From Inclusion to Leadership

Abstract

<jats:p> Drawing on ethnographic research, Scripture, and theology, this article posits that Christian arguments for inclusion with people with disabilities often fail to undermine ideologies of normalcy lurking at the heart of redemption. By reading the healing of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52) with the pitfalls of inclusion and current research in mind, I follow theologian Sharon V. Betcher in challenging readers to resist making disabled persons but “plot props” in able-bodied enlightenment, and let Jesus’ ministry direct us to Bartimaeus’ ministry in the text. I argue that in uplifting the faith and leadership of Bartimaeus, Jesus points to Bartimaeus as the protagonist, inviting us to perceive and receive the faithfulness and leadership of people with disabilities in their seeming disruptions and evident differences. In order to aid able-bodied people in apprehending the leadership of persons with disabilities, I draw on Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s concept of disabled “misfitting,” a feminist materialist notion of disability that emphasizes the importance of context and materiality in disablement. Using the concept of misfitting to analyze ethnographic examples calls attention to the opportunities and possibilities created in disabled people’s leadership and challenges congregations to consider where their paradigms of leadership may still be oriented around ideologies of normalcy and practices of able-bodied inclusion. Indeed, congregations are invited to receive the work of the Spirit in persons with disabilities by entering into dignifying dialogue with new forms of ministry and leadership. </jats:p>

Sin, shame, and the subject

“…1 For an important discussion regarding ableism in the church see Erin Raffety (Raffety, 2022). 2 The connection with authenticity is potent in that shame as beingless denies the subject their capacity to self-actualize.…”

Speaking with Us, Not for Us: Neurodiversity, Theology and Justice

“…In a neurotypical vision of friendship in theology of autism, I read that I must assimilate into neuronormative social Christian communities. This is a model of inclusion, not justice Raffety, 2022), where neurotypical churches set the terms for my hospitality (Jacobs, 2018). And I wonder when I will hear not charitable calls to be 'friends' with me, but outrage at the injustices that keep me from belonging in churches at all.…”