Digital Lecture: The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision

Join Us in Person or Online 

Venue: Lindome församlinscentrum (Parish Centre) where the lecture will be live-streamed.
Those who prefer may also join the lecture online from home via Microsoft Teams.

We are delighted to invite you to a live online lecture with visual artist Doug Blanchard.

Blanchard will present his artworks, The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision, a series of 24 paintings. He will discuss its themes and artistic vision while reflecting on selected artworks. The lecture will be streamed live to Lindome Parish Centre, where attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to Doug Blanchard during the event. Online participants will receive a Teams link after submitting the registration form below.

The lecture begins at 6:30 PM (CEST), and we recommend arriving a fifteen minutes early if you are attending in person. 

Exhibition, Refreshments, and Conversation

Before and after the lecture, visitors will be able to view posters featuring images from the Passion Series and browse the accompanying book. Following the presentation, everyone is welcome to stay for refreshments and informal conversation about the artwork and its themes. 

The images are also available to view online: https://www.passionofchristbook.com/paintings.html 

Information about additional opportunities to see the exhibition at Lindome Parish Centre during September and October will be published on this website. 

About the Artist 

Doug Blanchard is an American artist known for The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision, a contemporary interpretation of Christ's Passion told through a modern LGBTQ perspective. His work has been exhibited and discussed internationally for its exploration of faith, identity, suffering, and compassion. Read more about the artist and the artworks in the series below the registration form.

Registration 

Please complete the registration form below. 

·         Name

·         E-mail

You can choose one of the following options: 
• Attend online via Microsoft Teams 
• Attend in person at Lindome församlingscentrum (Parish Centre).

After registering, online participants will receive a Teams link by email.

Fact box about Blanchard:

·         Born in 1957 and raised in Dallas, Texas.

·         Holds an M.A. in Art History from Washington University in St. Louis.

·         Holds an M.F.A. in Painting from the New York Academy of Art.

·         Maintained a studio on Manhattan's Lower East Side for more than thirty years.

·         Alongside his artistic practice, he taught at several institutions, including Washington University in St. Louis, Berea College in Kentucky, and Bronx Community College of the City University of New York.

·         Has been actively involved in political and cultural initiatives supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

·         Church affiliation: The Episcopal Church (Anglican tradition) in the United States.

Fact box about the artworks in the series:

The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision was painted between 2001 and 2005.

A series of 24 paintings
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 46 × 36 cm

Meet Jesus as a young man of today in a contemporary city with The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision. In powerful and imaginative images, the modern Christ figure is mocked by fundamentalists, tortured, crucified, and ultimately resurrected, liberated and set free. Jesus is surrounded by friends who reflect not only diversity, but also the experiences of people and communities who have had to struggle for their rights and for the dignity of a full and equal life.

Douglas Blanchard's art touches something deeply human and, at the same time, profoundly spiritual. This is art that invites reflection and raises challenging questions about both ourselves and the society in which we live.

Relocating biblical stories into contemporary settings is by no means new in the history of art. Blanchard drew inspiration from Renaissance painters, who frequently placed biblical scenes within the world they knew, whether in Flemish towns or the landscapes of Tuscany. This was not done naïvely, but rather to express that the meaning of these stories remains relevant in every age.

Blanchard sets the Passion narratives in the surroundings of his own home city, New York. We follow Jesus through places that feel strikingly familiar. By placing the Gospel story within a contemporary urban setting, the paintings invite us to reflect on the meaning of suffering, injustice, and love in our own lives today.

In Blanchard's work, Christ is not an elevated and inaccessible figure. Instead, he appears as an ordinary human being: vulnerable and exposed. He is portrayed as a young queer man who is questioned, rejected, and condemned.

A queer Passion narrative is needed because the Bible has been used, and in some places continues to be used, to justify hatred and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. They have been labelled sinners, denied civil rights and economic opportunities, erased from history, and in some cases assaulted or even killed in the name of Jesus. Rather than abandoning the Christian faith and its central story, Blanchard chooses to reclaim the Christian story.

"I am not willing to surrender the Gospel to people who think they own it and use it as a weapon to dominate others."

The paintings also include members of other communities who experience marginalisation and oppression in different ways. They portray people who struggle for fundamental rights, human dignity, and equal worth. Among Jesus' friends are individuals who, under ordinary circumstances, might never have met.

The series reveals the diversity within the Body of Christ and highlights the Gospel message of Jesus: the one who brings redemption to all people and who shows particular compassion for those living on the margins of society and under oppression.

Source

Kitteredge, Blanchard. The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision. Apocryphile Press, Berkeley, CA, 2014.

Images reproduced with permission from Doug Blanchard.

The series The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision has been exhibited at the Leslie-Lohman Museum in New York and at JHS Gallery in New Mexico.

All twenty-four paintings are now held in private collections around the world.

Lindome Parish has been granted permission to display posters reproducing the artworks at Lindome Parish Centre during October 2026.

This event is in collaboration with Sensus. (Sensus is one of Sweden's leading non-profit organisations, promoting adult education, culture, and community engagement).