It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally available for purchase: The Bible and Disability: A Commentary, ed. Sarah J. Melcher, Mikeal C. Parsons, and Amos Yong. I just received my author’s copy in the mail today (I wrote the section on Luke-Acts). It will be available in stores October 1, 2017, but you can order in…
Four hours after my son Sean was born, our pediatrician informed me that she thought he had Down syndrome. That was a hard pill to swallow, but just as hard was breaking the news to my wife, Harriet, who was still in recovery from a C-section. All at once we were shocked, frightened, saddened, and…
Not long ago I wrote a post on faith and disability resources. A friend of mine was kind enough to point out some resources I had left out. (Thanks, Lynn Swedberg!) The first list wasn’t supposed to be exhaustive by any means, but these additional resources are important, and I’m glad to provide links to…
This year I have the privilege of presenting at the clergy and laity sessions of the West Ohio Annual Conference. The topic of my presentation will be ministry with people with disabilities. Because it’s simply impossible to say everything I’d like to say in a 30-minute presentation, I’ve included some supplemental resources here. This includes…
Here is a paradox. Over the last thirty or forty years, we have invested an enormous amount of thought, emotion, treasure, and blood in what we call human values, human rights, the defence of human dignity and of human life. Over the same period, quietly but devastatingly, science and philosophy have combined to undermine our traditional concept…
When people look at our daughter, Aleksandra, what do they see? Someone who can’t talk, someone who drools, someone who does not believe in personal space and is literally in your face? Some see the sign of sin. We have been interrogated about our conduct: drugs, promiscuity… there must be a cause. Some search further…
I’ve been reading a book called Discovering Trinity in Disability: A Theology for Embracing Difference, by Myroslaw Tataryn and Maria Truchan-Tataryn . I’ll write a longer post about this book at a later time, but for now I want to highlight a chapter on the relationship between disability and iconography. Iconography keeps us connected to the embodied aspects of…
Each year the Bethesda Institute holds the Summer Institute on Theology and Disability. If you have any interest in ministry with people with disabilities, you should certainly consider attending. As a bonus, they post presentations from the Institute on their website. A few months ago I wrote a post called “Human Life in a Liberal Society,”…
It’s a pretty mean world out there, especially if you’re the kind of person for whom self-advocacy is difficult. Case in point: I don’t know what’s worse–the fact that Dawkins made this remark in public, or that it received, at the time this image was captured, 46 retweets and 22 favorites. I’m not surprised. I’m…
As we learn more details regarding the Australian parents who left a twin with Down syndrome with a surrogate mother in Thailand, the story goes from bad to worse. Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post: David Farnell, who has three children from a previous relationship, said the problems began when they found out before…