Mark Stephenson

Michele, Great question! Sounds like people with disabilities are part of the fabric of your church, for which I praise God. I have been in other congregations that are the same way, but that certainly is not true of all churches.

Michele, thanks so much for sharing a bit of your journey. I appreciate your vulnerability, letting us get a glimpse of some very painful experiences. I hope your sharing will help me and others who read this to be a little more understanding and compassionate.

Michele, yes, multiple studies confirm that people with mental illnesses are no more likely to be violent than people without mental illnesses. In fact, people with mental illnesses are much more likely to be victims of violence than the general population. 

Regarding your comment about guns, in America, we have a constitutional right to "keep and bear arms." The constitution, however, does not instruct citizens how to do so safely or responsibly. I fear that some people, even law enforcement, are encouraging dangerous behaviors. After the San Bernadino attack, news sources are reporting that "Two sheriffs on opposite sides of the country this week are urging citizens licensed to carry a firearm to please do so in light of recent events. Among those asking citizens to carry every day is controversial Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio who on Tuesday publicly advised the state’s 250,000 permit holders that having a ready firearm could mean a difference between life and death in an active shooter incident involving a terrorist or other mass shooter." I find the sherriff's announcement terrifying. It encourages gun owners to come out with guns blazing whenever an attack like this happens. I suspect that if that actually happened, many more people would be killed than if law enforcement alone subdued the attacker. 

Roger, thanks for your comments. Clearly, you have thought a lot about this issue. My third example is made up, so it is difficult to paint as full a picture as with the other two which come out of my own experience. 

You imply that the primary reason to oppose assisted suicide is that we live in a pluralistic society, and must not "impose our values" on others. I'm far from an expert in political science, but I would disagree with you on two fronts. First, Christians and other people of faith are part of that pluralistic society, so we and our values have as significant a place at the table as people with other value systems. We do have a right to add our voices to other's voices concerning what we believe to be best for people in society, and that should be done with the kind of respect that God calls us to have toward all people. Second, the primary opponents of legislation permitting assisted suicide are people of faith (various faiths) and disability rights groups. Not Dead Yet is a disability rights organization that vigorously opposes assisted suicide legislation. You'll find that none of their arguments are based on "Christian values", yet are powerful reminders of the dangers of such legislation for many vulnerable people in our society. 

Compassion is a value I aspire to live by in all of life. If what I wrote appears to be uncompassionate toward people facing suffering and trail at the end of life, I'm sorry. However, if we only consider compassion toward people contemplating assisted suicide, we will be mislead. We must also have compassion toward other people, such as those for whom assisted suicide legislation endangers their lives (see the Not Dead Yet article referenced above). And if we are guided only by compassion, we will forget about other important values like justice. 

Hi Roger, you are right. I could have done a much better job illustrating the painful situation in which many people find themselves when considering the option of physician-assisted suicide. 

I believe that as Christians we can give arguments against physician assisted suicide from within a Christian worldview, and submit these as part of the public discourse. As I said, we have as much right to participate in the public square as others. In addition, there are organizations like Not Dead Yet that oppose assisted suicide that do not use arguments from a Christian worldview but from a humanist point of view. They too have as much right to be part of the public discourse on the topic as those who favor assisted suicide. This is not "imposing our opinion" on others but contributing to society's discussion on this topic. 

I disagree with you that those who oppose assisted suicide "offer no options" to people in severe pain or living with severe disabilities. As I argued in my article, the options include excellent palliative care and excellent social supports (from the public and private sectors - this is where the church comes in) to do as much as possible to give difficult lives meaning, to keep people in meaningful relationships with other people, and to provide as much comfort as possible. 

Hi Francine, thanks for planning to use one or more of the slides. Also for your Sunday School program, you may want to check out the one to three minute videos we produced. For downloading the slides, clicking (Preview) will only allow you to preview but not download the slides. To download, you need to click on the filename (like Disability_Week_Community.jpg) and that should prompt your computer to open it up in the picture viewer software you have. Once you have it open in that program, use the "save" function to save it to your computer. 

Hi Michèle, thanks for your comment. What is it about Lamentations 3:19-33 that you find especially helpful? Or to ask another way, what is it about this passage that moves you so deeply?

Michèle, thanks for sharing from the heart. The power of Scripture is truly amazing. Your image of bearing the pain in your bones, and the indelible mark on your soul, reminds me of an amazing article by the late Nancy Eiesland. Dr. Eiesland was working as a chaplain in a rehab center with people who had spinal cord injuries. She asked residents how they would know if God was with them and understood their experiences. One resident said, "If God was in a sip/puff*, maybe he would understand." Later on, Eiesland was reading the story of Jesus revealing himself to his disciples after his resurrection (Luke 24:36-39). It struck her that the disciples needed to see the marks on his hands and feet to know who he was. Then she writes, 

It wasn’t God in a sip/puff, but here was the resurrected Christ making good on the promise that God would be with us, embodied, as we are – disabled and divine. Reading this passage, I realized that here was a part of my hidden history as a Christian. The foundation of Christian theology is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet seldom is the resurrected Christ recognized as a deity whose hands, feet, and side bear marks of profound physical impairment. In presenting his impaired body to his startled friends, the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God. Jesus, the resurrected Savior, calls for his frightened companions to recognize in the marks of impairment their own connection with God, their salvation. In so doing, this disabled God is also the revealer of a new humanity. The disabled God is not only the One from heaven, but the revelation of true personhood, underscoring the reality that full personhood is compatible with the experience of disability. 

Praise the Lord, Christ bears the marks of his suffering and death on himself throughout eternity, and we are better for it. (Eiesland had congenital bone disability and died in 2009.)

*A "sip/puff" refers to wheelchairs and other assistive technologies that are maneuvered by sipping from or puffing into a straw-like apparatus.

Michelle, I praise God that you know what it is to belong and serve well within your congregation, but congregations are not the same. Pastors have to tailor their messages to their own congregations. I know Greg. He's a wonderful, sensitive person who has a great deal of empathy about mental illnesses. I fully expect that he wrote this and preached it for a congregation that was in a different place than your own. We're all on a journey.