"Pulse Christ" by James Day
Today, June 12 2023, marks seven years since the shooting at the Pulse gay bar in Orlando, Florida. The deadliest single act of violence against LGBTQ people in US history, this shooting took 49 beautiful, vibrant lives, and left countless more wounded and traumatized.
In the above painting, James Day depicts Jesus Christ as one of the victims of the Pulse shooting.
Image description: Jesus with light brown skin and dark hair and a close-shaved beard lies with his eyes closed on a dark background, a gold and white halo around his head. A purple cloth drapes his body, stained with blood from a bullet hole near his left shoulder. / end ID.
Day wrote a poem to go with his painting based on Romans 8 and Psalm 139, which reads as follows:
Who is it that condemns us, and who would see our destruction?
Shall narrow -minded preachers, or self-righteous religious zealots,
Or conservative lawmakers, or unjust judges, or brutal police officers
Convince us that we are unworthy?
What charges do they lay on us, and wherein do they find us guilty?
Is it the color of our skin, or our economic status?
Is it the religion we practice, or the religion we don’t practice?
Is it that our bodies don’t conform to their ideals,
Or that our love makes them uncomfortable,
Or that we don’t blithely submit to their authority?
Are these the crimes for which they persecute us daily and assign us to Hell?
Can these separate us from the love of God or make us unworthy of love?
We are persuaded that neither rejection by our families, nor two-faced friends,
Nor thoughtless neighbors, nor hate-filled co-workers,
Nor being single, nor being divorced, nor being lonely
Can define us as unlovable.
We are persuaded that neither unjust laws, nor biased public policy,
Nor hateful tirades from pulpits, nor bullies with bullhorns,
Nor ignorance, nor silence, nor invisibility
Can separate us from our connection to the divine.
For we are fearfully and wonderfully made,
Whether by the hand of God, or countless generations of ancestors.
We are fully human and imbued with the divine spark of life,
Curiously wrought in the depths, and encompassed even in our incompleteness.
We are the image of God, and in us the love of God can be seen clearly.
And even though they lock us away, or commit us to institutions,
Or drive us from our homes, or fire us from our jobs,
Or shower us with bullets at night clubs,
Or allow us to die from deadly diseases,
Or find any number of ways to grind us into the dust,
We will find color and light in the darkness,
We will sing together,
We will march together,
We will protest, and preach, and live lives filled with joy and love,
And, even in the face of fear and despite the hypocritical calls for false humility,
We will be proud of who we are.
Find more artistic, spiritual responses to the Pulse shooting here.
