Thinking About Disabilities with Justice, Liberation, and Mercy

Abstract

This essay challenges the various considerations of people with disabilities that have long excluded them from interpersonal relationships beyond those they enjoy among themselves and their families. The Gospel calls for a different stance especially in light of Jesus' outreach to those with disabling conditions of many kinds, as well as in light of the crucifixion which marks Jesus forever with the disabling and disfiguring scars of a scandalous execution. The essay exposes a history of stigma and oppressions from which people with disabilities have suffered and asks where justice and mercy must serve people who have been set apart.