Lausanne World Pulse – Christ’s Compassion for “The Least” and People with Disabilities
By Joni Eareckson Tada
September 2007
Disabled people in most parts of the world struggle to survive. Sadly, their needs are often overlooked or even ignored by the local church. Disabled people in most parts of the world live in crushing poverty and isolation. They lack simple mobility and are often hidden away in back bedrooms because of fear and prejudice. In many countries, the only income a disabled person has is by begging. In cultures gripped by social stigmas, parents may maim a child, hoping that as a beggar he or she will evoke sympathy from passers-by. In some countries, people who are learning disabled (e.g., mentally retarded, Down syndrome or cerebral palsied) are unnecessarily institutionalized or warehoused in mental wards. This sad situation also occurs among many deaf and deaf-blind people.
Disabled people in industrialized countries face different challenges. In most Western nations, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia are seen as disability-prevention strategies (one is “better off dead than disabled”). When a society is influenced by secular humanism, disabled people who lack the resources to live independently are viewed as a drain on economic resources.
Whether in wealthy or developing countries, disabled people are frequently cut off or marginalized from society. Because they are not mainstreamed into the community, they do not enjoy ready access to the local church. Often, the church building is inaccessible (stairs, no ramps, narrow doorways, etc.). Church programs quite often can be equally inaccessible or non-existent.
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The Church has the opportunity to lead the way in transforming the plight most disabled people face by serving and becoming a loving, healing community. |
If we were to place these 600–650 million people together, they would comprise the world’s third largest nation with the highest rates of homelessness, joblessness, divorce, abuse and suicide. People with disabilities are often the victims of crime and abuse. A polio survivor from Ethiopia has said, “Women in wheelchairs, like me, are easy targets of rape and physical abuse. People know we can’t defend ourselves.”3
Where Is the Church?
Only five to ten percent of the world’s disabled are effectively reached with the gospel, making the disability community one of the largest unreached (some say under-reached) or hidden people groups in the world. Jesus, aware that this population would be overlooked, made people with disabilities a target group of the Great Commission (Luke 14:12-24). He said, “Go out… find the lame, the blind and the disabled… and bring them in.” Then he added, “Do this and you will be blessed.”
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