Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

285oneself and the other with whom liberating and mutually-enriching pastoralrelationship is sought. It is the lack of confession that maintains a distancebetween the pastoral carer and the person with intellectual disability in which thepastoral carer sees only an objectified identity and not a human being fullyinvested with God-given regard, that is, with Thou-ness.Furthermore, the tense of Baker-Fletcher’s exhortation is crucial, that is,that confession begins with us. It is vital that amidst our forgiveness of others welook to our own self and acknowledge our capacity to oppress. However, thislevel of self-acceptance does not come easily when we invest so much ofourselves in the task of projecting the image of being free of human weakness, ofbeing the one who is sufficient, able and powerful amidst the weakness of others.As Gill-Austern asserts in relation to the practice of exclusion,Only through honest self-examination can we move to confesswhere and how we have practiced exclusion in our lives. Onlythen can we begin to withdraw projections, confess to our moralself-righteousness, and take the first step to seeing others in theirdistinctiveness and not simply as our projection. The bottom lineis the need to stop seeing evil as 'out there'... 706Such honest self-examination involves seeing ourselves for who we are,that is, as flawed human beings functioning within a particular context. This isthe implication of Welch’s conceptualisation of the recognition of the nature ofsin.Such turning away requires seeing the sin, knowing whatconstitutes it, and knowing what creates its power. Withoutunderstanding the mechanisms of sin and its hold on themselves,conversion, the turn away from exploitative habits of action andthought, is impossible. 707Understanding such mechanisms only occurs through due commitment toand cognisance of the processes and practices of the institution in which the carerexercises pastoral responsibility. It is incumbent upon the particularised characterof pastoral theology and practice to be fully cognisant of the specific context.This includes a clear understanding of the socio-politically constituted structures706 Gill-Austern, Brita. "Engaging Diversity and Difference: From Practice of Exclusion toPractices of Practical Solidarity." In Injustice and the Care of Souls: Taking OppressionSeriously in Pastoral Care, edited by Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook and Karen Montago, 29-44.(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 38.707 Welch, A Feminist Ethic of Risk, 55.