I have to think birds came to Jesus as he ascended into the heavens. In my mind, they would have come to say goodbye, or hello, or just to be playful with the only person they’d ever seen fly. We are told many times in the Bible that Jesus cares about the fates of birds, specifically sparrows, common in Jesus’ area and time, as plentiful and as associated with humans and human habitats as they are today. People thought they were annoying. Some still do.
When I was a child I had a neighbor who killed sparrows on purpose.
He was an older gentleman with the largest house on the block. LD was his name. He had erected a purple martin house at the back of his fenced property, which adjoined the back of our unfenced property (we were living in the church parsonage while my dad was pastor at Braymer Baptist Church). When one puts up a purple martin house, I was told, you want purple martins to come and nest there–not sparrows, or any other bird. It seems to me in retrospect that it’s arrogant to think you open up free apartments and reject whatever birds they attract. He didn’t want those bird houses filled with “nasty” sparrows, so he installed cages at the bottom of the pole of the purple martin house, cages where he placed enticing food to attract sparrows.
So for the birds he wanted, he created homes; for the birds he didn’t, he created cages.
“A Healing Breakfast on the Beach (After Easter Series),” Jerome Stueart, (11 x 15) watercolor and mixed media on paper. 4-22-2025.
A good meal can heal us.
This is a depiction of a beautiful story (John 21) of Jesus, after he comes back from the dead, visiting his friends. It’s not unlike stories from friends I’ve talked to who have had someone pass recently. Stories of healing conversations with loved ones who have died. These stories have a similar theme, though maybe they didn’t see their friend quite so “in the flesh,” but the idea of a healing conversation still rings true and is common. We need to have old wounds resolved and healed after someone dies. Part of grieving is healing wounds that we might be keeping alive inside ourselves.
“The Challenge Ahead (after Pope Francis),” Jerome Stueart, (11 x 15), watercolor, mixed media on paper. 4-21-25.
These are pivotal moments in world history. Today, every election seems to either put a weight on the scale for fascism or against it. There is no middle ground, no neutrality, when fascism is expanding. You are in the fight already, either by capitulating to dictators or through doing what you can to block or limit fascism regimes and plans. The Pope is a power position. The Catholic Church must be in the fight against fascism. The world needs them to elect a strong pope who will protect the weak and push back against the powerful.
This is not a sure thing, though. I don’t know if we will get a Pope as centered on the poor, the marginalized, on broadening out the care of the church and pulling back its exclusionary tendencies. But that is the challenge.
Pope Francis was a great pope, but he wasn’t a perfect Pope. Who is? He certainly moved the Catholic Church towards real inclusion and re-centered it on Christ’s mission. He took necessary steps forward. I found hope in his small moves towards full acceptance of LGBTQ individuals, and hope in his condemnation of American fascists, the war in Gaza, and his hands-on approach to leading.
We will need that kind of Pope again, one that progresses Christianity forward, not one that plays politics and power or eases the minds of social conservatives who want to deny rights and inclusion to those who are most hurting in society. We need someone fearless to take on those in power who seek to hurt others. Particularly, we need a Pope who can stand up to dictators and fascist leaders around the world. We can’t have a Pope who capitulates because he is afraid.
Give us a lion — a lion to protect the poor, the immigrant, the marginalized against the wealthy and powerful; a lion who roars mercy, grace and love at those who would condemn and incarcerate those who are different. A lion who condemns instead the practices of fascists and dictators all over the world, and emboldens the people to resist and create change to remake the society into a place that upholds equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion in every way.
One Pope (like one person) can be powerful if they can help empower others for positive change. This is a huge platform where the right person can help change society for the better of all. Pope Francis started that great work. Who will wear those shoes now?
Hey friends, and new friends, I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you. Thank you for sharing my work, “The Gulf of Empathy” to all your friends and on your pages and in your groups, all around the world. I am overwhelmed with gratitude at your kindness.
Many of you have asked for prints, and I am doing some due diligence to make sure everything is in place to sell prints. Right now, my image is under review at RedBubble. If and when it is approved, I will let you know.
I wanted first to make sure that a) I reached out to Bishop Budde and ask her thoughts and permission on any likeness of her, and b) that part of the proceeds goes to organizations that help defend LGBTQ and Immigrant communities. The overwhelming popularity of this image should be used to help as many people as possible.
I have been stuck at home the last few days with a bad chest cold, in and out of sleep. The way this painting zoomed around the world caught me a bit off guard, as no one expects to go viral, but if it had to happen, I am very happy that it happened this way.
I know that it’s the power of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s words during the inauguration that is the real power that compels us to share this work. It certainly was the impetus behind me creating the painting and sharing it first with you. At a time when we needed someone to speak out, Bishop Budde was there–and spoke so eloquently and so simply about the need for Mercy and Empathy.
People need reassurance and they need hope that their lives will be protected, their rights upheld, and that they can continue to be who they are without having to hide themselves, or produce documents, or live in fear of being found out, or have their health care, food assistance, or jobs taken away.
Her words were prophetic, as we found out by the end of the day that the most vulnerable people in the country would be targeted with a flurry of executive orders.
It was her speech that went viral that day, that kept playing again and again to drown out each executive order. I hope that keeps happening and we amplify the people who are helping us. There’s a lot of bad in the news these days, but following Mr. Rogers’ advice, I’m “looking for the helpers”. What they are doing are much more important–and we can be inspired daily by the kinds of people who stand up and use their opportunities, platforms, microphones, keyboards, webpages to speak FOR good, to make sure that the Joy is not all taken by those who want to steal it. It is not about hiding our eyes from the bad, but it is about looking for those who are fighting back, and amplifying that instead of amplifying the hateful rhetoric that already has a bunch of platforms. Crowd that out with Kindness and Mercy. I’m going to look for the people helping us.
They want you to be exhausted and sad and defeated and give up.
Keep dancing (as Dan Savage reminded us) and keep creating beautiful things that remind us of what it is to be kind, merciful, generous.
One of the oldest stories in the world is the story of a woman who tells her husband, the ruler of the nation, one story after the next about mercy and kindness, reminding him to be merciful and what it means to be kind and generous, and eventually it has an effect on him and, perhaps, those who read or heard the stories later. Scheherazade did this for One Thousand and One Nights, though, so we have our work cut out for us. Inspire others with your stories and your creations and keep looking and amplifying voices and tactics and plans that successfully protect others. Do what you can where you are to stop hate in its tracks.
We are not defeated. We are “stronger together” (as Dayton, Ohio taught me) and we will push back, and keep our hopes protected.
Thank you again for sharing one queer artist’s work and for amplifying the words of empathy, mercy, compassion around the world.
As a last note: Please help me in giving proper attribution to my work wherever you see it. Some images I’ve seen do not have attribution, or others are taking credit, and some just have my name spelled incorrectly. I know my last name has a funny spelling, but it has an “ear” in it. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to ask if this work is mine, and for those who have helped correct attribution mistakes. Artists deeply appreciate your efforts. We can only grow an audience with our names and our works.
Yours,
Jerome Stueart
PS. I will be answering all your thoughtful letters and messages as fast as I can, thank you. You have been very kind to me. I should be back in good health early next week, I hope!
Fifteen years ago, 2009, I came out to my evangelical Baptist church in Whitehorse, Yukon, over Easter week. My last official duties as the Deacon of Worship were to lead the Maundy Thursday service—but I didn’t know they were my “last.” I wrote a poem called “Nobody called it the Last Supper” and read it during the service. I can’t find the poem right now, but the gist of it was that no one knows when the Last of anything will happen. The consequences of our actions, our revelations, may disrupt the future of Suppers with those we love. Mine did. THEN it becomes the “last” in retrospect.
I wanted to commemorate this anniversary (though it moves around according to the moon) by creating a painting of the last supper, but with the chaos that is implied in the Da Vinci painting, and the chaos that happened when I came out to each family at my church individually over dinner during Holy Week back in 2009.
I started teaching a course that looks at the character of Jesus when he shows up in Science Fiction. Currently the course is only 6 weeks long and only taught at the UDLLI, the University of Dayton’s Lifelong Learning Centre for Senior Adults. We are using the following short stories and novels in the course, and I will be placing the blogposts of the course over on Wrestling With Gods website because it’s become a great place to talk about religion and faith as it appears in science fiction and fantasy.
What happens to Biblical Jesus when the narrative is continued into the future? Is it subverted? Are writers appropriating Christianity to rewrite it and rob the narrative of its miracle, or do they instead seek to expand the notion of Jesus to its infinite possibility? How does Jesus fare in science fiction and what can we learn about faith when science fiction writers write about him? We look first at the life of Jesus in the Gospels to ground us in the ur-text, try to gather the importance of him as a character and iconic figure in history, culture and religion. How is Jesus relevant in the future? Then we look at how authors extrapolate the future of faith, or seek to tweak history, just a bit, to get the savior they want, and perhaps we can better see what kind of culture we are in the face of our chosen Saviour.
Come follow along over on the Wrestling with Gods site. Already the class has been exciting as these students know a lot about religion, specifically Judaism and Christianity (UD is a Catholic institution) and many retired professors attend these classes for fun (they also can be quite mischievous).
The works we’re going to explore, and I will detail in blogposts are these:
To get us oriented on Jesus the character in the Bible:
Jesus: the Face of God Jay Parini
“The Man” Ray Bradbury from The Illustrated Man
“Mecha-Jesus” Derwin Mak from Wrestling With Gods
“So Loved” Matt Hughes from Wrestling With Gods
“The Rescuer” Arthur Porges
“The Traveler” Richard Matheson
“The Real Thing” Carolyn Ives Gilman
“Let’s Go to Golgotha!” Garry Kilworth
“The Gospel According to Gamaliel Crucis” Michael Bishop (a longer work I may not use)
“Jesus Christ in Texas” W.E.B Dubois (which isn’t exactly Science Fiction, but may prove useful in this study)
Then two novels:
Behold the Man, Michael Moorcock,
Jesus on Mars Philip Jose Farmer
If we have time, “Farewell to the Master,” Harry Bates—Which becomes The Day the Earth Stood Still. This would be delightful to show to students in a longer class. To read the short story and then watch both films.
I can also see adding these works to the syllabus for a longer class:
The Man Who Died DH Lawrence
Jesus Christ, Animator Ken MacLeod
All Star Superman Grant Morrison
Jesus Christs AJ Langguth
Only Begotten Daughter James Morrow
If you have suggestions on stories, poems, or novels to add to this list, let me know. Specifically we are NOT covering characters who merely have a “savior-esque” quality to them, or those that have a martyr motif. I want to look at places where characters are for all intents and purposes supposed to BE Jesus.
cience Fiction. Currently the course is only 6 weeks long and only taught at the UDLLI, the University of Dayton’s Lifelong Learning Centre for Senior Adults. We are using the following short stories and novels in the course, and I will be placing the blogposts of the course over on 
Bear Witness 