Autistic Liberation Theology

Laura Sommer

I am a queer autistic theology enthusiast with no formal training. In my podcast episodes I will sit down with future pastors and present to them the theological theories that have formed from accumulated knowledge. personal experiences and pop culture, all filtered through the prism of my mysterious, trauma-informed autistic brain. I will ask my guests wether my ideas are boring mainstream opinions, radical groundbreaking new theology or just plain heresy. Should be fun! :-)

  1. 2d ago

    Whoever has ears, let them hear.

    In this episode my guest Paul is talking about his specialist subject: Teresa de Cartagena, a Spanish nun from the 15th century. Her deafness informed her disability theology that includes many very modern ideas.

    Whoever has ears, let them hear.

  2. Jun 24

    Orthorexia - Food for Thought and Saying Grace

    Laura welcomes AuDHD pastor and professor Rev. Dr. Taylor Denyer to discuss neurodivergent fixations around “ethical” eating. How do we move from individualistic blame and personal shame into grace, community support, and effective action against systemic injustice?  Content warning for OCD, scrupulosity, paranoia, disordered eating, food Links:  Laura’s email: laurasommer1@gmx.de  Laura’s OCD cartoons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-Kashrut  Timestamps 00:00 Introducing Taylor 03:49 Autism and various food struggles 08:22 Orthorexia — “Am I ethically allowed to eat this?” — Taylor’s experiences 13:23 Grocery store overwhelm 17:50 Describing OCD — the brain seeking reasons & control in a chaotic world  31:00 “Instead of getting help, I got scholarships” — OCD behavior rewarded 35:15 Scrupulosity/Religious OCD and learning theology that helps 39:41 Neurodivergence in Church History 45:22 Bringing in the Bible — moral traps, Luke 5’s anti-empire, economic lens 62:00 That which makes unclean — Matthew 15 / Mark 7; focusing on systemic issues, not the individual 70:08 Grace for self, communal resistance, creating rituals

    Orthorexia - Food for Thought and Saying Grace

  3. Feb 27

    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.

    Yes, No, Maybe...

  4. 12/23/2025

    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

    Down To Earth Jesus

  5. 05/21/2025

    Consider the Lilies...

    Working on my current playmobil project 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.

    Consider the Lilies...

  6. 09/13/2024

    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/

    Sanctified Imagination Far Beyond The Stars

  7. 01/23/2024

    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."

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

  8. 12/10/2023

    Good News vs. Nice News

    My Guest is Pastor Felix Weise. Timestamps: (0:00) Introducing Felix, good news vs. nice news, Greek evangelion (3:30) Looking at verses using the Greek word ekpléssó — Jesus’ good news shocks and disrupts (13:00) Complexities in the connection between German Church and State; Felix’s roles within the German Church (22:00) Felix is on the inside, seeking to bring progressive theologies; Laura is on the outside, doesn’t feel safe in church settings where their very presence disrupts the “nice” environment (34:00) Do you choose to join the church institution to have a platform, power, security — or fight from the outside, but struggle to get heard? (38:30) More nice news — it’s not bad, but it’s not enough; compare to the theologies of the marginalized that deal with the hard stuff (49:30) People with privilege also need liberation; the systems of power harm everyone, and “nice” news can numb us to that truth (55:00) MLK, Jr., called out liberal white Christians who silence the oppressed to avoid discomfort; similar issue with assimilationist gays, respectability politics (60:00) Keeping things “nice” won’t stop church membership decline; redefine success (66:45 to end) Toxic positivity that makes us pretend all’s fine; Jesus wasn’t nice, but Jesus was kind

    Good News vs. Nice News
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About

I am a queer autistic theology enthusiast with no formal training. In my podcast episodes I will sit down with future pastors and present to them the theological theories that have formed from accumulated knowledge. personal experiences and pop culture, all filtered through the prism of my mysterious, trauma-informed autistic brain. I will ask my guests wether my ideas are boring mainstream opinions, radical groundbreaking new theology or just plain heresy. Should be fun! :-)

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