[Faith-talk] Complaints

Tue Sep 6 05:22:35 UTC 2016

Thank you so much for what you said.
I have struggled with this for years. When the NFB as an entire organization 
talks about independence, I do not care about how I am treated in the work 
place. That is not important. As a blind person, I believe that my personal 
life is so much more important than the work place. I worked so hard to have 
sighted friends, because to me, that is being independent as a blind person, 
not just being able to have a job. I worked very hard, and I have a sighted 
wife. I am not saying that I have anything against blind people. I have just 
as many blind friends as I do sighted friends, and in my openion, that is 
what the NFB should talk about more than just having a job. The world thinks 
that the blind only want to hang out with other blind people, and I have 
been out to prove the world wrong for my entire 50 years of life. It is this 
belief that the NFB should want to work with blind people on. How to dress, 
how to associate with the sighted. This is what affects blind people in 
their personal lives, like at church, what we are talking about. My calling 
as a blind person is to show the sighted that blind people can act and do 
the same things as sighted people do. We are not these weird different rood 
people, like the sighted think in church, at the jym, and so on. How the 
blind are treated in their personal life is much more important to me than 
having a professional life. Not all blind people just want equality at the 
professional level, they want equality aat church, for example, which is 
what we are talking about here.
I have wanted to get that off of my chest for so long. I have talked about 
this at my local chapter of the NFB a lot. I want to have total equality in 
my personal life so much more than in my professional life. I feel like I 
have come a long way, with a lot of hardwork, to achieve this equality in 
both arinas, personal and professional. I have achieved equality in my 
personal life and my professional life by listening to people and being open 
minded toward all people. Here is a saying I love so much.
Every person is my saperior in that I may learn from him or her.
I think that is what people are talking about.
David Moore

-----Original Message----- 
From: Sarah Blake LaRose via Faith-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 12:34 AM
To: Faith-talk,for the discussion of faith and religion
Cc: Sarah Blake LaRose
Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Complaints

Hi, Linda.

Why are you being so hostile? Perhaps some of these people have never had
the opportunity or felt they had permission to admit there was a problem in
the first place. I would like to help you understand that some of these
problems in churches can't always be confronted in the ways you are
proposing. If I asked the NFB to contact my church, it would make tensions
between me and certain people much worse. There are important reasons for
this. Some have to do with the church, some have to do with me being in a
place of leadership and expected to practice good conflict management, and
some also have to do with me and the NFB. If I'm part of an organization
that works for change but I don't do any of the work myself, then I'm not
working this out very well. People are at different places figuring out how
to do this. It's not good if we can't listen to each other's woundedness in
the process of helping each other learn how to be strong self-advocates.

In any case, I'm sorry that you're learning so much about people's
disappointing experiences and that it seems to be unnerving to you. These
things don't have quick fixes like employment problems. That isn't a
complaint. It is a fact. This is something I have had lengthy discussions
about with people within my denomination who are involved with deaf
ministry, women's ministry, and race reconciliation. There are many
similarities with all of these areas. This is why I am now back in school so
that I can teach in the seminary and help to educate the church--that is my
long-term proactive strategy to reach beyond my immediate personal need.

While you have had a negative response to the discussions today, the posts
have been very enlightening for me about what has been going on for people
who I don't know well. I have appreciated the opportunity to learn from
everyone on the list about their experiences.

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: Monday, September 05, 2016 5:05 PM
To: Faith-talk
Cc: Linda Mentink
Subject: [Faith-talk] Complaints

Hi All,

I feel as if some of you are attacking the division for not
stepping forward and getting your needs met.  Please stop.
Please write to Tom Anderson, or call him, tell him what the
trouble is, and give him contact information for the church or
publisher you are unhappy with.  But don't do it until you have
tried yourself to get what you need.  Up until now, we were not
aware, so please don't attack the division leaders.  We're not in
your churches, so we don't know your needs aren't being met.

Give us the contact information for your Pastor, head deacon,
church secretary, and tell us what is happening with you.  Or
contact Ken or Theresa Taylor.  I took a lot of time late last
night to put helpful information on this list.  I've given you
some tools; please use them, and don't holler at us because we
haven't done anything.  Like I have said before, but I'll say it
in a different way, we can't go to bat for you if we don't know
where the ball is.

I'm very sorry to hear of the struggles many here are having with
churches, and I understand that it is tiresome and discouraging
to keep going from church to church, and still you can't find one
that .  accepts you.  God knows all about it.  If you'd like to
worship at, and eventually join a particular church because you
agree with its teachings, and you've tried to no avail to be
accepted by the leaders, let it be known to someone who can help
you by advocating for you.  Know your Bible well enough to give
some verses about worship and church membership, quote them, and
ask the leaders to look them up as you quote them.

Another thing you can do is give them my church website, where
they'll see me singing in the church choir and occasionally
singing a solo, using my BrailleNote Apex.  If they can see the
congregation, they'll see three blind ladies using our Braille
note takers to sing along with the hymns and read our Bibles
along with the rest.  There are probably other sites, too, where
blind people can be seen involved in the ministry during worship
services.  Our site is bbccolumbus.com.

Blessings,

Linda

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