the seven sacraments of the church in her book “Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing.”

CD set of meditations based on the chakras, “Activating Your Chakras Through the Light Rays.” It’s definitely “new age,” but it’s the best of its kind.

S(t)even Years: A 7-year art project based on the chakras by Steven Reigns

“The Myth, Magic, and Science of the Rainbow” by by Cedar Stevens
http://naturalmagickshop.com/articles/The-Myth-Magic-and-Science-of-the-Rainbow.html

Happy Bridge of Light, everybody!  Like the rainbow, may we embody all the colors of the world! Be renewed and refreshed as the New Year begins! May 2014 bring everyone peace, health and prosperity!

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Image credits:

Chakra images by Anodea Judith of SacredCenters.com

Rainbow 7th chakta image: Thousand-petaled lotus flower (Sahasrara) carrying a sacred flame (Namam) from Wikimedia Commons

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This post is part of the LGBT Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to 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