Disability in Missions: Restorative healing, societal adaptation, or cultural interpretation?

October 14, 2021

 

This is the second installment of our Disability in Missions series.

 

 

A certain representation of believers sees the Bible, and thus missions activity among persons with disabilities (PWDs), as a timeless principle that all who have a disability should be healed or cured. Others have looked to the Acts 2 discourse as being a place where all people and all senses, exemplified by all languages, are transformed by the power of the Spirit, making much less of human weakness and more of a focus upon God’s power despite disability (Yong). Still others have pointed out that Scripture can seem to speak negatively of those with physical disabilities, using physical disability as a negative attribute to overcome even to the extent of barring off PWDs from the presence of God (Lev. 21:16-21, Jn. 12:40, 2 Cor. 4:4). With such a broad spectrum of theological interpretation, disability and missions, at their best, have an unpredictable relationship.

 

Nancy Eiesland, speaking on behalf of those with physical disabilities, illuminates the tension: “As long as disability is addressed in terms of the themes of sin-disability conflation, virtuous suffering, or charitable action, it will be seen primarily as a fate to be avoided, a tragedy to be explained, or a cause to be championed rather than an ordinary life to be lived.” To exacerbate the issue, missionaries are supposed to be tough pioneers, ducking in and out of homes in rugged terrain, ready to trek through a jungle on a dime – the stereotypes could continue. Somewhere in the midst of all this is a person with a disability who has been called by God and who desires to take the Gospel to the world. They may or may not be healed in this life. They may not even be sure what to do with the healing narratives of the Gospel. Still, the Lord has called. Where do they go from here? 

 

Disability is taking center stage in this blog series and there are several frames of reference when it comes to dealing with disability on the mission field. If we are going to participate in missions with persons with disabilities it is important to understand the starting point of the discussion as to not assume that anyone is on the same page. We are not. Over the last 30 years a branch of theology, disability theology, has emerged that has examined some of the models of disability to help us understand how faith interacts with disability.

 

Disability Models

  1. Medical: The medical model of disability seeks a bodily cure, the fixing of the body, or medicine to normalize PWDs. Sociologically, a medical model of disability places the able-bodied healer in control, and reciprocity is non-existent; the PWD is a burden to be lifted (Reynolds). The ultimate goal and best way forward under this model is normalization.
  2. Social: The social model values PWDs accepting their disability as part of their identity and progressing on in society. It seeks to include PWDs in societal and religious life rather than focusing on cures, healing, and medical betterment.
  3. Cultural: The cultural model of disability looks at how a particular culture in a specific time interprets disability. Dr. Louise Gosbell explains: “The cultural model promotes disability not as a static, unchanging global phenomenon, but rather, disability is experienced, represented, and interpreted differently across various cultures and historical periods.”

Expecting divine healing as the primary goal in working with PWDs roots itself in a medical model. Coming alongside the disabled in compassionate ministry assumes a more social model. Understanding how a particular culture views PWDs in light of the biblical frame of reference would favor a more cultural model. 

Traditionally most have assumed that Christ and biblical times did indeed follow the healing/medical cure line of thinking. Theologian Roji George, however, makes a direct correlation between bodily healing and social inclusion of PWDs in Christ’s ministry. George argues that in Christ’s healing the bodies of those on the margins, He restored those with disabilities to a newfound place in society. Due to how interconnected kinship was in first century Palestine, Christ’s healing those with disabilities resulted in restoration of entire societies. The notion is that disability was focused not so much upon individual disadvantage but on societal participation. In Christ inviting the crippled, lame, and the blind to the banqueting table in Luke 14, He seems to be subverting the traditional view of the disabled in placing them as honored guests in His kingdom. Christ’s radical welcome of PWDs and the frame presented by George on the communal aspect of healing conflates the social and medical models through which many have explained disability. 

 

To go further, through the life of Jesus and His ministry, social and cultural models are all smashed together, erecting a new frame of reference on disability. Christ spoke very specifically to the culture of the day not merely to cure people who were disabled and ostracized from society but he interacted with the culture in such a relevant way that it led to societal transformation. Each culture and time period brings a frame of reference to how they understand disability and they often insert that into the biblical narrative. Almost always, in our contemporary time we run to the extreme of medical or social models to try to wade through the gauntlet. Christ however, smashed these models all together and was not so concerned about transforming one life but transforming entire communities.

 

So what does all this mean? It means that we need a Kingdom imagination when it comes to seeing PWDs released in missions . At some level, if we seek to engage and empower PWDs to do missions we have to start looking at the communal aspect instead of solely the individual. This will inevitably require interdependence of the whole body of Christ working together.

Some questions for mission organizations, church mission boards, and missionaries in general to ponder:

  1. What is your frame of reference on disability? Does it fall short of a Kingdom imagination?
  2. Where are PWDs in your personal and work lives? Do you know them? Have you ever considered them to be key players in God’s mission?
  3. Is it possible that PWDs may not actually want more compassion or pity but they may be saying, “Christ has already invited me to the table. . . will you?”

Joni Eareckson Tada summarizes the issue well and gives a clarion call to the Church:

 

"Herein lies the problem with the mission movement. We are inclined to assess our performance to the standards of the secular world. This success-oriented approach can cause us to squeeze our potential missionaries into rigid molds in which they have to be intelligent, strong, agile, to have high energy: the type A personality. This can mean that the mission movement selects only missionaries who have certain personality types, or alternatively it can tend to squeeze people who are different shapes into the same mold. When applying the world’s standard of success we therefore discount people who are different, who can’t be squashed into an ableist mold. Almost by definition people with disability will not fit into an ableist mold, nor should they.... I appeal to leaders in agencies and denominations to consider... selecting and training qualified people with disabilities for mission work."

 

We can't unknow what we know. We know that Christ transformed frames on disability. We know he flipped societies upside down. We know that the Lord has given the Commission to the whole body. Our frames of reference must expand to include a Kingdom vision. In doing so, we bump up against society’s definition of ability, the topic of the next blog post, but the task before us requires the inclusion of all God’s children. Marginalization is complex and the thousands of years of injustice that got us to this point are a tall order to confront. In the coming months we will dive further into the complexity and joy of seeing PWDs released into mission.

Written by: John Trotter

Disability in Missions Series

Sources

  1. Yong, Amos. “Many Tongues, Many Senses: Pentecost, the Body Politic, and the Redemption of Disability.” Pneuma Vol. 31, No. 2, 2009.
  2. Eiesland, Nancy. L. The Disabled God: Toward A Liberatory Theology Of Disability . Nashville, TN: Abbington Press, 1994, 73.
  3. Reynolds, Thomas. Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Community and Hospitality . Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008, 25.
  4. Gosbell, Louise. The Poor, the Crippled, the Blind and the Lame: Physical and Sensory Disabilities in the Gospels of the New Testament . Sydney, Australia: MacQueary University, 2015, 125.
  5. George, Roji T. “Disabled Jesus: Reading Jesus, His Mission, and the Community from a Disabled Perspective.” Bangalore Theological Forum 2019, 355.
  6. Eareckson, Joni. Foreward in Disability in Missions. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2018, Kindle Location 146-47.
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