22 Advocacy

IEPs and CLPs (Contingency Learning Plans)

Earlier this week, the Michigan Department of Education released this document with guidance following MI's Return to Learn Roadmap specifically for students with IEPs. As a number of articles have pointed out, many disabled students seem to have been disproportionately disadvantaged by the switch to…
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August 27, 2020
Talks & Lectures

Podcast on Free Will

Last summer, I was able to take an amazing trip to Bogota to be part of this fabulous project, teaching down there for two days. While there, I recorded a podcast about some of my work; you can listen to it here (and find the…
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August 21, 2020
22 AdvocacyBook Reviews

Of Such is the Kingdom

Yesterday I stared reading Summer Kindard's new book, Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability. I'm a little over 100 pages in (out of a total of around 260) and so far it's perhaps the best single book I know of on…
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February 16, 2020
22 Advocacy

Inclusive Hymns, Exclusive Language

(This post is related to this earlier one.) I've been thinking about theological/liturgical language a fair bit over the past few days. This past sunday, one of the hymns our church sang was "Be Thou My Vision." It's a hymn that I've liked for a…
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January 7, 2020
22 AdvocacyPapers & Presentations

the start of 2020

I wasn't nearly as regular posting last year as I would have liked. I'm hoping to do better in the coming year. January is going to start off the year with a fair number of speaking engagements. My primary work responsibility is a three-week intensive…
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January 5, 2020
22 AdvocacyTalks & Lectures

God’s Kingdom without Autism

Today, I want to talk about how our culture and communities—and specifically the Christian community known as the Church—are problematic with respect to how we treat disabled people. Just as the Church is sometimes unwelcoming of people that are different than us in other ways,…
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October 3, 2019
22 Advocacy

You want me to sing what?

This past weekend my family was on the road with . me, as I had a number of speaking engagements in another state. We visited a church near where we were staying. During the Sunday morning service, the congregation sang "O for a Thousand Tongues…
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October 1, 2019
22 Advocacy

A church that listens, learns, and acts

I've been critical, both in my book and on social media, of churches that marginalize, stigmatize, or ignore those with disabilities. I think that's appropriate as a way of calling the Church to be better.But it's also appropriate to celebrate churches that get things right.…
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July 13, 2019
22 Advocacy

One danger of being disabled in public

According to a recent news story, Kenneth French, a 32 year-old non-verbal man with an intellectual disability, was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer while at Costco. There are a lot of details that we don't yet know about the incident, but the…
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June 17, 2019
22 Advocacy

My book in 37 seconds

Here's the first of a number of short videos that I did with Calvin Press about Disability and Inclusive Communities. "...incomplete without them..." Part of Christianity is the commitment to reach out to those and to love those who have been marginalized, ostracized, who aren't…
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May 30, 2019
22 Advocacy

On ‘special needs proms’

A few months back, when asked by the staff of the high school what I hoped for in his high school experience, I told them: "I want Jameson to finish his senior year having gone to prom. And not one of those Tim Tebow night…
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May 29, 2019
22 AdvocacyPapers & Presentations

2019 SITD

Tomorrow starts the 2019 Summer Institute of Theology and Disability. Last year was the first SITD I went to, in North Carolina, and it was a great experience. This one is closer to home over in Holland, MI. The full program for this week can…
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May 19, 2019