Video Transcript: Cultural Context and Perspective

I am eager to talk about this topic. I think this is especially important, knowing that we are having this course with people from a variety of countries and settings, cultures. And I will say this is just the beginning of the research. There has been so little work done, if any, in this area of thinking about that word disability within a variety of cultures as it relates to a congregation or church structure. So again, my assurance that there's a team of us that are specifically pursuing this topic, and I'm looking forward to, within the next few years, having some much better information and input. But I want to just at least, entice you to think about some of those questions that might be coming up around this topic. 

What does this look like in America, in the US? What does this look like in China? What might this look like in Ecuador? And in what if we are part of a community that has people from China, Ecuador, and the U.S. all in one worshipping congregation? What if we are a multicultural congregation? And what does that look like? 

So actually, I am eager to hear from each of you about the setting that you represent, because this will probably form some of our learning and direction for the team that I'll introduce to you via picture in just a moment. 

But this is a complex topic, and different around the world. And we know that even Christianity and culture has different forms as we look at different communities. So why would this topic be any different? What does this term ‘disability’ mean within different communities, different countries, different, different pockets of countries? And is there a different urban or rural response? I mean, there are so many different features that are part of this. 

Let me just mention a little bit about some of the learning that we've done and how that can maybe at least get you sensitized to this topic and how we might be able to delight a little bit more in that idea of universal design through this discussion as well. 

So Dr. Maria Comou is from the Calvin Institute of Christian worship. She is part of the executive director team, and she is also a person who oversees and connects with their international crowd. So Dr. Maria Comou, in January invites people from about 30 to 40 countries to be part of the January worship symposium that's held at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. So we have people coming, we have to get a bunch of coats borrowed because we have many people coming from a community that they've never seen a flake of snow, and are entering into January, Michigan weather, which is usually two to three feet of snow, and this is a really interesting thing to watch people relate to the snow that have never seen it before. But we also don't want them to get too cold. 

Maria facilitates a lot of learning during that time. And I had a chance to participate on a day set aside for learning within the international community on this topic, and it really launched more conversations with Maria. Maria and I often traveled together; have done that in a variety of places in the US and maybe Canada. Yes, and Canada. And so she has been speaking and thinking about this topic in intentional ways. 

Reverend Dr. LaTonya, Penny is a pastor in North Carolina and she too, just finished her doctoral work on disability within the African American community. And so she's done some research. She is part of the All Belong Church consulting team. So LaTonya and I work together closely. We have four, at this point, four church consultants that can move in and out of congregations and can help support questions. And so LaTonya is a close colleague and also one who brings a wealth of information to this topic. 

So let me just talk a little bit about some of the things that Maria would say, should I have a chance to interview her here. She lives in Louisville, not here, this week, and is not in Michigan this week. Also, I might have been able to invite her. LaTanya, too, is in North Carolina. But Maria, when we speak together often says, “You know, we need to understand what that word disability means within an individual's culture. We need to be doing a little research and all also being good listeners. And we also need to form a relationship where, before we dive in with some, let's fix it plan, because we need to know how our ideas might be received by that individual, because of their cultural context.”

So she would say, for example, we might come up to a mom who is trying to manage a child in a worship service and say, “Hey, we've got a great plan, we got a buddy, and we'll watch your child and you can worship today,” and many individuals would love that chance. It's like, oh, please let me worship; we’ve got somebody who's trained, who can hang out with my child during the worship service. 

But if that particular mom is from a culture where watching their child and taking care of their child also brings a great amount of self-worth and self-esteem, we may have just slapped that parent across the face in saying, well, you can't manage your child. So again, understanding that mom's perspective and building relationship with that Mom, we may get to the point where, as a team, and with mom’s initiative and consent, that might be a good idea. But at this point, to approach mom might be a really difficult thing for that mom to hear.

We may have a form that we're asking people to fill out, and maybe somewhere on that form, we're asking people to disclose, you know, do you have some sort of a different ability or disability and whatever. We’ve got it on a form. We've just handed that to somebody in a culture who has the word shame connected with that word, or might have tremendous amount of guilt. There might be some teaching within that community that disability and sin are connected. And so to disclose something at that point would be really challenging for somebody there. They're not going to say that.  

In fact, I would dare guess that some of the words I just said now may resonate with some of you who are taking this course. You might be taking this course and now you're going, yeah, that's exactly what it's like here where I live. Parents would never take a child with a disability. That adult is never going to leave that home because there's such shame connected with having that child. They're not going to come to church, you know? 

So again, it's really important, and Maria would say, what she recommends, and again, we're doing a lot more research about this, but what she would recommend is do your homework, check it out. And that's going to be part of what I'm going to ask you to do as well. Do your homework, check it out. Let us know. What is that like? What is that word ‘disability’? What feeling? What other words does that bring out in the culture that you represent? In the country that you represent? 

Are you part of a multicultural setting where there would be different words that are related to that term disability? She would say some communities might really look for more than what your church is even able to offer because they know that church is family, and once church has been identified as family, guess what? They expect you to be part of that family. And so you might not have offered something with their daughter Lunella, but guess what? You're on. You're on because you're part of family and that's what brothers and sisters do. 

So it can be really interesting once you dive into different perspectives. But Maria would say do your homework and then build relationship; be a good listener, come alongside, listen, listen, listen, and out of that relationship together, come up with a plan. 

I said to Maria, then universal design makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? She said absolutely. Because when you put in features of universal design, you're not singling somebody out. You're not going to use the word disability. It's just there. People can access what they need. And so even in that setting, it can be a really helpful tool. A little bit trickier when it comes to those responsive design plans, those personalized plans, in some communities and in some cultures. 

So, I very rarely, I don't know if you've noticed that I've done it some in this course, I very rarely use the word disability. I could. I don't think there's something bad with that term, although language goes in and out of style quickly. You know, five years from now, this may be a word that, oh, you should never use that word disability. But, you know, again, varied abilities, all abilities, whatever word you use, for some people, a much better term than using the word disability from a cultural perspective. So Maria is doing a lot of research, especially with the connections that she has with so many countries, some that are very eager and willing, and others that are still just thinking, Oh, I would never even imagine what this would look like in our setting because of some cultural pieces, 

Dr. Reverend Dr. LaTonya, Penny, again, my colleague at All Belong, she has done some groundbreaking work. And I'll just share a little bit of that although I am really hoping that LaTonya puts out a book based on her doctoral work. She would definitely come at this and say, you know, sometimes within the African American community, we need to remember the history. And so she goes back and says a lot of our thinking today can still be brought back to that issue called slavery. 

So she said if you were in slavery, if that was a part of your life, and you happen to give birth to a child with a disability or developed a disability, that was called weakness, and weakness was often not fed, not housed, and not tolerated, because you weren't worth anything, if you had that weakness. So you certainly would never disclose a weakness. You might try to hide it, change it, grow it. But because your ability to work and your ability to physically do your pieces was so important to your survival, anything considered a weakness would not be disclosed and it would not be valued. 

She even found today, as she was talking with some of her relatives, too, that perspective of disability, we're not going to talk about it. So LaTonya. Again, some of her children have some identified areas of disability, and we're really told by some of her relatives, well, don't tell, don't tell it, don't tell anybody about that, right? So keep it to yourself. They're not going to fill out a form and say, Oh, yes, my child needs accommodations in these areas. Weakness; cover it; don't expose that. So even though that may be a piece of something that's connected with slavery, that option, that opinion, exists in some individuals within that African American community. So to recognize that as important.

I think the other thing that she has brought out, though, is that sometimes there are pieces within a community that counter that perspective. So if that's the perspective from within that slavery model, another thing that's a hallmark of African American churches and community is that of hospitality. So we want to show hospitality and we want to be able to open the doors and give people that warm welcome. And so she said, sometimes we need to think about that issue, too, because that's also a part of what we do, but how can we take those two and combine them together and say, look, in showing hospitality, that is hospitality to people of all abilities. So it's been fascinating to learn from LaTonya. It's been fascinating to learn from Maria. They are doing groundbreaking work. Again, I, Maria and I have talked about doing enough research to put a book or booklet together and LaTanya really needs to get her doctoral thesis in some kind of a book, I think, for people to read and enjoy. But those are just some of the highlights and some of the complexity. 

So I raise this, because first of all, we are a group. Right now, if we were to stand all together, we are a multicultural group that is thinking about this course right now. And you are in a setting that may have some very specific ideas about what that means. Can we use some of the learning of that puzzle piece perspective? Can we use some of the learning from other hallmarks within our culture like that of hospitality within that African American church? Can we use that to be able to think differently about this area, and to offer that shredded cheese option throughout the programs within our church? 

So again, cultural perspective, it's not like it's fully fleshed out, but it certainly is important for us to imagine and think about in those settings, and certainly will be something that you'll run up against. I go back to Maria's words, because I think she's exactly right. Do your research, going to ask you to build relationship, listen, and move together as a team with that person. 

So I hope this has sparked some new understanding or some new thinking for you. Looking forward to the next session.