In Review
From Inclusion to Justice
Disability, Ministry and Congregational Leadership
Many congregations view disability as a problem to be solved with elevators, wider doors, or programs tailored for those with special needs. This approach misses the point, according to cultural anthropologist and Presbyterian minister Erin Raffety. The problem that should be addressed is not the perceived deficiencies of people with disabilities; it’s ableism.
Raffety believes that churches are steeped in societal prejudices against people with disabilities, and she calls Christians to repent and find radical new ways of thinking about disability. She shows how a new paradigm of ministry emerges from two ethnographic studies she conducted with families of people with disabilities and their congregations.
Disability rights activists generally identify as disabled someone who has unique experiences due to bodily or cognitive differences and is in fact dis-abled—that is, their ability to do things is hampered—by idealized social norms. Raffety argues that the norms guiding how we operate as the church have been formed by the able-bodied human experience rather than the Christ-centered human experience.
