There are still Christians today who abuse the disabled by telling them that their disabilities are their fault and they'd be better if they just had enough faith, prayed enough, or converted to the correct religion.
Al Stefanelli writes:
The most common one is that their imaginary god is trying to "get my attention" so that I may once again place my faith in him and allow him to "heal me". ...Several people have told me that the severity of my illness is due to my outspokenness on religion, and that god would allow me a little more comfort if I'd just be quiet and keep my disbelief to myself. Then they mumble something about millstones and stumbling children... One rather illustrious person even went so far as to tell me that god has prepared for me a special place in hell for de-converting his believers, adding to that the guarantee of an even higher level of torturous suffering if one of my own children should happen to abandon god. If you ask me, their god seems awful insecure...
Speaking of my family, the associated difficulties that inevitably come with being disabled invariably affect my wife and children. It is unavoidable. We do not have the income for an expensive home, new cars, vacations, fancy toys and designer clothes, and there is also a certain amount of stress that goes with the territory. Of course, the willfully ignorant are always ready to point out that these circumstances are punishments that my wife and children are suffering at my hand, due to my unbelief. They tell me that if I won't come back to god for my own health and well-being, at least do it for my family. What nerve...
To them, this is all avoidable and, of course, "everything happens for a reason". The insinuation that I bear some sinful responsibility for the constant, unrelenting and extreme level of pain that I endure every waking moment of every single day as a result of this degenerative and incurable disease that is slowly eating away at my peripheral nervous system does not engender good, happy and fuzzy thoughts toward these denizens of douchebaggery.
To top it off, these individuals are none-to-glad to tell me that I am not really an Atheist, but mad at god for my disability. Facepalms galore... They insist that I actually do believe he exists and have turned my back on him because I blame him for my deteriorating condition. They tell me that this is the reason why I don't have anything nice to say about god or religion. Well, excuse me for having to don my waders and shove in my nose plug, but this is some of the deepest and most repugnant pile of bullsh** to ever cross the pike.
As if all this weren't distressing enough, it's worth keeping in mind that these Christians certainly imagine that they are being compassionate, kind, loving, and even helpful. Stories like this make it difficult not to conclude that religion can so warp a person's natural empathy and compassion that it becomes a tool of abuse without the religious believer ever realizing what they've become. This is how some Christians can become professional bullies while complaining that they are the one's being persecuted and abused.
As someone with a disability and belief in Christ Jesus, let my first assure the author that as long as one has even a little faith healing from a disability can happen–the size of ones faith doesn’t matter, as long as you have it (Matt 17:20).
I am also sorry to admit that, in many ways the author is right–many Christians through-out history have sometimes shunned, and stereotyped the disabled–notice I said, some not all.
But unlike God–who is perfect–Christians are people and people make mistakes. –I can assure the Author that what may have been said about your anger at God, they are not related.
This may just be my opinion but I think for all the advancements like the ADA, and things–many people are still not sure what to make of our “differences”
With up-most respect
Nathanael
Yes, Christians like to point the finger of blame at the afflicted as being responsible for their own condition because of their own lack of faith. I’ve read these opinions expressed about Stephen Hawking and Christopher Hitchens of late.
Of course the argument falls down when we consider babies who are born with severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and other conditions. In these situations, however, the blame is laid at the feet of others such as the parents. Christians don’t seem to be able to realise how unfair this is, but then given the conditioning they have been subjected to by clergy and biblical texts it is not surprising.
The second commandment is explicit on this issue, (God promising to punish a man’s children for his own transgressions), and of course we know that present day children, are burdened with the sin committed in the Garden of Eden, thousands of years ago.
Let me first say that my life and experience is far less life altering than Al’s. I grew up in a family that strongly believed in divine healing. We used no medicine, and we saw doctors and dentists only when school attendence required it. We were taught that when we were anointed and prayed over, we were healed. God woiuld sometimes allow the symptoms to linger, but we had to claim our healing by saying we were healed.
Starting at ten or eleven, I suffered with dibilitating headaches every few weeks. I clearly remember the odor of the rancid olive oil that was touched to my brow and the earnest prayers of my parents and the congregation. Afterward I would praise the Lord for my healing, which wouldn’t come for a couple of days or more, but I had to have faith and act as if I were healed to finally receive the ‘victory.” I was a college sophomore when my soon to be wife convinced me to try aspirin. Twenty or so minutes later the headache was gone. I was amazed! Unfortunately, aspirin didn’t help some of my worst headaches, but that particular incident was a factor in my eventual rejection of my childhood faith. Sad to say, it wasn’t the most convincing factor. It took my wife and I several more years to work thorough it, with the help of two well-meaning pastors and rather intense Bible study.
Nathanael, I don’t know how one measures the size of someones faith. Jesus was on about the size of a mustard seed, saying that even if your faith was this small you could move mountains from here to there. I imagine that a mustard seed was probably about the smallest thing that anyone could imagine back in those stone age days.
Non the less I would love to see an example of this mountain moving, and I don’t care if the size of the faith of the mountain mover is considerably bigger than mustard seed, (how one measures this confounds me some what I have to admit).