First You Belong

I know this is not the answer she is expecting. I am a social worker, and she’s looking for tools that would help this young man fit in better, and so her congregants can feel more at ease. However, I have learned that clinical tools, while valuable, can actually perpetuate discrimination against people with disabilities if they are not used in a context of belonging and deep acceptance. If a church begins from a place of trying to help someone fit in with the “norm” or creating separate spaces for people with disabilities, they miss out on the messy and beautiful work of vulnerability. They miss the opportunity to embrace others, and themselves, exactly as they are, and to understand belonging in a transformative way.