From Inclusion to Justice: Disability, Ministry, and Congregational Leadership

by Erin Raffety

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.

Genres: Disability, Christian

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2022

Reviews

[Candy Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Daniel Rempel · Rating 3 out of 5]

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?