113: On Disability, Faith, and the Bodymind

Where Do We Go From Here?

It's no secret - the people who designed purity culture inteded it to benefit white, male, and straight people. What was unsaid was that purity culture was also about a kind of body, a body that had all the standard abilities. Dr. Amy Kenny disrupts the story with her life and work as a disability justice scholar and advocate. Could it be we've misunderstood who we are and who God is all along?

We talk about:

• the overlap between purity culture and the experience of disabled people
• maybe God isn't just "strong"
• what is the bodymind
• what happens when we add the disabled experience to the sexuality conversation

Join us for an exclusive conversation with Amy about disability in the church - should we have prayer ministry for healing? What's the difference between curing and healing? It's exclusive for our partners, and you can hear it and new episodes weekly for $3/month (USD).

Full show notes here

Amy Kenny (PhD, University of Sussex) is a disabled scholar whose research

focuses on medical and bodily themes in literature. She is a Shakespeare lecturer at the University of California, Riverside, and is on the editorial board of Shakespeare Bulletin. Kenny is a member and scribe of the Freedom Road Global Writers’ Group hosted by Lisa Sharon Harper and has written for Sojourners about disability in the church. She serves on the mayor’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force in her home city, coordinates support for people experiencing homelessness, and is colaunching Jubilee Homes OC, a permanent supportive housing initiative in her local community. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram