A Voice Of One Calling
Seven reasons we should be talking about
disability and the church right now
(download a PDF of this article)
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.”
Isaiah 40:3
Preface
In New York City, when we see barriers set up on the roads to block traffic, we know someone important must be coming. Similarly, the message in Isaiah 40:3, "make straight in the desert a highway for our God," was about the Lord's first coming; for us today, the church must prepare the way for His second coming.
Therefore, we must be alert to the voice of the Spirit telling us how to be prepared in our hearts and minds to receive Jesus. Both right now and when He returns.
In this article, I offer seven reasons (or seven "signs") we should be talking about disability and the church right now. Consider that well over half of Jesus’ miracles were for people with disabilities. The calling of Christian communities is always to be a place of welcome for the marginalized; however, I strongly sense God activating the church toward ministry with and for people with disabilities right now.
I hope this article will spark a conversation I am eager to have with you.
Introduction
Back in March 2020, the NBA (National Basketball Association) cancelled its season. As I remember it, this was the beginning of the “COVID lockdown” which mandated that churches all across NYC put an end to in-person events, leading them to produce live-stream worship services. We heard, "Although we are a younger congregation and have no one who is medically at risk, we are doing this to protect the vulnerable." This is a considerate decision, but it also reveals something that should not go overlooked.
Overnight, the interpersonal relationships we had invested in or had not yet invested in, opportunities of any kind we had been pursuing, indeed, our very position in life, were all frozen in time. As we stared at this stop-motion picture of our lives and our society at large, it became uncomfortably clear that the way we live and organize our world has come to segregate rich from poor, valued people from devalued people, and non-disabled from disabled.
We were not ready for the COVID crisis. And the experience provides us with sharply outlined facts we can use in the future to prevent much of the avoidable harm experienced by the most vulnerable among us. The big lesson is that if we were to intentionally invest in long-term personal relationships with our vulnerable neighbors we would be better prepared to respond to their situation in the next time of crisis. It is not my intention to sound apocalyptic, but this will not be the last time a major crisis hits, and the next one could be a lot worse.
Historically, it is the church that has been at the center of care and inclusion for those who are most rejected from society. Today, however, there are far too few faith communities that are prepared to welcome marginalized groups — namely, people with disabilities. The Lausanne Movement (a global initiative “that mobilizes evangelical leaders) states that, Only 5 to 10% of the world’s disabled are effectively reached with the gospel, making the disability community one of the largest unreached — some say under-reached — or hidden people groups in the world.” [1]
“Only 5 to 10% of the world’s disabled are effectively reached with the gospel, making the disability community one of the largest unreached — some say under-reached — or hidden people groups in the world.” [1] ”
The pandemic has dramatically affirmed that people with disabilities are still among the most overlooked people groups in the world. It is a tragic — and ironic — reality that today the church is often one of the last places people in need of a caring community think they can turn to for help.
Many Bible verses reference the marginalized and God's concern for them. And it is vital to notice how many of these verses refer to, quite literally, people with disabilities. So, for example, see this reference page where I have compiled ten Bible verses that have shaped my understanding of ministry with and for people with disabilities.
Isaiah spoke to God's people," Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Today, in our individualistic culture, we need teachers who can refocus our disrupted faith and remove obstacles keeping us from the way of Jesus. The voices of the most wounded are among our most instructive teachers. When we learn to welcome them, we learn to receive Jesus.
Now, we are living in post-pandemic times, and many Christian leaders are saying that they want to re-imagine their faith communities. Outside our church walls, there is a voice of one calling. It can be heard if we are listening. We must listen.
This is the time, right now, when the church should be talking about people with disabilities.
I offer seven reasons why:
Seven reasons we should be talking about disability and the church right now
1. The problems exposed by COVID.
2. We can all identify with social isolation.
3. The impact of COVID-19 on our Mental Health.
4. People with disabilities are becoming more visible.
5. People with disabilities are seeking membership in NYC churches.
6. Our society craves moral order and authenticity.
7. The church is experiencing an identity crisis.
Note: The term "disability" is broad. Here, with only a few exceptions, I am referring to those with mental impairments who are socially excluded, segregated because they rely upon professionally controlled service systems, and are without rich and natural support systems, such as family or a freely-given community. That said, much of what is said here can apply to other devalued people groups.
Reason #1 The problems exposed by COVID
Julia was in a decade-long process of transitioning her son with developmental disabilities, James, to a supported group home before the pandemic hit. When the city went into lockdown, all their efforts were shredded, and they stayed right at home.
James and Julia are fully aware that in group homes with or without a pandemic, there are safety concerns, housing and staff shortages, and poor living conditions. The impact of COVID has only revealed these problems in more vivid and urgent terms.
Julia texted me, “Nervous and scared, I don’t know what would happen to (my son) if I got the virus.”
So what was Julia worried about if he wasn’t able to live at home during COVID?
What Julia was worried about is precisely the same as what many researchers on disability services say we ought to be concerned about. In April 2021, The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) put out a paper revealing that it is having a developmental disability that constitutes the highest independent risk factor for contracting COVID-19. The study showed that this condition is, apart from advanced age, the second greatest factor associated with COVID-19 related deaths. [2] The paper examined records of 64 million patients at hundreds of U.S. medical centers. It concluded that people with developmental disabilities are six times more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other demographic.
Let us look at six reasons (out of many) that people with disabilities were set up to be among the most vulnerable to COVID. My purpose here is to identify and understand the structural problems in society, specifically within the service system that people with disabilities rely upon. As you will see, these issues which put disabled people at risk of harm exist — with or without the occurrence of a pandemic.
1a - Social isolation
It is not primarily a person's disability that puts them at risk. Instead, the overarching and fundamental problem is our negative mindset and attitude toward people with disabilities. These negative mindsets and attitudes lead people through a downward spiral of all sorts of other problems, both on a personal and a [systemic] level. The cumulative effect takes a tremendous toll on a person's health, often far worse than the disability itself.
Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger, a world-renowned advocate for the disabled, taught that it is the very fact that a person is devalued in the first place that produces many of the problems that disabled people face: "poverty, poor nutrition, unsafe living conditions, poor health care, or being assaulted." [3] We tend to focus on such issues, but, in a way, these are the symptoms, not the cause. The root of most of the problems in this list is what Dr. Wolfensberger calls social devaluation.
Social devaluation leads to social isolation.
We must understand that social isolation leads to the harmful conditions mentioned above (and more), and it is the isolation that both maintains those conditions and will likely make them progressively worse over time.
I have met countless people with disabilities who say they have never had even one friend who is not paid to spend time with them. This reality is devastating when we consider the actual consequences of social isolation. For example, the National Institute on Aging has stated that the health risk of extended isolation is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Do For One, the organization I founded, puts a strong emphasis on addressing this problem of social isolation by establishing one-to-one relationships between a person with developmental disabilities (whom we call the 'partner') and another person who enjoys a more socially included life (whom we call the 'advocate').
1b - Crowded living conditions
Many people with developmental disabilities live in group homes and other crowded congregate settings. Therefore, not only do group home residents have very little privacy, but they have little or no personal control over what measures their roommates or agency staff might be taking to keep everyone safe.
1c - Crowded transportation
People with developmental disabilities typically use shared transportation such as Access-A-Ride (in NYC) or other accessible vans or buses. Therefore “social distancing” was difficult to maintain.
1d - Shortage of home care workers
All across New York State, and the country, there is a shortage of home care workers. This triggers a cascade of crisis: people receive less care, staff take on double shifts causing them to become burnt out. In some cases this leads to group home residents being moved into even more crowded settings such as nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities.
Here is an example.
Shannon moved to Coler Hospital on Roosevelt Island in late 2019. Little did any of us know that months later, during the height of the pandemic, Coler would become a death trap. You can read the story about Coler in Mother Jones magazine here. [4] Like many Roosevelt Islanders, my reaction was to petition against moving COVID-positive patients into any already crowded health center. You can read my petition here on the Roosevelt Islander blog.
Miraculously, Shannon got out of Coler and into her own apartment. Nevertheless, several months after living in Manhattan, she got sick and had to be hospitalized. Because of the extended stay in the hospital, she got dropped by her home health care agency (which had provided 24/7 home care) and therefore was unable to return to her new home.
Forced back into the “system” — the system she fought so hard to get out of — Shannon endured multiple transfers between nursing homes and hospitals while waiting for a new home health aide to become available amidst the nationwide staff shortages.
After several months of waiting and filing reapplications, Shannon has now returned to her private apartment. Stories like these do not usually end well, thankfully this one does. Many of our neighbors who are reliant on the service system do not have advocates to help them when bureaucratic log-jams put them in harm’s way. Yet Do For One was able to successfully match Shannon with a voluntary advocate who lives nearby in her Upper West Side neighborhood. You can read their story here.
1e - The ongoing housing crisis
The housing crisis puts particularly cumbersome pressure on aging parents who provide care for their disabled adult children. For example, during the pandemic, not only did parents have to keep their children home, but many parents that had access to group home placements prior to the pandemic were forced to remove their adult children from a group home. This abrupt change would undo all the years of hard work that it took to find the placement in the first place.
1f - Disabled people are made extremely vulnerable in hospitals
Hospital settings are risky and unsafe for people with disabilities. Doctors, for example, often lack experience in serving people with disabilities and harbor unwarranted fears and biases toward them. In many states, during the height of the pandemic, doctors denied ventilators to people with disabilities in order to prioritize the treatment of non-disabled patients. Disability and civil rights groups all across the U.S. sent out warnings to group homes not to allow their residents to go to a hospital unless absolutely necessary. See this story on NPR as an example of many reports on this problem. [5]
Not only did the elderly and disabled die of COVID at an alarmingly disproportionate rate, but many of their deaths were not even counted in official reports. For example, in New York State, over four thousand deaths of were swept under the carpet from official government counts. This scandalous cover up was uncovered by New York Times (March 15th 2022) investigative reporters. [6]
Conclusion to Reason #1
You may be asking why “The problems exposed by COVID” is listed as the first of seven reasons the church should be talking about disability right now.
“Like, what could the church possibly do in response to that?” Here are three brief thoughts on this question.
First, before deciding on any action, it is important that we acknowledge and think about what happened to many people during the pandemic — people made in the image of God.
Second, we should ask ourselves the following questions: what are the cultural values of our time that allow such horrendous structural failures that harm so many people? What are the negative attitudes and mindsets that have, for far too long, shaped contemporary social services meant to serve the most devalued people groups? Finally, we must bring these mindsets — these “idols,” to put it in Judeo-Christian terms — to light and challenge them.
We still live in a world that measures human worth based on external factors such as someone’s level of independence, intelligence, productivity, and perceived ability to contribute to society. The story of the neglect of thousands of vulnerable lives during COVID exposes these utilitarianism ethics that pervade our minds and dominate our service structures.
Therefore, Christian leaders ought to “hit pause” and reflect upon how their church communities likely are mirroring these very same materialistic, worldly values.
Third, as a result of COVID-19 shining a light on these previously overlooked problems with health care systems, the National Council on Disability (NCD) is calling for raising awareness and reducing bias against the disabled across a wide range of services: medical care, group homes, nursing homes, education, and mental health care.
Christian leaders should be alarmed that the call for awareness raised by the NCD was directed to every kind of institution except faith communities. There was once a day when people would automatically turn to Christian communities for help with social problems, especially those confronting the most vulnerable groups.
The Early Church was informal, meeting in people’s homes. It was Christians’ generous hospitality and dedication to health care that, in the late 4th century, led to the creation of the first hospitals. [7] Today, we must reflect upon the origins of our faith and ask why the NCD, among others, is no longer asking us for help.
Churches are, unlike other organizations, positioned to address the wholeness of each member individually and the entire community, reaching its physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual needs. We, as Christians, can seize this opportunity as we reimagine our faith communities by studying and drawing inspiration from early church service models.
Reason #2 We can all identify with social isolation
At Do For One’s orientation sessions, we make it clear that the problem we are addressing is not a person’s disability per se, but rather the social devaluation that leads to isolation, a heart-wounding experience shared by many people affected by disability.
During the pandemic, Do For One advocate and core leader, Kimberly Fraser, invited her small group into this conversation.
“The isolation we are all experiencing right now is a daily reality over a lifetime for our marginalized brothers and sisters. The daily inability to connect with the warmth of a loved one or friend, the lack of freedom to come and go as you please, the inability to just go outside to feel some sunlight on your face – people with disabilities live this day in and day out.”
Do For One has gained momentum and grown throughout the pandemic. One of the primary reasons is that we can all now, to various degrees, relate to experiences of social isolation. It is, therefore, prime time for Christian leaders to take heed of the wisdom coming from those on the margins. They call us to friendship and community, which go hand in hand with following Jesus.
Reason #3 The Impact of COVID on our Mental Health
The World Health Organization has reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. [8] This is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider the fact that nearly half of the people affected by hurricane Katrina developed a mental disorder due to the loss of their love ones, homes, income, and financial security.
In a New Yorker article published in March 2020, Dr. Sue Varma, a psychiatrist, said, “With this pandemic, we see no end in sight, so it’s more traumatic.” [9] It’s hard to say what challenges may lie ahead regarding our mental health.
Christian leaders need to face the fact that we will be healing from these times for the rest of our lives and that there will be an increase in mental illness, sickness, and disability among current members of our churches. People with disabilities are no longer a people group that we can ignore on the outside simply because they have become our members on the inside.
Reason #4 - People with Disabilities are becoming more visible
Unrelated to COVID-19, here are three ways people with disabilities are becoming more visible to the public. You may be able to think of others.
4a - Social Integration Movements
The deinstitutionalization movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s paved the way for the many integrative service models we see today. Before this movement, most children and adults with mild to significant impairments would be segregated from society and placed in mental institutions. Today, we have the opportunity to know more and more people with disabilities in our schools, workplaces, communities, and churches. And so, naturally, the topic of disability is becoming more common simply because we see people with disabilities in our day-to-day lives more than at any other time in U.S. history.
4b - Christian leaders affected by disability
I personally know Christian leaders in NYC who have been affected by disability. One is my pastor at Hope Astoria Church, Kristian Hernandez, who says, "My daughter with Down's syndrome has taught me more about being human than anyone else." He goes on to say, "my daughter has gentled my other children."
Another is an artist and student at City Seminary of New York, Sasha Hollock, who has a son with disabilities and is asking tough questions about the theology of suffering and hope. In a blog post, Sasha asks, "How can we manage our stress and fatigue in healthy ways? What does support look like for us?" [10]
One major thrust that led to the deinstitutionalization movement was the outcry for change from parents. For example, it was parents who essentially paved the way to close down the horror that was Willow Brook State School on Staten Island and founded numerous agencies supporting the kinds of group home settings we see today.
Because Christian leaders are personally affected by the challenges of disability, I am hopeful that a significant cultural shift in our churches is possible. For example, if parents brought about substantial social change during the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1970s and 1980s, might there be a way to catalyze another wave of change through Christian leaders who are parents of children with disabilities?
I also know Christian leaders in NYC with first-hand experience with disabilities. Dennis Farro, who is blind, speaks profoundly about disability and the church. He regularly preaches at Bellmore Presbyterian Church in Long Island. Dennis says,
“And yes, I am blind, and I would like to talk to you about some of the difficulties, but want to first point out that perhaps in a lot of ways the ability to physically see can be a bit of a hindrance to seeing with our spiritual eyes. If you think about it, all of us are worshipping a God that we can’t see. We all pray to a God that we can’t see. So we’re all in the same boat as far as I’m concerned.”
4c - Films and TV featuring disabled people
People with disabilities are becoming more visible in films and TV. For example, 2021's CODA on Apple+ is a movie about Ruby, the only hearing member of a deaf family, in which she needs to choose between helping her family or pursuing musical dreams at Berkeley College of Music. The movie received multiple awards, including three Oscars.
The 2019 film Peanut Butter Falcon made history by paving the way for the first Oscar presenter with Down's Syndrome. Other examples are popular TV shows such as Atypical, Love on the Spectrum, and the Extra-Ordinary Woo.
Conclusion to Reason #4
Although more settings affording people with disabilities opportunities to become integrated into broader (and valued) society have opened up in recent years, it is important to recognize that we still face vehement resistance. Some efforts toward so-called “inclusion” are in name only. Other efforts, such as the “self-advocacy” movements, offer some assistance but only help a selective group of people with less significant impairments.
Let’s look at two major problems that need our attention.
First, consider the workforce and disability. Before Covid in 2019, only 19% of people of working age with disabilities had jobs. During Covid, it’s estimated that up to 75% of those working were laid off. As of late, the percentage is slowly rising back up to 19%. [11]
Second, consider the shocking statistics around abortion and Down’s Syndrome. A 2020 article in Atlantic Monthly revealed that 95% of children in Denmark with Down Syndrome today are aborted. In the U.S today, some studies cite that around 75% are aborted. [12]
Reason #5 People with disabilities are seeking membership in NYC churches
Many people with disabilities we have gotten to know through Do For One have been seeking church membership. Where will they — members of the very people group whom Jesus particularly gave time and attention to — find a place of belonging in church?
Some churches, to be sure, are prepared to welcome and receive the gifts of those with disabilities; we can learn from their exemplary leadership. An example of such a well-prepared leader is the founder and lead pastor of One Community Church in Hell's Kitchen, Chris Mills, who asked Evan, his friend with disabilities, to become part of the leadership team. This role enabled Evan to develop long-term relationships which are solidly rooted within a vibrant church community.
Chris says,
“He’s one of my best friends and I can’t imagine what the church would be like without him. He makes everyone feel welcomed as a greeter at the church, he claps after every song, and he has a huge heart for helping people.”
Jane Yoon, Do For One's Program Manager, writes about their story in our March 2022 Newsletter. You can read the full story here.
Jane writes:
Despite all that Chris has done for Evan, he focuses on Evan's gifts and what he does for the community. Chris says, "Hell's Kitchen people are known as tough, hard-working people. It's representative of people in the community like Evan."
Chris and Evan bond over a shared passion for community outreach. During COVID, Evan led a community renewal project, bringing together dozens of people through the local police precinct and their local church to clean up graffiti and litter. Evan says, “we’re trying to keep the neighborhood clean and safe. We made it better by working together.”
When there is belonging, no one is better or more important than another; when there is belonging, we are members of each other, and each plays their part – and we need each other. When there is belonging, we learn to accept our other brothers and sisters as they are, not as we think they ought to be. With belonging, one is aware of each person’s strengths, capacities, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. Achieving belonging is no small thing, for it requires forgiveness, humility, and long-suffering.
So then, when we ask how we can be the churches that provide places of belonging to people with disabilities, we are actually asking how we can be places of welcome for everyone.
This brings me to the last two reasons we should be talking about disability and the church right now. These reasons have less to do with what we, as the church, have to offer and more with what we miss when we exclude our brothers and sisters with disabilities.
Reason #6 Society craves moral order and authenticity
The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen (famous Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer, and theologian) made a big impression on me. One evening, about ten years ago, I read through the entire book with tears rolling down my eyes because it rang so true to my soul.
Nouwen writes –
“Everywhere we see restless and nervous people, unable to concentrate and often suffering from a growing sense of depression. They know that what is shouldn’t be the way it is, but they see no workable alternative. [12]”
Today, we see all around us societal collapse — from the numerous scandals tied to prominent Christian leaders to what we witness in the news and online to the Babel-filled battles of hashtag movements coming both from the political right and left. We are subjected to a constant flood of distracting, if not destructive, misinformation, tweets, retweets, and trolling, even to threats of Nuclear war. The world is more complex and fast-paced than ever, and violence, immorality, and deceit are rising.
This moral and societal collapse pushes the most devalued people into further soul-crushing and life-threatening isolation, as the problems revealed by COVID have taught us.
So, how do we find this “workable alternative” we need?
Those who are at the bottom of our social ladder are the ones we need to hear from the most. I have listened to the cry for authenticity among those most lonely and isolated. Their voices are often untainted and unaffected by the whims of our culture and bring a pearl of refreshing wisdom which must be heard. I’m indebted to the many people who have touched my life by keeping the essential things of life at the center of our relationships: to love and be loved, to understand and be understood, to have a purpose, to be patient with each other, and to forgive one another.
I’ve been changed by the intimate moments with those on the margins where, not with words but with gestures, we ask one another, “Do you love me?” And ”Would it matter to you at all if I said I love you?”
I have seen the world from their point of view, and I will never see the world the same way again. Perhaps they have shown me the sought-after “workable alternative” to the “restless and nervous” condition that Henri Nouwen described. I have learned that the way forward in our broken world is a gentler way, a quieter way, a slower way, and a simple and personal way.
I have also learned that it’s okay not to have all the answers, yet still be faithful to what we know; one thing we do know is when it comes to grief and loss and other forms of suffering, no one should have to endure them alone.
If only we had the reality-grounding voices of the underprivileged in our midst, our communities would be far better off. They have a way of gentling us and humbling us and cleansing us of superficiality.
Therefore, one way we might restore moral order and authenticity to our lives and faith communities again is by standing with those at the bottom of our society and learning to see the world through their eyes.
I fear, however, that few Christian leaders want to change the culture of their churches. Such a culture shift, one where the lowly are greeted with open arms, would make a mockery of the sophistication, church growth methods, and entertainment that is so prevalent in American Christianity. The cry of a lonely person’s heart is not, “impress me with your personality and eloquence” — instead, it is a deep cry from the heart, “do you love me?”
Whether we heed or not, the “voice of one calling” whispers behind the noise and is still audible for those listening closely.
Reason #7 The church is experiencing an identity crisis
Back in March 2020, out of our concern for the vulnerable, some churches assumed the only way to get through the COVID crisis was by creating high-production videos, holding on tight, and counting our views to measure our reach.
Throughout the pandemic many churches realized that spiritual strength is in the relationships we had invested in and not in high tech Sunday worship services. In the end, the churches that bore spiritual fruit throughout the pandemic were not the ones with fancy services to offer online, but rather the ones that put their energy into developing authentic relationships among church members and their neighbors.
Unfortunately, it seems we largely still have reduced Christianity to entertainment guided by metrics that report back to us how many are in our audiences are watching.
Throughout history, people of faith fall into particular patterns of error and temptations, called idols, that are particular to each era – anything from graven images to the deification of Caesar. Today, we should ask, what idols of our time have been brought to light by the pandemic? One way to find the answer to this question is to look at how this crisis disproportionately affects certain groups of people.
Again, that which we value highest, our obsession with power, wealth and social status is exposed by what I've just outlined.
In his book, The Bible, Disability, and the Church (2011), theologian Amos Yong says that –
“If, in the world’s view, ability, capability, and self-accomplishments are normate expectations, then the disability, inability, and utter helplessness of the symbol of the cross now represent God’s power and wisdom.””
Adopting a new focus on including the vulnerable isn’t expected to be popular. It will slow down perceived progress and it will raise more questions than we will have answers to. But isn’t that the same kind of problem we are faced with in the wisdom of the cross?
If we want to offer something to the world, then we must stop blending into the world. The church in Western society is in decline and is viewed as largely irrelevant with regard to solving any of society’s problems. Now is the time for us to reimagine the way we shape our faith communities.
To do this, we must look squarely at the situation we are in, humble ourselves, stop trying to be seen as more important than we are, and instead be available to the people God has entrusted to us. We must stop striving after convenience and quick fixes and instead stand firm in our convictions. We must stop thinking of ourselves as teachers (or coaches or consultants) only and recognize how much those at the bottom of our society are ready to teach us.
We must stop building walls of religious piety in the name of complying with the demands of the culture wars. Power struggles and ideological posturing do not and cannot address the realities of those most devalued in our society — those who simply ask that we see their needs and respond with compassion.
Imagine the Christians of the first few centuries – how they would simply not even recognize the many activities that we call “church” or Christian mission. But when we choose to genuinely, openly, engage with “the least of us” we will see the difference and chose to reform.
As Augustine said, “the church must always be reformed. [14]
Now is the time, I repeat, for us to learn, with diligence and love, from those we have been ignoring, and reform our churches once again.
Conclusion: A New Way Unfolds
Now that we live in post-COVID times, we can restore order out of the chaos and restructure things so that our churches can build new, trusted relationships with the most vulnerable among us. Churches and Christian leaders who pay attention to the signs of the times can usher in a timely and prophetic message of hope in our fractured post-pandemic society.
If we learn to welcome the weakest of our neighbors, we will know how to be a welcoming and compelling community for everyone. Just as a voice from the wilderness crying out, “prepare the way for the Lord,” devalued people, such as people with disabilities, possess the voice we are missing and urgently need in our churches right now.
REFERENCES
[1] Joni Eareckson Tada (Convenor), Hidden and Forgotten People Ministry Among People with Disabilities; Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 35B; Produced by the Issue Group on this topic at the 2004 Forum hosted by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization In Pattaya, Thailand, 29 September to 5 October 2004. (Section 2a).
[2] “2021 Progress Report: The Impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities,” The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), October 29, 2021.
2021 Progress Report: The Impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities | NCD.gov
[3] Wolf Wolfensberger, “A Brief Introduction To Social Role Valorization” 2013 pg. 32
[4] Molly Schwartz, “Nothing But Death”: Inside the Nursing Home Where NYC’s Most Vulnerable Struggle to Survive COVID-19: The arrival of the coronavirus was swift and brutal.” Mother Jones, April 28, 2020.
https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/04/nothing-but-death-inside-the-nursing-home-where-nycs-most-vulnerable-struggle-to-survive-covid-19/
[5] Joseph Shapiro, “Oregon Hospitals Didn't Have Shortages. So Why Were Disabled People Denied Care?” NPR / WNYC, December 21, 2020 People With Disabilities Were Denied Care In Oregon Hospitals Amid Pandemic : NPR
[6] Luis Ferré-Sadurní, “Health Agency Under Cuomo ‘Misled the Public’ on Nursing Home Deaths,” New York Times, March 15, 2022.
[7] “Towards the end of the 4th century, the "second medical revolution” took place with the founding of the first Christian hospital in the eastern Byzantine Empire by Basil of Caesarea, and within a few decades, such hospitals had become ubiquitous in Byzantine society”; from: “History of Hospitals,” Wikipedia.
[8] “COVID-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide; Wake-up call to all countries to step up mental health services and support,” World Health Organization, March 2, 2022.
COVID-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide (who.int)
[9] Robin Wright, “How Loneliness from Coronavirus Isolation Takes Its Own Toll,” The New Yorker, Mar. 23, 2020.
How Loneliness from Coronavirus Isolation Takes Its Toll | The New Yorker
[10] Sasha Hollock, “Breaking Point,” Davids Refuge, February 16, 2021.
Breaking Point | David's Refuge (davidsrefuge.org)
[11] Office of Disability Employment Policy, "Employment of Persons with a Disability: Analysis of Trends during the COVID-19 Pandemic” February 2022 https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ODEP/pdf/Employment_for_PWD-Analysis_of_Trends_during_COVID_2022.pdf
[12] Sarah Zhang, “The Last Children of Down Syndrome,” Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/the-last-children-of-down-syndrome/616928/
[13] “[N]othing can be written about ministry without a deeper understanding of the ways in which the minister can make his own wounds available as a source of healing. Therefore the book is called The Wounded Healer.” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Doubleday, 1972, p. XVI]
[14] The Latin Ecclesia semper reformanda est is a phrase first greatly popularized by Karl Barth in 1947, allegedly deriving from a saying of St. Augustine.
Andrew Oliver is the founder and director of Do For One, a relationship-building program for people with developmental disabilities, and a core leader at Hope Astoria Church. Contact Andrew@DoForOne.org
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