Champions for disabled

Regarding “For disabled, Christian silence is crushing” (Page F3, Sunday), Christians are not the only ones who are silent and churches are not the only ones with “a history of excluding and erasing people with disabilities.” The same happens in other religious communities. Rabbi David Lyon’s Sermon published Sunday, May 28, “Championing the unfortunate; We can’t fix all the world’s ills, but we still must try” (Page F1), speaks to that. Further damage is done by legislators who politicize disabilities instead of addressing them as a moral endeavor.

As the mother of a very disabled daughter, I would argue that the problem of marginalization begins even more closely, among family and friends. Many people are so frightened by our disabled loved ones that they believe that the best course of action is to ignore the person. They do not understand that support begins with acknowledgement and that it is when the disabled person appears to be invisible that the pain begins. Every time people ask me about my daughter, my heart warms.

What we need is an interfaith, grassroots educational initiative. Each religious establishment needs an inclusion committee to integrate the disabled as part of the community. They may be disabled, but as I have witnessed, they particularly love to be part of the religious experience. And when politicians interfere with the wellbeing of these less fortunate members, the entire interfaith community needs to break the silence and speak up for them, because this is a moral issue and that is the right thing to do. Luisa Kluger, Houston