When Shiloh Comes: Religion at Its Best and WorstHow a biblical verse still shapes how faith can heal—or harm—the world
 For the second week in a row, we’ve decided to return to a prior conversation—this one recorded live on Clubhouse in December 2023. We’re rebroadcasting it not only because we’re taking time off with our families, but because it resonates today as powerfully as it did then. The episode is called “When Shiloh Comes.” It begins with a single, enigmatic verse at the very end of the book of Genesis, and it quickly becomes a meditation on the extraordinary power of religion—its ability to inspire moral courage, shape civilizations, and, when distorted, justify cruelty and violence. As we close one year and prepare to begin another, this conversation feels less like a look backward than a necessary pause—to ask what kind of religious future we are actually building. One Verse, Three ReligionsAs Jacob gathers his sons at the end of his life, he offers a series of blessings that are part poetry, part prophecy. In his words to Judah, we encounter one of the most contested verses in the Bible:
https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.49.10 For Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, this verse has been read as pointing toward ultimate authority, redemption, and destiny. But who or what “Shiloh” refers to has been debated for centuries.
A single line of Torah becomes a shared text—and a contested one.
Poetry, Not ProoftextsOne crucial point we emphasize in the episode is that Jacob’s blessings are poetry. Biblical poetry resists literal closure. It invites interpretation—and once interpretation enters history, it shapes real lives. That is why Genesis 49:10 became fertile ground for competing messianic visions. And that is why it matters how we read.
Rashbam: Learning Across Enemy Lines During the CrusadesOne of the most striking figures in our conversation is Rashbam—Rabbi Samuel ben Meir, Rashi’s grandson. Rashbam lived in 12th-century northern France, during the Crusades—an era of massacres, forced conversions, and religious terror inflicted on Jewish communities by Christians acting in the name of faith. And yet, at the very same time, Jewish and Christian scholars were studying the same Bible. Rashbam was keenly aware of Christian interpretations of Genesis 49:10. In his commentary, he explicitly rejects the Christological reading of Shiloh, insisting instead on a contextual, grammatical (peshat) understanding of Judah’s political continuity. What makes Rashbam extraordinary is not just disagreement—but confidence. He does not retreat into polemic. He engages the text rigorously, even when rival interpretations surround him. Even more provocative is his reading of Genesis 18, the story of Abraham and the three visitors.
Where earlier Midrashim struggled with how Abraham could turn away from God to welcome guests, Rashbam suggests something radical: the divine presence itself was manifest within the three figures. This interpretation closely parallels interpretive moves found among contemporary Christian theologians grappling with Trinitarian theology. This does not mean Rashbam adopted Christian doctrine. It means he was unafraid of shared intellectual space, even while religious violence raged around him.
Rabbi Yaakov Negan: When Religion Is the Problem—and Must Become the SolutionIf Rashbam offers a medieval model of courage, Rabbi Yaakov Negan offers a contemporary one. Rabbi Negan, a leading thinker in Jewish–Christian and Jewish–Muslim dialogue, frames one of the most unsettling truths of our time:
It is tempting—especially after religious violence—to imagine a world without religion. Rabbi Negan rejects that fantasy. Religion is too deeply woven into identity, memory, land, and meaning. The real question is not whether religion will shape the future, but how. Drawing on classical Jewish sources—especially the moral vision articulated by figures like the Meiri—Rabbi Negan argues that the true dividing line is not theology but ethics: whether a religion affirms the dignity of every human being created in the image of God. When religion sanctifies murder or terror, it forfeits its legitimacy. When it mobilizes compassion and responsibility, it becomes one of humanity’s most powerful moral forces.
A Living Epilogue: Yochanan, the Rosh Kollel of ClubhouseThe episode concludes with a voice that brings theory into lived reality. Yochanan—known on Clubhouse as the Rosh Kollel of Clubhouse—is a former Hasidic Jew with encyclopedic Torah knowledge who left his community and is rediscovering the wider world. (And suing his prior community for not providing him with a secular education). In one unforgettable moment, he shares that he recently had a party and celebrated his first birthday ever, at the age of forty-six. It is a small detail—and a profound one. Because religion is not only about civilizations and crusades. It is about lives shaped, constrained, liberated, and reimagined. Until Shiloh ComesRashbam and Rabbi Yaakov Negan, separated by nine centuries, are answering the same question: What does it mean to be faithful without becoming narrow? This episode does not offer a final answer. But it insists that learning matters—and that we cannot afford either cynicism or silence. As Rabbi Negan reminds us:
May our learning make us braver, not crueler. Sefaria Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/533990
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Wednesday, 31 December 2025
When Shiloh Comes: Religion at Its Best and Worst
[Blog Post] Thank You!
Monday, 29 December 2025
Why Right-Wing Ideology Stalls Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity does not exist in a vacuum. Neither does distress. Autistic wellbeing is not simply a matter of individual coping skills, resilience, or access to therapy; it is shaped, continuously and relentlessly, by the political weather we are forced to breathe. The sociopolitical climate is not background noise. It is a structural feature of the ecosystem that produces either safety or harm, belonging or abandonment. In this context, it becomes impossible to ignore how right-wing ideology, particularly in its contemporary neoliberal and authoritarian forms, fundamentally obstructs the neurodiversity movement from achieving its stated goals. Not accidentally. Not incidentally. But by design. Neurodiversity Is Inherently PoliticalAt its core, the neurodiversity paradigm asserts a simple but radical truth; neurological differences are a natural and valuable part of human variation. This truth immediately clashes with right-wing worldviews that prioritise hierarchy, productivity, conformity, and individual responsibility over collective care. Right-wing ideology depends on a narrow definition of the “ideal citizen”; autonomous, economically productive, emotionally restrained, and compliant with existing social norms. Autistic people, particularly those with higher support needs, fluctuating capacity, or visible differences, are framed as deviations from this ideal. As costs. As problems to be managed. From this position, neurodiversity can only be tolerated if it is domesticated. If it is stripped of its political edge and reframed as a matter of personal inspiration, marketable difference, or biomedical optimisation. Hence the rise of “neurodiversity lite” which engages in celebration without redistribution, inclusion without power-sharing, acceptance without structural change. The Ecosystemic Impact Of Right-Wing ThinkingWhen we situate Autistic wellbeing within a wider ecosystem:
The damage becomes clearer (this is far from an exhaustive list of variables within the human ecosystem). Right-wing policy frameworks tend to produce:
Each of these forces narrows the space Autistic people are allowed to occupy. They compress margins. They increase masking, burnout, poverty, and institutionalisation. They transform everyday life into a constant negotiation for legitimacy. In ecosystemic terms, this is environmental toxicity. Accommodating us in our immediate environment does not remove the poison from the overall ecosystem. Why Reform Is Not EnoughMany neurodiversity advocates still operate within a reformist frame:
These matter, but they are insufficient when the underlying political architecture is hostile. Right-wing ideology is remarkably adaptive. It absorbs critique and repackages it. We see this when neurodiversity language is used to justify increased productivity (“Autistic people are great workers if managed properly”), surveillance (“early identification”), or behavioural compliance (“support” that still aims at normalisation). The problem is not just misuse of neurodiversity concepts. It is that the ideological terrain itself is stacked against liberation. You cannot meaningfully pursue collective wellbeing within a system that treats vulnerability as failure and interdependence as weakness. Disruption As A Necessary PracticeIf the sociopolitical climate is part of the ecosystem, then changing outcomes requires more than personal resilience; it requires active disruption. This means developing and using new tools. Not merely rhetorical tools, but structural, cultural, and relational ones. Some of these tools are already emerging:
These are not abstract ideals. They are survival technologies. Rebalancing The ClimateTo rebalance a sociopolitical ecosystem, we must first name its weather patterns. Right-wing ideology thrives on fragmentation; pitting “deserving” against “undeserving”, high-functioning against low-functioning, compliant against “difficult”. Neurodiversity, properly understood, insists on solidarity across difference. It insists that support needs fluctuate. That capacity is contextual. That no one is disposable. Rebalancing does not mean swinging to an opposite extreme of ideology. It means re-centring values that right-wing frameworks systematically erode:
It also means accepting that wellbeing is not politically neutral. Any serious commitment to Autistic flourishing is, by necessity, a challenge to systems that profit from our exhaustion. Toward A Politics Of Autistic SurvivalThe neurodiversity movement will not achieve its goals by seeking permission from systems that require our diminishment to function. Nor will it succeed by pretending politics is optional. Autistic wellbeing is shaped by housing policy, welfare policy, labour markets, education systems, and cultural narratives about worth. The sociopolitical climate is foundational to the structures we are influenced by and exist within.. If we want different outcomes, we must build different tools. Tools that disrupt extraction, redistribute power, and make room for forms of life that do not fit the right-wing fantasy of the self-sufficient individual. This is not about purity. It is about survival. It is about how survival, in a hostile climate, is always a collective act. Don’t forget to check out the NeuroHub community to make connections with other neurodivergent people and access courses and resources. You're currently a free subscriber to David Gray-Hammond. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Getting Research Funding in Business and Management History
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