Congregations learn to embrace disabled members

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Some religious communities have made strides toward greater inclusion of people with disabilities, but the challenges continue and change:

  • Religious groups are beginning to respond to the growth of autism and related disorders in young families.
  • Military involvement since 2001 in the Middle East is producing thousands of young disabled veterans returning to their communities.
  • Many congregations with appreciable numbers of aging members are facing the need to adapt worship services and religious education for people who hear, or see, less well.

Handicapped parkingAt the same time, people with disabilities have grown more visible and vocal about inclusion. Disability theology has flourished as a framework for both disabled and religious communities to talk about inclusion. While the landmark 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act provides certain exemptions for religious institutions, many faith communities have heeded a moral mandate to welcome all. Those who haven’t face questions from a more empowered community of people with disabilities.

A 2002 Harris Poll found that 47 percent of Americans with disabilities attend religious services at least once per month, compared with 65 percent of those without disabilities.

Why it matters

Disability is not rare. According to the National Organization on Disability, more than one in six Americans – 54 million – have disabilities. Religious congregations are a natural source of support for people with disabilities. They offer unique spiritual and social resources for people who may need extra help getting along in life because of disability. Yet accommodating people with disabilities may be seen as an added burden on congregations with many other obligations. Religious groups must strike a balance between being inclusive and stewarding their resources.



Regional sources
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National sources
International sources
Organizations
Disability ministries / Information centers
Faith groups and denominations
Autism spectrum disabilities
Injured veterans
Background

Angles for reporters

  • How this plays out in your community depends on what kinds of religious communities you have and who they are serving. Look for congregations with young families, graying congregations or congregations in areas where many serve in the military.
  • This issue intersects with cutting-edge considerations in medical ethics. If someone is profoundly intellectually disabled – for example, with Alzheimer’s or autism – in what ways can clergy and faith communities relate to them and their families? What do clergy who deal with people in nursing care facilities say?
  • People with disabilities or their families may have stories to tell about difficulties or rejection in their attempts to participate in congregational life. Others’ experiences may have been profoundly positive. How do they see congregations’ attempt to become more inclusive?
  • Autism spectrum disorders, which affect an individual’s ability to communicate and interact with others, are a growing topic of discussion because the numbers of children receiving this diagnosis has increased. According to statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 150 children has an autism spectrum disorder. What is the experience of congregations and religious schools with these children? Are seminaries embracing teaching about disabilities and students with disabilities?

  • Accommodating people with disabilities is more than a matter of modifying buildings. “Disability theology” is a specialty of theologians with particular interest in the special application of God’s word for people with disabilities. Is it taught in local seminaries and universities?

National sources

  • Ginny Thornburgh is director of the National Organization on Disability’s Religion and Disability Program. In its 19th year, the program targets 440,000 religious congregations in the U.S. to advocate for full inclusion of the disabled in congregational life. Resources and activities include local conferences each year; an initiative within seminaries to educate future religious leaders about serving the disabled; a roster of almost 140 religious leaders with disabilities. Contact 202-293-5960, ThornburghG@nod.org.
  • Bill Gaventa edits the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health. He is associate professor of pediatrics at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and director of community and congregational supports at the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities in New Brunswick, N.J. The Autism Center of the New Jersey Medical School in Newark hosted “All Are Welcome: Bridging the Gap Between Autism and Faith” on June 12, 2007. The conference explored ways that congregations could reach out to people with autism and their families. Contact 732-235-9304, gaventwi@umdnj.edu.
  • Theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas’ wide range of interests includes disability theology. He says that people with disabilities challenge our basic assumptions and that Christians cannot afford to discount in any way the value of the lives of people with disabilities. He is co-authoring a book, due out in 2008, on people with mental disabilities. He teaches at Duke Divinity School. Contact 919-660-3420.
  • Nancy Eiesland is a religion sociologist at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. She wrote The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability and co-edited Human Disability and the Service of God. Contact 404-727-6346, neislan@emory.edu.
  • Jeff McNair is a professor of special education at California Baptist University in Riverside. He maintains the Center for the Study of Religion and Disability and the blog Disabled Christianity. Contact 951-343-4489, jmcnair@calbaptist.edu.
  • Erik Carter is the author of Including People With Disabilities in Faith Communities: A Guide for Service Providers, Families & Congregations (2007) and an assistant professor of education at the University of Wisconsin. Contact 608-263-5750, ewcarter@education.wisc.edu.
  • Christopher R. Smit teaches mass media, including television, gender and sexuality, and popular music at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Smit’s essays on disability, media, popular music and culture have appeared in Disability Studies Quarterly, Studies in Popular Culture and elsewhere. His current book project concerns theology, disability and the Christian faith. He is also a singer/songwriter. Contact 616-526-8892, csmit@calvin.edu.
  • Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in the Los Angeles area. A prolific writer and popular speaker, he has written about his son Jacob, who has autism. Contact 310-476-9777 ext. 257, bartson@ajula.edu.
  • Rabbi Judith Abrams of Houston co-edited Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability. Contact her at Maqom, a school she founded in Houston for adult study of Jewish scripture, 713-723-2918.
  • Maysaa Bazna, an assistant professor of education at the College of Staten Island in New York, is an expert in learning disabilities and has studied the Islamic understanding of disability. Contact 718-982-4079, bazna@mail.csi.cuny.edu.
  • For sources who can discuss Alzheimer’s patients and spirituality, see ReligionLink’s issue on that topic.

International

  • Xavier Le Pichon is a professor of geodynamics at the Collège de France in Aix-en-Provence. Internationally known for his work on plate tectonics, he founded with his wife the Thomas Philippe House (La Maison Thomas Philippe), a facility in southern France for families of people with intellectual disabilities. The house is named after the Rev. Thomas Philippe, mentor of Jean Vanier, who founded L’Arche, an organization for the developmentally disabled. Le Pichon co-chaired a 2007 interdisciplinary conference, “Learning From the Disabled,” that explored what people who have disabilities can teach those who are not impaired. Contact Le Pichon, lepichon@cdf.u-3mrs.fr.
  • Johannes S. “Hans” Reinders is the Bernard Lievegoed Professor of Ethics and Mental Disability at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He co-chaired a 2007 interdisciplinary conference, “Learning From the Disabled,” that explored what people who have disabilities can teach those who are not impaired. His publications include The Future of the Disabled in Liberal Society. He is working with American theologian Stanley Hauerwas on a book about people with mental disabilities; it is due out in 2008. Contact him through his current American publisher, William D. Eerdmans, in Grand Rapids, Mich., 616-459-4591, or j.s.reinders@th.vu.nl.
  • John Swinton is a nurse, ordained minister and theologian who teaches at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He has written extensively on the theology of disability; his publications include Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church (as co-editor) and the article “The Body of Christ Has Down’s Syndrome: Theological Reflections on Disability, Vulnerability and Graceful Communities.” He was co-organizer of the 2007 inaugural conference of the European Society for the Study of Disability and Theology. Contact j.swinton@abdn.ac.uk.
  • Brian R. Brock is a lecturer in moral and practical theology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has a background in biology. He co-edited the 2007 book Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church. Contact b.brock@abdn.ac.uk.
  • Pamela Cushing is a cultural anthropologist who teaches sociology at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario. She has studied the L’Arche community, which provides homes for people with intellectual disabilities. She has also written about caregiving, researched social inclusion of people with disabilities and studied the growth of disabilities studies programs in the English-speaking world. Contact pamela.cushing@uwo.ca.

Organizations

DISABILITY MINISTRIES / INFORMATION CENTERS

  • The National Organization on Disability’s Religion and Disability Program lists interfaith organizations and denominational divisions that provide resources and programs for the disabled. It also maintains an Interfaith Directory of Religious Leaders with Disabilities that includes 139 leaders in almost all states. Contact 202-293-5960.
  • The American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has a Religion and Spirituality Division. Its mission is to promote spiritual growth for people with developmental disabilities. President is Kathryn Jennings-Papaleo. Contact kephome@cox.net.
  • FaithNet of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is an outreach effort to religious communities to enhance understanding of the value of spirituality in responding to and recovering from mental illness. NAMI FaithNet presented information and worship at the annual NAMI convention in June 2007. Contact at NAMI in Washington, 703-524-7600.
  • L’Arche is a faith-based residential community and movement founded in 1964 in France by Jean Vanier for people with developmental disabilities. L’Arche is now an international federation of communities. L’Arche came to the United States in 1972 and now has 16 American communities. Faith and Light is a related movement, but its groups are not residential. It has chapters throughout the country. Contact L’Arche USA in Portland, Ore., 503-282-6231; contact Tim and Maria Cecilia Buckley, the U.S. coordinators of Faith and Light, tsmcbuckley@qwest.net.
  • Joni and Friends is an international disability ministry and advocacy group in Agoura Hills, Calif., founded in 1979 by Joni Eareckson Tada. It has a number of field service branches. Contact 818-707-5664.
  • Faith in Action is a program that supports volunteer caregiving for people with long-term health needs. Volunteers from local congregations care for their neighbors. The program exists in 48 states, and a map allows you to search by state as well as by the type of disabled population served. Tom Brown is national director of the program, based at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Contact 336-716-0101.
  • Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services, affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and based in Watertown, Wis., serves people with developmental disabilities. Its support services include religious education. It also offers daily devotions in disability ministry and has a nationwide network of partner congregations and parish ministry consultants who help find appropriate congregations for people with disabilities. David Geske is corporate president; contact 800-369-4636 ext. 4401. Contacts are also listed for five regions.
  • The National Association of Christians in Special Education is an organization for Christian professionals in special education that seeks to make churches more inclusive of people with disabilities. Jeff McNair is the founding president of the organization, based in Redlands, Calif. Contact 951-343-4489, jmcnair@nacsped.com.
  • Friendship Ministries in Grand Rapids, Mich., helps congregations work with people with cognitive impairments. Contact Nella Uitvlugt, 888-866-8966 (press 2, press 1).
  • R.H. “Bear” Berends is executive director of the Christian Learning Center, which offers Christian special education to students in religious schools as well as employment training for disabled adults. It is based in Wyoming, Mich., but works with people and organizations across the country. Contact 616-245-8388 ext. 105, rberends@clcnetwork.org.
  • The Rev. Robert Dell is chairman of Pathways to Promise, which provides resources for congregations to respond to mental illness in families. Contact him in St. Louis, 314-877-6489, bob.dell@ecunet.org.

FAITH GROUPS AND DENOMINATIONS

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISABILITIES

INJURED VETERANS

  • The Brain Injury Association of America in Vienna, Va., is the clearinghouse for information about traumatic brain injury. Its April 17, 2007, position statement calls TBI a growing public health problem. It says more than 12,000 service members have suffered such injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contact 703-761-0750.
  • The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center is the federal clearinghouse for treatment and research of traumatic brain injury suffered by military personnel. Contact the center’s main office at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., 202-782-6345.
  • Brother Rick Curry is founder and artistic director of the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped in New York. Curry developed a Wounded Warriors writing program for disabled veterans returning from the Middle East. He says the arts are an extraordinary means of reaching the human spirit. Curry’s enterprises for people with disabilities include a bakery that sells Brother Curry’s Breads and Brother Curry’s Miraculous Dog Biscuits. A cookie is being developed. Contact Curry, who is a Jesuit, 212-206-7789.
  • Zen Buddhist teacher Joseph Bobrow founded the Coming Home Project in San Francisco to help veterans returning from combat. Contact 415-387-0800.
  • Claude AnShin Thomas is a Vietnam veteran and Zen Buddhist priest who leads retreats for veterans. Contact him through the Zaltho Foundation in Concord, Mass., 978-369-4342.
  • Marilyn A.  Martone is a moral theologian and associate professor of theology and religious studies at St. John’s University in New York. Her research and teaching focus on the distribution of health resources and issues of rehabilitation of brain-trauma victims. She spoke at a 2007 conference on disabilities sponsored by the Vincentian Center for Church and Society in New York. Contact 718-990-5423, martonem@stjohns.edu.

Background

Two interdisciplinary conferences on the ethical and moral issues of disability took place in 2007:

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

  • Joni and Friends Greater Boston opened April 1, 2007. It assists families affected by disability and trains churches how to welcome and include people with disabilities. Linda Smith is program manager. She says churches are beginning to address autism outreach. It will offer a workshop this fall in Connecticut on the subject. Contact 617-723-1750.
  • Stroudwater Baptist Church in Portland, Maine, is working to include children with autism. Contact 207-773-2211.
  • Roger Gottlieb is a philosophy professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. Disability is among his wide area of interests; he is a member of the steering committee of the American Academy of Religion’s Religion and Disabilities Study Group. Contact 508-831-5439, gottlieb@wpi.edu.

IN THE EAST

IN THE SOUTHEAST

  • Mark Crenshaw is director of the Interfaith Disability Connection at the Bobby Dodd Institute in Atlanta. The group promotes connections between faith and disabilities communities, providing information and resources. Contact 678-365-0073, Mark.Crenshaw@bobbydodd.org.
  • The Rev. Brett Webb-Mitchell is the author of three books about theology and people with disabilities, including Dancing With Disabilities: Opening the Church to All God’s Children. A Presbyterian pastor, he founded the School of the Pilgrim in Chapel Hill, N.C., an inclusive approach to living a Christian life. Contact 919-929-9064, bpmitchell@earthlink.net.
  • The Rev. Helen Betenbaugh is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast of Florida and author of the essay “Disability: A Lived Theology.” Contact hbwheels@aol.com.
  • Jennie Weiss Block is the Florida-based author of Copious Hosting: A Theology of Access for People With Disabilities. Contact Jennie88@aol.com.
  • Yong teaches at Regent University’s School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, Va. He is the author of Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity. Contact 757-226-4412.
  • Lift Disability Network, based in Orlando, Fla., was launched in 2006 by Eleos – The Care Network to provide support and services for families with a member who has a disability. Jim Hukill, who has muscular dystrophy, directs both. Contact 407-210-3916, jim@liftdisabilitynetwork.org.
  • Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is an associate professor of women’s studies at Emory University. One of her areas of expertise is disability studies. She wrote Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. Contact rgarlan@emory.edu.

IN THE SOUTH

IN THE MIDWEST

  • Bridge Builders is a ministry of the Vineyard Church of Columbus, Ohio, to help incorporate disabled children and their families into the full range of church activities. Contact 614-259-5257.
  • Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis has a disability ministry formed after a 2004 study of the congregation. Contact 612-338-7653.
  • The Hope Network in Grand Rapids, Mich., helps Michigan churches include people with disabilities. Contact Chaplain Joan Cornelison, 616-248-5218.
  • Special Touch Ministry is an interdenominational Christian organization in Waupaca, Wis., providing services to the disabled and consulting to congregations. It has chapters in four Midwestern states. Contact 715-258-2713.
  • Kerry Wynn is adjunct instructor in political science, philosophy and religion at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. He chairs the school’s Disability Advisory Council, acts as liaison to campus ministries and is co-chairman of the American Academy of Religion’s Religion and Disabilities Study Group. Contact 573-651-2273, kwynn@semo.edu.
  • Hector Avalos is a professor of religious studies at Iowa State University in Ames. He co-edited This Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies. Contact 515-294-0051, havalos@iastate.edu.
  • F. Rachel Magdalene is assistant professor of religion at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Her specialties include disability readings of the Bible. Contact 309-794-7345, rachelmagdalene@augustana.edu.
  • Monica A. Coleman is is assistant professor of systematic theology at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Among her interests is disability theology. Contact 773-256-0769, mcoleman@lstc.edu.
  • Helaine Arnold is coordinator of spiritual services for Friendship Inc., a nonprofit organization in North Dakota that assists people with disabilities in order to facilitate full inclusion in their communities. Among other things, she has developed classes to help Friendship’s clients and staff better understand death and grief. Contact 701-235-8217, helainearnold@catholichealth.net.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

  • The Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder is a United Methodist minister and coordinator of Mental Health Ministries, an effort that grew from her own experience of depression. Contact Gregg-Schroeder in San Diego, sgschroed@cox.net.
  • Rayne Project Ministries is a California organization that helps churches help people with disabilities. Marvin Miller, who has a daughter with Down syndrome, is project director. Contact 562-789-1171, marvin.miller@rayneproject.org.
  • The Rev. Kathy Black, a United Methodist minister, is author of A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability and Signs of Solidarity: Ministry With Persons Who Are Deaf, Deafened and Hard of Hearing. She is Kennedy Professor of Homiletics & Liturgics at Claremont School of Theology in California. Contact 909-447-2527, kblack@cst.edu.
  • W. Daniel Blair is assistant professor of American Sign Language and director of the Center for Deaf Education at California Baptist University in Riverside. His dissertation was about theological education and disability. Contact 951-343-4762, dblair@calbaptist.edu.
  • Craig Rennebohm founded the Mental Health Chaplaincy in Seattle in 1987. The chaplaincy provides services for the mentally ill, including homeless people, and training for congregations to support families experiencing mental illness. Rennebohm is writing a book to be published in 2008. Contact craig@mentalhealthchaplain.org.

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