Sadly, at times, people may decide to leave a church. I received a comment yesterday from a reader who is considering "moving on" to another church.
When I looked around the internet and spoke to my able bodied friends, they gave me reasons like this for leaving a church:
I can’t get along with (a person or group of people) and/or there are cliques
I don't agree with who is running the parish council (Women's/Mens Group, e.g.)
My deeply held views on a certain issue have been ignored
I don't have enough input into decisions made.
I was intentionally offended by someone.
Of course these situations can also happen to people with disabilities. On top of that, however, as my reader pointed out, people with disabilities have additional concerns that may cause us to consider leaving our church. In her case, she has no access to a building where activities are often held and, although she has asked for over three years for a ramp or another accommodation, no action has been taken. This is seriously impairing her ability to participate and causing her to consider leaving. Scott Rains from RollingRains Report offered the suggestion to contact the Religion & Disability Program of the National Organization on Disability. He noted that they have helpful resources and people over there. (Click above to get to their site). I've added them to my blogroll as well.
Whenever you are considering leaving for any reason, it would be a good idea to seek out godly counsel from someone, engage in a prayerful review of not only others' behavior but your own and use the Sacrament of Reconciliation to deal with the situation. It is important that all of us seek to be accountable on a spiritual level for our own part whenever the issue of exclusion - or the choice to leave a church - comes up. Sometimes going through this process will lead us to a solution that will benefit everyone.
2 comments:
I just don't understand why we always have to do all the work. If able bodied people don't care enough to listen to what this woman is saying why does she have to contact a place and go through all of this? I'd just leave. Good riddance. It's ridiculous the hoops we have to go through in our lives and also really really tiring.
Life's not fair. It's our problem if we can't get in. But there are people who care enough to listen. Sometimes you have to do the work. Think about that you're making it better for the next disabled person.
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