Last Updated on January 13, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Vatican consultant James Martin recently showcased a gay Jesus painting by Doug Blanchard, which has long been featured by Q Spirit’s Kittredge Cherry in her book and blog. Breitbart News and other major right-wing extremist media responded with an attack in late November.
Update: Attacks on Martin’s support for Blanchard’s art continued in June 2021 with the article “Francis Cheers ‘Pastoral Zeal’ Of LGBT Crusader” in the American Conservative.
Far-right Catholic website LifeSiteNews accused Martin, Cherry and Blanchard of creating and promoting “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.”
Then Breitbart News, the voice of the alt-right with 4 million readers, escalated the drama with an article headlined, “LGBT Jesuit Priest Showcases ‘Gay Jesus’ Art.”
In the tweet that started the firestorm, Martin included the image “Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers” from “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Blanchard. “Be zealous in the defense of others, especially the poor and marginalized, and all those who are defenseless,” Martin urged.
Martin is a Jesuit priest, New York Times bestselling author and editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America. Pope Francis appointed him as a consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications in 2017. He faced backlash for urging the Catholic church to support LGBTQ people after the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. His book “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity” on is on Q Spirit’s list of the top LGBTQ Christian books of 2017.
“Outraging all the right people”
The Lifesitenews article quotes extensively from Cherry’s “appallingly offensive” book “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” claiming that it “veers far from the immutable Truth.”
The book features all 24 paintings in Blanchard’s Passion series, with reflections by Cherry. The images show Jesus as a contemporary gay man in a modern city as he lives out the dramatic events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and his arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection.
Then Lifesitenews did a big follow-up article about how the Catholic church chose not to rebuke James Martin for sharing art from the gay Passion. “Over 400 U.S. bishops… have lent tacit approval to the anti-Biblical notions that Jesus can be viewed as a gay man,” it said.
Under the leadership of former executive chairman Steve Bannon, Breitbart News grew to 17 million readers and was a rallying spot for Trump supporters during the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
Life Site News is operated by a pro-life Canadian non-profit lobbyist organization and rated as having “extreme right bias” by Media Bias / Fact Check.
“Right-wing attacks won’t stop me from sharing art that affirms LGBTQ people as part of God’s good creation,” Cherry pledged. “Q Spirit shows the work of contemporary LGBTQ religious artists along with classic art — even if conservatives disapprove.”
Dozens of supporters urged Cherry and Blanchard to “keep up the good work,” with Facebook comments such as, “Outraging all the right people” and “It’s high praise to be criticized by bigots. And it’s Divine when religious bigots clutch their pearls at the simplest expressions of liberation.”
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Related links:
Conservatives attack Q Spirit article on Saint Sebastian as gay icon
Queer Nativity makes international news after conservative attack
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Top image credit:
James Martin (Wikipedia) and the painting he tweeted, “Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers” from “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Douglas Blanchard.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit on Dec. 4, 2019 and was updated for accuracy and expanded with new material on Oct. 30, 2021.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
