[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Division?

[Sarah Blake LaRose]

Linda, my point is that sometimes the solution a person wants isn't for the 
NFB to contact their church leaders but for their to be a place where it is 
good to build skills and understanding for how to self-advocate in the faith 
community. I encounter many people who don't know, for instance, how to have 
good discussions about working in the nursery. I was among them for a long 
time.

It has always been easy for me to have discussions among church groups about 
Bible questions. It is not easy to have discussions about the social issues 
associated with church. We lose a lot of people because of these things, and 
I think it is an important thing to talk about--not only in the blind 
community but in the church. I am trying to find the right words because I 
observe that it annoys sighted people when I bring up the fact that blind 
people leave the church because they feel isolated. The sighted people's 
response it typically, "Well, all they have to do is call and ask for a 
ride." It's hard to explain how it feels when you hear people making plans 
to go to lunch and you are not among any of the groups, but someone offers 
to drop you off at home. This is one of the most common reasons why I find 
people leaving the church. I think it would take more than NFB advocacy to 
bring about change in the face of this. This is the kind of thing that I 
have personally encountered throughout most of my life. I chose to stay 
anyway, and sometimes to be vulnerable with the community about what was 
going on. It usually didn't work. Most people cannot distinguish well 
between the types of silly conversations they have with me, e.g. "You're 
teaching Hebrew? I couldn't teach English and I'm sighted" and the 
respectful exchanges they have with each other that result in ongoing 
relationships. I have taken other people to church with me, but they don’tdon't 
have the fortitude to stick around in that kind of environment. I don't 
blame them. This is what they cope with all day every day. Why shouldn't the 
church be a different place?



Sarah Blake LaRose, M.Div., accessible instruction in biblical languages
Personal mail: sarah at sarahblakelarose.com
http://www.sarahblakelarose.com
Info for seminaries and faith communities: http://www.night-light.org
-----Original Message----- 
From: Linda Mentink via Faith-Talk
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2016 11:40 PM
To: Faith-talk
Cc: Linda Mentink
Subject: [Faith-talk] {Spam?} Division?

Hi Sarah,

I have tried to explain the purposes of the NFB's Communities of
Faith division.  What is it that you're not clear about? I guess
I'm frustrated because I don't know what you want to know, and I
have done my best to give a brief overview.

Of course there are still issues of blind people not being
welcome or getting the materials they need.  We can't help those
we don't know about.  We can't advocate for what we don't know
about.  We can't contact your church leaders if we don't know
there's a problem.  Um, that's what we're here for!

Blessings,

Linda

_______________________________________________
Faith-Talk mailing list
Faith-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/faith-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
Faith-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/faith-talk_nfbnet.org/sarah%40sarahblakelarose.com