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22 Advocacy

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