LGBT promoter Father James Martin SJ has chosen a painting from a collection titled Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision to illustrate the scene of Jesus driving money changers from the temple.
The painting selected by Father Martin depicts Jesus as a gay man, part of a series of 24 works from homoerotic painter Douglas Blanchard, which have been used as illustrations for a book featuring a homosexualized Jesus.
“Meet Jesus as a gay man of today in a contemporary city with The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” reads the Amazon copy for the book. “In stunning new images, the modern Christ figure is jeered by fundamentalists, tortured by Marine look-alikes, and rises again to enjoy homoerotic moments with God.”
As noted by Lifesite News, Father Martin used one of the paintings from the book to illustrate last Friday’s gospel reading in which Jesus throws traders and merchants out of the Jewish temple of Jerusalem.
“Gospel: Today Jesus drives the money-changers from the Temple (Lk 19). NT scholars say this was one of the main events that precipitated his execution,” tweeted the Jesuit. “Yet Jesus is not cowed by opponents. Another Gospel says ‘zeal’ for his Father’s house ‘consumes him.’”
“The 24 paintings in the gay Passion cover Jesus’ final days, including his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection,” the Amazon description continues. “A queer Passion is important now because Christianity is being used to justify hate and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
This is not the first time the Catholic priest has gotten into trouble for promoting active homosexuality. He also famously tweeted out support for gay pride marches and has publicly urged the Church to embrace the notion of families around same-sex couples.
After the release of Father Martin’s 2017 book on homosexual outreach, Building a Bridge, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput admonished the priest for failing to summon gay Catholics to “conversion,” rather than simply calling for “affirmation.”
What Father Martin’s book “regrettably lacks,” Chaput wrote at the time, is “an engagement with the substance of what divides faithful Christians from those who see no sin in active same-sex relationships.”
The Church is not simply about unity, Chaput said, but about unity in God’s love rooted in truth. This means that active homosexuals (or anyone in an illicit sexual relationship) “need conversion, not merely affirmation.”
The Catholic Church has always condemned homosexual activity as intrinsically evil, noting that Sacred Scripture “presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity.”
At the same time, the Church urges its pastors to treat persons with homosexual tendencies “with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” while assisting them to live chaste lives.
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