The Christian church has not done a good, or perhaps even decent, job of creating spaces where disabled people can feel like they belong. Unfortunately, our inaction builds upon a long legacy of a complicated relationship with the disabled human body. The biblical writers often used the disabled body as a metaphor for broader social or personal sins or as punishment for the sins of their ancestors. Join us this Sunday as we explore what a liberating theology for disabled persons might include. Julia and Westley will lead a conversation with Dr. KT Schellenberg Bell, a holistic advocate for students with exceptionalities and founder of Learning Lab LA.

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In this episode, Julia, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter continue their conversation about creating communities of belonging. We discuss the challenges of creating communities that include "outsiders" and how our failure to love our neighbor ultimately reflects our inability to love the totality of ourselves. So what must we do to love ourselves? We have lots of thoughts about this, but the overarching theme is that it will require a reversal of our social and political values. Or, as Jesus put it, in the kin-dom of God "the first shall be last, and the last shall be first."

"And who is my neighbor?" How we answer this question, which was posed to Jesus by a legal expert in the parable of The Good Samaritan, directly informs our practice of creating a space of belonging at The Loft. This Sunday, Kathleen Rogers will join me in the center to discuss the documentary film With This Light. The film profiles the life of Sister Maria Rosa Leggol, who, for over 70 years, helped over 87,000 Honduran children escape poverty and fortified her legacy as an activist and visionary. Sister Maria saw these children as her neighbor, and her legacy invites us to discern what is required of us at the Loft if we want to cultivate belonging among our neighbors.

Question to consider before worship: Sister Maria was known as a person who asked for forgiveness rather than permission. If she saw a need and believed she could help address it, she acted, even if it meant that she was going against "tradition." What is one justice-oriented thing you would do if you chose to ask for forgiveness rather than permission?

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The structure of our modern world gives us the illusion of control. We can control the temperature of our cars and homes. We can control where we purchase our groceries or what types of foods we buy. There are numerous other areas of our lives where we like to think we have control. However, events such as natural disasters or a pandemic serve as reminders that, as human beings, we don't have as much control as we often think we do. In today's episode of Loft Conversations we discuss the human desire for control, how this desire was amplified during the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, and how this desire for control alienates us from nonhuman nature and ourselves. We end the episode by suggesting that cultivating awe and wonder for what we often see as "basic" things can help us heal from the loneliness that often drives our desire to control and conquer others.

If we are not careful living in urban and suburban communities can lead us to believe that human engineering can control nature. However, climate science and human history show us that ultimately nature rules. We all belong to the earth, and we participate in its wonder. How might we live in ways that honor this belonging? How might the wonder we find in the created world encourage us to view ourselves with sacred awe?

Conversation Question: In her book This Here Flesh, Cole Aurther Riley describes wonder as "the practice of beholding the beautiful." Think back to a moment when you experienced wonder and be prepared to share that moment with a friend.

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When have you experienced genuine belonging? Our answer to this question is a window into our community life. We all have a longing to belong and the church has historically been a place for building one's community. However, for progressive Christians, the church has sometimes been a place of dysfunction and spiritual abuse and was no longer a space for genuine community. But the longing for community persists.

For the next two months, we will discuss what it means to create a culture of belonging where all people are welcome to be their authentic selves. In today's episode, we discuss the trauma's that we carry from church dysfunction and the importance of creating a church that is what bell hooks defines as a homeplace, a safe place where people can affirm one another and by doing so heal many of the wounds inflicted upon members of the community by the dehumanizing traumas of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and queer hatred.

Show Notes: "Belonging: A Culture of Place" by bell hooks "Homeplace: A Site of Resistance" by bell hooks www.TheLoftLA.org

Given the effort required to develop meaningful relationships, what is the value of finding and creating spaces to which we belong? This question is at the heart of the epidemic of loneliness that faces so many people in our country. As progressive Christians, we are often afflicted by a kind of loneliness, a longing for our past religious communities where we experienced both love and abuse. We all desire to feel a sense of belonging, but this desire can only be met by creating and inhabiting spaces where we both feel loved and free to be our authentic selves.

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This week we're joined by Rev. Kimberly Scott, incoming Senior Pastor at Grace UMC in Baldwin Hills, to discuss how resilience is rooted in our ability to remember that we didn't get to where we are alone.

Show Notes: "Alabama Grandson: A Black, Gay Minister's Passage Out of Hiding" Book by Cedrick Bridgeforth "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" Book by Alice Walker www.TheLoftLA.org

This episode we're joined by Reverend Kevin Kim Wright to have a freewheeling conversation about helping people find liberation as a form of spiritual formation, the self-preservation of institutions like the Church and how that can sometimes find itself at odds with the community-based work necessary for a thriving society. We also talk about the corrosiveness of hate and how we can listen for the Holy Spirit and her prompting in our lives. www.TheLoftLA.org

Given the realities of suffering we see in our world – poverty, hunger, climate change, violence – there are many who see Christian hope as naive, as a way to avoid engaging in the realities of suffering. What does Christian hope look like in an age of nihilism? In today's gathering we will examine the role and importance of hope for the Christian faith. Question to Consider Before We Meet: How do you define hope? What role, if any, does hope have in your spirituality?

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