MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Rob Bell Questions Hell, Christians' Heads Explode

Rob Bell, the straight Christian pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grandville, Michigan, bestselling author of Velvet Elvis, Sex God, and Drops Like Stars, and creator of the groundbreaking NOOMA film series, has a new book coming out this month that, despite its palatable title, Love Wins, has already ignited a firestorm of controversy in conservative Christian circles. Why?

Bell dares to question whether or not Hell is real.

Publisher HarperCollins explains: "In Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith—the afterlife—arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic—eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins."

How DARE he? bellowed Christian conservatives like Justin Taylor, John Piper, and others. They are blowing up the internet, condemning Rob Bell as a heretic and suggesting he be shunned. Without reading the book, mind you - just based on the publiser's description and a short video introducing the book (below). But they're likely to be even MORE inflamed once they actually read it, and thank god for that.

There are multiple developmental levels active in the Christian community (and, to be clear, there are wonderful people and good Christians at every level). In this case, the authoritarian, rules-are-rules, it-says-what-it-says, Jesus-spoke-English, because-that's-the-way-we've-always-done-it Crowd is not capable of going along with a postmodern Christian like Rob Bell. 

We talk a lot in this blog about the human predicament of being stuck in our stories (for example). These critics are happily encased in their little shell where they know all the answers; asking them to admit that they do NOT know - asking them to question their faith-based worldview - is a lot to ask.

You've heard me tell the story about my father, a lifelong Christian and deacon in his church, who was self-aware enough to beg me to stop sharing my questioning process with him. He said to me flat-out, "I need to believe what I believe." If he accepted he might be wrong about what the Bible says and means, that his faith might be misplaced, then his entire life would fall apart, and he couldn't handle that. 

So I don't expect conservative Christians to break out of their shells just because Rob Bell leads them in that direction. It's just too scary out there. It requires way too much courage. And frankly, I suppose it's great that they're giving him so much free publicity!

But it will be wonderful to see more Christians and their churches let go of Fear. Ironic that letting go of Fear is so damn scary, right?  

"If we can't threaten nonbelievers with eternal damnation, how will we get converts?" "If I don't have to be good so that God won't punish me, why shouldn't I sin?" "What really happens when I die?" "What does it mean to be saved if there's no pit of fire to be saved from?" 

Kudos to Rob Bell for daring to enter into the questions, for slipping into not-knowing, for standing up for love, and for encouraging millions of other Christians to go there with him.

Thank God for Heretics.

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Support Rob Bell, Pre-order Love Wins from Amazon.com

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P.S. Speaking of heretics, here's the ever-wise Bishop John Shelby Spong on Hell:

Advice for LGBT Activists from Hopi Elders and Dolly Parton

I didn't get very far into PERSEVERANCE by Margaret Wheatley before I came across this message from the Elders of the Hopi Nation that I knew I needed to share with you:

ORAIBI, ARIZONA, JUNE 8, 2000

Here is a river flowing now very fast.

It is so great and swift that there are those

who will be afraid, who will try

to hold onto the shore.

They are being torn apart and

will suffer greatly.

 

Know that the river has its destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore.

Push off into the middle of the river,

and keep our heads above water.

 

And I say see who is there with you

and celebrate.

At this time in history,

we are to take nothing personally,

least of all ourselves,

for the moment we do,

our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

 

The time of the lone wolf is over.

Gather yourselves.

Banish the word struggle from your attitude

and vocabulary.

 

All that we do now must be done

in a sacred manner and in celebration.

For we are the ones we have been waiting for.

 

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As you may or may not know, I've been on the road for MyOutSpirit for almost two years now (I'll be moving for the 13th time in two years on Monday), and one of the lessons I've learned is that I really can't do it alone.  I can't personally contact every pro-LGBTQ organization and business in the country!  Some people suggest buying mailing lists and then sending invitations, but I'd rather build this powerful network by building community.

Which means I need your help. 

If you're in the USA, please help us gather together by inviting 2 LGBTQ-affirming organizations and businesses in your community to join MyOutSpirit's VISIONARY Network at http://GaySpiritCulture.com - and ask each of them to invite two more, and so on. Friends and colleagues asking friends and colleagues to participate!

If you can also make a contribution to support my work, it's much-needed right now.

 

Gay Holy Week series runs online

A queer version of Christ’s Passion will is running in daily installments this week through Easter (April 4) at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Each daily post features GLBT Christian art and an excerpt from “Jesus in Love: At the Cross,” a novel about a bisexual Christ by lesbian author Kittredge Cherry. Jesus is in love with his disciple John and faces religious homophobia in the selections from “At the Cross.”

The eight-day series covers Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. The dramatic events of Christ’s Passion happen in the context of a gay love story between Jesus and John. Jesus has today’s queer sensibilities and psychological sophistication as he reveals experiences that may have led to the first Easter.

“I’m doing the Holy Week series to make Christ more accessible to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and our allies,” said Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org. The website promotes artistic and religious freedom by supporting spirituality and the arts for GLBT people and their allies.

“Christ’s story is for everyone, but GLBT people often feel left out because conservatives use Christian rhetoric to justify hate and discrimination,” she said.

The online Holy Week series includes art by F. Douglas Blanchard, Becki Jayne Harrelson, William Hart McNichols, Corinne Quinones, Gary Speziale and Dirk Vanden.

Some conservatives labeled Cherry “a hyper-homosexual revisionist” because of the gay love story between Jesus and John. However, her books follow the Biblical text and standard Christian doctrine while speculating on Christ’s erotic inner life.

“I get hate mail with warnings such as, ‘Gays are not wanted in the kingdom of Christ!’ This kind of religious bigotry is exactly why the queer Christ is needed,” Cherry said.

Meanwhile, secular literary critics and progressive Christians affirm the Jesus in Love series as “profound,” “spiritually mature” and “beautifully written.” Gay spirituality author Toby Johnson praises it as “a real tour de force in transforming traditional myth to modern consciousness.”

The Bay Area Reporter called it “revolutionary religious fiction” and Mel White, founder of Soulforce, says, “Kittredge Cherry has broken through the stained-glass barrier… a classic re-telling of the greatest story ever told.”

“At the Cross” grows out of Cherry’s own spiritual journey and her experiences as a minister in the LGBT community. She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as national ecumenical officer. One of her primary duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches. Her previous books include “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More,” “Equal Rites” and “Hide and Speak.” The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style.

The Holy Week blog series includes art from “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” a compelling set of 24 paintings by New York artist F. Douglas Blanchard. The controversial “faggot crucifixion” by Atlanta artist Becki Jayne Harrelson is also featured, along with drawings by New York artist Gary Speziale. They are among 11 contemporary artists from the United States and Europe who are profiled in Cherry’s book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.”

To view the series, visit www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com

(Image credit: "The Crucifixion of Christ" by Becki Jayne Harrelson, www.beckijayne.com)

A Third Fire: Andrew Harvey's Sacred Activism

Andrew Harvey, contemporary gay mystic, scholar, and author of Son of Man, The Direct Path, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, discusses the Divine, the Shadow, Gay Activism and his newly released book, The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism, in this exclusive, in-depth interview with MyOutSpirit contributor, Rev. Tom Cummiskey.

HIGHLIGHTS

(full interview follows)

"At a time that is as dreadful and challenging as this, the greatest courage we need is to plunge into our Divine nature and start to live it out with its fearlessness and truth and passion for justice on every level and in every realm of the world."

"This narcissism and these shadows that afflict both the activist and the mystic can only really be healed when the fire of the mystic’s passion for God is united with the fire of the activist’s passion for justice to form a third fire, which is Divine love and wisdom in action."

"This radical transformation of human nature...can only take place when people really risk the death into life, the dark night of the soul, the stripping and burning down of the agendas and illusions of the ego."

"What is called for is a wholly new level of power.  And this power does not belong to the ego, it cannot be wielded by the ego, it cannot be streamed by the ego and it can only stream through someone who has died into life."

"Because we have not been allowed to believe in the holiness of our sexuality and in the holiness of the desires of our love, many of us have given ourselves over to mindless promiscuity which makes the birth of the authentic tantra impossible...

"The sexual meaninglessness of the gay world is now a kind of epidemic where people pretend to be living wildly liberated lives, but are in fact living lives in which energy is being leaked off at every level, in lives without any authentic connection."

"All these years of sexual, so called sexual liberation, haven't really gone down deep enough to heal the self-loathing and sense of isolation and sense of meaninglessness and sense of desperation that, unfortunately, we as homosexuals have inherited." 

"The very people who need the direct connection with the direct Beloved, beyond dogma, are prevented by their own wild and completely justifiable rage at religion from using the pain that they have been through to help them plunge into an authentic spiritual path."

"Gay people, in their search for their legitimate rights, come across as spoiled and entitled and consumerist in their vision of reality instead of placing their claiming of these rights in a much larger, more powerful context."

"If you follow your heartbreak, what you will find at the core of the heartbreak is a fountain of burning and deathless passion that will never run dry."

"The more we see gay people emerging with this kind of broad generosity of soul and wild commitment to transformation and profound love and compassion for all beings and justice for all beings, the more the fears of the straight community about gay people will be healed."

"As victims of separation and victims of division and as victims of unbelievable cruelty, it is up to us to really manifest the kind of compassion, the kind of all embracing understanding and the kind of commitment to love that will truly transform others.  Take the darkness we’ve been given and transform it into golden light."

Click below to read MyOutSpirit's entire interview with Andrew Harvey.

Gay Holy Week readings start today

A queer version of Christ's Passion runs in daily posts from Palm Sunday (today) through Easter (April 12) at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Each installment features a GLBT Christian painting and an excerpt from Kittredge Cherry's novel "Jesus in Love: At the Cross."

The eight-day series covers the dramatic events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.  Jesus falls in love with his disciple John and faces religious homophobia in "At the Cross."

The online Holy Week series includes paintings by F. Douglas Blanchard, Gary Speziale and Becki Jayne Harrelson.  More info

Click here to visit the Jesus in Love Blog for today's post

Image credit: "Jesus Enters the City"  (from The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision) by F. Douglas Blanchard

Lesbian poet laureate illuminates life

Kay Ryan, the lesbian poet who is now serving as U.S. poet laureate, speaks in a warmly insightful video portrait from the American Academy of Poets.  In the video, Ryan reads and discusses her poetry -- including an excerpt that was reprinted in the popular cartoon Boondocks.

Ryan, who lives in Marin County, California, was appointed U.S. poet laureate by the Library of Congress last fall.  The official announcement notes her status as a lesbian simply by stating, “Her partner of 30 years is Carol Adair.”

Ryan’s poem “Backward Miracle” offers a food for thought as Easter approaches.  Ryan breathes new life into Christian themes, starting with the cup of wine shared by Jesus at the Last Supper.  She also revisits the multiplication of bread and fishes, the only miracle recorded in all four gospels.  The poem appears in her book “Niagara River” and is posted now at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Visit the Jesus in Love Blog to read “Backward Miracle,” plus more info and links on Ryan.

Lammy Awards honor GLBT authors

A vivid personal account of the recent Lambda Literary Awards ceremony by first-time attendee Audrey has been posted at the Jesus in Love Blog.  The awards recognize excellence in LGBT literature.  Here’s a highlight:

"There was a deeply moving "In Memoriam" slide show, which had all the authors who had died in the past 20 years -- 1988 to 2008, since it was the 20th anniversary of the Lammys.  Everyone was holding back tears and trying to be dignified as all our heroines’ and heroes’ faces came up on the screen….  I knew almost every author who had died.  I'd either read their books or met them in person, and I was wildly clapping for almost every picture of an author.  Somehow, the very essence of that person came out to us on that giant white screen; it was as if they were all there in spirit with us.  I was shocked to feel this, and hadn't experienced this since the dark days of the AIDS epidemic when all our friends were dying…"

To read the whole story and see more photos, click here.

The photo above shows Pioneer Award winner Malcolm Boyd (left) and Lammy finalist Kittredge Cherry.  Boyd is a gay elder, Episcopal priest for 50 years and best-selling author of books including Are You Running with Me, Jesus?

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Kittredge Cherry blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts.

‘Art That Dares’ named Lammy finalist

Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More by Kittredge Cherry has been named a finalist for the 20th annual Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the Lammies.

Kitt also participated in a reading by Lammy finalists in West Hollywood on May 8.  See the video or click here for more info on the reading. 

Lammy winners will be announced May 29 at a gala ceremony in West Hollywood, CA.  The glamorous event is the queer literary version of the Academy Awards.

The awards recognize excellence in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature.  They are considered to be the highest honor for a book from the GLBT community

More than 80 judges -- writers, journalists, booksellers, librarians, professors -- chose 107 finalists in 21 categories this year.  Finalists were chosen from 463 books nominated by 190 publishers.

Art That Dares is one of five finalists in the LGBT Arts and Culture category.  It’s up against Harvard University Press among others -- quite an accomplishment for a small start-up queer press. 

Three legendary figures of the LGBT literary community will receive Pioneer Awards at this year’s ceremony.  They are Ann Bannon, author of the Beebo Brinker lesbian fiction series;
Mark Thompson, author of Gay Soul; and Malcolm Boyd, Episcopal priest and author of Are You Running With Me, Jesus?

Art That Dares is packed with color illustrations by 11 contemporary artists from the U.S. and Europe.  Art that dares to show Jesus as gay or female has been censored or destroyed.  Cherry gathered these beautiful, liberating, sometimes shocking images into a book to ensure that they would be available.  In the book, the artists tell the stories behind the images and the introduction puts them into political and historical context, exploring issues of blasphemy and artistic freedom.

For tickets and more info, visit LambdaLiterary.org.

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

Queer blog runs gay Passion and Easter series

Image at right: Jesus Before the Priests (from The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision) by F. Douglas Blanchard (counterlight@earthlink.net)

A queer version of Christ’s Passion is running in daily installments at the Jesus in Love Blog this week through Easter.

Each daily post features a queer Christian painting and an excerpt from my new novel Jesus in Love: At the Cross.

Jesus Before the Priests (above) is one of my personal favorites from the series. The priest looks like so many I have known.  They stand by, wringing their hands while they let injustice and violence happen.  Artist Doug Blanchard has got that churchly smug indifference down cold.

The eight-day Passion series at my blog covers the dramatic events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.  Jesus is in love with his disciple John and faces religious homophobia in the selections from “At the Cross.”

The online Holy Week series includes paintings by Blanchard, Gary Speziale and Becki Jayne Harrelson.  Click here to visit the gay Passion series.

New novel shows Passion of a queer Christ

A queer Christ lives out the Easter story of death and resurrection in my new novel Jesus in Love: At the Cross.

I'm excited that the book is being released in time for Ash Wednesday (Feb. 6), which begins the season of Lent when Christians remembering the sufferings of Jesus to prepare for Easter.

Jesus commits the ultimate act of love in At the Cross, a fictional autobiography of a bisexual Christ.  The dramatic events of Christ’s Passion happen in the context of a gay love story between Jesus and his disciple John.  The novel covers Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection, ending on Pentecost.  Jesus has today’s queer sensibilities and psychological sophistication as he reveals the erotic, mystical experiences that may have led to the first Easter. 

At the Cross is a sequel to the popular Jesus in Love: A Novel, but there’s no need to read the other book first.  At the Cross stands alone in its own right.

Christ’s story is for everyone, but queer people often feel left out because conservatives use Christian rhetoric to justify hate and discrimination.  I wrote At the Cross so more people could understand the powerful story of Jesus’ human struggles and how he rose above them.  Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can relate to a queer Christ -- and so can many others.

The prequel, Jesus in Love, became a surprise hit with more mainstream readers after achieving success in the GLBT community.  I receive fan mail from a diverse range of readers -- male and female, queer and straight, ranging from Roman Catholic priests to atheists and Jews.  And I get hate mail from conservative Christians, too.

Books in the Jesus in Love series follow the Biblical text and standard Christian doctrine while speculating on Christ’s erotic inner life.  The gay love story between Jesus and John has sparked controversy.  Some conservatives labeled me “a hyper-homosexual revisionist.”

Meanwhile, secular literary critics and progressive Christians affirm the Jesus in Love series as “profound,” “spiritually mature” and “beautifully written.”  Gay spirituality author Toby Johnson praises it as “a real tour de force in transforming traditional myth to modern consciousness.” 

The Bay Area Reporter called it “revolutionary religious fiction” and syndicated book critic Richard Labonte hailed it as “a winsome affirmation of erotic love’s sacred potential.” 

Mel White, founder of Soulforce, says, “Kitt Cherry has broken through the stained-glass barrier.  This is not a prurient look at the sex life of Jesus, but a classic re-telling of the greatest story ever told.” 

At the Cross grows out of my own spiritual journey and my experiences as a minister in the LGBT community.  One of my duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (U.S.A.) and the World Council of Churches as National Ecumenical Officer for Metropolitan Community Churches.  I wrote At the Cross after Chronic Fatigue Syndrome forced me into a more contemplative life

My previous books include Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More, Equal Rites and Hide and Speak.  The New York Times Book Review praised my “very graceful, erudite” writing style. 

My website, JesusInLove.org, features the growing number of books and art based on the queer Christ.  I blog at the Jesus in Love Blog and edit the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts. 

At the Cross (ISBN 1933993421) is published by AndroGyne Press, a new queer studies press in Berkeley, CA.  Ingram Book Group distributes it.

For more info on At the Cross, visit jesusinlove.org or androgynepress.com