Inclusion and Discipleship in the Church in View of the Developmentally Delayed: God Hears Us Through Red Headphones

Inclusion and Discipleship in the Church in View of the Developmentally Delayed

God Hears Us Through Red Headphones

By Lloyd Elwell

Cover photo: https://static.pexels.com/photos/160191/pexels-photo-160191.jpeg

ISBN: 9781370584024

Copyright 2017

Introduction

On the morning of August 13, 1981, Mary, my wife, gave birth to our youngest son, Sean. In the recovery room, I stood next to Mary’s bed holding her hand with my back to the door. The doctor silently entered the room and while my back was turned to her she simply said, There is a problem. Our lives changed, at that moment, in ways we could not imagine. Our emotions plunged, in an instant, from the highs of the joy at the birth of our second son to fear, despair and to the ever-present guilt. My wife, a speech pathologist who works with the developmentally delayed community, was much more prepared for what was to follow. I was a biology major and medical technologist. Although I knew something about genetics and some medical conditions, I was unprepared for the deluge of new medical words and phrases that would follow. I had much to learn.¹

Thankfully, the developmentally delayed have garnered some attention through various laws for the handicapped and other movements such as Special Olympics. Since their handicaps seem to be more involved, more severe and more incapacitating to us, developmentally delayed people, as a group, tend to stand out looking and acting different, which frightens some. Their actions and behaviors can be odd or even disturbing. This may interrupt the quiet, stately, solemn atmosphere in church, and at best is met with grudging toleration, or unfortunately at times, with anger and rejection. Nearly all parents of a developmentally delayed child have gotten that call from someone who, hopefully politely, tells them that their child is no longer welcomed. In our case, it was a local scout day camp that Sean and his mother attended together. Too many times, however, it is the church that excludes this population.

Certainly, the parents of a normal child have a right to protect their children; we all as parents want to guard our children from perceived bad influences, as I did for my other son. And it can be quite a challenge to include the developmentally delayed due to their sometimes erratic behaviors. However, the church, of all places, should be setting the pace for including the developmentally delayed community, striving to provide accommodations, patience and understanding, as well as forgiveness and love. Developmentally delayed people may seem to be incapable of understanding, but a failure to actively include, embrace and disciple them will be a loss, not only for them, but also for the church, for we humans are all made in the image of God and included in the vicarious humanity of Christ.

In this paper, I will focus closely on the developmentally delayed, without endeavoring to cover all the physically, intellectually and emotionally disabling situations extant in the world. In chapter 1, I will a) define what is meant by developmentally delayed, b) look at some of the more common causes, c) include some statistics on its prevalence, and d) provide a short history of how this population has been variously perceived through history.

In chapter 2, I will look at the theology of what I call the a) objective inclusion of the developmentally delayed and b) ministry with them. This section will include a survey of the subject of imago dei biblically, historically and theologically. I will discuss how different concepts of imago dei have affected the outlook of the church on disabilities historically and also how modern secular thoughts of personhood have affected Western societies’ outlook. This section will include an exegesis of Luke 14:15-23, Jesus’ parable of the banquet, which I feel best informs this aspect of theological inclusion.

Ministry with the developmentally delayed will then be explored. This group of disabilities is fairly new, due to the fact that natural mortality was high among children with disabilities.² It is only with the advent of modern medicine that large numbers of these individuals, especially the more severely involved, have been able to long survive. With the rise of the Industrial Revolution, a program, then considered logical and progressive, was ushered in to deal with various social problems by establishing specialized institutions that were designed specifically to accommodate people who could not meet the daily living demands of their environment.³ Sending developmentally delayed people away to asylums or homes segregated from common society is, I will argue, not the best for them or for us (the nonmarginalized). We will therefore explore developmentally delayed peoples’ needs when it comes to discipling, and offer practical suggestions on how they might be actively included and embraced by the church. Finally, practical aspects will be discussed on the development of an inclusive and embracing church.

In chapter 3, I will develop what I will call the theology of subjective inclusion of the developmentally delayed and their ministry to the church. It will include a discussion on the vicarious humanity of Christ as given to us by Incarnational Trinitarian theology and how it applies, drawing from the writings of T. Torrance, M. Volf, H. Nouwen, J. Vanier, J. McSwain and others. This will include a short exegesis of two parables of Luke 15, the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7) and the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31), which I think best informs this theology of subjective inclusion.

Whereas before I surveyed possible expressions of the ministry of the church with the developmentally delayed, here I will explore the converse, i.e., positive aspects of the ministry of the developmentally delayed to the church. It may surprise some that the developmentally delayed actually have a ministry to the church! Just as we have gifts, so do they. Just as we may lead, so might they. Just as we have a priestly position, so do they. In fact, it is in their vulnerability that we get insights into what it is to be human, to learn that caring is giving but also receiving. The developmentally delayed can enable us to see Christ’s leadership in them and become aware of this dynamic in