Posted on 08/25/2014 7:02:07 PM PDT by Morgana
I am new to this journey. My daughter Faith is only 5 years old. She is mentally and physically disabled, still small enough to carry, quiet . . . mostly, and has not developed the larger, louder, and strange movements and sounds that many older people who are mentally and physically disabled seem to develop as they try to express themselves – yet.
We have taken our daughter to concerts, plays, movie theatres, political speeches, pro-life fundraisers and community events, and spend a lot of time in hallways and lobbies when she does get loud. However, we’ve found that the hardest place to take a child with special needs is to church. We have found the cardinal sin of the Sunday service is not sexual immorality, lying, theft, or heresy – no, it is having distracting movements or loud sounds during worship or the message.
jesismithHe is probably in his early 40’s and he is mentally disabled. Every week his mom brings him faithfully to church. There is a section in the back of the sanctuary where many families sit with their children of all ages with special needs. It is definitely a group that makes a joyful noise during worship and after the offering is taken, they all leave to go to a special class during the sermon. But this week was different. Her son was playing the tambourine that he brought every Sunday to worship God — one of the only ways he expresses praise to God, when a member of the church staff came up to him and asked that he not to use it in service anymore. It was disturbing to other people and it was distracting the band on stage. The mother was crushed, embarrassed, and offended. This is not supposed to be a concert, but worship from all the people, right? She had worked hard all these years to take him — a grown man, which is no small task — out of the sanctuary when loud, and for years, has taught the special needs Sunday school class. She often is unable to join in the worship or listen to the sermon herself, so that her son and others like him can be taught the word of God. Now the one place that both her and her son could join with the church in the praise and worship was not available to her either! Why work so hard to come if even during a loud praise and worship service with everyone singing , keyboards, drums, and guitars he was not able to join in? Was his worship so offending among hundreds of others who may be clapping offbeat or singing off-key that he was asked to stop? So now, put the church on the list of all the places that your special needs child cannot go and participate.
Do not get me wrong: I know children can be a distraction and need to be taken out of the service when loud, whether a crying baby, fidgeting toddler, or even my special needs daughter, but is there never to be a church that gives the mentally and physically disabled enough time or grace to stay in and adjust to a service? Is there no place for the disabled in corporate worship? Must they always be sent out to the lobby alone or to a room to sit alone? Many may not realize they and their parents have probably sacrificed more than most other church members just to show up to church. They probably have spent hours with parents or caregivers getting ready and getting in and out of their vehicle with wheelchairs, walkers, and medical equipment. They have likely spent most of their week in the hospital or battling illness at home, and this may be one of the few Sundays they could even come to church this year. However, they will not spend this Sunday with the body of Christ being ministered to, but out in the hallway in shame.
If the church truly wants to serve the “least of these” – whom Jesus urged the Church to make a priority, are they not the disabled? Now ask yourselves this: How many people with disabilities come to your church? Where are all the people with handicaps anyway? Sure, they seemingly have little to offer the church — no money, no volunteering, no inviting their friends, they may be unlovely to look upon, make weird noises, have improper behaviors, spit more than normal, throw up routinely, and do not even offer “acceptable” praise and worship. Many of them are unwanted even by their own parents. (Over 90% of babies with a disability like our daughters – Trisome 18 / Edwards Syndrome – are aborted.) They are a group who cannot speak for themselves, cannot go where they want to go, or even eat or go to the bathroom without help , and accordingly, they ought to be honored as the most patient among us! The disabled who have been brought to the church are among the blessed few. First, they are blessed to be alive, cared for, and well enough to attend; and second, they are blessed to have a parent or caregiver who love them enough to battle the process of getting them to the church. And so, I implore you — please do not send them out into the lobby or to an empty room to sit alone after all they have struggled with and endured just to make it into your doors!
My final thought for you to ponder is an unfortunate update on the mentally disabled man with the tambourine – he refuses to play it anymore.
LifeNews Note: Jesi Smith and her husband Brad are pro-life speakers with Save The 1, from Rochester Hills, Michigan. They’ve just recently received a personal 1-minute video endorsement from Rick Santorum.
And you’re “straining at gnats.”
You didn’t see the part in your link that said “evangelicals strongly backed Romney?”
“And you’re “straining at gnats.””
It still happened.
“You didn’t see the part in your link that said “evangelicals strongly backed Romney?””
My point - proved by the linked to article - was that it was not only mainstream Protestants who voted for Obama as claimed, but also some Evangelicals. I was right. End of story. The fact that most Evangelicals voted for Romney changes nothing I said for I never claimed other wise.
I was right. That will not change.
**I believe there is a “grace” conferred upon the assembly that is otherwise not conferred.**
Absolutely.
Congratulations. You’ve discovered the “bell curve.”
Now if you only understood what it means....
We know that you will not change your opinion.
However, if you expect us to take your word for it that something you claim happen, because *It happened* is all we need from you, guess again.
No one is obligated to take someone’s word for something, especially when it is clear they are posting from an anti-Protestant stance and their perception of things can easily be colored when they read something.
IOW, if you don’t put up, don’t expect anyone to take you seriously. Or even believe you, for that matter.
And besides, grace is given to us as a gift through faith in Christ.
Doing activities does not confer grace. There's no Scriptural support for that.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
I was right.
That will not change.
“We know that you will not change your opinion.”
There’s no logical reason for me to do so.
“However, if you expect us to take your word for it that something you claim happen, because *It happened* is all we need from you, guess again.”
Don’t believe me. Go to the linked to article.
“No one is obligated to take someone’s word for something, especially when it is clear they are posting from an anti-Protestant stance and their perception of things can easily be colored when they read something.”
How on earth is stating the fact that some Evangelicals voted for Obama “anti-Protestant”? And if stating a fact about some Evangelicals voting for Obama is “anti-Protestant” then what is this: “Would to God my Catholic brethren knew their scripture like even evangelical KIDS.
The Democrats would never see another Catholic vote.....”
Wouldn’t that have to be anti-Catholic ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN DEFINITION OF BIGOTRY??? You’re not only the Kettle, you’re the Pot too.
“IOW, if you don’t put up, don’t expect anyone to take you seriously. Or even believe you, for that matter.”
Again, read the article I linked to. Clearly you have not read it or else you wouldn’t be asking for what was already provided.
**How does “let the children come to Me” contradict my previous posts?**
Humph. I don’t see it.
**In order to bring people to the Lord, you do have to welcome them. It is about welcoming people, even special needs folks.**
I have been in conservative Reformed churches for 20 years now. One thing that always strikes me is that we seem to have more special needs folks, per capita, in our congregations than any other church I have been a member of, visited, etc.
Why? I am convinced it is for a couple of reasons.
Our view on the sanctity of life
and
Our view of the absolute sovereignty of God. The majority of churches will at least give lip service to this idea, but we really mean it. That gives a lot of comfort to parents in struggling with trying to understand why this happened. To know their special needs children are image bearers, just like other children, is a great source of comfort.
>> “The mother should have taken her son to the Pentecostal church down the street, there the son could have hit his tambourine and fit right in.” <<
.
That was exactly my thought as I read the article.
.
I dunno. How on earth is stating the fact that more Catholics than Protestants voted for Obama “anti-Catholic”?
No Kidding!
Why? I am convinced it is for a couple of reasons.
Our view on the sanctity of life
and
Our view of the absolute sovereignty of God. The majority of churches will at least give lip service to this idea, but we really mean it. That gives a lot of comfort to parents in struggling with trying to understand why this happened. To know their special needs children are image bearers, just like other children, is a great source of comfort.
Amen to that.
“I dunno. How on earth is stating the fact that more Catholics than Protestants voted for Obama “anti-Catholic”?”
There are only 65 million Catholics in the USA and not all of them can or did vote.
There are 165 million Protestants and not all of them can or did vote.
I’ll apply the same measuring stick to both: I’ll assume one-third did not or could not vote.
Thus, if 50% (that’s what the PEW Forum says) of Catholic voters cast ballots for Obama that would be about 22 million votes.
If 42% of Protestants voted for Obama (according to PEW), that would be about 46,200,000. That means more than twice as many Protestants voted for Obama than did Catholics.
Remember, Obama got 65 million votes. What I just wrote above comes to be 68,200,000 so I am off by several million votes, but the idea that twice as many Protestants voted for Obama than did Catholics would still be true or darn close.
Thus, your question, “How on earth is stating the fact that more Catholics than Protestants voted for Obama “anti-Catholic”?” could be answered this way: Perhaps because it is untrue.
“That was exactly my thought as I read the article.”
Now before anyone jumps my case for telling this joke a Pentecostal Preacher told it to me...
Catholics kneel in the pews..
Bapitsts sit in the pews...
Pentecostals jump over the pews!
come to All Saints Catholic church in our town, we’d welcome you with open arms as having returned to your Christian roots and we’d applaud your efforts to raise music unto the Lord!!
At this juncture, it would be helpful if you gave a definition of the term "Protestant".
Ping to post 118
“At this juncture, it would be helpful if you gave a definition of the term “Protestant”.”
No, actually it’s unnecessary. Your argument would then be with PEW and not me.
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