General

Commentary on Jesus and his interaction with a man who was deaf from Mark 7:32-35

Jesus took him to a private place. Why? Jesus wanted to focus on the deaf man alone. Also Jesus knew that deaf people don’t like hearing people staring at them. Jesus was

Jesus Healed a Deaf Man

Tags: disability, deaf, Bible

A. Taylor Newton, a graduate student at the University of Denver is "investigating the role of religion in responding to potential stressors associated with parenting a child with a disability." As part of his research he is conducting a 15-20 minute survey for parents of children with disabilities. If you have a few minutes, your input would be greatly appreciated.

Religion and Perceptions: Parenting a Child with a Disability Survey

From the opening page of the survey:

Parenting a child with a disability is likely to be experienced differently by different people. Many of the experiences will be shared by parents who do not have a child with a disability, and some may be unique. In the following questionnaires, we ask about beliefs and behaviors that some parents of children with disabilities say they have. We also ask about beliefs and behaviors that people who are not parents of children with disabilities may believe parents of children with disabilities have, but that you or others do not. We ask these questions so we can hear about the variety of responses directly from those who know best: the parents. Of course, no two people will feel exactly the same, so there is no right or wrong way to answer any of the questions.

The Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability from the University of Aberdeen is a wonderful resource on a variety of spirituality, health disability topics. From their About Page:

The centre has a dual focus on:

• The relationship between spirituality, health and healing and the significance of the spiritual dimension for contemporary healthcare practices
• The theology of disability

The centre aims to enable academics, researchers, practitioners and educators to work together to develop innovative and creative research projects and teaching initiatives.

I couldn't find the job description posted on the Joni and Friends website, but I'm sure that you could contact them via their contact page if you were interested. Here is the basic info:

Managing Director, Christian Institute on Disability

Qualifications: A strong and vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ and an unwavering commitment to evangelism and the mission statement of Joni and Friends. Demonstrated ability to understand a vision and creatively interpret it into a functioning operational plan through team building and the use of integrated management with other Directors and department heads. Must possess strong interpersonal and networking capabilities. A Doctoral or other advanced degree in the field of Christian Academia is greatly preferred. Strong written and oral communication skills are a must in addition to experience in both developing and communicating curriculum and policy in domestic and international arenas.

Community Connections at the University of Maryland offers a great quarterly Welcoming Spiritual Communities Newsletter. The November-December 2005 issue is titled "Putting out the Spiritual Welcome Mat" and includes articles, tip sheets and a number of other useful features. If you are interested, you can Sign up for the newsletter here.

A few days late, but worth a read the 12 Days of Disability Christmas from the Ouch! Disability Magazine offers a humorous take on Christmas and the world of disability that may cause you to think a little differently about some classic Christmas reads. from the list:

.. think of Santa Claus. But remember, as you prepare to tuck into your plum pudding, that this seemingly nice hirsute chap who struggles down your (inaccessible) chimney is none other than the ultimate exploiter of short people.

LiveJournal No Pity Journal pointed me to a a great site from MTV on disability. From there I found a link to some online Implicit Association Tests, including one on disability. An Implicit Association Test is a way of helping people identify prejudices and associations that they may not be aware of in themselves. Each test takes under 10 minutes- it is a worthwhile experience to take one and see what it says about you, especially if you're absolutely positive that you are completely free of bias- you might be surprised.

I attended a disability training last week given for a large group of teachers. During the training, I repeatedly heard the idea that we need to be mindful of accessibility issues because we all have a disability. The presenter was trying to get across the idea of a very broad definition of disability that would probably include wearing glasses, being left-handed or not liking brussel sprouts- characteristics that may at times be an inconvenience. While this statement might convey the idea to some that we all have strengths and weaknesses, I don't think that the statement, "we all have disabilities" is an effective way to change attitudes for a couple of reasons.

This advertisement from a French energy company has nothing to do with religion, but it offers a unique perspective on how persons with disabilities are forced to adjust to the way that "everyone" lives. It is a video showing nondisabled persons in situations where not having a disability makes life more difficult. There is a great commentary on the video over at The Gimp Parade. (Thanks for the link Danielle!)

From that blog I followed a post to a recent story from the Ragged Edge on blogs with disability commentary, lots of good stuff. I'm looking forward to sorting through it and will post the good stuff that I find.

This site is an effort to get the word out about resources in the area of disability and religion and unfortunately it relies on people actually visiting it (or others like it) to think about the topic. In order to promote awareness I sometimes take the issue to others in online discussion boards.

Last month I posted on a topic on Religion and Disability on the Wheelchair Junkies Forum to try and get some discussion going and received some very enlightening responses, including this gem from charmedchic:

I find my faith with people who practice Christianity in everyday settings and not just at Sunday morning church service.
I have friends that've gone over to pagan and wican practices because they are spiritual and have nowhere else to fufill these needs. I can understand why they choose to do that...
Some people really need to get back to the basics of how Jesus instructed us to treat people.