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May 2012
Jesus in Love Newsletter
LGBT spirituality and the arts
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In This Issue
Ethiopiean eunuch
Day of Silence
Christina Rossetti
Gay Jesus
Juana de la Cruz


glbt spirituality & arts
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Vision statement

Jesus in Love supports lesbian, gay, bi trans and queer  (LGBTQ) spirituality, with an emphasis on art and literature. It promotes artistic and religious freedom and teaches love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It is based on these beliefs: God loves all people, including sexual minorities. The creative process is sacred. The queer visions, especially the gay Jesus and LGBT saints, will free people to experience the divine in new ways and lead to a more just world.


Greetings!
I hope you are enjoying this season of resurrection.  Signs of new life reported here include LGBT people claiming our place in the Bible, in church history, in the schools and in the courts.
Bible's Ethiopian eunuch:
Queers welcome in early church 

 
Philip and Ethiopian Eunuch, 11th century
A black gay man was the first non-Jewish convert to Christianity, according to progressive views of the Ethiopian eunuch's story in the Bible.  The term "eunuch" probably included a variety of sexual minorities that today would be called LGBT or queer.  His experience shows that the early church welcomed all kinds of outsiders. More info

(Credit:  Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, 11th century)
Jesus not a homophobe on Day of Silence

Gay teen in Jesus is not a Homophobe shirt

A gay teen won a legal battle to wear a T-shirt that says, "Jesus is not a homophobe" on the Day of Silence (April 20), a national student-led protest of anti-LGBT bullying in schools. Last year an Ohio high school stopped 16-year-old Maverick Couch from wearing the shirt, claiming it was "sexual in nature." Lambda Legal sued on his behalf. More info 

   

(Credit: Maverick Couch and friend. Photo from Lambda Legal)

Christina Rossetti: Lesbian poet and saint

Cover of Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti was a 19th-century English poet whose work ranged from Christmas carols to sensuous lesbian love poetry. A devout Christian who never married, she has been called a "queer virgin" and "gay mystic." Her best-known works are the carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Goblin Market," a poem with a lesbian Christ figure  More info 

 

(Credit: Cover image for Rossetti's "Goblin Market and Other Poems," 1862, by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti)  

Gay Jesus makes news at the Guardian

Queer Jesus by Andrew Craig Williams

An Anglican priest wrote "Was Jesus gay? Probably" in the Guardian recently, making a big splash on the Internet. Paul Oestreicher, a chaplain at the University of Sussex in England, stated that Jesus was most likely gay, based on his relationship with his beloved disciple John. More info 

 

(Credit: "Queer Jesus" by Andrew Craig Williams)

Sor Juana: Nun who loved a countess

Sor Juana In�s de la Cruz by Lewis Williams
Sor Juana In�s de la Cruz was a 17th-century Mexican nun whose writings include lesbian love poetry.  She is considered one of the greatest Latin American poets and an early advocate of women's rights.

Sor Juana's convent cell became Mexico City's intellectual hub and the largest library in Mexico.  She was visited by the city's elite, including the countess who became her passionate friend.  More info

(Credit: "Sor Juana In�s de la Cruz" by Lewis Williams, trinitystores.com)
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Cartoon shows Pope mad at nuns and Jesus for not condemning homosexuality

The Seminarian: Gay theology student looks for love in new DVD

Kittredge and Audrey's 25th anniversary!

The diverse people in this newsletter -- from the Ethiopian eunuch of the Bible to today's gay teen -- were inspired by God.  Like them, may we follow God's spirit wherever it leads.
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One day, two processions;
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Holding Hands

CAN GAYS AND LESBIANS BE TRUE CHRISTIANS? See the "Gay and Christian" website! It shows that a person can be both a Christian and a loving, sexually-active gay man or lesbian.
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Toby Johnson, author, Gay Spirituality: Gay Identity and the Transformation of Human Consciousness,
Gay Perspective
: Things our [homo]sexuality tells us about the nature of God and the Universe,
Two Spirits, and more... 
former editor, White Crane Journal
please visit tobyjohnson.com
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