Mark Stephenson
After receiving an M.Div. degree, I served as pastor of two Christian Reformed churches for a total of 17 years. From 2006 through 2021, I was the Director of Disability Concerns for the Christian Reformed Church, and relish the close working relationship CRC Disability Concerns has with the Reformed Church in America Disability Concerns ministry. I have served as interim Director of the CRC's Offices of Race Relations and Social Justice since Feb 2020. My wife Bev and I have five living children, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren. Our oldest child, Nicole, was born extremely prematurely in the late 1980’s and lives joyfully with severe, multiple impairments. That label does not define her. She loves magazines, loves interacting with people, loves roller-coasters and wild amusement park rides, and she loves to worship and to pray with God’s people. In any group, she shares her own unique gifts.
Posted in: Worship and Disabilities
Kevin, thanks for highlighting this important topic. Great to read what Gary's and Geri's churches are doing. Disability Concerns offers a variety of free resources on this topic on our Resources for Accessibility and Awareness page including our Inclusion Handbook and an accessibility audit guide.
Posted in: In Memory of My Friend, Nella Uitvlugt
Yes, I'm sure you do miss her, as do all of us who knew her well. It's been 5 months since her death, and I can still hardly believe that she won't pop in my office door some Monday morning, as she often did, to chat.
Posted in: Mom's Last Little Light
Michele, no apologies necessary. I praise God with you that your mother is doing so well. My mother-in-law is almost the same age and is just as sharp. It's wonderful.
Posted in: I Am Exceptional
Jocelyn and Stanley, yes, I think the point of the article is that every one of us is exceptional, and Rod has expressed that very well. Mark
Posted in: Rolling Out a New Perception in the Parking Lot
Speaking of humor, a colleague mentioned to me today about the new symbol (isn't it great that people are talking about it?!) that the symbol would have even more impact if there were a road kill squirrel behind the wheelchair user who (by mistake of course) killed the squirrel as the user raced along in that chair!
Posted in: A Sad Day for People with Disabilities
Considering that we in the U.S. are dependent on the rest of the world, we need to be in discussion with the rest of the world. Our clothing comes from all over the world. Our oil comes from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and lots of other countries. We owe a lot of our money to China, and that massive debt was building long before the current president. Much of the stuff we buy in stores was made in China, Mexico, Canada, and India. Our software was written by people in various regions of the world. I assume that no automobile on the road today has all of its parts and software completely designed and built in the U.S. The bargains we search for during this buying season come thanks to the work of people all across the globe. The world financial system is one massive, global web. On top of all that, the more that other nations are in chaos, the more likely they will breed terrorists who often direct their hatred toward the U.S. The U.N. is surely not perfect, but it is a forum for dialogue. Considering our worldwide interdependence, we need that dialogue. Yes, U.N. treaties are unenforceable, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I wouldn't want the U.N. to have a police force and army that could enforce treaties across the globe. The value of the U.N.'s disability treaty is that it calls the rest of the world to work toward the standards that we have in U.S. law already.
Posted in: A Sad Day for People with Disabilities
A comment on process: The Network is for thoughtful Christian dialogue as we walk in the footsteps of Christ together. Respectful disagreement is appropriate, but name-calling (thugs) is not.
Posted in: Diagnosing Evil
On Disability Concerns Facebook page, one person asked how talking about mental illness stigmatizes it. I responded to her that open discussions about mental illness do not stigmatize, but the media tend to associate mental illness with crimes and atrocities, that stigmatizes. This article by Nirvi Shah in Education Week, Conn. School Shootings Unleashed Attack on Disabilities, Too, articulates this point much better than I can.
Posted in: Rolling Out a New Perception in the Parking Lot
Check out this article in Fast Company about the new accessibility icon. It's now the symbol of choice for New York City!
Posted in: Diagnosing Evil
I just read another fine article on this subject by the director of a county community mental health agency: A call to fund mental health treatment. The author, Michael Brashears, argues BOTH that a history of mental illness is not a predictor of violent behavior AND that communities that fund treatment programs for people dealing with mental illnesses show that they consider these individuals to be valued and contributing members of their communities.
Posted in: Rolling Out a New Perception in the Parking Lot
John, thanks for your note. Many people (I WAS among them) say that "handicap" should be avoided because it comes from an old British term for beggars who approached people with cap in hand. I learned recently from Snopes, that this etymology of "handicap" is incorrect. Some people distinguish "handicap" from "disability" by saying that "handicap" describes environmental and attitudinal barriers that keep people with disabilities from fully participating in society, while "disability" describes a functional limitation that someone lives with due to a intellectual, emotional, physical, or sensory impairment. Nearly all the literature I read that has come out in the last 10 years, writers eschew the word "handicap", but I'm not really sure why. Yes, the word "disability" may fall into disfavor someday too, but right now it is the most common term.
Posted in: Rolling Out a New Perception in the Parking Lot
Yes, we have no ability on our own to earn our way into God's favor, and one could call that our greatest disability, shared by all humankind. However, I don't every use the term "disabilty" to describe our sin for a reason. Many people with disabilities have been rubbed raw by the association many people make between their disabilty and human sinfulness. Sometimes the connection is very direct. For example, one time a woman told me that my daughter lives with severe, multiple disabilities because my wife and I don't have enough faith that God can cure her of these disabilities. Besides this painfully common accusation, many people with disabilities are told or assumed to have done something really bad to deserve the disability they live with. In fact, the word "monster" (which comes from the Latin verb "monere" which means "to warn") first was used to refer to people with visible disabilities. They were warnings to the rest of society that if you violate the will of the gods, you will experience their wrath.
I'm sure that you had none of this in mind in what you wrote, but for these reasons I prefer never to associate "disability" with sin.