The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Pizza Dough...

Yes, No, Maybe...

I have been looking forward to recording this episode for a long time. Jonas, one of my oldest friends, joins me as we discuss the impulses to over-commit, disagree compulsively and/or both at the same time. We look at these patterns in biblical figures and stories and ourselves.

Down To Earth Jesus

Avery and I are doing a Christmas episode about haptics, breaking the body/mind binary, and a wonderfully autistic touchy-feely Jesus. 0:00 Introducing topic, defining haptics, need for embodiment  11:00 Use of touch in Gospels’ healing stories 27:54 The autisticness of Jesus: hypersensitivity, denying and offering touch 39:34 More autistic Jesus — drawing in the dirt; a messy Messiah  48:21 Somatopsychic impacts, disconnecting from body parts, shame and reconnection 60:04 Medieval haptics — touching Jesus’s wounds 70:10 Bringing the messiness back into the Christmas story — and the pulpit

Consider the Lilies...

Working on my current playmobil project [https://wibbleywobbleyminds.wordpress.com/peoples-mansion/] I fell into a rabbit hole about the botanist, nutritionist, inventer and all around genius George Washington Carver. I convinced my friend Avery to record an episode about him and his theology.

Sanctified Imagination Far Beyond The Stars

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/

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Pizza Dough...

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 and left hand — wrong way of understanding leadership, power (6:15) Summary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Drum Major" sermon; how privilege impacts who is given the great authoritative roles & letting go of that desire to be the "drum major" (17:50) Connecting sermon more deeply ADHD & other neurodivergence — desire to fix wrongs; impulsiveness, burnout, envy, rejection sensitive dysphoria (41:35) When disability limits your ability to lead, serve, organize; turning to smaller actions, deeper connections — Jesus never had a family, house, college degree, other of our societal markers of greatness, either (48:40) The Kingdom of Heaven is like pizza dough — small movements where you are; it will get where it needs to be on its own (58:50) Closing with a song King quotes in his sermon: "If I can help somebody as I pass along...then my living will not be in vain."