What do Jesus’ parables, Black and disabled civil rights movements, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine all have in common? Probably more than you’d think — but for this episode, Laura and Avery focus on their joint uses in imagining a more just future into being.

Some of the places we go in this winding episode: Womanist midrash & sanctified imagination; AutScape & Crip Camp’s modeled possibilities; and in-depth discussions of two Deep Space Nine episodes (“Past Tense” and “Far Beyond the Stars”) that encapsulate the value of science fiction in making imagined futures reality.

(0:00) Introducing the need for marginalized communities to imagine futures the world claims are impossible

(7:30) AutScape, Crip Camp, and small tastes of what a fully accessible world would be like

(18:44) Lack of imagination isn’t always the problem – people in power resist the push for better futures

(26:23) Lily Wachowski’s Indian rope trick: creating what she needed to pull herself up

(31:10) Sanctified Imagination and Jesus’ impossible Kin(g)dom

(44:13) Uses of Sci Fi; introducing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine & “Past Tense”

(57:36) Bell Riots’ parallels to the Attica Prison Riots; race, gender, & dis/ability in “Past Tense”

(1:17:49) “Past Tense” as imperfect midrash

(1:22:13) Introducing “Far Beyond the Stars” — Sisko’s vision of a 1940s Black writer dreaming of himself in space

(1:49:07) Wrapping up — Laura’s sci fi story

A companion episode over on Avery’s Blessed Are the Binary Breakers podcast exploring AutScape in more depth: https://www.blessedarethebinarybreakers.com/podcast-feed/episode/22359848/imagining-futures-into-being-with-autscape

YouTube video “Holy Roller: The Power of a Wheelchair-Using God”: https://youtu.be/NRy7Au8T7BA?si=SnyYRIpoSxs9LuH0

More on the “Judgment Day” comic featuring a Black astronaut: https://www.brandeis.edu/peacebuilding-arts/publications/newsletter/2023/the-eve-ofjudgement-day.html

The African American Policy Forum: https://www.aapf.org/

https://www.autscape.org/

Once again my friend Michi has joined me for an episode.

(0:00) Mark 10:35-44 — James & John's request to be at Jesus' right

My Guest is Pastor Felix Weise.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introducing Felix, good news vs. nice news, Greek evangelion

(3:30) Looking at verses using the Greek word ekpléssó — Jesus’ good news shocks and disrupts

(13:00) Complexities in the connection between German Church and State; Felix’s roles within the German Church

(22:00) Felix is on the inside, seeking to bring progressive theologies; Laura is on the outside, doesn’t feel safe in church settings where their very presence disrupts the “nice” environment

(34:00) Do you choose to join the church institution to have a platform, power, security — or fight from the outside, but struggle to get heard?

(38:30) More nice news — it’s not bad, but it’s not enough; compare to the theologies of the marginalized that deal with the hard stuff

(49:30) People with privilege also need liberation; the systems of power harm everyone, and “nice” news can numb us to that truth

(55:00) MLK, Jr., called out liberal white Christians who silence the oppressed to avoid discomfort; similar issue with assimilationist gays, respectability politics

(60:00) Keeping things “nice” won’t stop church membership decline; redefine success

(66:45 to end) Toxic positivity that makes us pretend all’s fine; Jesus wasn’t nice, but Jesus was kind

After a long break I am joined again by my friend Michi for a rather whiney episode where I try to relate my own frustration about the role I get pushed into over and over again with no lesser leader than Moses. Special thanks go again to my friend Avery who edited this episode.

1:00 – 10:00 – topic intro – feeling like an ornamental hermit

10:00 – Moses readings: he can’t go with the people into the promised land; why not?

16:30 – “God is his closest kin now” – Moses is never fully of the people, distances himself from them; God breaks this to Moses: “You won’t find a resting place with them”

21:00 – Prophets are buzzkills, treated like liars even when they tell the truth; often not a choice, but a matter of survival

24:45 – struggle to unite other oppressed folks into the fight; may seem like you make their lives harder by reminding them of their own pain

27:00 – Rabbi Ruti Regan: Disabled people are either vilified or put on non-accessible pedestals, where they are non-threatening, lonely. Link to diversity training that doesn’t go farther than tokenism: platforms vs. pedestals

32:00 – Some people distance themselves from you not because they fear your differences, but because they fear to see what you actually have in common

36:00 – Queer parallels: fearing the flamboyance or femininity you might find mirrored in yourself; “I’m gay but not that stereotypical kind of gay”

40:00 – We must learn to face the prophets in our lives with love in order to reduce harm to self and others

44:00 – A prophet’s truth is good news that could liberate others for deeper community & self-knowledge, but it’s received as bad news because it disrupts; as in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” many prefer a harmful delusion to a temporarily disruptive truth

57:30 - end – Inspiration porn & harmful autistic representation; Laura’s tired of being used for wisdom or inspiration without real connection

Website of Frank L. Ludwig who interprets fairytale characters as autistic:

http://franklludwig.com/

Essay about different important takes on Moses' "punishment":

https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/chukat/why-was-moses-not-destined-to-enter-the-land/

I know, I have announced and teasered this episode for probably over a year now... So, finally, here it is! Peter interpreted through an ADHD lense. 

My friend Michi and I have had a lot of fun talking about our ADHD experiences, feeling for Peter and laughing at his and our own troubles with the neurotypical world. 

I hope you'll enjoy this episode as much as we did.

The last part of our Neuroqueer nerd indulgence. We talk about trauma, family, reconsiliation... sounds fun, right??

Timestamps:

0:00 - Summary of the previous two parts

2:00 - How Joseph’s brothers and father are suffering during the famine; they’d rejected the neuroqueer gifts that could have saved them

5:35 - Joseph forced to face their past trauma. Punitive vs. restorative justice — the latter requires a shift in power dynamics, security for the wronged

27:10 - Second trip to Egypt: Joseph continues to test the brothers to see if they’ve truly changed; struggles to hold it together while closeted / masking

35:15 - Joseph comes out, reveals their identity to their brothers. What prevented the brothers from recognizing them? 

39:47 - What to make of Joseph’s understanding of “God’s plan”: Joseph takes control of his own narrative, sees how God transforms suffering into good. Celebrating the good that comes out of evil without justifying evil

50:20 - Even in reconciling, Joseph never goes home, back to the site of that first trauma & to dynamics where their brothers hold the power over them — connecting to church efforts to become truly inclusive

55:55 - not a tidy ending: relationship will never be the same; brothers struggle to believe Joseph doesn’t want revenge. “None of us has to be the slave!”

1:00:30 - the oppressed can offer oppressors insights about themselves; double consciousness & masking — the Autistic community’s debt to Black scholarship

1:05:35 - Joseph as a bicultural figure; both cultures associated both with home & trauma

1:07:58 - Jacob gives the primary blessing to Joseph’s second son: continuing the trend of subverting status quo. God always on the side of the marginalized 

1:14:55 - Wrapping up

Part II of one of our favourite topics: Neuroqueering Joseph!🐂🌾✨🎉🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Timestamps:

(0 - 7:52) Any power Joseph gains while enslaved is precarious; vulnerable to sexual harassment

(starting 7:53) Nevertheless, Joseph manages to thrive; marginalized communities take shunned spaces & make them sanctuary spaces 

(12:47) Queer & autistic experiences abroad; the toll certain stereotypes take

(16:53) Meaning-making: God's presence in pain; Dreamcoat song emphasizes how human violence can't stomp out inner gifts

(21:36) Joseph & Pharaoh: the gift once feared is now revered; autistic tendency to disregard power dynamics 

(38:34) This could be the happy ending: wife & kids, stability & appreciation -- reconciliation with brothers not necessary, but helpful

(42:19) Closing with more midrash about Joseph being a hottie

Related links:

https://wibbleywobbleyminds.wordpress.com/Joseph/

https://lifeisasacredtext.substack.com/p/queering-joseph

For quite a while now my friend Avery and I have been looking forward to recording an episode about THE queer autistic Bible character. Naturally we couldn´t contain the excited infodump to anything near 60 minutes... So I proudly present the first part of a 3-episode-special on our neuroqueer sibling Joseph!

This is a really melancholy and earnest episode. My friend Avery is joining me to discuss the right to grieve and to experess our fear and pain. We also take on Mary of Bethany's perspective of being unable to see a loved one in pain and fear and not being able to take that away, yet validating and comforting them in their experience.

If you need some somberness for Holy Week, you've come to the right address. 

Also, Avery - in addition to editing the episode - has provided some time stamps for orientation:

0:00 - 3:21 Introducing the topics

3:22 - 9:33 First story: John 

12:1-8 — reading; discussing Judas

9:34 - 14:19 Hierarchy of luxury — judging the spending of poor & disabled persons, activists 

14:20 - 16:17 Mary had to use oil on Lazarus’ body not long before; now she can use it on Jesus while he’s still alive to appreciate it — “Give us our flowers while we’re here”

16:18 - 18:03 Diluting people’s message after their death — MLK, Jesus

18:04 - 28:59 Mary affirms Jesus’s identity and mission when no one else does — versus avoiding, blaming, denying, or trying to fix disabled persons’ pain

29:00 - 34:08 The oil will follow Jesus through his suffering; comfort to Mary as well; it’s hard to feel helpless as the person suffering or the person watching that suffering

34:09 - 41:08 Second story: Mark 14’s Gethsemane story; comparing the disciples’ sleep to coping with reality by shutting our eyes

41:09 - 48:20 Jesus took the time and space to sit with his grief; disabled people deserve to grieve their own experiences without it “betraying the cause” — allowed to settle into the Gethsemane of things

48:21 - 50:21 community members who affirm your experience make all the difference; it makes sense that it’s the women who “get” Jesus because they know what it’s like to have their pain & reality dismissed

50:22 - 57:03 Our personal troubles — finding safety and comfort in the space Jesus has carved out in Gethsemane; teaching ourselves to sit with others in their Gethsemane 

57:04 - end support from friends in the things we “can’t not do,” but that lead to pain

For the third time I am joined by my fried Felix. We start out at the broad topic of hierarchy and biblical narratives of reversing or subverting hierarchies. We then wander off to examine anarchy, power dynamics and the autistic urge to speak the truth regardless of consequences.

It is, again, a long and possibly chaotic episode but we manage to get back on track in the end… :)