Faith Ability Religion and Disability News

From American Public Media's Speaking of faith comes this riveting program titled Room for J: One Family's Struggle with Schizophrenia on one family's experience with schizophrenia, including how they see religion differently. In the program, Dan Hanson who has written Room for J discusses with his wife Sue the process of accepting their son's schizophrenia.

From the website you can listen to the Hanson's experience with their son Joel in a radio program available via RealPlayer or simply look at the overview of the program. From the website comes this text from a manuscript that Joel wrote:

I know, and it has been said, that ignorance is the opposite of love; there is no love in ignorance. I believe that! If one ignores something they cannot understand it ever, for they are pushing, sometimes, good things that are necessary to better their lives away from them. I ask the readers of this book to pay attention and care about what I care deeply about. I would not write this if I did not know it was worth the care of everyone..

There are also some great reflections from listeners of the program and a great link to an article on The Relationship Between Schizophrenia and Religion and Implications for Care.

Interesting opinion piece by Gregory Banks wherein he states:

...I believe whatever your spiritual or non-spiritual beliefs are, there's no question that the very existence of life itself is precious, perhaps the most special thing in the entire universe, and therefore, it is indeed divine.

From Audacity Magazine

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.

First off, inherent in the statement is the assumption that disability is a negative thing, but that's okay because we all have negative things about us. I believe it more helpful to simply look at disability and whatever other positive or negative characteristics that each of us has as differences. This approach then leads to a broader understanding and acceptance of disability and can easily lead to a helpful discussion of universal design.

Second, when we state that everyone has a disability then the definition of disability becomes so broad that it really isn't useful any more. Besides, not many people are really going to embrace the idea that because they are left handed they fit into their already defined paradigm of disability.

With all of that said, I do think it can be helpful in this kind of training to convey the likelihood that everyone will eventually have a disability through either aging or some type of accident.

I'm still working this idea out in my head, any have any feedback?

Article describing a Faith in Action program for persons with disabilities in Princeton, Illinois. In the article, Lesley Gonigam well states:

Think how you would feel if you were very spiritual and you couldn't go to a church; you couldn't take communion; you couldn't sing; you couldn't be a part of that...