MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Hunky Jesus contest: A queer way to reclaim Christ

By Kittredge Cherry, Jesus in Love

For me as a lesbian Christian, there’s a lot to love about the Hunky Jesus contest held every Easter in San Francisco by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of “queer nuns” who do street theater for charity.

First and most important, it makes me feel like Jesus is right here with us, queer or not -- living up to his name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” 

Happy crowds attend the costume competition every year to see the sexy side of Jesus exposed by contestants with nicknames such as Stimulus Package Jesus, Gym Bunny Jesus and Victoria’s Secret Jesus.

The Hunky Jesus contest is packed with living, breathing gay Jesuses -- or “Jesi,” as they are called.  Many of Hunky Jesus photos are wonderful, and two favorites are posted here.  I put a lot of energy into promoting images of a queer Christ in order to heal the damage done by homophobes in Jesus’ name.  You can see them on this blog and in my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.”  The Hunky Jesi can free people who feel left out when Jesus is presented as a straight man.  Maybe they can even enlarge the way some people see God. 

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence say that the Hunky Jesus contest is a fun way to promote the ideal of a loving God who has a sense of humor.  It’s also a birthday party for their organization, which has raised more than $1 million for LGBT groups, AIDS service organizations, and other non-profits that don’t see a penny from conservative Christians.

It’s no surprise that the Hunky Jesus contest offends the religious right.  But even gay Christians are denouncing it in the news media this year.  Some LGBT Christians and our allies fear that such events could provoke a backlash.  Political commentator Andrew Sullivan, a gay Catholic, attacked it as “the tired, lame bigotry of some homosexuals” and gay Catholic priest Donal Godfrey of San Francisco called it “sacrilege” at Queerty.com.

I wouldn’t go that far, but parts of it do disturb me.  I decided against posting the recent 2011 Hunky Jesus contest video here because it includes nudity, the f-word and simulated gay sex.  A link to the video is at the end of this article. 

I’m sure that Jesus felt sexual attractions for both men and women, but the more extreme Hunky Jesus contestants express it in a hyper-sexual way that seems, well, unChristlike.  Even many progressive Christians will be offended. 

Still, the critics are wrong when they say that the hunky Jesus contest is hate speech against Christians.  As Sister Zsa Zsa wrote in her recent defense of the event, “Offending prudes and tyrants is not our purpose, but we consider it a bit of a bonus.”  In my opinion, the real purpose is reclaiming Jesus from bigots who have attacked LGBT people in Christ’s name.  We are the body of Christ, ALL of us, of every sexual orientation and gender identity. The contest is also about healing the split between sexuality and spirituality.  And that can get messy, very messy. 

Let’s not forget that Jesus himself was accused of blasphemy.  It was one of the charges leading to his crucifixion.  He broke rules, hung out with prostitutes and other “sinners,” taught that God loved everybody, and got killed for it.  The Christ who appears at the Hunky Jesus contest is not an object of worship, but he does remind me of the Jesus who angered the Pharisees by eating and drinking with “sinners.”  In the Bible, Jesus is always trying to demystify God, comparing God to some ordinary, even vulgar thing like yeast or a poor woman desperate to find a lost coin.

Founded in 1979, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have a vision statement that says, “We believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and we use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.”

Surely Jesus, hunky or otherwise, is with them.
___
Here are additional resources on the Hunky Jesus contest:

Video of the 2011 Hunky Jesus contest
(Warning: contains profanity, male nudity and simulated gay sex.)

More photos! The photos here by Xero Britt come from the following sets:
2008    2009    2011

___
Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author and art historian who blogs about LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Photo credits: Brokeback Mountain Jesus and Hunky Jesus contestant by Xero Britt

Lesbian and gay manger scenes: Love makes a family

What if the child of God was born to a lesbian couple… or a gay couple? Because, after all, LOVE makes a family, including the Holy Family.

I made a video of my new gay and lesbian nativity scenes. One has two Marys at the manger with the baby Jesus, and the other has two Josephs with the Christ child.

I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph -- like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake! It’s only 26 seconds long, and I believe it follows the spirit of the Christmas story.

For more info on why I did it, see my post at the Jesus in Love Blog.

________

Kittredge Cherry is author of Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More. She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer.

British gay Jesus video: Comedy or truth?

A comedian created “Was Jesus Gay?” as a comedy video, but most of it makes good sense to me as a lesbian Christian.

The popular video was made by Pat Condell, an English comedian and outspoken atheist.  His online video monologues of what he calls “godless comedy” have gotten more than 15 million hits.  “Was Jesus Gay?” has nearly half a million views.

I started watching Condell’s gay Jesus video without knowing that it was intended as comedy.  I thought he was a serious church leader, and kept wondering, “Why haven’t I heard of this theologian before?!”

The video begins with some well-deserved barbs against the Church for mistreating gays.  Then Condell states, “I’ve heard it suggested from some people that Christians are so irrationally obsessed with this subject because deep down they’re terrified that Jesus himself might have been gay.”

He talks about how Jesus spent the night with a naked youth in the Secret Gospel of Mark.  He speculates about what John meant when he called himself “the one who Jesus especially loved.”  He also discusses Jesus’ heterosexual marriage in some of the other Gnostic gospels.  All these theories about Jesus’ relationships are common topics of serious study by queer scholars.

My favorite part of the video is when Condell asks, “If somebody could prove historically beyond all doubt that Jesus was in fact homosexual, would Christians then reject Jesus or would they reject the evidence -- as usual?”

Good question.
_______
Cross-posted at the Jesus in Love Blog by Kittredge Cherry, lesbian Christian author and editor of the Jesus in Love Newsletter on GLBT spirituality and the arts.

μου δώστε το μεγάλο καρότο σας

by Pope Benedict XVI

posted by Joe Perez

Eros: an intoxicated
and undisciplined Desire,
Not an Ascent, but fall!
Must be disciplined,
Must be purified!

Not your fleeting pleasure,
Not a certain foretaste
of your PINNACLE
or that BEATITITUDE
for which my whole being yearns

A new activity must rise,
Charitable and new, as older
bodily forms are infused with
youthful life and new energy.
Deus Caritas Est.

Exposing alleged liberal hypocrisy, a gay conservative's attacks backfire

Cross-posted on Rising Up...

Highlighting the "hypocritical liberal" is a regular meme of Stephen Miller's Indegayforum CultureWatch blog. Miller's contention is that when conservatives bash gays, everyone goes nuts, but when liberals reveal their homophobic stripes, nobody notices. So he points out the hypocrisy. Fair enough. Sounds like a reasonable enough blogging project to me. But does it work?

Unfortunately, the most recent three examples from Miller's posts that I can find are positively loopy. First, there was his critique of Maureen Dowd's "hateful Brokeback column." It seems that she said jokingly that now John Wayne "sounds like a guy who might get arrested in a bus station bathroom." In Miller's eyes, this makes her "hateful" and "mean-spirited." He is shocked, shocked, that none of the liberal "gay watchdogs" has criticized her column. Criticized her for what? For besmirching John Wayne? For suggesting that men who frequent bus station bathrooms might be less than completely savory? Or should we criticize her for mentioning a gay stereotype in the column, specifically playing off the stereotype that gay men are fashion-conscious and therefore concerned about having a "bad hair day"? I'm sorry. I'm not feeling the outrage yet.

Then Miller went after this cartoon by an "Iraq-war opposing, Republican-despising" cartoonist, Jeff Danziger. A joke between two cowboys concludes with one cowboy acknowledging an intimate relationship with his (talking) horse. He's working on a screenplay. It's a clever cartoon that parodies the slippery slope argument about gay marriage (let two cowboys marry, then you won't be able to stop them from marrying a horse!) Once again, Miller doesn't think it's funny. He thinks the cartoonist is comparing homosexuality to bestiality, and that the only reason nobody's complaining is that the cartoonist is liberal. Does that sound like a sensible response to you? I'm scratching my head.

Most recently, Miller attacks this parody of homophobes by Larry David. David, in his best deadpan style, says:

I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," nor do I have any intention of seeing it. In fact, cowboys would have to lasso me, drag me into the theater and tie me to the seat, and even then I would make every effort to close my eyes and cover my ears.

Later in the piece, David goes on to mock several other homophobic memes, including the ever popular "I have many gay acquaintances" defense. Miller seemed to miss the humor, implying that David should be called to testify about his presumably "unimaginably neurotic and puritanical" attitudes about sex and/or gays.

Homosexuality Defined

Homosexual is a term originating from the greek words Homos, meaning "same", and sexual, meaning "sexual." It is used to describe couples who have sex in the same manner each night. This is different from heterosexuals who have sex in varying positions.

Homosexuality is especially popular in most Christian religions where anything aside from missionary style sex is considered sodomy. Most christians are outright homosexuals and believe heterosexuality to be a sin. -- Uncylclopedia

Found on Zephoria.

What Straight People Really Do Behind Closed Church Doors

"Hey baby. You're hot!" "And peace be with you, too, stud!" Tsk... tsk... tsk... Just read this Maxim article on "scoring at church" or read this shameful summary of the ways heterosexuals really interact at church when they're supposed to be promoting "family values." The heterosexualist agenda is not pretty. ;-)

Vatican Tightens Nocturnal Emissions Standards

from The Onion:

The Vatican has released a strict new set of Church laws intended to reduce the nocturnal emissions of teenage polluters by 50 percent in the next decade, Cardinal Antoni Bertoli announced Monday.

"In the past 10 years, unholy emissions from young men have risen by 150 million cubic centimeters, releasing erotic-dream byproducts into the bedsheet environment," Bertoli said. "The accumulation of pollutants from millions of individual violators around the world is having a devastating effect on the moral atmosphere."

Yeah, it's a satire.  But maybe it's also only a matter of time.

How to tell if you're living in a Red or Blue state

How to tell if you are living in a Red State or one of those "demon-infested" Blue States. Link courtesy of the Landover Baptist church.

Blue States: Home of good schools
Red States:  Homeskooled good
 
Blue States: Favor electric cars
Red States:  Favor electric chairs
 
Blue States: Forget that God did not give Adam a Steve
Red States:  Forget that not only did God give Abraham three wives, He gave Solomon 300 concubines
 

Blue States: Believe God loves us and gave everyone free will to be different
Red States:  Believe God willed us to freely hate everyone different
 
Blue States: Believe absence makes the heart grow fonder
Red States:  Believe abstinence saves the tart from plunder

Two Hanky Codes

A version of the Gay Hanky Code ... and the Christian Hanky Code.