Mark Stephenson

Pastor Ochuka,

Thank you for your comments. To begin, I highly recommend that you be in touch with Samuel Kabue, who is the director of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network and lives in Nairobi. If you need help in contacting him, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. I would encourage you to explore this Network site as well for ideas for ministry with people with disabilities, and also see the Disability Concerns' website.

I had the privilege of teaching in Kenya at the Theological Education in Africa conference last August held at St. Paul's University in Limuru. I met many wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ from Kenya and the surrounding nations. Besides good memories, I brought back a wonderful song which we now sing in my congregation here in the United States: Jabulani. Perhaps you know it. You may want to read the reflection I wrote about my time in Kenya as well.

God's blessings,

Rev. Mark Stephenson

I believe that violence is violence whether it is directed at people before they are born or after. In addition, abortions directed against particular populations, whether babies with genetic differences or baby girls (common in some countries) or whatever, does violence toward that entire segment of humans who have been created in God's image. 

Fronse, it sounds like you find yourself with a dilemma. On the one hand, you simply want to be "just another child of God," and speaking up about your disability only causes people to focus on it all the more, resulting (often) in even more pity toward you. On the other hand, instead of pity, you would like people to appreciate that the disability has deepened your resolve and your creativity to overcome the barriers it creates. I read a fine article once (can't find it right now) by two women (one or both have disabilities) who examine the Luke 8 passage about the woman with a flow of blood. In her society, she would have been considered to have a disability. The authors of the article noted that in all the commentaries they read about the passage, no commentator said a word about the woman's courage, her resourcefulness, her determination to go on living in a society that considered her unmarriageable and perpetually unclean. Thanks for taking the risk to speak up here so that those of us who read your post can remember the resourcefulness and determination one needs to keep on keeping on when living with a disability. 

Randy, thanks so much for your thought-full answer. I appreciate your the qualifications you make to give Kung the benefit of the doubt. In case someone doesn't click "more" I want to quote one of your sentences in full, "I hope for his sake, and perhaps for the sake of those who admired his culturally respectable, but scripturally inadequate and, it seems, spiritually comfortless theological work, that he comes to a deeper, more authentically biblical, more genuinely spiritual view of the matter, and also that he comes to see how harmful and dismissive his statements are for those who don’t have perfect minds and bodies." Yes, especially so because no human has a perfect mind or body!

Thanks Harold. You keep up the good work of advocacy too!

Elly, regarding your second point, God led me to the calling I have today as the Director of Disability Concerns through our oldest daughter, Nicole, who has severe multiple disabilities. Similarly, my wife is now a Special Education teacher after getting trained first as a German teacher. God used her as his instrument, just as we each pray that we'll be used by God to further the kingdom. 

Where I struggle is that when the media talk about people with disabilities they are somehow set apart in the stories either as "inspirations" or as objects of pity. Either way, they are set apart from everyone else as a "them" as opposed to "us." That's why I have mixed feelings about "inspirational" pieces about people with disabilities. On the one hand, inspirational stories help us see that disability does not have to limit people to their stereotypes. (Wow, a woman who is blind can sew beautiful quilts!) On the other hand, these inspirational stories imply that a person with a disability only is valuable if he/she is inspiring. The truth, as you say, is that every one of us has gifts and talents, and every one of us is a "regular person." None of us needs to have our worth measured by whether we inspire others. We all have great value as God's image bearers.

Harold, ouch. So true. If only we in the church could practice with each other the rich beauty of the words we sing, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."

Another discussion going on the Network right now is about the church's tendency to shut people out if they don't have strong social skills. The author of that article, Jeff McNair, ends his article with the painful and powerful reminder, "We do well to remember that social-skill deficits are not sin, but rejecting someone due to social-skill deficits is sin."

Michael, thanks for making contact with your senator and for sharing the letter he returned to you. I'm hoping that as more people assert the facts about the meaning of ratification of the treaty the errors about the dangers of ratification will be corrected.

Hi Michele, thanks for the comment. Yeah, it should be a given nowadays that some people need medications for their mental health issues just as some people need medication for high blood pressure. Sadly, some Christians still believe that mental illnesses are spiritual issues that should be handled by strictly spiritual means. Thanks for speaking up against this attitude which is not only out of touch with the realities of mental illnesses but also not loving. 

Bill, the point I'm trying to make is that we are all abnormal, so then it becomes meaningless to single out any particular group of people and call them "abnormal." And when it comes to what to call people, I don't think it's about being politically correct. Instead, it's about respect. Why not ask people what they prefer to be called? Most people who live with disabilities prefer people first language, so "people with disabilities" is preferred language.