Katrona Templeton
The main barriers that people with disabilities have interacting with the church seem to stem from the views, some Christians have of disabilities:
- Disability as a punishment for sin
- Society’s Image of Disability
Disability as a Punishment for Sin
The Religious Model of Disability
The moral/religious model of disability is the oldest model of disability and is found in several religious traditions, including the Judaeo-Christian tradition (Pardeck & Murphy 2012:xvii). The religious model of disability is a pre-modern paradigm that views disability as an act of a god, usually a punishment for some sin committed by the disabled individual or their family. In that sense, disability is punitive and tragic in nature.
In this model, disability is seen as a punishment for a known or unknown sin committed by someone or their family. It insinuates that disabilities are things to be ashamed of and are used by God as punishments. This only serves to stigmatize people, making people with disabilities seen as unworthy to be at church or suffering due to their disability and, therefore, needing to be prayed for or pitted by the “good Christians.”
So, where does this model originate from?
In the Old Testament, apart from failing eyesight due to old age, the Bible doesn’t mention the natural causes of disability. Instead, it is attributed to God as a punishment. This gives the view that God brings disability as a punishment for people or their families if they disobey God. Some examples are:
Leviticus 26:14-16 that if Israel doesn’t obey, they will suffer a “sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength” In the case of King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26:16-23 how was struck down with leprosy for being unfaithful to God.
This attitude to disabilities carries through to the New Testament, as shown in John 9 1- 3:
While Jesus was walking, he saw a blind man. This man had been blind since the time he was born. Jesus’ followers asked him, “Teacher, this man was born blind. But whose sin made him be born blind? His sin, or his parents’ sin?” Jesus answered, “It is not this man’s sin or his parents’ sin that made him blind. This man was born blind so that God could use him to show what great things God can do.
Here, Jesus’ followers automatically assume that the blind man is blind due to a punishment to God. Here, Jesus reaffirms it is God’s will that the man is blind, and it has nothing to do with previous sins.
People can sometimes see the healing stories of Jesus as proof that disability comes from sin.
If you think about the man who was lowered through the roof in Mark 2: 1-12, most people will remember Jesus saying your sins are forgiven, get up and walk. Some will interpret that as Jesus saying your sins are forgiven, so now you can walk, linking the inability to walk with sins. Looking closer at the text you will see Jesus first forgave the sins, but the Pharisees said He did not have the authority to forgive sins. It was then that Jesus said, “ Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say to the crippled man, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ There is no proof that it really happened. But what if I say to the man, ‘Stand up. Take your bed and walk’? Then you will be able to see if I really have this power or not.” So Jesus had already forgiven the man for his sins before He asked him to get up and walk.
This attitude of disability as a consequence of sin is still present in our churches. People with epilepsy are being asked what they have done to allow Satan or a demon into their lives and bodies. Or people with vision loss or blindness being told that they must not believe in God or have prayed hard enough or their vision would have been restored.
Society’s Image of Disability
Here, Christians see people with disabilities as being lesser than themselves and in need of prayer to make them ‘better’ or to ‘heal them’. It can be seen as the ‘Christian’ thing to do. Unfortunately, those within our churches who feel this way don’t recognise the damage they are doing to people with disabilities.
In Genesis 1:27, we are told that God made us in His image, and in Isaiah 64:8, we are the clay, and God has made us. This is true for people with disabilities as well. God made us each unique and gave us our gifts and abilities.
In her BBC documentary Silenced the Story of Disabled Britain, Cerrie Burnell looks at the issues faced by people with disabilities in society. The main one that struck me is how people look at non-disabled people as being the preferred default for a human.
She talks much about how she was forced to wear a prophetic arm. Being born without an arm, she was happy and had adapted to being without it. Yet through her school years and into her working life, she found that people were unhappy when she presented herself as how she was and was forced to wear a prosthetic for the comfort of others. She found the prosthetic uncomfortable and awkward, which made her day-to-day life much more difficult.
This societal view is also present in churches, especially when the person’s disability is part of who they are. This seems more common if they are born with a disability, i.e. a missing limb, Deafness (with a capital D), autism or a learning difficulty.
Here, a disabled person sees their disability as part of who they are, what makes them unique, and how God made them. By asking God to change part of them, you are saying, “You are not good enough; there is something wrong with you, and God needs to make you better before you are welcomed here.”
As a church, we need to understand the differences between healing and curing. Much of Jesus’s mission was physically healing people and restoring their place in society. Mark 10:46-52 Jesus heals a blind man, But reading the verses, you find he did not go about spotting blind people at random and curing them but asked in verse 51, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man answered, “Teacher, I want to see again.” Looking closely at this verse, you notice two things:
1. Jesus understands the difference between healing and curing and asks what the man wants
2. The man had lost his vision and wanted to see again
It can be a difficult concept for people who are born with sight, hearing, neurotypical or with all limbs to understand that those who are born without these things might not want them and see themselves as complete the way God has made them.
How Does God Use People with Disabilities
God shapes people and knows their futures.
Various characters in the Bible are identified as having a disability that God then uses to do his work:
Exodus 4:10-13 Moses has a speech impediment, yet God gives him the power and confidence to speak for the Jewish people.
2 King 7 Four men with leprosy were chosen to tell the city that the Arameans had left the camp
Judges 3:12-30 Ehud, because his right hand was not working, was left-handed, enabling him to get close to the King of Moab and kill him
These are a few times God has made people and then used what society has seen as a disability for His work. Yet, in our churches today, how many leaders have disabilities?
In summary, inclusion is a great starting point, but people with disabilities within our churches must be made part of our churches. They need to be made feel as if they belong. One way of doing this is to encourage people from the disabled community to become leaders within our churches. We can do this by looking at the barriers that are in place that are stopping people with disabilities from becoming leaders and thinking of new ways of spreading the word of God.
As Joni Eareckson Tada says:
“Disabled ministry is not disabled ministry unless the disabled are ministering.”
Further Reading
https://www.disabled-world.com/definitions/disability-models.php
https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/988/1164
The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability by Nancy L. Eiesland
Disability in Mission The Church’s Hidden Mission by David C Deuel and Nathan G John
bbc documentary Silenced the Story of Disabled Britain, Cerrie Burnell
https://www.boardofrabbis.org/files/Heroes_with_Disabilities.pdf