“Next time a Christian approaches me and offers healing, I might try to challenge their theology with some of the new interpretations of scripture I’ve learned from disabled Christians.”
“The notion that God and Jesus could be interpreted as being disabled may not be mainstream, but it’s a message that is more empowering for disabled people than the idea that we are all faulty and in need of repair. And who knows, maybe if we were approached with the message that God loves us as we are, more disabled people might welcome that conversation.”
Most disabled people have had at least one encounter with a stranger wanting to pray for our “healing.” These prayers may be inspired by acts of healing in the Bible. But, disability is far different now than it was then. In this article, disabled Christians share modern, disability-affirming understandings of how disability fits into Christian theology. While “healing” of the body may have been desirable in biblical times, modern theologies can incorporate positive disability identity and pride, including the possibility that God and Jesus could have had disabled bodies. Also discussed is the question of whether or not we would want to shed our disabilities in the afterlife.
