Today, I'm continue with this brief series on handicapped people in the church. Yesterday, I talked about how churches tend to overlook special needs children with their ministry planning. Today, we're going to focus on the atrocities committed against handicapped adults.
This issue resonated with me this week when I went to the dentist, and there was a man who had some type of handicap, perhaps ALS. From a casual observation, the man clearly had some mental issues, and the rolling walker and the way he bent his neck to read indicated a broken down body. Then he opened his mouth. His speech would have led one to immediately assume that he was simple, but closer attention revealed that it was merely his speech that was broken. His mind was sharp and very attentive. Here was a bright man trapped inside a decaying body.
It was when the nurse spoke to him as if he were a little child that I was reminded of the atrocity the church commits in how we treat those with mental and physical handicaps. I have witnessed this time and again, and have probably done a little of this myself. Our prejudiced minds develop these assumptions that people with special needs are automatically stupid and incapable of thinking for themselves. And, we treat them that way.
It's probably one of the things that gets under my skin the most. An adult who can't function or speak properly get treated like a simpleton, a fool or a child. We act like they're extremely fragile. We talk to them like they can't understand what we're saying. We treat them like second-class citizens.
Sure, sometimes you have individuals who have severe enough mental handicaps that communication is difficult. But, often times we are in such a hurry with our own lives that we don't take the time to learn how to communicate with them. We just assume these people are dumb and we go on our way. The truth, however, is that you can learn how to communicate with these people. It's just like learning to understand someone with an Asian dialect trying to speak English. It take time to decipher the language patterns.
Well, it's bad enough with this stuff happens in the general public. It's atrocious when it happens in our churches. Sadly to say, I have seen this happen in two churches I've attended. In one, people would joke around and be nice to a mildly-retarded man, but most people wouldn't hang around to try and decipher his disabled speech. But, even with the mild-mental handicap, this man was very smart, loving and wanted to be a part.
The second instance nearly made me vomit. It involved an elderly man who was confined to a wheelchair by ALS. He could barely control his limbs, and his speech was extremely hard to decode. If you took the time, you could communicate, and you'd discover that the brain was very much intact. This man was beloved in the church for the many healthy years of service, but in the grips of ALS, some had lost their respect for him. The stomach turning event involved an interaction with this man and an older woman. She walked by his wheelchair, asked how he was doing, and when he muttered that he was doing good, she clearly couldn't understand him. Instead of trying to hear what he said, she merely turned and walked away.
Do we really treat the handicapped this way? I don't think it's our intention, but we get used to a busy pace of life that takes little time to understand the complex and confusing unless it directly impacts us. Sadly, that translates to churches and Christians that may not spend the time and resources to assist leading the handicapped to Christ and making disciples of them.
Just like the children mentioned in yesterday's post, we have to treat the handicapped and their families as a mission field. We have to take the time to understand them and their needs. We have to train people to assist them in learning about Jesus. Show this compassion, and I believe we will please Jesus.
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