MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD U.S. POLICIES DEHUMANIZE DISABLED PEOPLE AND FAIL TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE ALL PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST BY MADISON CHASTAIN
I
n the Gospel of Mark, Jesus passes the blind man, Bartimaeus, and asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus replies, “Let me receive my sight” (Mark 10:46–52). We encounter a similar scene in the Gospel of John: “As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ” (John 9:1–3). Jesus answered, in effect, neither. His blindness was not due to anyone’s sin. For centuries, people believed that disabilities were retributive curses from God, so they cast out the disabled from society. We see across all four gospels how Jesus cared distinctly for the disabled; he performs more healing miracles than any other kind. And yet, in the context of the rest of his ministry, it’s clear Jesus is not as concerned with physical health and medical healing as he is with removing the labels that make people outcasts and bringing them back into community. Jesus also makes clear that healing is not a project of unidirectional charity, but of listening, exchange, and consent. Jesus does not assume that Bartimaeus wants literal healing: Jesus asks. It can be easy to assume that all disabled people must want physical healing. But for many disabled people, their diagnosis is so totalizing, so integrated into who they are, that to become un-disabled would be to completely alter who they are as a person. For many disabled people, what they need is a nondisabling society, one that includes and welcomes them and considers them for what they like and want, not for how they make the rest of society feel. Disabled people need tools, not transformation. It’s surprising, then, how many U.S. Christians conceive of disability in totally contradicting ways. The Bible is ambiguous on many things, but regarding disability, we’ve received crystal clear directives. Where does our culture’s insistence on villainizing and eliminating disability come from? Perhaps it is because we don’t want to believe that unpredictable things can happen to good people. When we’re confronted with a life circumstance that defies reason—that occurs regardless of our
Gift of Sight, © 2017 John August Swanson Trust Giclée, 13" x 10.75" https://JohnAugustSwanson.com
“Jesus is not as concerned with physical health and medical healing as he is with removing the labels that make people outcasts and bringing them back into community.”
A M AT T E R O F S P I R I T
3