In a recent issue of World magazine, Andree Seu has an editorial entitled, "House of mourning: Funerals are opportunities to hear the best, and worst, of theology." He states, "A collective spiritual insight almost breaks through, then is submerged again . . .But I am not here to desconstruct funerals." Probably all of us have had this same experience. If you haven't, you probably need to study up on your theology a bit. But people's ideas of death are not unlike their ideas about disability. It's like, they heard something somewhere before, can't really recall when, but they are sure it is in the Bible or something, and whatever the sentiment, it kinda makes them feel better about the situation. So we have people looking down on us from heaven, we have spirits still with us, we have people who haven't really died, we have people being reincarnated, and so it goes on.
But the same kind of rediculous ideas pervade in spiritual discussions of disability. Children with disability are special children from God. Funny how nobody wants them if they have the choice and often will choose to abort special children from God. If they were actually special children from God, perhaps the church would be more interested in serving them.
Or parents are told that they are special in that they were "chosen" to have a child with a disability. It would seem that chosen parents would be valued more than they are. It seems too often that "chosen" in reference to parents means "You are on your own, baby." That is, you were chosen, I wasn't so it is up to you to figure out how to help, integrate, educate, etc. you child.
Lets work through some of these misguided issues from a theological perspective. We will attempt to take on each one (that I can find) and address them. Lets see where we end up?
McNair
(fcbu)
No comments:
Post a Comment