Editorial: Churches should embrace people with disabilities
January 9th, 2010‘Welcome the exceptional‘
The editors of Christianity Today call on congregations to remove the subtle attitudinal barriers that serve to exclude people with disabilities from communities of faith.
Negative attitudes can have wide-reaching and damaging effects, the editors write, citing as an example the estimated 90 percent abortion rate among pregnant women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. An excerpt:
It’s not as if churches do not try to extend compassion to people with disabilities. But we tend to think of the disabled as people we minister to, by offering worship and other opportunities to them. [The AAPD's Ginny] Thornburgh reminds us that “those of us with disabilities have enormous gifts and talents to bring to the church. We are not a project. We are on this earth for a unique reason.” Churches would be wise to remember that people with disabilities are like the rest of the congregation: They can contribute mightily to the work, witness, and leadership of the church and community.
… [A] sacred friendship often begins when a mother in the church gives birth to a child with a disability, and the church rallies around the family. That action says, “We will journey with you and this beloved child. We will not abandon you.”
As Thornburgh suggests, celebrating the birth of every child, regardless of prenatal test results, is the first act of friendship that can transform not only churches but also entire societies.
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January 11th, 2010 at 9:37 am
I’m blind and have a spinal cord injury. Even before my sci I had numerous incidents of people telling me my mom must have “sinned” and caused my blindness that way, people trying to “cure” me with “faith” and even one guy who started reading his bible to me at a bus stop and telling me I had the devil in me because one of my eyes turns in towards my nose!
On the other hand when I was a teenager I was part of my churches youth group along with a girl who had spina bifida, and another guy who also had cerebral palsy. (I had CP since I was born, but it doesn’t affect me much anymore since my sci).
I think a lot depends on the attitude of the minister/priest etc. because ultimately I think that attitude/viewpoint spreads to the congregation. It may have helped that I came from a pretty small community and the minister had many churches to visit.