Today's Guest Post comes from a friend of mine at college. Originally written as a 'Facebook Note', I was struck by it, and it appears here with his permission. This is a powerful story of the experience of one human being. I hope you can read it all.
Image from here.
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Thankyou for reading. I think Haydon's is a powerful story, and invites us to consider Jesus and the kind of things that Jesus said and did, and says and does. You can read more about Jesus here.
If you are interested in some of the implications and issues raised by some of the stuff Haydon has written about, then you might be interested in a couple of books I've reviewed, Roy McCloughry's "The Enabled Life" and Gordon Temple and Lin Ball's "Enabling Church". There is more coming on this topic over the next few months, so stay tuned.
Thank-you for your post ;) I think you are right to point out the prominence of a dehumanising moral outlook. After-all most Christians are not taught about the radical nature of Christian ethics rooted in the imago dei. Meaning human beings have intrinsic value and worth in virtue of their human nature whether or not they are able to actualize the capacities we associate with 'normal' mature human beings. Sadly most Christians draw from the secular cultural narrative rather than a Christian one, one in which it is legal to kill unborn human beings (there is no time limit for abortion with the presence of a disability) simply because they fail to meets societies standards of normalcy. Can it be any surprise that those with disabilities are treated differently to those without?
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel, thanks for the comment.
DeleteThe Imago Dei is EXACTLY where my own itneresting in disability theology came from, and one of the things I've spoken with my friend here about, a lot.
Agree that many draw more from secular cultural narratives than Christian ones - and the results are sad. Would that Nightingales, Wilberforces and more would arise again...
Thanks again for commenting.