Send us a text

Welcome to the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast, hosted by Miriam Spies and Amy Panton, which comes out of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability. We both live and work lands that have been homes and remain homes to the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron Wendat, the Neutral and the Ojibway/Chippewa peoples and other peoples who have cared for the land. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on this land and are mindful of the need to repair broken covenants.

On this episode Amy Panton and Miriam Spies are joined by Robbie Walker and Laura MacGregor to tell reflect on words that have shaped and continue to shape our crip and mad theologies. Together we explore our hope, passion, and "crunchy" theology where we sit with ambiguity and discomfort. We also briefly dip into theologies of healing. We would love to hear what this conversation sparks in you, what resonates with your experience, and what questions are lingering for you.

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness.

To see a video of this podcast along with subtitles visit https://youtu.be/xNzRo-VM-YM 

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

On this episode Amy Panton and Miriam Spies are joined by Robbie Walker and Laura MacGregor to tell some of our stories - and how we identify as "reluctant theologians."  Part of our need / our hope for this work is to be supported by and in community. Together we explore our anger, grief, and hopes for ourselves, our communities, and our churches.  We would love to hear what this conversation sparks in you, what resonates with your experience, and what questions are lingering for you.

To watch the episode on YouTube, with subtitles on the screen, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Wu1_Bvmcc&t=1631s 

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

Welcome to the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast, hosted by Miriam Spies and Amy Panton, which comes out of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability. We both live and work lands that have been homes and remain homes to the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron Wendat, the Neutral and the Ojibway/Chippewa peoples and other peoples who have cared for the land. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on this land and are mindful of the need to repair broken covenants.

On today’s episode of the Mad and Crip Theology podcast we talk to Krysia Waldock and Dr. Mike Walker. Krysia's creative piece "Doing Church During Covid-19: An Autistic Reflection on Online Church" illuminates an Autistic perspective on faith and church attendance during the Covid-19 pandemic. Autistic people may be stereotyped as less likely to be religious or have a belief system, yet they can have a belief system much in the same manner as a non-autistic person. It is also emerging that Autistic people are also disadvantaged in the current climate of a global pandemic. We discuss  Krysia's piece and also her work in the mad/crip communities more broadly.

Mike's poem "Love/Hate" describes his relationship to his body, rather fully…he loves his body because it is strong, slender, and sinewy. That said, he also experiences spastic cerebral palsy, scoliosis, and all that those conditions entail. Thus, often he hates his body, because he will walk into walls, nearly fall while moving towards a goal, lose his grip on an object. We discuss Bonhoeffer's assertion that the suffering God can help; that said, Mike sometimes wonders whether God sees his pains, and whether S/He really wants to alleviate them. We also talk about other work that Mike is doing in Ottawa.

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness. If you need a full transcript you can find videos on our Youtube channel and here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ 

We want to say that topics and conversations we are raising throughout our time together are often hard!  They are hard for mad and crip people ourselves and hard for our families and loved ones. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, your bodies, minds, and hearts.

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

Welcome to the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast, hosted by Miriam Spies and Amy Panton, which comes out of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability. We both live and work lands that have been homes and remain homes to the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron Wendat, the Neutral and the Ojibway/Chippewa peoples and other peoples who have cared for the land. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on this land and are mindful of the need to repair broken covenants.

On today’s episode of the Mad and Crip Theology podcast we talk to Rev Matthew Arguin and psychotherapist Michael Serch who both wrote creative pieces for our first issue of the journal. Matthew's poem "A Prayer in Time of Pandemic" was written in October of 2020, reflecting on Exodus 33:15, as Moses pleads with YHWH to go before the people of Israel as they make their way to the promised land.  The COVID-19 pandemic means that many of us are in the midst of a new and unknown reality.  What does that mean for our mental health? In particular, what does it mean for those who find themselves leading faith communities?

Michael's reflective piece "Mad to Be Normal: Thoughts on Psychiatrist R.D Laing and Connections to Liberation Theology" uses the film Mad to be Normal, about R.D. Laing, as an opening into the liberation psychology approaches of Martin-Baro. Examples from Michael's clinical practice as well as personal experiences from life in a Catholic Worker community are  included.

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness. If you need a full transcript you can find videos on our Youtube channel and here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ 

We want to say that topics and conversations we are raising throughout our time together are often hard!  They are hard for mad and crip people ourselves and hard for our families and loved ones. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, your bodies, minds, and hearts.

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

*Content warning: suicide, grief, death of a child.

Welcome to the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast, hosted by Miriam Spies and Amy Panton, which comes out of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability. We both live and work lands that have been homes and remain homes to the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron Wendat, the Neutral and the Ojibway/Chippewa peoples and other peoples who have cared for the land. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on this land and are mindful of the need to repair broken covenants. 

On today’s episode of the Mad and Crip Theology podcast we talk to Dr. Laura Macgregor and Alex Jebson. Laura's piece in our most recent issue of the journal considers how the intellectualization of worship in many mainstream churches denies embodiment as a source of spiritual wisdom, and as a result, excludes the meaningful participation and leadership of people with intellectual disabilities. Drawing on personal experience as the mother of a child with profound intellectual disabilities, Laura explore how an intellectual lens of faith, as demonstrated by theologians such as Henri Nouwen and Hans Reinders, has colonized the embodied spiritual lives of people with intellectual disabilities.  

Alex's piece in the same issue of the journal wrestles with the topic of student suicides from the perspective of the student body at the University of Toronto, and examples of secular and Christian examinations of the suffering and potential avenues of hope are offered. Suffering for the student body is the result of external trauma, compounded by the disruption of a cultural narrative for young students, a lack of institutional acknowledgement, and little spiritual resources to draw from, risking further isolation and feelings of helplessness. Hope can be found in discerning justice for the deceased, restoring a sense of agency to the student body through activism and institutional reform. 
To check out their written work, head to our journal website: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cjtmhd/index 

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness. If you need a full transcript you can find videos on our Youtube channel and here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ 

We want to say that topics and conversations we are raising throughout our time together are often hard!  They are hard for mad and crip people ourselves and hard for our families and loved ones. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, your bodies, minds, and hearts.

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

On today’s episode of the Mad and Crip Theology podcast we talk to Jasper Jay Bryan and Jasmine Duckworth. We discuss their writings in the first issue of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability, as well as their work in theology and the disability community more broadly. Jasper's piece in the first issue is an article called "Enchanted Suffering: Queer Magick as Educated Hope" which asks the question: how can an enchanted worldview assist care providers in expanding horizons of hope for their clients, patients, congregations, or communities?  In Jasmine's piece, she reflects on her personal experience of finding belonging in the margins, as well as John Swinton's teaching on how by sitting with people marginalized by society, Jesus consequently moved those margins. To check out their written work, head to our journal website: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cjtmhd/index 

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness. If you need a full transcript you  can find videos on our Youtube channel and here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ 

We want to say that topics and conversations we are raising throughout our time together are often hard!  They are hard for mad and crip people ourselves and hard for our families and loved ones. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, your bodies, minds, and hearts. 

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

Welcome to the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast, hosted by Miriam Spies and Amy Panton, which comes out of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability. On today’s episode of the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast we talk to Alisha Krisna who is on the Board of Directors of Students for Barrier-Free Access (SBA), a non-profit University of Toronto student levy organization that represents mad and disabled students. Alisha was kind enough to sit down with us to discuss the University of Toronto's Mandated Leave of Absence Policy (UMLAP), which is a forced leave of absence for students experiencing mental distress. The Policy stigmatizes mad students and, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, "falls short on its duty to accommodate students with mental health disabilities and addictions." We stand in solidarity with SBA as they work to resist UMLAP. You can read more about SBA's position on UMLAP here: https://uoftsba.wordpress.com/campaigns-adovcacy/umlap/

If you would like captions, you can watch the podcast on our Youtube page at this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness. If you need a full transcript you can find videos on our Youtube channel and here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ 

We want to say that topics and conversations we are raising throughout our time together are often hard!  They are hard for mad and crip people ourselves and hard for our families and loved ones. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, your bodies, minds, and hearts.

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press

Send us a text

Welcome to the Mad and Crip Theology Podcast, hosted by Miriam Spies and Amy Panton, which comes out of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability. We both live and work lands that have been homes and remain homes to the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron Wendat, the Neutral and the Ojibway/Chippewa peoples and other peoples who have cared for the land. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on this land and are mindful of the need to repair broken covenants. 

On today’s episode of the Mad and Crip Theology podcast we talk to Professor HyeRan Kim-Cragg, PhD student Elizabeth Mohler and Rev. Alexa Gilmour. We discuss their writings in the first issue of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability, as well as their work in theology and the disability community more broadly. HyeRan’s piece in the first issue is a sermon on mental health and racism entitled “Stings Like a Sunburn: A Sermon for Emmanuel College During the Covid-19 Pandemic” which reflects upon racism in Canadian society and the mistreatment of migrant workers within Canada during the pandemic. Elizabeth and Alexa’s piece “Coronavirus and the Ability to Love Your Neighbour” tells the story of Neighbours Helping Neighbours at Windermere United Church in Toronto. To check out their written work, head to our journal website: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cjtmhd/index 

This podcast is an opportunity to model how faith communities can engage in theological and spiritual conversations around madness and cripness. If you need a full transcript you can find videos on our Youtube channel and here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUW9z5hoqP_WK74hg3N8bQ 

We want to say that topics and conversations we are raising throughout our time together are often hard!  They are hard for mad and crip people ourselves and hard for our families and loved ones. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, your bodies, minds, and hearts. 

The quote used in the episode came from: Reaume, A.H. “Why My Novel Is Dedicated To My Disabled Friend Maddy.” In Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong, 149–158. New York, NY: Vintage, 2020, 153.

The music played in the beginning: "Island Beat" by Arulo. Downloaded from https://mixkit.co/free-stock-music/

• Follow us on Facebook
• Read the Journal
• Check out Mad and Crip Theology Press