The corporeal is for people with disabilities the most real. Unwilling and unable to take our bodies for granted, we attend to the kinesis of knowledge. That is, we become keenly aware that our physical selves determine our perceptions of the social and physical world. These perceptions, like our bodies, are often nonconforming and disclose new categories and models of thinking…
March 21 (3/21) is World Down Syndrome Day. This date was not chosen at random. Rather, it represents the fact that, while most people have 46 pairs of chromosomes, some people have a third copy on the twenty-first chromosome. This third copy causes Down Syndrome, also known as Trisomy 21. Some other facts: It’s not “Down’s…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it is unacceptable for the value of human lives to be reduced to some notion of functionality. One rarely hears explicitly that the lives of the able-bodied and able-minded are more valuable than the lives of people with disabilities, but the idea is unquestionably “in the…
At a church-related conference, I heard a presentation on the matter of stigmatization as it relates to people with disabilities. The primary point of the presentation was that we tend to internalize negative perceptions by others, and thereby allow them to control our self-esteem and consequently our behavior. All true enough….Nevertheless, when it comes to…
At the 2012 General Conference, the following legislation passed with 870 votes for an 33 votes against: Disability Awareness as AC Theme (20472-CO-Non-Dis)Each Conference shall designate that at least one Annual Conference session during the 2013-2016 quadrennium will have a theme centered on Disability Awareness to set an example for each District and Local Church. Resources and…
People with disabilities come from all walks of life, though they are often excluded from the life of the church. Most churches lack the theological, practical, and material resources to welcome a broad array of people with disabilities. Conditions such as autism, Down Syndrome, various physical disabilities, and Alzheimer’s can prevent people from full participation…
I’m writing a lecture for a presentation that I’m giving in Cleveland later this month on disability. Here is the primary question with which I’m wrestling: What does it mean that God chose human vulnerability as the medium through which all creation would be saved? Consider, for example, the hymn of Philippians 2:5-11. Christ had…
Pursuing Jesus
These are the thoughts, prayers, stories, sermons, and devotions from a simple pastor. May you be blessed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as you read...
Musings and whatnot....
Finding the humor, beauty, and purpose in the mess of motherhood
Doctrine Matters
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Reflections from Jacob J. Prahlow
humor | musings | fiction
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work and prayer of a jesus follower
Who is my ideal reader? Well, ideal means non-existent. I have no notion of whom I’m writing for. Guy Davenport
'An arrow through the air' - Notes of a Methodist pastor
Holiness, Sustainability, and Tending Good Soil
two of us are tall and the other one of us is short and has Down syndrome
Comments on the New Testament and Early Christianity (and related matters)
David F. Watson 