Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

26knowledge. Predominantly, in the major spheres of life such asmedicine, law, theology, economics and all other disciplines, theapproach has been on managing and dealing with 'the problem ofthe disabled' as deviant individuals, as opposed to recognising thatnarrow norms have oppressed people with disabilities via systemsand attitudes. 19Pastoral theologian Deborah Creamer confirms this rejected knowledgeargument by asserting that when people with disabilities occasionally become asource of debate in theological circles it is often against a background ofhistorical, theological thinking that has not regarded them as human. As shestates,... when people with disabilities have been considered at all byreligious communities, they have been looked at as objects to beavoided, admired, pondered, or pitied – very rarely have peoplewith disabilities been considered first as people. 20It would appear that, from a contemporary Australian perspective, theemerging pastoral theological and disability narrative discourse is largely locatedbeyond the parameters of the church’s mainstream institutions.With people with an intellectual disability living today in an era wherecommunity-based accommodation is generally considered a preferable option totraditional institutional contexts, it could be argued that this silence would be lessoverwhelming. However, many people with an intellectual disability remain intraditional accommodation, and others, whilst having moved into communitybasedcontexts, continue in settings where their voice remains relatively unheard.This is due to the abiding dominance of a traditional institutional, service deliverydiscourse within these settings. It will be argued later in this extended reflectionthat the trend in disability services towards community accommodation has notnecessarily meant that disability health care service has divested itself ofinstitutional philosophy and practice.21The geographical location and19 Newell, Christopher. "Encountering Oppression: The Emergence of the AustralianDisability Rights Movement." Social Alternatives 18, no. 1 (1999): 47-51, 48.20 Creamer, Deborah. Disability and Christian Theology: Embodied Limits and ConstructivePossibilities. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 50.21 Those who speak from the perspective of social role valorisation argue that those with adisability who live in community-based accommodation can, despite the change ingeographical location and more contemporary architectural forms, nonetheless findthemselves living in what can still be described as ‘mini-institutions’. See, for example,Ziegler, Harriet. Changing Lives, Changing Communities. revised ed. (Melbourne: WesleyMission Melbourne, 2004).