I will always remember the first time someone prayed for my disability to go away.

It was like a slap in the face. After all, I’d made myself vulnerable by telling a complete stranger something so personal to me, only for them to tell me to just try harder. At the time I hadn’t received my official diagnosis yet and had only told a couple of people about my autism. Before this encounter, I had naively assumed that everyone viewed autism the same way that I did: a disability, yet a neutral aspect of myself that has shaped me into the young person I am today. The ableism involved in someone praying for God to ‘’free me from the grasp of autism’’ didn’t hit me until months had passed, but once it did, I started wondering if the church and Christianity were a playground for ableism on a larger scale. 

Arguably, the most common way of interpreting disability in a Christian context is that disabilities are a result of sin and a curse. The New Testament tells stories of Jesus healing a blind man and other disabled people (Matthew 15:30, Mark 6:5) by saying phrases like, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven” (Mark 9:2). In the Old Testament, God tells Moses how no one with physical abnormalities or diseases is allowed near altars or the offerings given to God (Leviticus 21:16-23). 

Disabilities were viewed differently in biblical times than they are today. Physical disabilities were impure and frowned upon whilst developmental and intellectual disabilities were thought to have been caused by a demon or an impure spirit. While this point of view is still present in the subconscious of people today, it isn’t the mainstream way of viewing disability. Knowing the context in which disabilities are viewed in the holy book of Christianity, it is no wonder that churches aren’t usually the most advanced in dismantling ableism.

This isn’t to say that Christianity is all ableist; many churches have ministries that cater to the needs of disabled people and amazingly dismantle ableism. Still, fighting for the rights of marginalized people should not be an optional part of a religion that claims to love and welcome everyone. 

In fact, toxic disability theology is still alive and well, damaging all of us. Getting told that a disability is a person’s own fault, punishment, or even demonic can have a detrimental effect on an individual’s mental health. This is, even more, the case when that person is a part of a marginalized group, to begin with. Praying away the disability is just another way of saying that maybe a disabled person is just not trying hard enough. There is simply not enough empathy towards us. ‘’Fighting away the demons’’ isn’t easy when all of our mental and physical energy is spent on walking, masking autism, or trying to stay awake. Our churches are still creating generations of traumatized children, both disabled and able-bodied. 

Disabled people are just as likely to consider religion a very important part of their life as abled people, but are less likely to attend church regularly. Once again, neurological disabilities such as autism and ADHD are often not taken into consideration as much as physical disabilities. Studies show that children with chronic health conditions and disabilities such as diabetes, epilepsy and vision problems are as likely to attend church as non-disabled children. Neurodivergent children are twice as likely to never attend religious services than their neurotypical peers.  It’s relatively easy to build a ramp to your church’s entrance and make sure that the whole building is wheelchair accessible, but that is nowhere near enough. 

Here are some simple considerations that churches might make when thinking about increasing accessibility for disabled people:

• Does the church provide earmuffs or stim toys to those of us with sensory needs and issues? Is the volume of the services way too loud?
• Is the church staff trained to deal with meltdowns, panic and anxiety attacks, or medical emergencies?
• Does the church’s disability ministry actually serve disabled people or just able-bodied people’s savior complex?  
• Are the sermons of the church still preaching for the miraculous healing of disabled people? Is the church still isolating and blaming people for their disabilities?