Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sensitivity to People with Disabilities, Tough Questions, and the Absence of Men

I went to a great event today at Hyde Park Community UMC in Cincinnati. The topic was “‘Special Needs’ Training for the Church.” The focus was on people with Autism and Down syndrome. There was so much information it would be impossible to summarize. It did start off with some provocative questions, though: Do churches treat people with disabilities as people? Do they treat children with disabilities as babies? Do they offer real community? Do they regard people with disabilities first as people, or as disabled? How many families leave churches because the churches don’t welcome, or even make attempts to accommodate, children with disabilities?

Now, I couldn’t help but notice that the women outnumbered the men by quite a bit. I counted over twenty women, but only five men! Am I missing something? Come on, guys….

Kudos to the good folks of the West Ohio Ministry Team for Persons with Disabilities and Hyde Park Community UMC for putting on a very fine event.

Friday, October 21, 2011

A Nice Piece on Christian Love and Dialogue

My friend Jamie Clark-Soles, who teaches at Perkins School of Theology, has written a very nice piece in the Huffington Post related to our engagement with our neighbors, both on a personal and national level. If you're interested, you can check out the article here.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Reading for Renewal

Recently I had the privilege of giving the convocation address at United Theological Seminary. I called the address “Reading for Renewal.” It was about reading the Bible in ways that contribute to the renewal of the church. If you’d like to take a look at it, it’s posted on the United website here. Enjoy!