54 posts tagged “disability”

A one year old boy, who could have a tracheotomy, be taken home from the hospital and live his life, may have his ventilator removed at the wishes of his mother and the HOSPITAL TRUST PAYING FOR HIS CARE, because his severe physical disability has been deemed 'intolerable suffering'. His father disagrees and is fighting for his son's life.

In honor of Reformation Day, the anniversary of when, in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg University’s Castle Church door, boldly declaring where the Church needed reform, I'm writing my own thoughts about the Church and some places where we still need reformation. Of course, this post will lead to inclusion of people with disabilities, because, well, that seems to be what I do.

There are two religions in this world. One is based on works, the other on grace. The religion based on works requires its disciples to work through law, rite, or service to make that disciple in right standing with the god of this religion. The God of the second religion, that based on grace, demands perfection unto His Law; however, when man failed and fails, this God has given mankind His own righteousness through His Son, the Second Person in the Trinity that calls Itself God, a righteousness contingent only on faith in this Holy Son and His atoning work on the Cross.

The disciples of this second God- of this One True God- the adopted sons and heirs, join together according to the Word of this God, as one Body, and we call ourselves the Church, with Christ as our Head. Like the followers of the first religion, the Church has a law, the Law of God, though our Law has been fulfilled by this Christ, and we members of the Body now walk by faith in our Savior, Christ Jesus', work and in the Spirit, Who is the Third Person of this Triune God. We perform rituals in our church gatherings as does the first religion, though our rituals, rituals of baptism and the communion of the saints, focus not on our attempts to gain righteousness but rather on the One Who obtained righteousness for us. 

And, as do followers of the first religion, Christians, those of the Body, of the Church, we perform acts of service. As is the Law, Christians, attempt to love God and love our neighbors by serving our community and serve others. 

However, unlike those following the first religion, Christians are not attempting to earn our place in our God’s Kingdom through this service, though serving God and serving others is part of God’s Kingdom. In fact, daily lawbreakers, we could never serve enough to enter that Kingdom. 

Nor are we serving God through our own power or our own nature. We are serving God because we have a new nature, and a new Power- the Holy Spirit, given to us through the work of the Cross, upon our belief in Christ, this work, and the repentance of our sins. We are serving humanity- offering grace and mercy to one another- in response to how we were shown grace and mercy, in response to how we were invited into that Kingdom based solely on the death and resurrection of our King. We love because we have been loved.

Based upon this motivation for service and community within our own Body, we take seriously our Savior’s teachings on service and community. The fourteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel, verses 7 through 24, includes one such teaching. Through instruction and parable, Jesus shares His Father’s desire that, oh, may His house be full! He teaches us that His Father wants those at His table those who cannot repay His kindness- ‘the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame' (vs 13) (as if people who are not poor or who do not have a disability could pay Him back). In fact, He says to compel them to come, revealing the earnestness of His heart toward the least in this world, those same ‘least’ who will become great in His Kingdom.

How does this teaching apply to Christ’s Church 2,000 years after its original exhortation? It applies the same way. There are still those who are ‘great’ in this world, and those who are poor or who have disabilities are still regarded as ‘the least’. Sadly the world’s view of who is great and who is the least is often paralleled in the Church.

Thankfully, the Spirit of God is working in the same way that He has for 2,000 years. He still convicts the Church, both the individual member and the entire of Body, of sin, and He is convicting me of my exclusionary practices of the ‘least of these’ in my church’s gatherings. 

So, what do inclusionary practices of the ‘least of these’ look like? Inclusionary practices begin by being reminded of how all inclusion to the Body begins. It begins with the Cross and how Christ, forgiving us of our sin, reconciles us with God, making us His child and a member of Christ’s Body. We must be reminded that God never needed our able bodies or cognitive awareness or our large bank accounts to forgive us our sin, to give us faith, and to make us one with Him and His community. In that regard, we become aware that we are no different than our poor and/or disabled brother and sister.

When we become aware of the absolute equality with ‘the least’, community- koinonia- the Greek word used 20 times in Scripture for 'fellowship, sharing in common, communion'- makes sense! We are equally created in the image of God, we are equal in our human depravity, and we are equal in that any grace anyone has received has been from God. We are one Body.

Therefore, as one Body, if one member suffers, we all suffer. When one rejoices, we all do. When one holds a banquet, all are invited. 

Whether through formal programming, or just meeting an individual or family where he or they are suffering or struggling, any church can do ‘disability ministry’. The call is for all, for all of the Body, to invite, to compel, ‘the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame’ into the Kingdom of God and sharing a meal- that is, offering them repentance and the forgiveness of sin through Jesus' name, and truly becoming one Body- for the grace of God is for them, too!- in loving response to how the Father first invited us. This is how we reveal the religion of grace to the world.

Early in Scripture we read a seemingly disheartening command of God.  None of the offspring of Aaron, the priests of Israel, who had a disability could go through the veil and approach God’s altar, ‘lest he profane God’s sanctuaries’.  (Leviticus 21:23)  In addition, for sacrifice, God only accepted ‘perfect’ animals, those without blemish or illness.  Yet, even men in ‘perfect’ bodies sacrificing ‘perfect’ animals were not perfect enough to purify us once for all time- as was the perfect sacrifice made by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:26-28).

The animals sacrificed were a foreshadow and type of this perfect sacrifice to come.  The sacrificed animals and the men entering into God’s holiest place on Earth had to be as perfect as they could be to mimic the Christ.  However, neither were really perfect.

All priests had to offer sacrifices for themselves before offering sacrifices for the people, for these priests sinned.  Because of this sin, their bodies wouldn’t remain perfect forever.   They would with age begin to wither, fail, and die.   Had they not been sacrificed the bodies of these perfect animals, also, would also have grown old and died because sin was in the world.

God considered, for the Old Testament system of sacrifice, disability ‘profane’.  God always considers sin profane.  Could disability be profane because it is a result of sin in the world?

Yet, God doesn’t shun the person with the disability.  He still refers to Himself as their God, as the God Who sanctifies them.  (Leviticus 21:21, 23)  In His same grace and mercy, God doesn’t shun His sin-drenched people.  

God is a God of both justice and love.  God hates sin.  Sin must be atoned for.  However, God loves His people, and for His Holy namesake, forgives His people for their sin, sending His own Son as atonement.  For we His people cannot atone for ourselves.

We are not saved by our own righteousness.  Our righteousness is like filthy rags.  The only righteousness we have to offer God is that which was imputed to us by Christ at His sacrifice.  The only sacrifices we have to offer God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  God draws near to the humble.   God knows we are weak, that we are only dust.  He takes pity on the weak, and, while He demands us to do so, also, as Job found out, caring for the weak- the blind and the lame- did not even make him righteous ‘enough’.  (Job 29:15)  

There is hardly a greater a symbol of weakness than disability or illness, and these people to whom God seems most drawn.  While they were forbidden to enter the holy of holies, God comes to them.  To people like Paul who know that because God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness, when we are weak they are strong.  The only strength that is to be relied upon is God’s, as the only righteousness that is to be counted is Christ’s.  It is God Who opens the eyes of the blind and the deaf, makes the lame man leap, and the tongue of the mute sin for joy (Isaiah 35:5-6), and in His justice, Jesus came to open the eyes of the Spiritually blind.  (John 9:39) 

Interestingly, God calls people to weakness- before He calls us to stand and to run.  He calls us to repentance, to a time of contriteness and humility at salvation, making us His.  When we are God’s we rely on God’s strength, and, therefore, must die to our own.

In our weaknesses, God glorifies Himself.  It was because of a bodily ailment that Paul first preached the Gospel to the Galatians.  (Galatians 4:13)  God is just as glorified by leaving Paul with his ‘thorn’ in 2 Corinthians 12, as when Jesus gives glory to Him through the healing of a man born blind in John 9.

God receives glory in His compassion for the suffering and the hurting.  Jesus, for instance, Who only did the work that He saw His Father doing first, (John 5:19) ministered to and healed people with disabilities, illnesses, and sin.  He was filled with compassion for the widow whose only son had passed away.  After raising the son from the dead, He returned him to His mother.  This most compassionate act caused the people to cry, “God has visited His people!” (Luke 7:11-18)

In the resurrection of Christ, those of us called by God unto salvation, having had our spiritual eyes opened, have hope of an end to suffering.  Our physical weaknesses will have an ending.  We will not always be disabled, old, and emotionally vulnerable.  Most excitedly, in our new bodies we will no longer battle with sin.  One day, we will be perfect (1 Corinthians 15).

However, even in our perfect bodies in our perfect Home, human beings, once being imperfect, children of wrath and enemies of God, we will always remain dependent on Christ and His perfect sacrifice.  Upon Christ, who embraced weakness by putting human flesh and dying our death (Philippians 2:5-11) , to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18), to give us eternal life (John 3:16), which is knowing God (John 17:3), forever in perfect harmony with our Creator.

My mother chose not to abort me.  She could have, for I was born after 1973, the year abortions became legal.

Had she known that 32 years after my birth, I would have a lot of needs, that I would have struggled with obesity, identity issues, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, going to school, fighting with my sisters, and not making my bed in the morning, should she have considered abortion?  Is she a hero for not?  Is she a fool for not?

It's a natural instinct for a mother to protect her child from the womb on.  It's sad when doctors, society, and fear keep a mother from doing what's natural.  Palin did what was natural for a mother to do when she was pregnant with her son.  'Special' needs and all.  It's not heroic.  It's what a mother does.  My mother taught me this.

"No person who is suffering is a problem to be solved.  They're a person to be loved."  -Rev Paul R. Smith

I-1000 is a proposed initiative to legalize physician assisted suicide in the state of Washington.

Assisted suicide.  It would be hard to argue with the fact that anyone receiving the news that s/he had a terminal illness would be depressed.  One cannot deny that depression would play a major role in one's choice to commit suicide.  When doctors begin setting a precedent of assisted depressed people in committing suicide, can you imagine the consequences for depressed people everywhere?

Looking at assisted suicide, we can see how such a legalized action would create a feeling of a duty to die for those with illnesses, as well as the feeling by the rest of us that those with terminal illnesses have a duty to die.  In Oregon's first years with legalized physician assisted suicide, a large number of people who committed suicide did so out of fear of becoming a burden to their family.  With limited financial resources, or at least claims of limited financial resources, the rest of us might indeed feel that those who were 'dying anyway' had a duty to die, especially if the person is old or poor or has a severe cognitive disability.  The kind of people who have 'used their share' of public or private health care, the kind of people we deem to have a 'low quality of life', after all. 

Another factor in a person choosing suicide is a fear of disability.  In the first two years of Oregon's assisted suicide law, those who committed suicide did so out of fear of being unable to pursue enjoyable life activities, fear of needing personal assistance with daily living, and worries about being a burden on their families.  Disability Rights activist Paul Longmore spoke about this aspect of Oregon's experience:

Fear of disability typically underlies assisted suicide... The advocates play on that horror of "dependency." ...If needing help is undignified and death is better than dependency, there is no reason to deny assisted suicide to people who will have to put up with it for six or sixteen years, rather than just six months.  Not that we favor assisted suicide if it is limited to terminally ill people.  We simply want to ask, has this country gotten to the point that we will abet suicide because people can't wipe their own behinds?

Lastly, physician assisted suicide will lead to euthanasia.  After all, what about those with disabilities who can't take their lethal prescription on their own?  Isn't that discrimination?  They'll need someone to feed the pills to them.  Once we become accustomed to the idea of physicians practicing death, we will begin to tolerate more extreme versions, more extreme that a doctor 'simply' assisting a person who is dying, more than a physician who is providing a 'good death' to people who can't do it themselves.  How far could this go?

From the Coalation Against Assisted Suicide's website:

"Pressure for improved palliative care appears to have evaporated [in the Netherlands]," according to Herbert Hendin, M.D. Dr. Hendin is a Director of Suicide Prevention International and was formerly the Medical Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

"Over the past two decades," Hendin continued, "the Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for the terminally ill to euthanasia for the chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress and from voluntary euthanasia to nonvoluntary and involuntary euthanasia.

"Once the Dutch accepted assisted suicide it was not possible legally or morally to deny more active medical (assistance to die), i.e. euthanasia, to those who could not effect their own deaths. Nor could they deny assisted suicide or euthanasia to the chronically ill who have longer to suffer than the terminally ill or to those who have psychological pain not associated with physical disease. To do so would be a form of discrimination.

Involuntary euthanasia has been justified as necessitated by the need to make decisions for patients not [medically] competent to choose for themselves."

Doctors can help people in severe pain due to a terminal illness with palliative care.  The rest of can meet the need of someone alone with the fear of being abandoned in their illness, in their fear of being a 'burden'.  Though we don't do it well, right now.  How else could something like physician assisted suicide gain so much popularity?

There are other options besides sanctioning the suicide of people dying.

For more information, visit the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide at www.noassistedsuicide.com .

Update of Janet Rivera

From the Fresno Bee:

Rivera cousin granted temporary conservatorship

The cousin of Janet Rivera, a comatose Sanger woman, was granted temporary conservatorship of Rivera this morning, which means she will be kept on life support for now.

see full article

Related post, A Waste of Life?

From Ruth at her blog Wheelie Catholic:

I awoke this morning to an MSNBC article about the efforts of one man to walk again after acquiring a spinal cord injury.

The article began with the words "It was only a chair, but it became his purgatory".

Make no mistake about this: I applaud the efforts and hard work of the individual in question. That's not at issue here, of course.

But to write an article saying that this man could have no life until he walked again is inaccurate. To write that a wheelchair is someone's purgatory (not a quote from the interviewed person) needs to be addressed. Why?

Because more damage is done to the perception of disability over bowls of Cheerio due to media coverage than anywhere else. Not only that, but this article ignores several facts that are well known in the spinal cord community....

...I'd like to address another myth in this article: not all people with disabilities are miserable like this guy was.

The chair stood for all that was lost: A promising career, a vigorous life spent fishing the lakes of North Carolina, future plans conjured when things were perfect — plans that seemed impossible now.

Okay let's explore this. I know people in wheelchairs who fish on lakes. I've played tennis from a wheelchair, work and consider my life productive and meaningful. From a wheelchair. There's a whole world of people in wheelchairs out there who are living their life. It's ridiculous to present living with a spinal cord injury as a death sentence in this day and age.

I appreciated the irony tonight while watching 20/20.  No, 'appreciate' is not the correct word.  I noticed irony.  Or incongruency, rather.

I remember a movie called Twillight of the Golds about a family with a pregnant daughter whose baby tests positive for the 'gay gene'.  Abortion is considered and recommended for this pregnancy by her family and husband, and, of course, we the audience come to understand how immoral that idea would be.  (And, of course, it would be quite immoral to end an unborn life because it may be carrying the so-called 'gay gene'.)

I was thinking of that movie while watching this 20/20 segment and then watched the next story on this same episode tonight about a man who surprised his parents by being born with no limbs.

I was thinking about the irony (or incongruency) that the popular, pc public wouldn't think twice if this man's parents had known he would be born with this kind of disability and chosen to terminate that pregnency.  And how silent that public remains about the fact that the idea of euthenasia for such infants is creeping upon us here the US as it has in Europe.  And how that same public would cry out if abortion, etc. were to be considered for pregnancies where the 'gay gene' was detected- as they should cry out, of course.  But they remain silent for other 'kinds' of pregnancies being terminated.

Ironic, or incongruent.

From the video:

In a collective decision, every voice counts, either by its rhetoric or by its silence.

Does life have absolute value simply because it is human?

We have to answer that question.  We have to.  We have to.

We have to realize that bioethicists today, SAY NO.  We have to become educated, at the very least aware, of what the consequences have been and will be of them saying no!  We have to.

What do we say, Christ followers?  How do we answer this question?  A simple yes or no will suffice- for now.  It's a start. 

Most of us are already aware when we listen to God and let Him put His Truth in our hearts that the once taken for granted sanctity of human life is no longer a given, we will grieve for the life that has been lost, for the lives that will be lost, and for what our part has been.  And it will hurt.

I know, believe me, I know, it's hard to look at what's happening.  It makes us have to do all that 'thinking'.  I know it's 'uncomfortable' when we seek God's Truth in this matter because we have to 'feel stuff'.  We might offend people, even our friends, and be contraversial.  We might even be called to speak out, make a stand. 

You don't have to watch all of these videos.  They are of a lecture given by Wesley Smith at Trinity Law School on the value of human life and what is happening in the field of ethics today.  Watching all four will take 2 hours total of your time.  So, you don't have to watch all of both videos. 

But you do have to answer the question- Does life have absolute value simply because it is human?  You have to.