Last week, my good friend Barb Newman died. Barb was a fierce advocate for disabled students in schools and I was fortunate to get to know her the past few years as a board member for All Belong (formerly CLC Network) where Barb worked. Barb was greatly loved and will be fiercely missed. She and I presented together a number of times, including this presentation earlier this year at the Calvin Worship Symposium.
Barb, and fellow All Belong staff member Tory White, were part of the video in disability in heaven that Glass Darkly Films made a few years ago. With Barb’s death, I’ve seen the video being shared again.
For folks that are interested, the work that lead to the video also lead to a pair of academic papers, both of which are now out in print.
In the first, “Defiant Afterlife,” I deal with why the idea that all disabilities need to be ‘healed’ for heaven is problematic. That is, the arguments on why there can’t be disability in heaven are problematic.
In its sequel, “Disabled Beatitude,” I consider what disability could contribute to the goodness of heaven. That is, I think there are positive reasons to believe that there will be some disabilities in heaven.
For those interested, clicking on either title above will take you to a PDF of the respective papers.
