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Healing more than curing, says disabled Christian

-11/05/05

Christians were today challenged to refrain from too readily equating ëhealingí with ëbeing curedí, and to focus their concerns instead on restoration and inclusion in the community ñ according to the biblical pattern.

The coordinator of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN), Samuel Kabue of Kenya, offered this challenge in Athens today at the global Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).

Mr Kabue, who was born blind, declared: ìTo those who have been disabled since birthÖ disability and sickness are two very different things, and healing [understood as cure] applies to sickness, not to disability.î

The church needs to define healing in the widest possible sense, Kabue suggested. While curing has to do with reconstruction of the physical body, ìdisability is a social construct and healing is the removal of social barriers.î

Healing in relation to disabled people is often assumed to mean eradicating disability ìas if it were a contagious virusî, or as promoting ìvirtuous suffering as a way to a greater faith in God.î

Some churches closely associate disability with sin. For them, ìwhen prayers for healing do not yield the desired result, the victim is the one blamed for having no faith.î

But this is poor theology leading to unhelpful practice, suggested Kabue. ìJesus chose to use healing to unite disabled people with the rest of the society,î he stressed. ìPrior to his time, they were excluded, ignored and considered unclean.î

Jesus did indeed cure sick people said Mr Kabue, but ìwhat was and still is most important in our reconciliation message is the acceptance, inclusion and restoration into the mainstream of the society.î

Christian disability advocates are concerned that some itinerant evangelists and dramatic ëministriesí use healing as a way to boost their power, raise funds and claim a monopoly on the activity of the Spirit.

ìPeople with disabilities are made in the image of God just as our able-bodied friends are,î one CWME delegate told Ekklesia. ìWe all have limitations, we all have strengths and we all need Godís forgiveness and healing.î

ìWhat doesn’t helpî, she added, ìis manipulation at the hands of those who, with whatever good intentions, seem think they know Godís purposes better than us.î