- Description
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Michael Beates's concern with disability issues began nearly 30 years ago when his eldest child was born with multiple profound disabilities. Now, as more families like Michael's are affected by a growing number of disorders and difficulties ranging from autism to food allergies, the need for programs and paradigm shifts is greater than ever. Beates thus seeks to motivate churches to pursue ministry to children and adults with developmental disabilities. He works through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability to develop helpful principles for believers and churches, teaching them first to embrace their own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken.
Customer Reviews
- Would not recommend
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As a disabled Christian j would not recommend this book at all - sorry!
I feel the language is outdated and often very patronising... it made me cringe a lot.
It comes across with very outdated attitudes.
I have purchased this book wanting to dig in love it and reflect on my own life and those of others I’ve tried to read it multiple times. I started to read it got frustrated, took a break tried again then decided I couldn’t bring myself to read it.
I waited more than a year and decided inspired by the work of Joni to give it another go with a fresh pair of eyes.
The same thing happened.
This is not a book for adult Christians with disability’s or those with friends and family or working with disabled people. This is a book for those that want a glimps at a sugar coated over simplistic version.
I’m really disappointed.Overall - Okay book
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By Rose H.
Narrator thoughts – To be honest this guy had a good voice, but he seemed monotone to me. I felt like he could have done a better job on the emphasis and speaking with emotion.
Book thoughts – Overall the book was good. I liked how the author points out how Jesus reached out to the broken, weary, and lost to show His glory. And how we should do the same. Too often we shun the disabled and turn our backs on the broken, instead of loving them for the people that God created them to be. That I think is a very good point.
What I didn’t like so much was mid-way through the book when the author started getting into theology. I felt like I lost track of where he was going and got lost in an answer to a theology question that I had forgotten. Besides I disagreed with some of his thoughts about why suffering happens to us.
It’s not the greatest book on suffering, but I liked some parts of it.
Overall - "...The world is divided into two groups after all....the line is drawn between those that are aware of their disabilities and those that are blind to them."
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Disability and the Gospel, fortunately, is not another attempt at defining the gospel as an adjective like so many books lately. It is a real, and somewhat dense, look at how Christianity understands both the people that are commonly labeled as disabled and how we as humans are labeled disabled by the gospel. (The gospel here is used as a general summary of Grace, Salvation and the Power of God. And not my preferred definition which is simply 'Jesus is Lord, Savior and Messiah. See my review of the King Jesus Gospel for a longer discussion of this.)
The clearest summary of this book is about 3/4 of the way through the book where the author says, "...The world is divided into two groups after all. Not however, the normal and the abnormal, or the able and the disabled. Rather the line is drawn between those that are aware of their disabilities and those that are blind to them."
So throughout the book, the author is using these two lenses to think about disability. One the one hand the traditionally understood disabled (blind, paraplegic, Down's Syndrome, etc.) On the other hand, all of us as humans are disabled by sin and need to realize that we need God and that God works in us best though our weakness. Relatively early in the book the authors says that the body's purpose is to show weakness and point toward a future in Heaven. Overall, I like the split focus, but I found the discussion on traditionally disabled far more challenging and helpful.
As example of the spiritual side of the discussion Beates recounts a story from Joni Eareckson Tada about the fact that because she cannot erase her paintings because she is a quadriplegic. She has to plan more and her paintings are better because she has learned to live within her limits. "My limits had a purpose." My problem with this story is that instead of speaking of God helping us learn to live within our limits, it is speaking of God as the author of our limitations. We all have limits. And to some extent God is the author of our limits. God did not created me to get only 4 hours of sleep a night. But that is different form suggesting that disability or the results of tragedy were specifically intended by God to teach us something.
Earlier in the book Beates cites John 9 where the disciples ask who sinned for the man to be born blind. Beates says that the disciples were looking for one of two answers, either the man (preemptive punishment for a sin he would commit or protection from a sin that he would commit if not blind) or his parents sinned. Jesus says neither, "this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him". Because Beates (and Tada) are Reformed they have to deal with a sovereign God being behind the disability. Other streams of Christianity would attribute the man in John 9's blindness to the fall, but that is not as easy in the Reformed tradition.
The middle section of this book charts different ways of speaking about disability in the Old Testament (he uses weakness as a proxy for disability) and then the New Testament, then in Church Fathers (and it isn't all that pretty) and then modern secular thought. I wish that he had avoided discussion of Nazi Germany and stuck to other voices. There are many other alternatives and I just find it better to avoid Germany because it is such a conversation stopper.
All of this historical charting does add something to the book. But it also makes the middle of the book drag. I wish he had found a different way to chart the discussion, especially since I am not sure that he chose the right things to cite. There is a difference between talking about how Christians of history have spoken about disability and discussing how Christians ideally think about disability. This is not unlike having a conversation about holiness and suggesting that because people are not actually holy, that Christians do not value the concept of holiness.
Also I think that his discussion of the Terri Schiavo case in this section was less than useful. He attributed behavior to Micheal Schaivo that is conjecture (he did not want to jepordize his income, he refused to marry the woman he was living with to insure that he had control of the money, etc). I understand that Beates is arguing against euthanasia. But this is an extreme case and it has been so politically used and abused by all sides that I think it bring more confusion than clarity.
Again later I think Beates continues to attribute motives to a whole range of people that are less than charitable. I know that some people probably think of euthanasia as a form of eugenics. But I think most people that talk about euthanasia are far more nuanced. Beates dismisses health care costs. But it is precisely modern health care that requires we have a discussion about euthanasia. Not because modern health care is inherently immoral, but because the result of modern health care is a huge number of people that can live solely as a result of that health care. He may find it abhorrent to discuss cost of caring for severely deformed infants or severely sick elderly. The United States system of for-profit health care requires we have that conversation. I think we as Christians have a lot to say about medical ethics and I think that Beates is right about a lot of it. But attributing motives to those that disagree with us, instead of trying to understand why they advocate for their positions does not lead to solving problems. It ends up demonizing the other.
The final section was a discussion of what the local church should do to reach out to the disabled. This is a useful discussion and very charitable. It is clear that he is sharing from both his experience as the parent of a severely disabled child and as a board member of one of the largest ministries to disabled in the world.
There is also a useful discussion on the soverienty of God in the appendix. If you have not explored the reformed view of God's sovereinty, then it is a good presentation of it, maintaining both God authority and God goodness.
Overall this is a very useful book that I think many should read. The middle section is pretty slow going, but both the front and end sections are very challenging.
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An audiobook was provided by christianaudio.com for purposes of reviewOverall - Show ALL Reviews
- Refreshing Insight On Brokenness
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Disability and the Gospel by Michael S. Beates is effectively a call for Christians and churches to embrace broken people in a greater measure that is currently the case. As he rightly points out there is large percentage of the world that has some form of physical or mental disability, yet this is not reflected in the church today.
Michael has first-hand knowledge about disability and the gospel as his eldest child is profoundly disabled and he has encountered some worrying experiences with church opposition to disability because it might be uncomfortable for others. He appeals for the church to not only reach out to disabled people but to include them as part of the church.
I found this book fascinating as I have had limited experience with disability and I haven’t really thought about the lack of disabled people represented in church. It gave me a greater understanding of how to relate to people who are disabled. The one point I really loved was that every human is broken in one form or another and that God can use that brokenness to achieve His divine plans.
The narration was quite good. It seemed to flow along smoothly and I don’t remember finding it difficult to follow.
This is a very good book for people who want to include disabled people in their life or reach out to disabled people who they see are struggling. It is also great for people who are struggling with their brokenness and how it fits into God’s plan for their life.
This audio book was gifted as a part of the christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. More information can be found about this and other Christian audio books at christianaudio.com.Overall - Abling not Disabling
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This was a fantastic audio book that is well worth listening to regardless of your knowledge of or contact with disability. Indeed this book really should be on all ministers and church goers booklists because it raises and highlights the important fact that we sometime marginalise and hide those with disability, that we sometimes make their families feel less and that we do it thinking we are good helpful Christians when what we should do is follow the example of Christ and welcome them in properly.
Not as less but as equal, as people with important lessons to teach us and stories to tell.
This book will be a great comfort to many with disabled members of their family because it will in many ways help them to see they are anything but alone, it will be an uncomfortable but important book for those who should be working with these families in the church community.
If you really can't read all the book then listen at the least to the appendixes, because there is much of great insight and depth to be found there, distilled wisdom as it were.
The audio book is really well read with good tone and inflection throughout that really help to make it easy to listen to and take in.
I really can't recommend this book enough for all members of the church community to listen to, consider and act upon.Overall - inspirational
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This book, as indicative of its subtitle, is about how G-d uses the broken to display His grace. A shift is needed in the Church – one that helps the disabled and understands the issue. It required a good, solid, proper theology: a theology of understanding how G-d is personally involved in our hardship, why He allows the brokenness, and how to embrace the suffering G-d permits. There is a correlation between our level of contentment with G-d and our understanding of His word. Essentially, the church needs to teach about the glory of G-d through our infirmities, and how suffering isn’t just because of this world, but it’s also an evidence to G-d’s greatness.
Morey’s narration is soft, providing a smooth reading that is easy to follow along with. Coupled with a slower to medium rate of pace, there are moments of monotone lecture, as well as opportunities to experience inflective understanding. Overall, Morey’s voice provides an easy listening to follow along with, and those interested in the topic of this book will find the audio edition quite the companion, if not replacement altogether. Perfect for the busybody needing to realize what grace is all about…
christian audio commissioned this review. Read more title reviews at scriptedgenius.com.Overall - A Must Listen for The Able Bodied
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I knew this audiobook would be challenging to listen to, but I was surprised how encouraging it was. It wasn't a book that made me feel guilty for being able bodied, but enabled me to understand how disabled people have been marginalized by the church though the centuries. One thing that did make me feel uncomfortable was the use of the word retarded throughout. Considering the author has a severely disabled daughter I am very surprised this phrase was used, as I know this is an insult amongst disabled people and their families.
Although this audio is primarily aimed at the American church there are lessons here that can be learned and applied worldwide. The author writes about his own experiences with his daughter and this audio is therefore well researched and compiled with many quotes from a diverse selection of people. There is lovely foreword by Joni and many quotes from her throughout. Arthur Morey's narration is perfect, as his gentle voice is comforting and strong all the way through. I really do recommend this audio to all listeners whether disabled all not, as there is lots to learn and think about for a long time after listening.
This audio book was gifted as a part of the christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. More information can be found about this and other Christian audio books at christianaudio.com.Overall