Rupturing Concepts of Disability and Inclusion

CHAPTER 2
her claim that churches respond slowly and ineptly to people with disability
because of their theological legacy. 57
16
Disease
Lameness
Madness
Maimed/Crippled/Disa
bled
Muteness
Paralysis
72
27
14
9
11
6
The priest shall examine the disease on the skin of
his body, and if the hair in the diseased area has
turned white and the disease appears to be deeper
than the skin of his body, it is a leprous disease;
after the priest has examined him he shall pronounce
him ceremonially unclean. (Leviticus 13: 3)
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the
crippled, the lame, and the blind. (Luke 14: 13).
So he changed his behaviour before them; he
pretended to be mad when in their presence. He
scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his
spittle run down his beard. (1 Samuel 21: 14)
The legs of a disabled person hang limp; so does a
proverb in the mouth of a fool. (Proverbs 26: 7)
... so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the
mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame
walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the
God of Israel. (Matthew 15: 31)
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
“Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2: 5)
Biblical texts have also underpinned various Christian responses based around
notions of sin or sanctity; curse or compassion; ridicule, rejection or romanticisation;
salvation and servanthood; covenants and contracts, justice and joy. Religious
institutions have often been seen to offer meaning and comfort to those who find
their world troubling and confusing. 53 However, paradoxically, churches through
romanticised notions of suffering and healing have structurally - through belief or
architecture - forced people with disability at least to the margins, some even
excluded beyond to the outside. 54 Therefore, a fuller exploration of various
interpretations and practices made by the Christian church to ‘disability’ in the
Common Era (CE) seems pertinent.
Biblical scholar, Carol Fontaine, surveys both Testaments of the Bible
synchronically to view how the societies producing the text understood disability.
She notes that although views of illness and disability changed over time,
especially during times of contact with foreign cultures, some of which had
concepts of medicine in the late period, there is an underlying unity in the way the
Bible views people so ‘afflicted’. 55 Fontaine comments that while synchronic
studies are of limited usefulness in such pursuits as historical reconstruction or the
establishing of doctrinal ‘truth’, they providea useful entry point for discussion “by
presenting a ‘gestalt’ of folk ideas, literary tropes and cultural values around a
given topic.” 56 Therefore, it is useful to provide a summarised version of her texts
to exemplify how she outlines the five views for consideration in order to highlight
1 Illness and Disability as Undesirable Conditions – In medically naive societies,
particularly ones based on agricultural production, those unable to fully
participate in the common tasks of survival are seen to exist in a more
precarious, and less desirable state. Where medical care is uncertain, the ill or