Published: October 29, 2009 11:55 pm      

MIKE JAMES: ‘They’ have given much 10/30/09

A correspondent on The Independent’s editorial page Tuesday posed an interesting question. He was critical of a presentation made last week at an educational conference at Ashland Community and Technical College.

The conference focused on diversity and the presentation in question was the narrative by a Marshall University instructor on growing up gay in Appalachia.

God condemns gay people, the writer said. There was no question about that, at least to him.

But then he asked, “What is it they have to offer? I can think of nothing.”

Well I can.

How about the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Supper? Just for starters.

Two of the universally acknowledged masterworks of western civilization, these paintings depict Creation as set down in Genesis and the final meal of Jesus with the Apostles before the crucifixion.

It seems likely that one who cites Genesis and Romans, as did the letter writer, would value the spiritual message in these works of art.

Each of them painted by a gay man.

Yep, Michelangelo Buonarroti, the 15th century painter, sculptor and architect, and Leonardo da Vinci, who was all that and more — inventor, engineer, scientist, mathematician — were both gay.

The central panel of the Sistine ceiling depicts God, in all his white-bearded majesty, reaching out and transmitting the spark of life into a recumbent Adam. It is a moving and inspiring image. I think Michelangelo must have been touched by divine inspiration to have painted it.

Next to the crucifixion and resurrection, the last supper was perhaps the most decisive episodes in the earthly life of Jesus, the night of the first Holy Communion, the ceremony through which Christians renew their faith.

framed prints of Leonardo’s painting hang on the walls of people who would condemn his sexuality.

Two examples not enough? Here are a few more:

-James Baldwin, 20th century American novelist, wrote “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”

-Van Cliburn, classical pianist. Brought down the house in front of a tough Moscow audience at the height of the Cold War.

-Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer. He wrote “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker,” among others.

-John Maynard Keynes, economist who originated (what else?) Keynesian economics.

-Alan Turing, a pioneer computer scientist.

-Walt Whitman, 19th century American poet. He wrote “Leaves of Grass” and other works.

It’s just a sampling. Let the argument on sexual mores continue. But at least do your homework.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.

And it was Leonardo whose representation of the event is considered the exemplar and has been reproduced ad infinitum — no doubt some