Blessed Are the Binary Breakers

Avery brings their wife on to reminisce about Avery's name journey — from picking out Avery several years ago, to choosing new middle & last names in time for the legal name change process. Why is that process so dang complicated and expensive? Why was "Banana" ever on the table for surname options? How does Avery honor their family & faith roots with their new name? And what do Avery, Cher, & Sasquatch all have in common?? 

Listen — or read along with the episode transcript — to find out!

Talking points:

(0:00 - 7:11) Introducing Leah, Avery's new full name; discussing Avery's nicknames growing up

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Blessed  Are the Binary Breakers is part of the Rock Candy Podcast  Network. Find more shows, such as Bible Bash, at www.rockcandyrecordings.com.

This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn.

In O Beautiful Dust, RW Walker explores what difference traditional, queer, and Christ-centred common prayer might make in a chaotic and divided world. Avery had the honor of narrating the audiobook put out by Squirrel House Publishing — and they're offering A FREE COPY of that audiobook to the first 10 people to email them for it! Listen to the episode (or read along in the transcript) for more details.

In this episode, Avery shares 6 of the over 40 prayers contained in O Beautiful Dust — and offers some cultural context behind one of those pieces, which explores the story of the gender non-conforming water bearer to whom Jesus sends his disciples shortly before the Last Supper.

Visit https://obeautifuldust.carrd.co/ for all the links for where to purchase RW Walker's book, as well as for info about the author, narrator, and publisher. (This page is still being updated as more purchasing links go live in the coming days.)

And if you want to watch Peterson Toscano's film Transfigurations: Gender Outlaws in the Bible, click here!

Talking Points:

(0:00 - 2:13) Baha'i fast & Christian Lent

(2:14 - 7:10) Introducing RW Walker and his book, O Beautiful Dust; Avery as narrator of the audiobook

(7:11 - 12:47) Historical context for the first poem — the gender nonconforming water bearer of the synoptic Gospels

(12:48 - 14:00) Poem 1: "Carrying Water"

(14:01 - 16:05) Poem 2: "God's Reputation"

(16:06 - 17:22) Poem 3: "My Delight Is in You"

(17:23 - 19:15) Poem 4: "Help Us to Be Wise"

(19:16 - 20:50) Poem 5: "When I Grow Up"

(20:51 - 22:32) Poem 6: "Jesus, Be with My People"

(22:33 - end) Wrapping up

Like Lazarus resurrected by Jesus, Rev. Krissy has moved from a stifling tomb — a church where they could not be openly queer & politically active — into the abundant life of authentic self and fighting for the liberation of all.

Krissy is a pastor and chaplain in the United Church of Christ who loves their supportive spouse, children, and church; and who sees a message of good news for all whom the world calls shameful in the parable of the father with two sons (i.e. the parable of the prodigal son).

Click here for an episode transcript.

Talking Points:

(0:00 - 4:54) Introducing Krissy — UCC pastor and chaplain in St. Louis

Find Krissy at rev-krissy.tumblr.com; or visit their church website: www.epiphanyucc.org

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This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. This episode also  makes use of "Gold Beamer" by Mother Hood.

I sit down with my fellow seminary grad Eric Sharp (degree in Marriage & Family Therapy) for the story of how he came to call himself a Pluralist Agnostic who draws from Womanism and Postmodernism. On the way, we also discuss: the power of swearing and of playfulness; appreciating many truths in place of one Big Truth; and bringing healing into a broken world — with plenty of laughter as we go.

Click here for an episode transcript.

Content Warning: swearing; discussions of mental illness, addiction, and suicide ideation; of abuse and neglect and trauma, including among children; of sex; and mentions of the Holocaust, hell, and religious homophobia

Talking Points:

(0:00 - 8:00) Introducing Eric: Systemic therapist; cis, white, with gay as his "teeny-tiny window of oppression"

Eric practices therapy at Best Life Mental Health Services in Louisville, Kentucky.

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This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. This episode also makes use of "Gold Beamer" by Mother Hood; as well as a brief clip from The Good Place.

Sometimes the stories we think we know by heart are the ones most worth revisiting, and examining from new angles. In this episode, Avery focuses on a version of the Nativity that will likely be new to many of you: one in which the Greek of Luke 2:7 is translated differently to imply that Jesus was not born in a stable because Bethlehem's inn was full up, but rather was born right in the heart of a peasant home.

As they explore the Nativity from different angles, Avery shares several poems that invite the reader into various versions of Jesus's birth, familiar and unfamiliar alike. Their hope is to help us all learn how to embrace the beads of truth within each different telling of the tale, discovering how contradiction need not mean conflict.

Click here for an episode transcript.

Talking Points:

(0:00 - 7:46) Introducing versions of the Nativity story — listening for what's actually in Luke 2

I was honored to be invited onto Kings and Queens, a podcast hosted by Joseph & Nicole Peterson, to talk about Jesus through a trans lens! The full episode is over on their podcast and includes more of my own personal story as well. 

For more about the Petersons, visit www.thepetersons.cc.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Talking Points:

(0:00 - 3:30) Intro

Further Reading:

- blessedarethebinarybreakers.com/nt — "Assigned Male at Incarnation: An Intersex and Transgender Jesus"

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Let's hear some stories from various people — trans & cis, Jewish, Christian, & Sikh — about how gender, faith, and culture have played a role in the names they use. How do names isolate us, or connect us; harm us, or heal us? And what does religion teach us about honoring one another's chosen names?

Click here for the episode transcript.

Talking Points:

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Blessed  Are the Binary Breakers is part of the Rock Candy Podcast  Network. Find more shows, such as Brown Suga Diaries, at www.rockcandyrecordings.com.

This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. This episode also makes use of "Mod 4" and "Dreamer" by Jeremy SH Griffith; as well as Rabbi Ahuva Zache's version of "Eliyahu Hanavi" at The YouTube Rabbi.

A clip from a full episode of Laura Sommer's Autistic Liberation Theology podcast in which Avery and Laura discuss John the Baptist and his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah. The two friends connect John's joyful leaping in the womb to Laura's coined term "magnAUtism" — the way autistic persons are drawn to and connect with one another. They also discuss how Mary, Elizabeth, and Zechariah are impacted by the autistic joy & defiance of their children even before and just after birth — especially how Zechariah's insistence "his name is John" makes him a patron saint of the parents of trans children today.

Episode transcript.

Content Warning: brief discussion of ableist violence, antiblack violence.

Talking Points: 

(0:00 - 9:14) Introducing the topic; MagnAUtism, "autistic oxygen"

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Blessed Are the Binary Breakers is part of the Rock Candy Podcast   Network. Find more shows at  www.rockcandyrecordings.com.

This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn.

The spiritual landscape of nineteenth-century rural Russia blended native traditions and beliefs with Christianity; this is the world in which Black Book, an independent video game produced by Russian studio Morteshka, is set.

In this episode, Avery shares some of what Black Book taught them about this syncretism of belief (without spoiling the game, don't worry!). Then, they bring in Leslie Feinberg's 1996 text Transgender Warriors to discuss similar tensions between indigenous and Christian traditions in medieval Western Europe. What happened to other gods and spirits after the rise of Christianity? How did sorcerers like Black Book's young woman protagonist navigate this spiritual blend as they either helped or cursed the peasants who both revered and feared them for their knowledge? What's all this got to do with trans folk?

Read along with the episode transcript here.

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Talking Points:

(0:00 - 3:50) Introducing Black Book: playing as Vasilisa, a young sorceress in a world where people believe both in Christian and pagan teachings

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Blessed  Are the Binary Breakers is part of the Rock Candy Podcast  Network. Find more shows at www.rockcandyrecordings.com.

This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn.

Brigid's intimate relationship with a fellow nun is not the only queer thing about her — her story also transcends any one religion, period, or place. How did a Celtic deity of forge and hearth transition into a fifth-century Catholic nun? How did devotion to Saint Brigid extend from Irish immigrants to enslaved Africans in Haiti and New Orleans? This mysterious figure revels in interweaving apparent opposites, in justice for outcasts, and in...a heavenly lake of beer??

For devotees of many faiths, Brigid's perpetual flame continues to light the way to wisdom and holy joy.

Find the episode transcript here.

Talking Points:

(0:00 - 6:00) Syncretism: the merging of multiple cultures and beliefs; introducing Brigid

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Blessed  Are the Binary Breakers is part of the Rock Candy Podcast  Network.  Find more shows at www.rockcandyrecordings.com.

This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. This episode also makes use of "Mod 4" and "Mod 5" by Jeremy SH Griffith.