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From Inclusion to Justice: Disability, Ministry, and Congregational Leadership
American Christianity tends to view disabled persons as problems to be solved rather than people with experiences and gifts that enrich the church. Churches have generated policies, programs, and curricula geared toward "including" disabled people while still maintaining "able-bodied" theologies, ministries, care, and leadership. Ableism—not a lack of ramps, finances, or accessible worship—is the biggest obstacle for disabled ministry in America. In From Inclusion to Justice, Erin Raffety argues that what our churches need is not more programs for disabled people but rather the pastoral tools to repent of able-bodied theologies and practices, listen to people with disabilities, lament ableism and injustice, and be transformed by God’s ministry through disabled leadership. Without a paradigm shift from ministries of inclusion to ministries of justice, our practical theology falls short.
Drawing on ethnographic research with congregations and families, pastoral experience with disabled people, teaching in theological education, and parenting a disabled child, Raffety, an able-bodied Christian writing to able-bodied churches, confesses her struggle to repent from ableism in hopes of convincing others to do the same. At the same time, Raffety draws on her interactions with disabled Christian leaders to testify to what God is still doing in the pews and the pulpit, uplifting and amplifying the ministry and leadership of people with disabilities as a vision toward justice in the kingdom of God.
Drawing on ethnographic research with congregations and families, pastoral experience with disabled people, teaching in theological education, and parenting a disabled child, Raffety, an able-bodied Christian writing to able-bodied churches, confesses her struggle to repent from ableism in hopes of convincing others to do the same. At the same time, Raffety draws on her interactions with disabled Christian leaders to testify to what God is still doing in the pews and the pulpit, uplifting and amplifying the ministry and leadership of people with disabilities as a vision toward justice in the kingdom of God.
- GenresDisabilityChristian
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2022
9 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 27, 2025
This book is about the author’s theology and encounters with people who have disabilities. I’m conflicted on fully how to rate the book. The writing is interesting and as someone with disabilities I love her ideas and words of affirmation. Giving a glimpse of what the attitude and environment is for people with disabilities was spot on. There are some amazing ideas churches can take in. There is so much good in this book.
My problem is with some of her theology. She seems to miss the cultural context of most of the scriptures used. Images of the slave girl being silenced as the disciples are suppressing her voice as a minister of the gospel is an example. She is totally missing the girl is mocking. Overall, I wouldn’t fully recommend the book because I would be a little afraid it would actually turn off my peers without disabilities. I probably would recommend with a little warning.
My problem is with some of her theology. She seems to miss the cultural context of most of the scriptures used. Images of the slave girl being silenced as the disciples are suppressing her voice as a minister of the gospel is an example. She is totally missing the girl is mocking. Overall, I wouldn’t fully recommend the book because I would be a little afraid it would actually turn off my peers without disabilities. I probably would recommend with a little warning.
July 9, 2024
As someone who has been studying and practicing theology for over a quarter- century, I can honestly say it is rare that I encounter a book that is truly prophetic. Here I have in mind the prophecy that is more properly regarded as forth-telling rather than foretelling; full of calls to repentance and lament mixed with hopeful visions of a just future. Raffety has given us such a book.
She articulates a careful and hard-won account of what it would look like for the church to embrace the disability justice movement and acknowledge how its ethos helps illuminate the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a comfortable, able-bodied believer. Raffety sees my privilege rightly and calls it into question as the sinful state of being it often is. I am still digesting much of her argument and insights. In principle, I want to be an accomplice rather than an ally, and I want to do my part to decenter ableism from the core of the church. But my desire to settle for a paradigm of inclusion that leaves my privilege largely intact remains strong. The best reaction to this stellar book would be to let Raffety's research and analysis continue to marinate, to let it be deeply prophetic in one's own life. If I can do that, I think the high quality of this text will become even more evident over time.
She articulates a careful and hard-won account of what it would look like for the church to embrace the disability justice movement and acknowledge how its ethos helps illuminate the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a comfortable, able-bodied believer. Raffety sees my privilege rightly and calls it into question as the sinful state of being it often is. I am still digesting much of her argument and insights. In principle, I want to be an accomplice rather than an ally, and I want to do my part to decenter ableism from the core of the church. But my desire to settle for a paradigm of inclusion that leaves my privilege largely intact remains strong. The best reaction to this stellar book would be to let Raffety's research and analysis continue to marinate, to let it be deeply prophetic in one's own life. If I can do that, I think the high quality of this text will become even more evident over time.
December 10, 2023
I love the main thrust of this book: that the Spirit is a disrupting and upending spirit that wants to usher in a new reality, i.e., the Kingdom of God. I agree very much that the church has not been a place where disabled people are allowed to thrive, and that we need to work towards justice within the church.
Where I’m left unconvinced though is that this justice within the church looks exactly like justice in “the world.” If it really is the disrupting Spirit that is at work in the church, should we expect the Spirit’s work of justice looks identical to the disability rights movement? I’m not so sure.
Perhaps I’ve misread or miscategorized the work, but I was missing what makes this a distinctly “theological” or even “Christian” work. I certainly welcome contributions from disability studies and disability activists (and use them in my own work), but shouldn’t there be something which distinguishes the church from these movements? Shouldn’t the church be able to offer more?
Where I’m left unconvinced though is that this justice within the church looks exactly like justice in “the world.” If it really is the disrupting Spirit that is at work in the church, should we expect the Spirit’s work of justice looks identical to the disability rights movement? I’m not so sure.
Perhaps I’ve misread or miscategorized the work, but I was missing what makes this a distinctly “theological” or even “Christian” work. I certainly welcome contributions from disability studies and disability activists (and use them in my own work), but shouldn’t there be something which distinguishes the church from these movements? Shouldn’t the church be able to offer more?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews