Disability, Race, and Christianity
Post categories: Miscellaneous
| 11:22 UK time, Saturday, 11 August 2007
On my blog and in real life, I often muse about disability serving as my "get out of the race jail free" card. I don't mean that I automatically pass GO and collect 200 bucks/quid (bucksquid.... quidbucks?); it's just that the unpleasant surprises of the community chest are rather different. Instead of being seen as an uppity welfare queen, I am now a pathetic cripple. I am no longer a potential shoplifter, credit card/identity thief; I am a pitiable thing of whom every care must be taken. I don't like either, btw -- they'd be better off getting some wide, light weight doors and ramps in place, rather than drowning me in fake solicitousness -- but I am amused to find that my darkness becomes invisible, wiped out by the prominence of the hulk of metal in which I sit.
A second gripe that I occasionally make is that, in the US at least, the disability consciousness of the present is a very "white" disability consciousness. I am not the first to make that point, and academics are busily writing papers that name the whiteness of disability studies. Other scholars are working on race and, in particular, blackness and disability. For me, one of the problematic issues is Christianity.
Faith isn't just a "black" thing nor are all African-Americans/Afro-Caribbeans/Africans Christian. Black churches are no worse than any others: I find the "all are welcome" US Episcopal church just as problematic on disability issues as I do the fundamentalist communities in which the black members of my family (I am multiracial) participate: ramps are as scarce as steps and bad attitudes are omnipresent in both worlds. But for better or for worse, the more evangelicy fundamentalisty branches of Christianity (yes, I know they aren't the same thing) are the ones that define religion in the black communities I haunt.
The problem is that the Bible just isn't nice about "ailing, failing, and broken" bodies. And it's not as if you can rewrite the Bible cutting out the bits you don't like. And yet, I find it impossible to live with the (begin deep sigh): "It's the Lord's way. He punishes us for what we do (or haven't done). Suffering is a daily part of life. The Lord will provide. He sends us trials. You just lift yourself up to Him and have faith. You ain't healed yet? Pray harder. Believe and you shall receive. God's healing will come." Gosh -- all that makes me sound bitter. I AM bitter. I am scared of being around people who think my disability is MY fault, a sign of my weak faith or, worse, people who see my chair as a sign of the Lord's work on earth. Everything for a reason, and nothing more than you can bear. I've been specially picked for the kind of suffering and trial. And there's no speaking back to this, you know?
Except that there is. Nancy Eiesland's book, The Disabled God, argues that the resurrected Christ is disabled. organizes against those who would use faith to promote intolerance. And our very own OUCH! humorously reclaims Moses as one of us. Yes, really! I am a little skeptical, sorry Paul, but hey, whatever. Even the act of looking at these things lightheartedly can spur someone else to do some more rigorous work elsewhere. It's about the ideas. Every time we do this kind of thing, the history of persons with disabilities becomes a little more visible. There are probably more I don't know about -- suggestions for extra reading?
For my part, I wonder if my small part of black culture really could be in the vanguard of a different understanding of race, religion, and disability. My sense is that this new understanding would come from a reinterpretation of all that negativity. Just like minoritized communities take the words that oppress them and turn them into words of pride, my thought is that one part of a black disability consciousness would be a positive understanding of the history of sin, impairment, blessings, and faith.
I'm choosing to offer this as a race inflected understanding of disability because my black community is deeply religious: Even if people don't observe or believe themselves, they have close family members and friends who do, they may have been brought up with faith, and, weirdly, even if they don't believe, they still articulate and act upon many of the tenets of the Christian faith. Religious proverbs or ideas are a part of daily conversation. On top of this reconciliation, I would add reinterpreted discussions of social power, self-determination, autonomy, and responsibility.
How all this would happen? I don't know. Suggestions welcome.
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Comments
Dear Wheelchair Dancer,
I have written a short book about all of the "religious" traditions in the Christian Church as concerning the physically disabled. Part of it is my life experience as a disabled Christian who attended church for decades. Part of it is detailed Biblical studies behind all of the Scriptures that religious people use to belittle disabled people, and how they are misinterpreting the Scriptures. One whole section is on the book of Job鈥攖he book that 鈥渢hey鈥 use the most to 鈥榩rove鈥 God made us crippled. I have a US copyright on it, but it is not published. If you are interested in reading it send me an email and I can send it as a Word Doc. without the pictures. It is nothing like the books you listed.
Dear Joyjoykelly,
Wow! Thanks that would be brilliant -- absolutely amazing. I can be reached at wheelchairdancer a t g m ail d o t c o m.
Can you post again with a couple of your insights in case anyone else wants to join the discussion?
Thanks
WCD
Wheelchairdancer,
Rather than an insight I am going to paste and copy the list that inspired me to research scripture and write the book that I did.
[The List did not paste too well]
These are religious statements that have been said to me by church people, pastors, or television ministers. Most were said directly to me or in front of me, excluding the statements made by television ministries. All of those who spoke directly to me or in front of me as part of a congregation were volunteering their opinions without me asking. I do not remember asking anyone, 鈥淲hy am I crippled?鈥 However, people sure like to tell me why they think I am.
This is in my book; it is protected by USA copyright.
God made you crippled______
1.__to teach you a lesson; such as patience.
2.__to teach others around you a lesson.
3.__because of your sins.
4.__because of your parents鈥 sins.
5.__because of the sins He knew that you would commit in the future.
6.__because God knew that you would be emotionally strong enough to survive the
hardships and you should be proud that God trusted you enough to choose you to be crippled.
7.__because God knew you would be smart enough to tell normal people what being
crippled is like so you can help other crippled people.
8. __so you can show others how His grace helps you to survive.
9.__because this is the cross that He chose for you to bear.
10.__so people would see the glory of God in how well you deal with being crippled.
11.__so others would have someone to have sympathy for.
12.__because God gave us all handicaps, yours just shows up on your legs.
13.__so we can see God鈥檚 blessings on you the [crippled] way that you are.
14.__because it is His will for your life and you are sinning by not praising Him for making you crippled.
15.__because God has a purpose for you to be crippled but we will not know why until we get to heaven.
16.__because He allows you to suffer because the more suffering He gives you,
demonstrates the more He trusts you.
17.__to teach you compassion.
18.__because it is your test from God.
19.__because God allows suffering to get you to pray.
20.__because God allows people to have physical handicaps so He will have someone to do a miracle on someday.
21.__because you would not have sought the Lord if you were whole in body.
22.__because God鈥檚 ways are higher than our ways.
23.__because it is your wilderness experience.
24.__to test you so you would know what your character is made of.
You are not healed because_______
1.__you are afraid to be healed so you have stopped God from healing you.
2.__you still need to learn from your disability.
3.__you just need your mind healed so that you will not dislike being crippled any
longer.
4.__your handicap needs a creative miracle; not much use in praying for that.
5.__God would have done it a long time ago if He wanted you healed. He obviously must have a reason to keep you crippled all these years.
6.__God is too intelligent to listen to you pray for healing over and over again.
7.__you must be running away from His will for your life, like Jonah.
8.__that kind of healing is only done in heaven.
9.__you do not have faith.
10.__disabled people want to keep their disability so they will have an excuse not to serve God.
11.__you are living in sin and unforgivingness.
12.__you are an unholy temple of God.
13.__it is God鈥檚 will to make some people handicapped to shape their vessel and to keep them from being conceited.
14.__healing is too complicated an issue for you to understand.
15.__you might have an evil spirit of infirmity or be possessed by a demon.
16.__you are not consecrating your body to God.
17.__you are not doing God鈥檚 will.
18.__you must not be tithing right.
19.__you must not be fasting right.
20.__you are not praying enough.
21.__you are not reading the right scriptures.
22.__you paralyzed people just make up excuses why you cannot stand up.
23.__you un-whole in body people only rely on your human spirit, not on God鈥檚
Holy Spirit.
P.S. None of these things stopped me from loving Jesus Christ, because I know these sentiments were not from Him.
What you describe is one of the many reasons I refute any religion in my life - I would never voluntarily join a group that would never see me as a full member. But then, I am a memeber of a greater society that I feel doesn't fully accept me - but I have no alternative to being in it.
And I fail to see how "the disability consciousness of the present is a very "white" disability consciousness." It applies to us all, in my understanding. I don't see how you can apply such a standard when the Disability community - and Disablism - transcends all races and cultures.
I have noticed that Christians can be very upset when you are realistic about where you are. Which has nothing to do with believing in miracles but living day to day (though they often imply that if you did "believe", as in live in some hazy state of denial, you might be "healed") - an odd attitide for a group that goes around talking about their "brokenness" all the time, isn't it?
I think most christians I have encountered, in the end, rejected me to protect themselves and their self view. To admit that I had an equal place with them and that this was an equal but different path would thrown their idea that God does "good" to "good people" - that they have a good job because God likes them. So if I am disabled because God likes me, what does that mean for them?
Dear Wheelchair Dancer,
I emailed you my Word Doc on Christian religious traditions against the disabled plus a few other writings on religious traditions against the disabled in Buddhism and Islam, the latter written by someone else. I hope they came through to your email ok.
Dear Chris Page,
I am not sure but I think you are merging the comments of both Wheelchairdancer and myself (myself) together.
I do not think the "disability consciousness is a white consciousness..." As concerning religious traditions having prejudices against the disabled it encompasses all races, major religions, and ethnic groups.
My Notes on Buddhism and the Disabled
Buddha Taught Buddhists to Regard People with Disabilities as Fools, Dogs, and Jackals
This is what Buddha taught and said as according to the Buddhist scriptures in the 鈥淟otus of the True Law.鈥
Buddha was discussing what happens to those who did not follow his rules.
鈥淣ow hear the dire results when one scorns my skillfulness and the Buddha-rules for ever fixed in the world. After having disappeared from amongst men, they shall dwell in the lowest hell during a whole kalpa, and thereafter they shall fall lower and lower, the fools, passing through repeated births for many intermediate kalpas. And when they have vanished from amongst the inhabitants of hell, they shall further descend to the condition of brutes, be even as dogs and jackals, and become the sport of others. And whenever they assume a human shape, they are born crippled, maimed, crooked, one-eyed, blind, dull, and low, they having no faith in my Sutra. And since I am fully aware of it, I command thee Sariputra, that thou shalt not expound a Sutra like this before foolish people.鈥
This scripture can be found in the Portable World Bible, edited by Robert o. Ballou. Penguin Books, 1976 edition.
A blind man once told me that when he traveled to Asia, a part of China, his colleagues explained to him that as he walked down the crowded streets with his cane, it was like 鈥渢he parting of the Red Sea.鈥 The natives were so afraid that his bad karma (as evidenced from his blindness according to their beliefs) could transfer onto them, so they quickly got as far away from him as possible.
In the early 1980s I met a young lady from Japan, named Masae, who had come to the United States with an international group that studied what other countries did for their handicapped citizens. She saw me at a movie theater in Lakewood, California, and she came up to me to ask if I would let her interview me. Of course I accepted and I gave her my address.
Masae wore a half brace on one leg and she limped a little. She did not have to use crutches. She had graduated college and had a degree in pharmacology. She was trim and neat in appearance, and she had a sweet friendly disposition. She spoke excellent English.
She came to my apartment shortly thereafter the chance meeting at the theater. At the time I was a single young mom with two little boys. I was living in a rundown apartment in a bad neighborhood in the East Los Angeles region. I was very poor.
After Masae returned to Japan, we wrote each other letters. She used to always tell me that she 鈥渆nvied鈥 my life. I could not understand how she could envy me. I was poor and alone and struggling to raise two little boys on welfare. Masae explained to me that in her culture no man would ever marry her because of her disability. She would never be allowed to have children as I had, and most likely she would always have to live with her parents. Incidentally, the organization that she belonged to was not a Japanese organization, it was an international group; it was not Buddhist affiliated. Masae did return to the United States in 1995, and I was able to see her again. However, the last letter that I received from her explained that she was very depressed because her sister had died, and now she had no one. I have not heard from Masae since about 1997. She did not have much hope or happiness at the time.
To Joyjoykelly: yes, I got all your stuff. Thanks. It's a little overwhelming -- I haven't got to it all yet.
To Chris Page:
Agree on the universalism of disablism. Should perhaps have expanded more on the whiteness thing.
As I know it, American disability history analogizes itself to the black civil rights movement, but does not make full mention of non-white participants in the movement. The primary scholarly organization for disability studies has only recently begun to actively acknowledge questions of diversity both in scholarship and in its membership. American disability focused publications and advertisements almost never show a person of colour. In fact, as Blue/Kay Olson noted from her own reading in the comments to this post:
the dominant media image of a wheelchair user is a white man.
This last link is to my BADD 2007 post in which I and a number of bloggers of colour discuss some of the intersections and possibilities surrounding disablism, disability, and race.
Hope this clears up my initial post.
Wheelchairdancer,
I don't read any disability magazines so I am not familiar with the complaints about not enough people of color being in photos of people with disabilities. Do you think that population percentages could have anything to do with that?
As for ads I only recall seeing scooter advertisements on television that show elderly people of various colors of skin; but then I live in California.
Of what I sent to you, I didn't expect you to have been able to read all that I wrote in a day; it is a booklet, not an article. I just wondered if you had received the attachments and if they opened ok on your computer.
Great insights. As a Christian I've seen some very different responses, in the churches I've attended, to the different sorts of impairment I experience. Over the past ten years I have seen a great improvement in the average church's collective attitude towards disability, at least in this country - but I agree that there's a long way to go.
The organization Churches for All (at ) works to educate churches in this country about disability and being truly welcoming of all. Similarly, there's Through The Roof (at - the name is a reference to a story of a Jesus and a physically disabled man) who well as to provide mobility equipment overseas in communities where people can't always afford it, and also do some training here/in the US. While I don't agree with everything they say (TTF in particular are a bit too into conversion and aren't all that 'social model'), both organizations trying to make a start at better inclusion for disabled people in churches. A key element of this is disability equality training and campaigning for better access.
Hi all, fascinating discussion.
I'm sorry that some of you have experienced rejection by Christians in the past. I truly hope that this will not be your only experience. I just wanted to add something; Christianity is not about God doing good things to good people. He has shown grace to people (including myself) who have rejected him. The Bible says that we are not good; we are in fact God's enemies (Colossians 1:21-22) but that because Jesus so desired to be in a relationship with us he has taken the punishment we deserve and offered to gift of a relationship with God if we put our trust in and follow him.
I don鈥檛 by any means know everything or understand everything about disability and Christianity...but what I can say is that the Bible does not state that someone is created disabled as an individual punishment, but that from the time of Adam and Eve people have rejected God (myself, my family, everybody, including those with disabilities) and as a result a barrier has been created, cutting us off from His full goodness. As a result the world is tainted by that rejection. Sadly people experience difficulties, pain and suffering to different degrees and by different means, but all that is negative in this world is as a result of this rebellion against God.
And I might add that not all experience of having a disability is an entirely negative one, just that none of us are perfect in body or mind.
And on a different note it is not the case that if we believe enough we will be healed from everything, but that we are still living in this world and affected by sin (rejection of God). However Jesus has promised that if we put our trust in Him, whether or not He chooses to heal us now, we will be in heaven with Him (Revelation 21:3-4), perfect and whole through His complete grace (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).
Hi all, fascinating discussion.
I'm sorry that some of you have experienced rejection by Christians in the past. I truly hope that this will not be your only experience. I just wanted to add something; Christianity is not about God doing good things to good people. He has shown grace to people (including myself) who have rejected him. The Bible says that we are not good; we are in fact God's enemies (Colossians 1:21-22) but that because Jesus so desired to be in a relationship with us he has taken the punishment we deserve and offered to gift of a relationship with God if we put our trust in and follow him.
I don鈥檛 by any means know everything or understand everything about disability and Christianity...but what I can say is that the Bible does not state that someone is created disabled as an individual punishment, but that from the time of Adam and Eve people have rejected God (myself, my family, everybody, including those with disabilities) and as a result a barrier has been created, cutting us off from His full goodness. As a result the world is tainted by that rejection. Sadly people experience difficulties, pain and suffering to different degrees and by different means, but all that is negative in this world is as a result of this rebellion against God.
And I might add that not all experience of having a disability is an entirely negative one, just that none of us are perfect in body or mind.
And on a different note it is not the case that if we believe enough we will be healed from everything, but that we are still living in this world and affected by sin (rejection of God). However Jesus has promised that if we put our trust in Him, whether or not He chooses to heal us now, we will be in heaven with Him (Revelation 21:3-4), perfect and whole through His complete grace (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).