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blessedarethebinarybreakers · 2 months

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Due to flare ups, I’ve been thinking more about my relationship with my disabilities and my relationship with God — any good resources/book you can recommend?

Hey there, sending love and solidarity as you go through flare ups and as you explore all this <3

You came to the right place — disability theology is one of my great passions! Here are my recs for you. If anyone has more resources to add on or insights for anon, please share!

For starters...

First, you might enjoy wandering through my #disability theology tag over on my other blog, which includes excerpts from various disability theologians.

Or reading through / praying with the disability text prayers I shared here last July for Disability Pride Month, which were written by a variety of disabled folks.

Since it's Lent, Unbound's Disabling Lent: An Anti-Ableist Lenten Devotional is timely!

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Memoirs Exploring Christian Faith & Chronic Pain / Illness

My Body and Other Crumbling Empires, Lyndsey Medford (2023)

This memoir connects faith, chronic illness (especially autoimmune disorders), and the sickness at the heart of Western Empire / the Protestant work ethic.

How can we learn to work with instead of against our bodies? How can we rebuild our world to treat all bodies with the love and gentleness they deserve? .

This Here Flesh, Cole Arthur Riley (2022)

An incredibly beautiful book, poetic and searing...explores the goodness of embodied life and intersections between disability (particularly chronic illness), Blackness, queerness, womanhood, and more.

Each chapter focuses on a different emotion (anger, joy, lament, love...) to teach us how to honor and listen to what we feel in our bodies.

CW for accounts of sexual assault and other forms of and abuse and trauma, as well as accounts of antiblack racism. .

Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved, Kate Bowler (2018)

If you've been steeped in any kind of prosperity gospel, "if you pray hard enough you'll be healed" type Christianity, I highly recommend this book.

Bowler writes with gentle honesty about how her chronic pain and then cancer compelled her to move away from that kind of harmful Christianity into a faith with room for doubt, grief, and a God that holds her in her suffering.

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Disability Theology — Books, Podcasts, Videos

Disability: The Inclusive Church Resource edited by Bob Callighan (2014)

If you're interested in the perspectives of various disabled Christians, I love the range of voices they brought into this text! A great intro to how theology and church life impact disabled persons and how our churches must re-form themselves with disabled persons at the center. .

My Disabled AND Blessed YouTube series

I've got multiple YouTube videos that draw from various disability theologians!

I especially recommend my introduction to reading the Bible with a disability lens — stressing how different biblical authors hold different views around disability; so what's God's overall message? — and my video on Luke 14's parable of the banquet!

If you have questions about or struggle with the Gospels' healing narratives, I also recommend my livestream on that topic. .

My friend Laura's Autistic Liberation Theology Podcast (you can listen wherever you get podcasts)

Laura explores scripture through the lens of an autistic trans person who uses a wheelchair and has multiple chronic & mental illnesses.

I especially recommend their episode on "the Gethsemane of things," which takes an honest look at pain and where God is in our suffering. (Most of Laura's eps don't have transcripts, but I shared an abridged version of this ep on my podcast and it has a transcript)

"I am not your ornamental prophet" is also a great episode for thinking about what pressures are put on disabled persons and how to construct boundaries for yourself .

The Mad and Crip Theology Podcast

This podcast interviews the authors who are published in the Mad and Crip Theology journal, which is really cool! You can watch episodes with captions on YouTube, or listen wherever you get podcasts.

A good starter episode: this one "on Queer and Crip Sexuality and the Disabled Christ" .

Some eps of Blessed Are the Binary Breakers

While my own podcast largely centers trans perspectives, disability comes up frequently as well! Each ep has a transcript. These are the disability-focused ones:

"No End to Transphobia without Uprooting Ableism — exploring embedded forms of oppression"

"Our Pride Is Not a Sin — a Queer and Disabled Christian Lens"

"Goodness Embodied — an intersex, nonbinary first human and a disabled risen Christ"

"Marginalized Bodies as Spectacle and the good news in Jesus's disabling wounds"

"Eli and the prophet Elijah"

“Secular” books that helped shape my own theology

What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World, Sara Hendren (2020)

Fantastic book digging into recent disability history, present, and future with focus on the “misfit” theory of disability where body and world interact with each other disharmoniously, and the creativity disabled people employ to make them more harmonious .

Exile and Pride, Eli Clare (1999)

One of my favorite books of all time. Connects disability, queerness, rural life, trauma, and more. Clare is one of the originators of the concept of the “bodymind” (though he talks about that more in one of his later books)

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Wanting even more resources? Here's my google doc with aaaaall the disability theology stuff — plus some helpful disability 101 stuff to share with loved ones!

Praying for comfort, wisdom, and community support for you as you journey! Please feel free to drop by again with any questions that come up or to share any insights you've gained any time <3

#disability theology #disabled AND blessed #disabled christians #faithfullydisabled #resources #recs #books #this reminds me i've been meaning to share more excerpts i've gathered from disability theology books...#anyone interested in that should go follow my other blog a-queer-seminarian and i'll start posting some in the coming days...

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a-queer-seminarian · 10 months

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ID: Text reads "Disability Pride Month daily text prayers." An image under the text depicts paper cut out figures in rainbow colors with a variety of disabilities, including one in a wheelchair, one with sunglasses and cane, and one without arms. More text reads "Hosted by More Light Presbyterians." / end ID

Get texted a short prayer written by a disabled person of faith, every day of July!

Whether you are disabled or able-bodied, neurotypical or neurodivergent, sign up to join us in prayers that celebrate the holiness of all bodies & minds, give thanks for our unique gifts, lament the evils of ableism, and imagine a more just world together.

To sign up for these daily texts, submit this form.

#if you are a disabled person of faith and want to write a prayer or two let me know!#disability pride month #disabled christians #faithfullydisabled #more light presbyterians #log #summer 2023

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whereserpentswalk · 17 days

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The nazis that you see in movies are as much a historical fantasy as vikings with horned helmets and samurai cutting people in half.

The nazis were not some vague evil that wanted to hurt people for the sake of hurting them. They had specific goals which furthered a far right agenda, and they wanted to do harm to very specific groups, (largely slavs, jews, Romani, queer people, communists/leftists, and disabled people.)

The nazis didn't use soldiers in creepy gas masks as their main imagery that they sold to the german people, they used blond haired blue eyed families. Nor did they stand up on podiums saying that would wage an endless and brutal war, they gave speeches about protecting white Christian society from degenerates just like how conservatives do today.

Nazis weren't atheists or pagans. They were deeply Christian and Christianity was part of their ideology just like it is for modern conservatives. They spoke at lengths about defending their Christian nation from godless leftism. The ones who hated the catholic church hated it for protestant reasons. Nazi occultism was fringe within the party and never expected to become mainstream, and those occultists were still Christian, none of them ever claimed to be Satanists or Asatru.

Nazis were also not queer or disabled. They killed those groups, before they had a chance to kill almost anyone else actually. Despite the amount of disabled nazis or queer/queer coded nazis you'll see in movies and on TV, in reality they were very cishet and very able bodied. There was one high ranking nazi early on who was gay and the other nazis killed him for that. Saying the nazis were gay or disabled makes about as much sense as saying they were Jewish.

The nazis weren't mentally ill. As previously mentioned they hated disabled people, and this unquestionably included anyone neurodivergent. When the surviving nazi war criminals were given psychological tests after the war, they were shown to be some of the most neurotypical people out there.

The nazis weren't socialists. Full stop. They hated socialists. They got elected on hating socialists. They killed socialists. Hating all forms of lefitsm was a big part of their ideology, and especially a big part of how they sold themselves.

The nazis were not the supervillians you see on screen, not because they didn't do horrible things in real life, they most certainly did, but because they weren't that vague apolitical evil that exists for white American action heros to fight. They did horrible things because they had a right wing authoritarian political ideology, an ideology that is fundamentally the same as what most of the modern right wing believes.

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gender0bender · 1 year

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IDs: A black and white graphic of four open mouths with the words “It’s not blasphemy God wronged me first.” The second image is the same graphic inverted. ED.

#cw christianity #sort of #my art #trans artist #queer artist #autistic artist #disabled artist #um #anyway my take on blasphemy is that God is a relative concept and also #I take a gnostic standpoint that holiness is something inherent to all aspects of life #so it's actually impossible to blaspheme God. bc that's you.#but also critiquing God and the concept of God feels impt to me! woo

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this-smile-is-real · 6 months

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11 months ago I was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder and with Fibromyalgia earlier this year.I have also dealt with cPTSD and an eating disorder for the last 20 years.

I have been mostly bed bound for 12 months and have spent 6 months of this year in hospital. I cannot currently walk more than 20 metres without needing a wheelchair to mobilise. I have been unable to drive for the last 12 months due to continued non-epileptic seizures.

I am needing continued help to manage all of my medical bills, specialist appointments, medication, transport etc.

I am attaching a PayPal link if you feel at all inclined to donate to help me manage week to week as the pension I’m on doesn’t even cover basic expenses for each fortnight after rent and each of my medical team appointments.

I would be so grateful for any donations, reblog etc. Thank you in advance x

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normal-with-adhd-is-a-joke · 9 months

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stop recommending alternative medicine to chronically ill people I am going to fight someone. No I don't need more ozone no my spine isn't misaligned no colloidal silver will not fix me or anyone else I have a real condition that can't be treated with bullshit and recommending me bullshit is insulting and dangerous. Saying that chronically ill people would be fixed if we "just" did something is reductive of the complexity of chronic illness, it's ableism.

btw faith healing absolutely counts as alternative medicine and, despite being christian myself, if you come up to me and try to pray for me without my permission I'm running over your toes.

#cpunk #cripple punk #cripplepunk #chronically ill #actually disabled #if something actually has scientific backing it will be practiced by a real doctor #ableism tw #christianity tw #religion tw

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cookinguptales · 1 year

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My instacart shopper noticed I added Easter cupcakes to my order, so she texted me "Happy Easter!" in the app and I was like "Happy Easter, Passover, Ramadan, and/or Saturday, depending on what you celebrate!"

so after she dropped it off and was going to her car, she called HAPPY EASTER! and then HAPPY PASSOVER! RAMADAN! and I'm yelling HAPPY EVERYTHING! and she's like HAPPY LIFE!!!

and wow, it really is a happy life sometimes, isn't it? when everyone's kind to each other. 💜

#just me #I'll be real with you I just thought the cupcakes were cute and I like carrot cake #I'm not actually a christian #she also tried to take my groceries inside because I'm disabled but I was like NO NO IT'S FINE #ma'am my house is messy af I'm still unpacking don't worry about it #easter #passover #ramadan #happy easter #happy passover #happy ramadan #happy everything #happy life

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theridgebeyond · 8 months

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Blessed are those who don’t understand and still welcome my body — scooter, spasms, sporadic symptoms, and all. Blessed are those who do not need to read my mountain of medical records to care for me. Blessed are those who lean not on their own understanding but trust my explanation as valid. Blessed are those who believe me.

— My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church by Amy Kenny, from the chapter “Disability Doubters”

#my body is not a prayer request #Amy Kenny #disability #christianity

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flowercrowncrip · 11 months

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I don’t usually post about media stuff here but I’m so excited that Liz Carr has been cast an an angel in good omens 2.

There’s such a common Christian narrative that disability is a sign of disconnection from God. It’s a curse from god or the work of the devil or something along those lines. It’s an idea that touches so many disabled people in negative ways – it suggests disabled people are being punished for something, or that we’re not as close to God as abled people. People say that disability won’t go with someone to heaven without knowing what a person’s relationship to their disability is.

To have a visibly disabled woman cast as an angel is exciting because it shows a disabled woman being close to god, a person with a visibly disabled body has been cast as a being that traditionally is associated with embodying perfection.

I really hope this is the case anyway

#good omens #please excuse any iffy theology – I was brought up atheist in a culturally christian environment so I don’t know very much about angels #but I do know how some Christian people have talked to me about my disability

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violottie · 1 month

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ahem, taps mic....

lesbianism is not a quota to fill. lesbianism is not what you do. it is innate; it is who you are.

a lesbian is a woman or lesbian aligned nonbinary person who is exclusively attracted to women and non-man aligned nonbinary people.

you fit that? you're a lesbian!

lesbian sexuality is so profoundly beautiful and diverse and powerful. it is boundless, limitless and abundant. it is joyous and overflowing with glory and strength.

take pride, lesbians. we are the best.

❤️🧡🤍🩷💖

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iliveinprocrasti-nationn · 8 months

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people have GOT to be more comfortable with some spaces not being about them. sometimes spaces are not for you. sometimes you will be told you cannot enter a space because it’s not for you. or you cannot bring a friend because a space is for you and not for them. that’s ok

#also you can relate to someone and fall under the same categories or experience similar things but the space is specifically for another #group and so you can’t enter. you’re still in the wider community with these people #i’m not going to invite a christian to shul with me on yom kippur or something. i’m not going to invite physically abled people into #disability spaces. that doesn’t mean we can’t have overlapping experiences or be in the same wider community. it just means that they cannot #enter the smaller one #this is about the returned cripple punk discourse. physically disabled people and mentally disabled people are both disabled! we are all in #community together! we all fall under that community!#but cripple punk is not for people who are physically abled. it’s in the name. if you’re not a cripple then you don’t fall under cripple #punk. that doesn’t mean you’re not disabled. it just means you’re not physically disabled #my post #y’all can reblog this if you want #this goes for so many spaces too

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a-queer-seminarian · 9 months

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June was Queer Pride Month, July is Disability Pride Month, and that means it's the prime time of year for certain people to remind us that "pride is a sin, didn't you know?"

So for episode 75 of the Blessed Are the Binary Breakers podcast, I called up my dear friend Laura, a fellow disabled trans Christian, to discuss how the kind of pride that marginalized communities use as an antidote to shame is not sinful, but indeed essential in our pursuit of justice and abundant life for all!

Listen as Laura and I — interspersed with excerpts from Eli Clare's 1999 text Exile and Pride — contrast marginalized pride with nationalist, supremacist pride; explain why "awareness" and "acceptance" aren't enough; and emphasize the need to join pride with witness.

Click here for places to listen + the episode transcript.

Hear more from Laura on their podcast, the Autistic Liberation Theology Podcast. Click here for their website of essays and biblical Playmobil art.

Look under the readmore for more excerpts + image descriptions.

ID for images at top of post: A messy paint rainbow on a black background with text reading "Our Pride is Not a Sin: a queer and disabled lens. Ep 75 of Blessed Are the Binary Breakers."

Text on a purple banner reads "Pride and humility don't have to be opposites — they balance each other out." A quote from Avery Arden below reads, "When we have too high an opinion of ourselves, thinking we are above others, that’s an excess of pride — time for some humility. But then if we are pushed down, made to feel inferior to others, that’s humility in excess — time for some pride. And it's all about how it influences you to act with others." / end ID

Text on a green banner reads, "Why is pride only sinful when it's marginalized groups' pride?" A quote from Laura Sommer reads, "It shows that this is a made-up argument! Our whole society is built around national pride. As long as it's [pride for something] that is well-established and mainstream, nobody even notices that they use the word proud."

A quote from Eli Clare from 1999 reads, “Without pride, disabled people are much more likely to accept unquestioningly the daily material conditions of ableism, unemployment, poverty, segregated and substandard education, years spent locked up in nursing homes, violence perpetrated by caregivers, lack of access. Without pride, individual and collective resistance to oppression becomes nearly impossible."

A gray banner has text reading "The Progress Pride flag's black stripe & Disability Pride flag's gray background commemorate those lost to queerphobia or ableism." Both flags are shown on the image. A quote from Laura Sommer reads, "Remember the ones who can't be here, or can't feel pride, or can't celebrate. And make sure [pride's] not just about celebration — it's also about defiance, and this feeling of 'we are still here, and we will defend the space that we have carved out.' And we do this to save lives."

#pride #pride is a sin #disabled christians #trans christians #queer christians #faithfullylgbt #faithfullydisabled #log #summer 2023 #blessed are the binary breakers #rebuttals

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apenitentialprayer · 5 months

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Pope Francis’s December 2023 Prayer Intention: For People with Disabilities

God, Our Father, the throwaway culture that is widespread in our time does not consider the human person as something most valuable; that must be respected and protected, especially in they are poor or disabled people. We ask today for the inclusion of all those who have physical or mental limitation. Help us promote a culture of life that continually affirms the dignity of each person, and in particular the defense of people with disabilities. May inclusion be the rock on which civil institutions build programs and initiatives, so that no one is left behind. Amen.

detail from the cover of The Bible, Disability, and the Church: A New Vision of the People of God.

#Christianity #Catholicism #prayers #prayer request #disability #personhood #destitution #human dignity #My Pope

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v-4-l-0-n · 8 months

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Friendly reminder that if your feminism doesn’t include woc, queer women, trans women, disabled women, women of any religion, or sex workers then your “feminism” is shit <3

#val speakz #feminism #women of color #woc #wlw #sapphic #lgbtq #trans #transgender #disabled women #disability #muslim women #christian women #pagan women #jewish women #buddhist women #sex work is work #terfs fuck off #radfems fuck off

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morgannotlefay · 3 months

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I swear on the grave I killed and buried God in that my loved ones will never have to question if my love is conditional

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cripple-woe · 6 months

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the devil is innocent and the god is cruel

#something something if the Christian god made me why did he make me with eternal suffering #I love not being a Christian anymore #cripplepunk #cripple #cripple punk #physically disabled #disabled #actually disabled #disability #cpunk #art #ex christian #religious trauma #lol #Christianity formed a lot of my issues that haunt me to the day regarding my disability so this is a little commentary on both

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