I am going to periodically post links to video responses to questions often raised by people interested in aspects of disability and people impacted by impairments. The video link will be provided and there will be an opportunity to comment and/or pose further questions either on YouTube or here attached to specific blog entries.
The first question I want to address is, "Is sin the cause of disabilities?" These answers will be brief, but as you will see from the video I will do what I can to take the questions on and provide the best response that I am able.
God bless and here is the first link.
McNair
The first question I want to address is, "Is sin the cause of disabilities?" These answers will be brief, but as you will see from the video I will do what I can to take the questions on and provide the best response that I am able.
God bless and here is the first link.
McNair
Thank you for your blog its been a great blessing to me and nurtured my interest in Christianity and disability. I am a father to four delightfully different children one having autism. I manage my long term clinical depression and my wife ME.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that I have recently been reading a paper on John 9 by John Piper inspired by a member of his church's experience as a father of a disabled son with his wife's fight against breast cancer. He not only addresses your question but also extends it to eugenics. in your answer you touch on the difference between the specific sin of an individual and that of general non specific sin that entered the world at the fall - the former has a sense of personal power and implies the the religious culture used this to promote moral control through fear, the latter is the degrading nature of sin that exists and destroys Gods perfect creation in which we live and its consequences that we have no power over except the hope that all will be made new on Jesus return. As God works all things together for good for those who love Him and today at church Ps 84 was the text and verse 11 says that no good thing will He withhold from those who's walk is blameless. The logic of this means that God is good, loving and knows/ordains everything that happens to us whom he has made in His likeness therefore whatever life throws at us is allowed by God out of a deep love for us and from His perspective what He allows works together for our good - if it didn't then He wouldn't allow it? In our Western culture of needing to be safe, secure, content, comfortable and risk free we find it very difficult to think and see life events from Gods perspective because, from our perspective it hurts and from Gods it is harsh and cruel. It doesn't fit somehow and we need a reason ... or do we? What are your thoughts? Thanks, Andrew
Thanks so much for your comment, Andrew. I have often thought, if the church were the church, disability would not be disability. A significant part of God's plan for the experience of disability is the church...the Body of Christ. That goes both ways in that the church supports people with impairments, and people with impairments bring unique, Spirit given gifts to the church. I would argue that many of the difficulties that come with the experience of impairment are the social consequences of such impairments. As the church continues to grow to be the complete Body of Christ, my prayer is that we all will truly grow to recognize in a 1 Corinthains 12 kind of way that we need each other. I need you, as your are and you need me with whatever impairments each of us might have. As we grow in love, the support for those with impairments will make the experience of "disability" something much different than it currently is.
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