Seeing, Hearing, Serving, and Delighting in LGBTQ+ Youth and Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Using the theological anthropology of Karl Barth, this article analyzes two congregationally based ministries in Florida, one focused on LGBTQ+ youth and the second focused on ministry with youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Both of these congregations exemplify the mutuality of relationships that Barth claims are present in truly human relationships—ones that do not dehumanize or oppress the other, but rather, delight in them. This happens through the theater ministry of one congregation and the “Red Carpet Affair” in the other. Dolores Williams’s doctrine of sin, which claims sin as invisibilizing and systemic, explains the problematic dynamics of marginalization and proposes the solution—somebodiness, an affirmation of youth as they participate in relationships of mutuality.