This series of illustrations was done for pride month 2023 with Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice.

To see the full series of 16 illustrations: 
https://justiceunbound.org/the-art-of-queering-the-bible-queering-the-prophets/

To read about the process and musings about this series: 
https://justiceunbound.org/the-art-and-artist-of-queering-the-prophets/


I wasn’t sure if I should say yes to doing this series of illustrations. The prophets of the Bible I grew up with are known for being xenophobic, nationalist, sometimes violent and often judgemental. Queering them would mean trying to look through and beyond verse upon verse of inflicting death and destruction to the enemies of Israel. A quick image search gave me images of vaguely Caucasian and fair-skinned Middle Eastern men from middling age to old patriarchs with long flowing beards. My only extended experience of telling stories from the Bible in contemporary ways came from my brief stint as youth librarian of a lockable white IKEA bookcase. I spent hours reading Max Lucado’s stories of Christ in modern dress, parables of mop buckets and sandwich signs…I couldn’t go back to these stories as a queer person in fear of a God and His followers that I could not trust.  

I wasn’t quite sure where to start.

So I lit a candle.