I'm back! I never released this episode during the first season because I wasn't ready to talk about all of this. However, my personal backstory with "mental illness" and finding god is an important precursor to the second season, where we're going to delve more into neurodivergence, disability, and ableism.
Transcript: https://medium.com/@friendlyanarchism/s1e31-5-the-spiritual-radical-left-burnout-and-disability-with-the-young-quaker-pod-transcript-18fa785d2b5e
Show notes:
I spoke with Jessica Hubbard-Bailey about being religious in a lefty household, the radical spiritual revival, pain caused by Christianity, the creation of white slaveholder evangelism, finding spirituality and Quakerism, carving out space for spiritual leftists, the benefits of having a person of faith in your affinity group, inner peace as a service to community, burn-out culture, the danger of spreading anxiety and fear, gender-coding of work, our personal stories of disability, productivity as worth, lithium, Jesus' love of the sick, John the Baptist, letting people exist instead of trying to fix you, being held in the light, wheelchairs are freedom, and the social model of disability.
7:05: It gets mentioned a few times throughout the show, so I want to clarify that the idea that the right has "co-opted" Jesus is often used as a cop-out and an excuse folks use to evade holding christianity accountable for all the damage it has done.
9:26: Article removed from Forbes on the destruction of amerikan liberation christianity: https://www.politicalorphans.com/the-article-removed-from-forbes-why-white-evangelicalism-is-so-cruel/
16:05: I speak lovingly about the Quaker meeting houses in Philadelphia (which are beautiful) but I have since found out were in part built using money from the slavery trade. I had not learned yet at the time this was recorded about the messy and disturbing relationship between Quakerism, slavery, and whiteness. More on that subject: https://www.friendsjournal.org/slavery-in-the-quaker-world/
26:00: Ironic erasure of the existing spiritual radical left communities by assuming whiteness of the "radical left", my apologies!
30:16: Affinity groups can be formed for any reason, not just by type of work. These days I prefer groups of 4-6. More info on affinity group organizing: https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/organizing/affinity-groups-essential
35:58: Did I use they/them pronouns for god? Why yes I did *foreshadowing*
38:15: I use the word "healthy" a few times throughout the show, which can have ableist undertones. More on ableist language: https://www.disabilityandrepresentation.com/2013/09/14/ableist-language/
39:12: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief has an incredible list of resources about mental/emotional/trauma/wellness care: https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/health-wellness/
39:28: I heavily blamed myself for my burn-out but more was going on..
51:48 : The term "differently abled" is widely understood as ableist, please forgive me as I was struggling to understand and express my own experience
55:23: Some feel that the phrase "hold you in the light" upholds the racist linguistic dichotomy of light/dark and prefer other variations such as "hold you in god's chocolate"
57:20: I learned about Juniper the Holy Fool from Mark Van Steenwyk's Deep Roots Podcast: https://www.markvans.info/deep-roots-podcast-at-play-with-the-holy-fools/
57:15: *foreshadowing* - Also I meant to say "uncarved" block
59:30: I was 30 years old before hearing about the social model of disability vs. the medical model. Quick intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdzbyJq58Ws