When “Amazing Grace” Isn’t So Sweet: Uncovering Ableism

"Amazing Grace…how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found.
Was blind but now I see." *

This hymn means a great deal to many people. For some who have struggled through
addiction, guilt, and shame, it represents the feeling of being saved by God from a life of
wretchedness. It is sung with gratitude for all the trials in life we come through, yet…it has a stubborn secret shared by many of our favorite hymns and passages of scripture. It is ableist.

What would it feel like if, over the course of your lifetime, both inside and outside of
church, your visual impairment or blindness were always spoken of as an impediment to
knowing God or as a metaphor for unknowing, sinfulness? What would it feel like always to be told to pray for a cure, for your disability, because how you are now is “broken” and needs fixing?

This is the essence of the structural sin of “ableism.”

What Is Ableism?

“Ableism is the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior.” 2 And as we will discuss through the next few weeks, for most of us who are able-bodied, ableism is completely unconscious. We have no idea that we are favoring the able-bodied people when we preach, sing, or even compliment people with disabilities.

Ableism, like racism, agism, and heterosexism, fly under our awareness radar most of the time until something or someone makes us aware that we are biased in some ways.

In this first blog, we are going to talk about three things that will help us be more
conscious as spiritual directors:

1) Language and disability

2) The medical model of disability 

3) The social model of disability.

In the 2nd post, we will investigate the ways we unintentionally objectify the bodies of people with disabilities, and in the 3rd, we will discuss whether or not we should be praying for a “cure” for people’s disabilities. 

1. People With Disabilities and Language

When most people think about a person with a disability, the image that comes to mind is a 20-year-old paraplegic para-Olympian at the front of a marathon. Indeed, we are very aware of people with physical disabilities, but as spiritual directors, we need to be aware of several other spheres of invisible disability, such as forms of MS and chronic fatigue syndrome, or chronic pain; mental disabilities such as major depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.  People may also identify as “neuro-spicy,” which can cover a range of neurodiverse identities. People living with any of these conditions may not identify as having a disability, so we need to be open to hearing the ways people name themselves and follow their lead.

As well, we need to rely on “people-first language.” This means that instead of speaking about “the disabled,” we say, “people with disabilities.” People always come first, not the disability.  If your directee uses a wheelchair for mobility, she is not “confined to a wheelchair” but simply “uses a wheelchair.”  Do you see how the language we use matters in the ways that we see others and the ways others see themselves? Again, your directee might not use “people-first language” for herself, but until you know otherwise, the most respectful way to address disabilities is with a people-first response.  Euphemisms like “differently-abled” or “mentally challenged” may sound more positive, but they do not describe the situation as accurately as people-first language does. (We will talk about this again in the next post when we discuss “Inspiration porn.”) 

2. Models of Disability

The medical model of disability is the way that most of us were taught to think about disabilities which is as a defect within the individual, resulting from an individual person's physical or mental limitations.  The limitations, then, are about someone being “broken” in some way. The medical model sees medicine and technology as the ways to improve the lives of people with disabilities. 

3 The Social Model

The social model, on the other hand, views disability as a consequence of environmental, social, and attitudinal barriers that may prevent people from fully participating in society. The model promotes the idea that adapting social and physical environments to accommodate people with a range of functional abilities improves quality of life and opportunity for people with and without impairments.  

As a thought experiment, imagine a person using a wheelchair in heaven is not “cured” of her paralysis, but rather every curb in heaven has a curb cut for her to roll down unimpeded to the streets paved with gold.  She is only “disabled” when the environment is constructed only for able-bodied people, i.e. non wheelchair using people. We see this as well when we think about how difficult mobility becomes as we age, because the environment was not constructed for older people to function well. 

Society “disables” people in all kinds of ways because it is set up for able-bodied, able-minded people, but the truth is that at some point or other, from either age or accident, we will all experience a disability.

Holding Both Models with Compassion

For me, as someone with a chronic illness, major depression, and anxiety, I use aspects of both models to live more gently in this world. I take medication and go to therapy (medical model), and I lobby for mental illness to be given the same attention and resources as physical illness.  People with chronic pain or other invisible disabilities may need a more flexible work schedule to take breaks or even work remotely.  These are social answers to the “problem” of disability.   

As spiritual directors, we must be aware of the ways that we might make life easier for our directees, whether they name themselves as disabled or not.  Knowing appropriate language and being conscious of the ways the medical system and the social order can limit people’s thriving are ways we can greet our directees with hospitality and help remove stigma and other barriers to thriving. 

Practically speaking, we need to ask ourselves how the presentation of our offices, or the technology needed to teleconference a directee, impacts their comfort and well-being.  Would it help to have a basket of fidget toys available in our space? Is the building or space we work in accessible to people with mobility concerns?  Is teleconferencing the best option for directees who may be more comfortable in their beds when we meet?  The small questions make the biggest difference. Are we paying attention to how people feel in our spaces?

The questions are endless, but the fact remains that we need to be as creative and compassionate as possible in making people with disabilities feel seen and welcomed in our space.

Gently noticing the ways we all live out ableism is a good place to start. 

~Emily Askew, PhD, Second-Year Student in WTC's School of Spiritual Direction

1 People with disabilities and language

* https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/313
2 https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/