Community and conversation have always been important contributors to the development of knowledge, and the activities at the “Rethinking Disability” workshop at the New Paltz Church of the Nazarene did not stray from the importance of these concepts. On Nov. 9 and 10, the Rev. Andy Fey, the church pastor, invited the Rev. Letiah Fraser to share her knowledge and expertise through a weekend of workshop and worship.
Fraser, who hails from Nyack College and Nazarene Theological Seminary, traveled up from the city to speak on the topic of disability and the language surrounding it. Her workshop highlighted important theological perspectives on disability culture. She recognized that churches currently have the growing opportunity to support and include their disabled communities in worship, but as a whole, have historically excluded disabled individuals from the religious sphere. Fraser strove to unravel and rebuild past notions of how disabled people were perceived through a Biblical lens.
“I do it differently depending on where I’m at. So, for church I was very specific about it being religiously influenced,” said Fraser. As a Christian pastor, teacher and activist identifying as a woman with a physical disability, Fraser was intentional in orienting her speech towards the community she was interacting with.
During the workshop, Fraser encouraged group discussion, questions and note-taking. Using prompts to foster conversation between herself and the workshop members, Fraser invited people to write down their first thoughts and definitions for the words “disability” and “culture.”
She proposed joining the two words together to form the concept of “disability culture,” which incorporates both the medical aspects of diagnosis and the social aspects of the disabled community. “I think disability is a culture,” Fraser said. “Disability includes the diagnosis that folks have, but disability is a culture. If we think about it that way, then folks with disabilities have [their] own history, languages, theology and taboo words.”
After sharing a verse that supported how she personally saw people with disabilities as a cultural group among those surrounding God, Fraser said, “I see folks with disabilities around. We are also [around] in heaven. Signing, or saying, or in whatever way communicating praise to God.”
It is important to Fraser’s formation of religious ideology that people with disabilities are able to participate as they see fit within spaces of worship. The language used in scripture can often be non-affirming towards the disabled community, and Fraser acknowledged this point. “I will change the language and make note that I’m doing that,” she said about her sermons. “It doesn’t change the meaning of the story.”
Statistically defined as a minority group that accepts new members at any given time in their lives, the community can grow quickly. Workshops like Fraser’s invite individuals to educate themselves on the intersectionality of disability culture and access to religious belief systems — thus adapting to the shifting cultural environment.
Fraser said, “If we want to encounter any culture that [may] be different from our own, the best posture then is to learn about it.”