The Struggle Between Disability and God.
By: Elizabeth Wright
Tags: Inclusion, Spirituality, Life, Disability, Religion

Why are some church members convinced disabled people want to be ‘healed’ and that they can make it happen?

For Mary and Janet it was a simple request they were making — for God to heal my arm from the infection. There was no indication that they were going ask God to ‘heal’ me from my disability.

But there is a strong historic connection between Christianity and the ‘healing’ of disability.

The precedence is set in the Bible. We are told that Jesus was a healer. Through his touch and command Jesus healed blindness, leprosy, and paralysis, amongst many other conditions. Belief in this power of Jesus and God creates a culture of faith-based healing that is problematic for disabled people. Particularly in this day and age of disability politics, disability activism, and disability pride.

I have been told countless times that if I only ‘believed’ than I would be ‘healed’ from my disability. My faith, or lack of, has been thrown in my face over and over again by well-meaning people.

There are two issues with this belief in ‘healing’:

Physically I can’t be “healed.” I am literally missing limbs. Unless I am like a lizard who can grow their chopped off tails back, I am not regrowing my arm and leg.

Spiritually and psychologically I don’t need to be ‘healed’ from my disability.

My limb different body is my normal.

I have never hated my body or despaired of it.

My body hasn’t caused me to feel embarrassment, fear, and shame, it is social accessibility and inclusion issues that have.

Social accessibility and inclusion issues aren’t exclusively created by religion though. In society, for too many years, disability has been understood from the medical model. The medical model of disability places the problem of disability squarely with the disabled individual, i.e, “if a wheelchair using student is unable to get into a building because of some steps, the medical model would suggest that this is because of the wheelchair, rather than the steps.”

The overlapping concepts between the religious and medical model of disability conflict greatly with the growing social model that calls for a positive, inclusive view of disability. Rachel Allen explores this in her dissertation, Faith and Disability: Comfort, Confusion or Conflict? —

“The confusion of developing a positive disabled identity whilst desiring the negative effects of impairment to be ‘healed’ needs recognition.”

Whether from a religious or medical perspective of disability, this comment reveals the conflict between ‘healing’ and disabled peoples desire to be included and accepted as they are.

Whether it is Jesus healing you or the medical profession, disability is regarded as something that needs to be fixed if you are wanting to live a full life. The way that the religious and medical model differ is that medicine states disability is cause by genetics, whilst some religious interpretations of sacred texts conflate disability with sin and suffering.

My whole life has been touched by the concept of sin, suffering, and healing. When I was old enough to understand this my parents explained to me how religion had influenced some family members responses to my disability.

My grandfather was Scottish and a devout Presbyterian. Having grown up in the slums of Glasgow, his life had never been easy. I can understand why his faith would be a steady force in his life.

When I was born he said that my disability came from, “the sins of the father.”

Who’s father we don’t know… though on my mother’s side of the family there are a number of illegitimate births and missing fathers. Perhaps he felt that my disability was the tangible culmination of all the sin in the family.

Perhaps he himself felt some guilt.

I can’t ask him what his thoughts were though, because he died before I could know him.

I don’t believe that my disability comes from sin. I don’t believe that my body can be ‘healed.’ I don’t believe that my faith (or lack of) influences my body’s ability to be ‘healed’.

Recently I sat down for a chat with my local Vicar. When I told her about my grandfather’s comment she was hostile, not towards my grandfather, but towards the ideologies that he was fed about sin and disability. She assured me that not all Christian’s felt that way. She didn’t believe I had to be healed.

I don’t think there is any reason for me to want to ‘heal’ my body. My disability is a part of who I am and through a lot of inner work I have come to be proud of it. I am glad that I was born in this body. I am grateful for the experiences it has brought me.