Last Updated on January 13, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Q Spirit and its founder Kittredge Cherry are regularly attacked in anti-LGBTQ articles from hate groups that spread disinformation and division.
“Being targeted by haters is a badge of honor and proof that Q Spirit is reaching people with the important message of God’s love for all, including LGBTQ people,” Cherry said.
Warning: All threats will be reported!.
Cherry was reluctant to give attention to the hate-mongers, but she reached her limit when the latest attack turned out to come from a Russian-backed disinformation site. She decided to expose the dangers posed by those who spread lies, fake news and hate speech by sharing the most significant attack articles from the last 17 years, from 2005 to today.
“People need to know what’s happening behind the scenes as haters try to undermine society in general and my work in particular,” Cherry said. “Conservative attacks won’t stop me from telling LGBTQ people that God loves us. I have faith that nothing can stop God’s love.”
The rise of hate speech is a complex global problem, but it also hits home right here at Q Spirit. All the attacks on Q Spirit used to come from conservative Christian / Catholic websites, but now they are posted on sites affiliated with alt-right political extremists and even the Russian government.
The most recent attack article claims that “normalization of homosexual activity” leads to “oddities like Q Spirit” that “would be laughable if it were not blasphemous.” It was posted on Sept. 18, 2022, at Oriental Review, an online magazine that was sanctioned by the U.S. and British governments for its ties to Russian intelligence services. A U.S. Treasury Department news release announced the sanctions and denounced Oriental Review as a Russian-backed “disinformation outlet” that spreads lies about “any divisive issues that they can exploit.”
As U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview after her husband was beaten by a conspiracy-theory blogger in fall 2022, “As long as you’re effective, you will be a target.”
The idea is summed up by a slogan that is trending as a meme on social media: “If you have haters, you’re doing something right” or its rap-music version, “If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t popping.” Another popular meme updates Jesus’ teaching from “Love your enemies” to “Love your haters, they’re your biggest fans.” There’s always a chance that haters, trolls and bots can be converted — like Paul of Tarsus who started out as an anti-Christian hater and became a major Christian apostle.
Internet memes offer popular wisdom on haters
Supporters urge her to “keep up the good work,” with dozens of social-media comments such as “If you’re stirring the pot of rigid religionists, you’re doing God’s work, sister!”
“Q Spirit readers are always quick and passionate in showing support whenever a hate article attacks me,” Cherry said. “They inspire me to keep going.”
She also gets courage from the life and words of Jesus, who said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12).
A sense of humor helps in the face of hostility. Some Q Spirit supporters point out that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Many quote gay writer Oscar Wilde, who was famous for his witticisms: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
In addition to being attacked in fake news articles, Q Spirit also receives a steady stream of nasty comments threatening hellfire and damnation because they mistakenly claim that homosexuality is a sin. Most of these comments never appear on the website, although negative comments are approved if they respectfully disagree with specific parts of a Q Spirit article. Some comments are so ignorant and loaded with misspellings that they are hilarious, such as “Respect God please!!! Do not get ashtray!”
Looking back at the hate articles over time reveals a disturbing trend as the attacks moved from small fringe websites to larger sites run by well-funded organizations. Hate cannot last, and some of the older articles have blessedly been deleted, although they are still stored for history on the Internet Archive.
The following list summarizes the most significant hate articles attacking Kittredge Cherry, her books and her work at Q Spirit and Jesus in Love since 2005. This list will be updated if other major hate articles are published. “These articles could be called the greatest hits and hates of the past 17 years,” Cherry said.
For the other side, check out the many positive endorsements on Q Spirit’s “What Others are Saying” page.
Oriental Review
“Prime Minister Trudeau And Q Spirit,” Sept. 18, 2022
The article claims that “normalization of homosexual activity” leads to “oddities like Q Spirit” that “would be laughable if it were not blasphemous.” Headquartered in Moscow, Oriental Review is an online magazine that was sanctioned by the U.S. and British governments for its ties to Russian intelligence services. A U.S. Treasury Department news release announced the sanctions and denounced Oriental Review as a Russian-backed “disinformation outlet” that spreads lies about “any divisive issues that they can exploit.”
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Breitbart News
LGBT Jesuit Priest Showcases ‘Gay Jesus’ Art, Nov. 27, 2019
Breitbart News, the voice of the alt-right with millions of readers, attacked the gay Passion of Christ art by Doug Blanchard, the book that Cherry wrote about it, and a tweet about it by James Martin, Vatican consultant and Jesuit priest. Breitbart quotes Cherry, but not by name. She is quoted as “the Amazon copy for the book.” Breitbart claims 25 million monthly visitors, but Wikipedia estimates their readership is 4 million.
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LifeSiteNews
LGBT ministry at New York parish promotes gay porn, Jan. 23, 2018
Fr. James Martin touts blasphemous image of Jesus as a homosexual, Nov. 24, 2019
LifeSiteNews, a major far-right extremist Catholic site based in Canada, attacked twice. In 2019 they blamed Cherry and others for “blasphemous homoerotic works depicting the life of Jesus as if he were a gay man” and condemned the LGBTQ movement as “the most grave satanic threat to the Church today.” The article quotes extensively from Cherry’s “appallingly offensive” book on the gay Passion of Christ that “veers far from the immutable Truth.” The 2018 article criticized the New York LGBTQ Catholic group Out at St Paul for sharing a link on their Facebook page to Q Spirit’s article Saint Sebastian: History’s first gay icon? LifeSiteNews claims a readership of 20 million and was banned by some social media platforms in 2021 for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
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Americans for Truth about Homosexuality
Blasphemy 101: ‘Lesbian Christian’ Kittredge Cherry Offers ‘Rainbow Christ Prayer, July 1, 2012
Americans for Truth about Homosexuality is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They condemned the Rainbow Christ Prayer by Cherry and Patrick Cheng with an article that begins, “The ‘queering’ of Jesus Christ is perhaps one of the most outrageous and demented forms of homosexual activism in this spiritually confused age.” Headed by Peter LaBarbera, the organization’s tax-exempt status was revoked in 2010 after years of failure to file appropriate paperwork.
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NewsBusters
Huffington Post Promotes ‘Queer Christ,’ April 5, 2012
Rewriting the Bible: The Gospel According to Liberals, March 13, 2013
Conservative media watchdog group NewsBusters attacked Cherry for her Huffington Post article “Queer Christ arises to liberate and heal.” NewsButers claimed it was “riddled with distortions, half-truths, fantasies, and baseless speculations.” They returned to the subject later in an overview that lumped her in with such liberal luminaries as Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Jesse Jackson. NewsBusters is part of Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization reporting $15 million in annual revenue from funders that include ExxonMobil.
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Institute on Religion and Democracy
Outrageous Quote of the Week, June 4-10, 2006
This was the first major website to attack Kittredge Cherry. They did it by simply quoting her under the headline, “Outrageous Quote of the Week.” It was posted less than a year after she began her first LGBTQ spirituality website. The IRD is a conservative think tank that promotes its views to mainline Protestant churches.
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Examples of early attacks by small, fringe websites
This is one of the most detailed attacks, and for years it showed up high on search-engine rankings for Kittredge Cherry’s name:
Kittredge Cherry: Lesbian, Modernist, and Deceiver, 2007 (Jesus-Is-Savior.com)
These two are memorable for their bizarrely creative insults:
Moonbat Minister Prays to Perverted “Erotic Christ,” July 9, 2012 (moonbattery.com)
The Dumb Dora Award for Blasphemous Burlesque Goes to Kittredge Cherry…, Aug. 9, 2011 (Ignorance is Plentiful blog)
Hate doesn’t get the last word
Hate doesn’t get the final say. The New York Times praised Kittredge Cherry’s “graceful yet erudite” style and her prayer was read at the Washington National Cathedral. Listen to the voices of Q Spirit readers:
“This work is essential and holy in the face of bigotry and intolerance.”
— Tony O’Connell
“Kittredge Cherry provides a service this planet cannot live without: spreading the message that God loves LGBTQIA2+ peoples the world over.”
— Christopher Portelli
“I donated because Kittredge Cherry is a National Treasure!”
— Jim Arachne
“For those of us who care deeply about LGBTQ spirituality, particularly in the tradition of Christianity, I can think of no one who does more careful, thoughtful, deeply researched and deeply loving work than Kittredge Cherry.”
— Jim Littrell
Lots of other enthusiastic comments from readers are posted on Q Spirit’s “What Others are Saying” page. “You can help stop the hate with your prayers, donations and positive comments,” Cherry affirmed.
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Top image credit:
“No hate” image with “Rainbow Christ-Sophia the Liberator” by Jeremy Whitner.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit on Nov. 13, 2022, and was most recently updated on Dec. 17, 2022.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
