Faith and Disability Resources

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…

What is a human being? The answer really does matter….

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…

Discovering Trinity in Disability

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…

Reflection on an Icon

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…

Video: Hauerwas on Disability

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,”…

“I don’t think any parent wants a son with a disability,” and other ridiculous things people say.

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…