I was recently reading from a curriculum on disability. Under the heading of “Grief and Depression” was the following statement. “Acceptance does not change the reality of one’s condition.” As I pondered that statement, for some reason it didn’t sit well with me. As I think about the “reality” of a disability condition, I wondered [...]
Yesterday was the first day of the fall 2000 and semester at California Baptist University where I teach. At one of the meetings I was sitting with a colleague of mine Dr. Keith Walters. We were thinking through some issues related to disability. The focus of the faculty training after coming back from summer vacation [...]
Please note the new viedeo below which is a woman’s faith story from our Light and Power class. I never tire of hearing about how someone finally finds a church home who did not have one, whether or not they have a disability. But that they struggle to find a home is still an indictment [...]
I have written elsewhere in this blog about what have been called the “social consequences of disability.” That is, how does society respond to the fact that someone uses a wheelchair or has autism, or has an intellectual disability. See for example this posting Social Healing or here Social Role Valorization and Wounding. Both of [...]
I recently had a meeting with a friend of mine and we were discussing the problems faced by people with various disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, who live in group homes in the community. The friend I was talking with said that the people are living in “community-based isolation.” That is, although they are physically integrated [...]
This morning, the Joni and Friends website shared that Joni has been diagnosed with cancer. Please visit this website for the full letter drafted by Joni.In the letter she states, Please pray that the upcoming tests, surgery and subsequent treatment will be successful (thankfully, my quadriplegia has no bearing on either the surgery or the [...]
That was the title of a presentation given to the entire membership this morning at the AAIDD conference. The majority of the presentation centered on Mrs. Shriver who was an amazing advocate for persons with intellectual disabilities in America. Her brothers President Kennedy and Sen. Edward Kennedy are the ones often credited with the actual [...]
I am currently at the annual meeting of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I am the incoming president of the Religion and Spirituality Division of the organization and have been enjoying interactions with old friends and have been making some new friends. Today, I attended a session by Dr. Robert Schalock, a [...]
I was contacted recently about reviewing the new book, Autism & Alleluias here. The book is written by Kathleen Deyer Bolduc and as my friend Bill Gaventa describes in the Forward is like a “book of modern day psalms.” I think it is the kind of book that parents or family members of an individual [...]
Something occurred to me the other day, actually in the midst of doing a presentation at the Joni and friends conference in Pasadena this past weekend. The changes that the church is/will be/should be going through are going to cause discomfort, perhaps emotional distress to those who want to keep things the same. I have [...]
In my role as a special ed professor, I am often visiting classrooms where student teachers work under a “master” teacher in order to learn how to be a teacher through direct practice. Typically these classrooms are a mixed bag. There are some teachers who truly are masters at what they do. I look forward [...]
Tonight I was speaking to my class about the family life cycle as it relates to people with disabilities and their families. The research literature at times mentions “chronic sorrow” in regard to the life cycle in that at every stage of life, people with disabilities and their families are often confronted with the impact [...]
“Your search yielded no results” Rarely does this statement cause me happiness when it appears on my computer screen. Typically it means that I haven’t been able to find what I was looking for. But today, I smiled happily at my computer screen. They get it. You see, I searched the Down Syndrome International website [...]
Dr. Amos Yong will provide a Special Lecture on issues in Theology and DisabilityThursday March 25, 2010 at 430-6 pmCopenbarger Room, Yeager CenterCalifornia Baptist University Dr. Yong is J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology andDirector of the Doctor of Philosophy program,Regent University School of Divinity. He is author of 11 books and numerous articles on [...]
I have just published two new books. The first is entitled The Church and Disability and is basically selections from the first five years of my weblog, disabledChristianity. As I went through the entries, I was interested once again with what, I believe, God has revealed to me about issues of theology and disability, disability [...]
