[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Re: perspective-taking and Naima

[Sarah Blake LaRose]

Hi, Sandra.

Your thoughts about healing resonate with me deeply. I have known many 
people who have been wounded by having undue emphasis placed on the fact 
that they weren't healed and a misuse of Scripture where the relationship of 
faith and healing is concerned. Much literature on disability and theology 
seems to lean toward interpreting the healing narratices as just metaphor 
that has spiritual value and in this way avoiding the painful incidents that 
happen in relationships with people with disabilities. I think we need to be 
willing to struggle with this and find a balanced perspective.

Btw, Naima, I am also willing to correspond if you wish.





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: Sandra Streeter via Faith-Talk
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2016 4:49 PM
To: faith-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Sandra Streeter
Subject: [Faith-talk] perspective-taking

Hi, all,

Ericka, thanks so much for broadening our perspective—bringing up the family 
with the autistic son and the one with the son in a wheelchair. It is all 
too easy for us to think we are the only ones in a particular scenario. I am 
all too aware of my own weakness in perspective-taking (another aspect of 
Asperger’s), so I do appreciate others’ points of view which help me expand 
my own. Belonging to church can be even more fun when you have hidden 
disabilities like learning or neurological-wiring  differences (I am a lousy 
auditory learner—I do fine with audios if I only have to capture a summary 
of something, but when I really need to study something or work with it 
heavily—music, poetry, instructional materials for learning a device, the 
Bible and devotional materials needed for liturgist duties, classes or 
otherwise sharing—I absolutely MUST HAVE Braille), Or, autism to an extent 
(unless you really know me, you wouldn’t pic up on the subtleties that point 
to mild Aspergers—though, a full-on melt-down in a more severely-affected 
person is obvious; but, the “why” is not obvious, so you can’t explain to 
onlookers that Mikey’s melt-down isn’t a normal tantrum or typical 
discipline issue). I also find, as someone mentioned, that mainline churches 
are generally more receptive to disabilities, probably because they don’t 
fixate on our supposed need for healing—but that leaves people like me with 
a quandary: how do you validate the belief in God’s healing while not 
forcing it on someone or making them feel like a blemish on the face of the 
church if they aren’t healed. And, because there are always ongoing 
expressions of that doctrine (or expressions of other ways to inadvertent 
closed doors to folks with disabilities), we end up having to be the 
teachers... AGAIN! Yeah, it gets tiring, but I cling to the Scriptural 
instruction: do not weary in well-doing. A thirty-something in my faith, I 
have a little more equanimity about things now than as a younger Christian, 
and my heart goes out to you, Naima. Please feel free to contact me off 
list:
sandrastreeter381 at gmail.com,
if you’d like to chat. I am a way-better, more-motivated writer than a 
talker, so phone is out, but email is great!

Oh, my, Ericka, I simply must change how JAWS pronounces B’hai—ROFL! (taking 
my own advice about caution with text-ese: rollin’ on the floor laughin’). 
It almost seems to insert a D sound in the middle of the word! thank God for 
the dictionary-manager!!!


Blessings,

Sandra
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is 
invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince


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