FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART / OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
I serve on a committee in the area where my church is located. That committee focuses on equity for the disabled and aging. As we share together the multiple challenges facing persons with disabilities, it is interesting that in odd ways, unconsciously and maybe consciously, even here in the United States of America, disabilities are considered a curse.
I do not think that I am offering any information when I say that disability is seen as a curse in many places worldwide. My sister, who wrote a book called Silent Tears, used her own situation to focus on the prevailing attitude of individuals in countries of the world where Albinos are still being considered “Ghost people” and to showcase the mindset of many toward the differently-abled. In many places, they are mistreated, allowed to go hungry, made the butt of jokes, and deemed social pariahs.
My sister wrote her manuscript for Silent Tears several years ago and trusted my wife and me to read it, but she was afraid to publish it to reveal all of the pain she faced in school, in her travel on the train, and on her job. My sister is profoundly intelligent; I often tell her that she is the most brilliant one in our family. She holds graduate degrees and has been a top leader in her church, but she constantly faces trivialization in the workplace and other places based on what some have seen as her handicap.
Just so you know, my sister is living on the outskirts of Toronto, in what is called one of the most hospitable cities in Canada. And while I am not making it seem that all Canadians or North Americans are insensitive, it is still a brute fact that there are people among us who treat the many who suffer handicapping conditions as if they are under a curse.
Not very long ago, an extended public discussion on the behavior of our former president came to the table because he mocked a person with a speech disability at one of his political rallies. However, the cost to his election was not as severe as it might have been because some thought that what was done was not that egregious.
This makes my point that while we might become angry at the insensitivity of people in far off countries because of the treatment meted out to those with handicapping conditions as if they are under a curse, we need to be aware that in our supposedly highly cultured country that prejudice perpetrated against many with handicaps, is still alive. Many individuals among us are treated disrespectfully and are isolated and rejected because they have a handicapping condition.
While reflecting on this theme of the curse of the handicap a week ago, I attended the retirement party of a colleague who is younger than I am. I knew him as a young man, and he wanted me present at his party because he claims that I had been the one to encourage him in the path of service that his life had taken. I knew before I went that he had suffered a couple of strokes, which might have hastened his retirement. But it was very difficult for me to see him walking with a cane and having difficulty lifting his hand and speaking.
Then, reflecting, I said to myself and still continue to say to my family members and a few friends, “We are all only one event from being handicapped.” It might be a stroke, a car accident, a fall in our houses, a fall from a bike, a horse, a gunshot or shrapnel, or what have you. My point is that handicapping is a potential for all of us living in our world.
Some people are born with handicapping conditions, and others become handicapped along the path of life. In fact, the older I have become, I have concluded that if one lives long enough, one will end up with a handicap before one’s death. And if you do not know, let me invite you to visit a nursing home and listen to the clients who retain their intelligence as they tell you how vulnerable and humiliated, embarrassed, and compromised they feel.
Many who are handicapped do argue that their handicap feels like a curse. However, others I know have stated that they see a blessing through the pain of the handicap. I know that we might argue, but I am sure that all who have suffered these conditions might share my desire that the transformation of the curses may happen soon when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Or, as stated in the prophecy of Isaiah:
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing. (Isaiah 35:5, 6 NKJV)
Of course, while we wait for such a time of transformation, we have to ask ourselves how we treat those with handicapping conditions. I don’t have to remind you how Jesus treated such individuals. Read of His ministry in the four Gospels. Read in the book of Acts of his commission as carried out by the believers in the early Christian church. Read the Epistles and take note of the instructions as to how we are called to live out our faith by serving the most vulnerable. Read the prophets of the First Testament of the Bible and note the same. Read the books attributed to Moses, the Pentateuch.
It is all there, how we are to treat the most vulnerable and the handicapped. And there is one story that catches my attention from the historical books of the Bible I have not named, but it is that of how David treated Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the grandson of King Saul. Remember the accident that Mephibosheth sustained. He was five years old when both his father and grandfather died at the Battle of Mount Gilboa.
After their deaths, Mephibosheth’s nurse took him and fled in panic. In her haste, she dropped him, and he broke his leg. After David came to the throne, he sent for Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was afraid because he thought that David was going to kill him. But after some time, he went, and David gave him a home near the palace and allowed him to eat at his table. I am not telling all of the detail here as cited in 2 Samuel chapters 4 and 9, but it is profoundly striking that it is said, “David showed great kindness to Mephibosheth.”
In conclusion, my argument is that we all need to make sure that we treat those who are handicapped with kindness. In fact, we all need to remember that we are one event away from being handicapped.
