MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Sergius and Bacchus: A pair of gay saints

Saints Sergius and Bacchus were Roman soldiers, Christian martyrs and gay men who loved each other. They were killed around 303 in present-day Syria. Their feast day is observed on Oct. 7. The couple was openly gay, but secretly Christian -- the opposite of today’s closeted Christians.

The close bond between the two men has been emphasized since the earliest accounts, and recent scholarship has revealed their homosexuality. The oldest record of their martyrdom describes them as erastai (Greek for “lovers”). Scholars believe that they may have been united in the rite of adelphopoiesis (brother-making), a kind of early Christian same-sex marriage.

A classic example of paired saints, Sergius and Bacchus were high-ranking young officers. Sergius was primicerius (commander) and Bacchus was secundarius (subaltern officer). They were tortured to death after they refused to attend sacrifices to Zeus, thus revealing their secret Christianity.

The men were arrested and paraded through the streets in women’s clothing in an unsuccessful effort to humiliate them. Early accounts say that they responded by chanting that they were dressed as brides of Christ. They told their captors that women’s dress never stopped women from worshipping Christ, so it wouldn’t stop them, either. Then Sergius and Bacchus were separated and beaten so severely that Bacchus died.

According to the early manuscripts, Bacchus appeared to Sergius that night with a face as radiant as an angel’s, dressed once again as a soldier. He urged Sergius not to give up because they would be reunited in heaven as lovers. His statement is unique in the history of martyrs. Usually the promised reward is union with God, not with a lover. Over the next days Sergius was tortured and eventually beheaded.

Sergius’ tomb became a famous shrine, and for nearly 1,000 years the couple was revered as the official patrons of the Byzantine army. Many early churches were named after Sergius, sometimes with Bacchus. They are recognized as martyrs by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. The pair was venerated through the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Latin America and among the Slavs. Sergius and Bacchus continue to be popular saints with Christian Arabs and now among GLBT Christians and their allies.

The icon above was painted by Brother Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar and world-class iconographer known for his innovative icons. “Saints Sergius and Bacchus” is one of 10 Lentz icons that sparked a major controversy a few years ago.

Critics accused Lentz of glorifying sin and creating propaganda for a progressive sociopolitical agenda. They caused such a stir that in order to keep the peace between his Franciscan province and the Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Lentz gave away the copyright for the 10 controversial images to his distributor, Trinity Stores. Lentz had his name removed from those images on the Trinity website, but later reclaimed authorship. All 10 are now displayed there as a collection titled “Images That Challenge.” The group includes gay-positive, women-affirming and pagan-oriented icons. Lentz’ own moving spiritual journey and some of his icons are included in the book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.

To learn more about Sergius and Bacchus, check out “Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe” by John Boswell and “Passionate Holiness” by Dennis O’Neill.

Image credit: Saints Sergius and Bacchus By Brother Robert Lentz, OFM. Copyright 1994. Courtesy of www.trinitystores.com (800.699.4482)

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This post was written by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry. It is part of the new “GLBT Saints” series at the Jesus in Love Blog, where it is cross-posted. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

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 artist links body and spirit

Sexuality and spirituality unite beautifully in the work of gay artist Stephen Mead of New York. 

Gay angels sleep wrapped in each other’s arms with naked vulnerability in “Angels Sleeping Unawares.”  Angels are usually presented as neutered, asexual beings.  Mead delights the eye and does great service by showing that the messengers of God can be erotically alive. 

Mead’s erotic angel paintings are part of “Blue Heart Diary,” a meditative series about the universality of struggle, both global and personal.  Like much of Mead’s work, it fuses art and poetry.  The actual written work is over a thousand lines long with several hundred images spanning over two decades.  A video sets some of the images to music, creating a meditative experience that is both soothing and thought-provoking.  The angel paintings also appear on his DVD “Captioned Closeness” at Indieflix.com.

Self-taught as an artist, Mead acknowledges that his art has been heavily influenced by both surrealism and expressionism.  His current project is “Swan Songs,” a film series that superimposes live footage over his images while using his own singing voice as a soundtrack.

For more info and images by Stephen Mead, visit the Jesus in Love Blog on glbt spirituality and the arts.

Image credit:  “Angels Sleeping Unawares” by Stephen Mead

watercolor pencil on board, incorporated into the series "Captioned Closeness"

Ministers Un-Prepared to Address Sexuality

CHICAGO, January 8, 2009 – United States seminaries and rabbinical schools are failing to prepare the next generation of clergy with the training they need to address sexuality issues in ministry, according to a study released today by the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing and Union Theological Seminary.

The study, titled Sex and the Seminary: Preparing Ministers for Sexual Health and Justice, reports that sexuality courses are largely absent from most seminary curricula and degree requirements. At most institutions, students can graduate without studying sexual ethics or taking a single sexuality-based course.

“With so many congregations embroiled in controversy over sexual orientation issues, or struggling to address teenage sexuality, or concerned about sexual abuse, there is an urgent need for ordained clergy who understand the connections between religion and sexuality,” said the Rev. Debra W. Haffner, director of the Religious Institute. “Seminaries must do more to prepare students to minister to their congregants and be effective advocates for sexual health and justice.”

Sex and the Seminary is based on a survey of 36 leading seminaries and rabbinical schools of diverse size and geographic location, representing a range of Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist traditions. Each institution was evaluated on criteria for a sexually healthy and responsible seminary. These criteria measure sexuality content in the curriculum; institutional commitment to sexuality and gender equity (e.g., the existence of anti-discrimination, sexual harassment and full inclusion policies); and advocacy and support for sexuality-related issues. The criteria were developed by an advisory group of seminary deans, faculty and clergy with expertise in sexuality. The survey and final report were authored by Dr. Kate Ott, associate director of the Religious Institute.

The survey revealed that:

• More than 90% of the seminaries surveyed do not require full‐semester, sexuality‐based courses for graduation.
• Two‐thirds of the seminaries do not offer a course in sexuality issues for religious professionals. Three quarters do not offer a course in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) studies.
• Seminaries offer three times as many courses in women’s and feminist studies as they do in LGBTstudies or other sexuality‐related issues.
• The next generation of scholars is not addressing sexuality issues. Sexuality‐based courses are taught by senior professors or adjunct faculty, not by upcoming faculty seeking tenured positions.

The study also noted a “stained glass ceiling” in seminaries and a lack of policies on full inclusion of women and gay, lesbian and transgender persons. Two-thirds of the seminaries surveyed have fewer than 40% women serving in faculty, senior administrative and trustee positions, in contrast to student populations that are frequently more than 50% women.

“Religious leaders have a unique opportunity, and moral obligation, to help congregations and communities wrestle with the complexities of sexual health and justice,” said Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York. “Is there any subject more important and more on-the-ground crucial than sexual health and human flourishing? This study challenges all of us who are charged with ministerial formation to look closely at the institutional environment we create to prepare our students to be active and informed – and hence to effect people from the pulpit and in the public square.”

Sex and the Seminary recommends that seminaries and religious denominations develop and require competencies in sexuality for ordination to ministry. Most denominations currently do not require ministerial candidates to be competent in sexual health and education beyond sexual harassment prevention, the study noted.

The study also recommends that the Association of Theological Schools, the accrediting body for U.S. seminaries, integrate sexuality education into its standards for ministerial formation. It calls on seminaries to strengthen their curricular offerings and inclusion policies, invest in faculty development and continuing education, and pursue collaboration with other institutions and advocacy groups to expand educational opportunities for seminarians regarding sexuality issues.

The Religious Institute will send copies of the Sex and the Seminary report to every seminary and rabbinical school in the U.S. The report is available online at http://www.religiousinstitute.org/SeminaryReport.html.

OUT Magazine Asks: Has MANHUNT Destroyed Gay Culture?

The September 2008 issue of OUT Magazine features a powerful article of interest: "Has MANHUNT Destroyed Gay Culture?" by Michael Joseph Gross.

Gross' article focuses on Manhunt.net, a site for men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) and the fastest growing gay website in the world, with over 1 million members and more than 400,000 unique visitors per month, all  in the USA alone - and the site serves some 100 countries. 

More importantly, the article considers how online cruising has changed gay urban social life by, for example, driving human interactions from physical spaces to virtual ones and encouraging the "pornification" of gay self-expression.   

Apparently, one UK study found that in 1993, 2.3% of gay men found their first male sex partner online; by 2003 that number had risen to 61.2%.  OUT quotes Jeffrey Klausner of the San Francisco Department of Public Health: "It means that gay men who were once socialized in brick-and-mortar establishments, surrounded by other people, are now being socialized online."

The question for conscious, spiritual LGBT people then becomes, "Is that virtual socialization creating a community of healthy, self-actualized MSM?"  The answer seems to be an obvious "No."

As Gross puts it in OUT, "If you were asked to design the perfect weapon to exploit this vulnerability as it manifests in attractive, urban gay men, you'd want something that would intensify our isolation, exaggerate our propensity to objectify ourselves - by encouraging us to believe that our purpose is to look good and have lots of sex."

Isolation.  Objectification.  Lack of genuine communication and community.  These should be issues of real concern to spiritual LGBT people, especially to LGBT-affirming body/mind/spirit resource providers like those listed on MyOutSpirit.com. 

So much of our work is about affirming that LGBT people (in this case, MSM) are so much more than just bodies - that we are not only physical/sexual, but intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual beings.  The hardest part of the job, it often seems, is convincing LGBT people themselves of that truth. 

Gross writes, "The most powerful secrets we keep on Manhunt aren't the ones we keep from the outside world.  The most powerful secrets on Manhunt are the ones we keep from ourselves.  Practically every gay man has his own version of this secret, which we learned to keep while growing up in the closet: the secret fear that, if we were truly known, we would never be loved.

"...When you came out, you did it because you wanted something," Gross continues. "Part of what you wanted was sex, but part of what you hoped for was the possibility of being loved as your true self." 

As always, online or off-line, we are choosing between Love and Fear, living fully or shrinking from our potential, shining our light or hiding it under a bushel.

I won't ruin the whole article - there's a lot more there ripe for discussion and consideration, and I hope you will choose to leave your comments on the article at OUT.com as well as in response to this post. 

With the near ubiquity of online cruising among MSM, it's important that conscious LGBT people like the readers of this Gay Spirituality Blog look directly at the problems that virtual socialization may cause and how we can remedy them before it's too late.  That said, we also have to be realistic - online social networking, cruising...these things are not going away.  We need a BOTH/AND solution, not an EITHER/OR solution.

"We need to put our heads together and try to figure out what we want normative social life to look like.  Whatever the answer turns out to be, it will involve creating social structures that serve and gratify our desire to have sex with each other and also promote and support the possibility of developing and sustaining intimate relationships."  I would add to Gross' call for our attention: whatever the answers are, they must consider the development and well-being of the WHOLE person, not only sexual and romantic.  And frankly, there's no time to waste.

“Our mission is to be a catalyst for positive, caring gay culture by supporting inner transformation, increasing definition & visibility of the emerging culture and changing what it means to be gay.”  Join us.  Join MyOutSpirit.com

Remember who you want to be at MyOutSpirit.com

The Beginning: Equality Ride 2008

So, this is officially the beginning of me blogging for the Equality Ride. I'm honored to do so, and hope that my words and stories will depict what is needed to be shared.

We are less than two months away from loading the bus and confronting the fear that easily arises in people when they're about to encounter a opposite view from their own. I just hope the response from both sides will be that of love and acceptance. We are all God's children and we are all human beings. Not one of us is greater than the other. No one has all the answers, I don't claim that my opinion is 100% right and approved by God. God is mysterious, his ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.This is part of the conclusion both sides must come to.

I'm excited to be a part of this years Equality Ride. I've been able to meet and get to know my fellow "Riders" and they are absolutely amazing. I look forward to spending two months on the road with them. However, before we can even load the bus we must raise the money to go. That is why on August 31st in Nashville, TN you join me at Aerial for my fundraiser event. There will be a DJ to provide the dance music along with the guest celebrity, Sixpence None The Richer who will perform a acoustic song. For detailed information on this event visit, www.myspace.com/azariahsbenefit. If you can't attend but would like to help please go to www.soulforce.org/azariah_southworth to donate .

Thank you for reading and I look forward to bringing the Equality Ride to you through my blogs.

Before I go, remember that God loves you. As Paul states in Romans “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It is only you that can ultimately separate yourself from the love of God. Don't allow people's opinions of who God is and what his word says determine whether you allow yourself to experience his love.

Take care,
Azariah Southworth

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EDITOR'S NOTE:  Popular Christian tv host, Azariah Southworth, was quickly fired when he came out as a gay Christian a few months ago (read our blog about it).  Among the many projects he is working on now, he is taking the time to go on Soulforce's Equality Ride 2008, which puts young LGBT and Ally people of faith on the road (literally) to changing hearts and minds for equal rights and recognition.  Each rider has a fundraising goal of $3,500 to cover the expense of the journey - donate to support them all at http://www.soulforce.org/2008riders!  Azariah will be sharing his notes from the journey with MyOutSpirit.com's Gay Spirituality Blog!

Gay artist paints liberating Christ

For true liberation on U.S. Independence Day, check out a gay artist’s visions of a naked Jesus.

Jumping Jesus by Dirk Vanden is one of the newest additions to the Jesus in Love library of glbt spiritual art. The painting shows a winged Jesus making a joyful leap skyward.

[Correction from the artist added Nov. 6, 2008: That is his long hair, spread out behind him as he flies, not wings - & not up to heaven! If he's back, he's here to stay. Actually, in my head as I painted him, he's jumping with joy to be free of the cross."]

For more info and images by Vanden, visit the Jesus in Love Blog.

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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.

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

Top 5 queer-spirit arts stories for 2007 named

JesusInLove.org has announced its picks for 2007’s top five news stories on GLBT spirituality and the arts.

Leading the list is the National Festival of Progressive Spiritual Art.  JesusInLove.org, an online resource center for GLBT people with spiritual interests and their allies, chose the stories based on Web traffic and attendance in real life.

Here’s a round-up of the year’s top five queer spiritual art stories, based on Web traffic and attendance in real life.

1.  Gay Jesus art delights crowds at National Festival of Progressive Spiritual Art.  More than 350 people attend the opening in Taos in May.  It includes the image at left, "Jesus Returns to God" by F. Douglas Blanchard. Click here for more

2.  A mini-riot erupts in an evangelical Swedish city over gay Jesus photos by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin in August.  Click here for more

3.  “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ and More” by Kittredge Cherry is published to enthusiastic reviews. Click here for more

 4. A leather version of the Last Supper sparks controversy as the poster for the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco in September. Click here for more

5.  National Coming Out Day inspires dozens of videos in October, including the year’s most popular video at JesusInLove.org. Click here for more

2007 was a fantastic year for GLBT spirituality and the arts.  Thousands of people to visited galleries, read books and watched videos last year to see new images of God based on gay, lesbian, bi and trans experience.  The images inspired hope -- and sometimes fear and violence.

JesusInLove.org promotes queer spirituality and the arts, with an emphasis on books and images.  We believe that God loves all people, including sexual minorities, and that the creative process is sacred.  We hope that the new visions, especially the gay Jesus, will free people to experience the divine in new ways and lead to a more just world.

Show your support by signing up for our free e-newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts.

Lesbian Madonna embodies Christmas spirit

Christmas has inspired many contemporary GLBT artists to create queer spiritual art.

For example, Annunciation (at left) by Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin shows the Madonna and her female lover are portrayed by a lesbian couple, pregnant through artificial insemination.

The photo is included in my new book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More. In our interview for the book, Ohlson Wallin told me how she created the striking, mysterious image. Here are some excerpts from Art That Dares:

She combined the dual influences of Christianity and queer consciousness to create a groundbreaking series of twelve photos showing Jesus in a contemporary LGBT context. It became one of Europe’s most noticed and notorious art exhibits, even arousing the disapproval of Pope John Paul II—who reacted by canceling his planned audience with the Swedish archbishop.

Ohlson Wallin called the series Ecce Homo, a pun meaning “See the human being” and “See the homosexual.” …

She enlisted local LGBT folk to serve as models, and they spent three years meticulously recreating scenes from the life of Christ based on the artistic masterpieces of Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rubens, and others….

“It’s very important for me in my work that the picture have a documentary truth mixed with the way I arrange the story in the picture,” Ohlson Wallin said. She and her models played with the contradictions….

“I wanted Jesus for me and my own sexual sense. I wanted to be able to identify with Jesus. There are millions and billions of Jesus pictures for heterosexuals to identify with. In Africa they have black Jesus. In China they have Chinese Jesus. Lots of different countries each have a different Jesus.” …

The exhibit went on to tour Scandinavia and continental Europe from 1998 to 2000, winning awards and breaking several attendance records. More than 250,000 people viewed it. Not everyone liked what they saw. A man with an ax destroyed two of the photos. People threw stones at Ohlson Wallin and she needed police protection after receiving death threats….

Ohlson Wallin recorded the whole and and  span of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, beginning with the announcement of his coming birth. In her version, the Madonna and her female lover are portrayed by a lesbian couple, seven months’ pregnant through artificial insemination. The angel Gabriel comes in the form of their gay male friend, who floats in with a message from God—and a test tube for insemination.

That's the end of the excerpts.  May everyone who visits this Gay Spirituality blog experience God born anew in their hearts during the Christmas season.

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Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian art historian and author who offers gay-friendly spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org and blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog.  She recently launched a monthly e-newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts.