Voices on Able Theology

“When people with severe mental illness or certain types of developmental disabilities are part of a worship gathering, it is quite likely that at some point they may speak or shout or make noise during a time in the service where those actions are deemed inappropriate. In those moments, they are often compelled to silence either by direct order or harsh glances from those around them. When their silence is not possible, they are often either internally or externally compelled to leave the gathering. This resultant exclusion from the community is severely out of step with the healing narratives of Jesus, whose actions resulted in honor and inclusion for people with disabilities who were unwilling or unable to follow the behavioral standards of the time. An ethic of healing in the way of Jesus is a call to hold the inclusion of a person with disabilities above standards of socially appropriate behavior. If there comes a point where members of a church are asked to dismiss either a person with disabilities or their social standards, then if they seek to follow in the way of Jesus, it should always be the code of behavior and never the person with disabilities that is dismissed.

Contemporary American culture, to which its churches are anything but impervious, tends to value independence, prestige, good looks, wealth, intellect, and efficiency. These values do not create a welcoming environment for people with disabilities. People with developmental disabilities, in particular, are often dependent on others for their daily living in many ways. So, in order to form a community of healing—accessible not only in its architecture of building but in its architecture of values—there needs to be a radical subversion of the dominant social paradigm.

Followers of Jesus are invited to shift their healing focus beyond the bodies and minds of the people with disabilities in their midst, and onto healing the larger Body of Christ. Then it can become a place where everyone with differing abilities and disabilities can worship, love, and serve together as growing disciples of Jesus. In order to heal in the way of Jesus, it is the ways in which the people of God sometimes offer healing that need correction. Let us go and do likewise, following the one who offers healing in a way that truly does heal.”

+  Bethany Fox [PhD ’14] is the director of Student Services and an adjunct professor at Fuller. She is one of the founding leaders of the Able Theology student group, and the quote comes from her article “Beyond the Broken Body: An Ethic of Healing in the Way of Jesus,” published in the Journal of the Christian Institute on Disability.

 

“My vision for Fuller is that it becomes a place where students with disabilities are welcome and belong, a place where students with disabilities thrive instead of having a high dropout rate, and a place where students with disabilities can get their needs met without needing to navigate a black hole with invisible authorities. I have a similar vision for people with disabilities in our society at large.”

+  Esther S. Lee [’14] was a founding leader of the Able Theology student group at Fuller.

 

“All students should recognize that developing a theology of disability is not something that just a select group of students do, but instead, thinking about and wrestling with disability in the light of Scripture is something that every Christian leader ought to do. We at Fuller need to do a much better job of integrating disability into our theological curriculum.”

+  Than Veltman [SIS PhD student], coleader of the Able Theology student group, from “Making a Welcoming and Inclusive Place for People With Disabilities,” a panel held on the Pasadena campus.

“How powerfully will the love of God be manifest to the world when it sees the church not only seeking to care for these who are the most vulnerable in their midst, but actually valuing how such people contribute to shaping the very nature of the church as an inclusive and hospitable community? At this point, ministry to people with profound disabilities becomes a means of ministering the love of God with them in an otherwise inhospitable world. The result is a renewed church, one that is inclusive of the lives and gifts of those who have previously been the most extremely marginalized members of the human community. But beyond this, when the church stands in solidarity with such people, it fundamentally alters its own self-understanding and identity in light of the weakness and foolishness of the cross of Christ.”

+  Amos Yong, the director of the Center for Missiological Research and professor of theology and mission, from his book The Bible, Disability, and the Church. Dr. Yong spoke at a recent Fuller Arizona conference on disability. [Photo by Fully Alive Photography]

 

“God called us to Fuller. What? What about Jen’s health? What about leaving our jobs and finding new doctors? If God called us, would he provide for us? What about leaving our family and friends? In January, we will celebrate eight years of marriage, and in two weeks it will have been seven years of battling epilepsy. You can see that the questions have not ended. The journey continues. It’s had its ups and its downs, but here at Fuller we have found new friends, new support networks. And so one step at a time, we keep pressing on—believing, hoping, awaiting. You see, the life of faith is a journey, not a destination. And there is this tension. We have a taste of the presence of God, and we still have this longing for more.”

+ Ryan Showalter [MAICS ’14], from a reflection at All-Seminary Chapel in which Ryan and his wife, Jen (pictured at right), shared their experience with epilepsy. Last year they led a team at the Rose Bowl for the Walk to End Epilepsy.