Ecumenical Group Works to Build
Inclusive Community
by Clarence Schadegg
People with disabilities continue
to struggle with less-than-total inclusiveness by faith-based groups.
Certainly, some places of worship invest in elevators to move people
from one floor to the next. While this is a praiseworthy effort,
it’s not the most important [accommodation],
according to Ron Cottone of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Minneapolis. “What
is interesting,” says Cottone, “is that the physical barriers are
the [accommodations] that faith communities focus on first, and they’re
always the most expensive thing, like putting in an elevator or ramp or redesigning
the architecture of a building…. Attitudes are the least expensive to
address. In fact, all that is needed is a little time for people to hear a lecture
or read a book about disability awareness. It is attitude that poses the biggest
and most effective barrier. Even if people can get into a building, they can
sense that they are not welcome. If they’re not welcome, it doesn’t
matter if there is a nice elevator or ramp. They’re not going to come back.”
Cottone is Executive
Director of Twin Cities based Disability Awareness Ministries Incorporated
(DAMI). DAMI does not provide direct support services to people
with disabilities. Rather, it supports congregations to be more
welcoming, accessible and inclusive. It is instrumental in setting
up inclusion teams in faith-based communities that take on the
work of inclusion within the congregation. Cottone, who came to
DAMI in 2002, stresses the ecumenical aspect of his vision, “I
don’t want to just focus on [my] church, because we’re
an interfaith organization. So we have the potential of working with
synagogues, temples and mosques as well as churches.” Through
one of its board members, DAMI has a connection with the National
Association for Mental Illness (NAMI) and other consciousness-raising
ecumenical groups that work to reform negative discrimination against
people with disabilities in faith communities.
Cottone believes that
many faith communities are committing fundamental “sins
of omission” regarding access. To bring a person who uses a
wheelchair to the church’s second floor is not good enough
if he or she is not a welcomed participant in all the programs of
that faith community. To bring a blind person into a sanctuary of
worship is not good enough if that person cannot fully participate
in all church activities and follow along with the worship celebration.
Cottone says these situations “sins of omission” are
not intentional. It’s as if a faith community, with all good
intentions, invests in one form of accessibility and stops there.
To “come to the table” means much more. It means that
all people, regardless of their form of disability, have complete
access to all levels of church life.”
I am a person who comes
to faith communities with tough questions. I’ve been legally blind for at least fifty years; I’ve
experienced many harmful actions by self-proclaimed Biblical practitioners
who were less than compassionate people. And I’ve wondered
how such people could be so arrogant. The congregational care person
and the funeral home team that coordinated the funeral of my wife’s
mother, for example, pushed and pulled me through the line of people
as we gathered to receive the host at the funeral service. At one
point they even grabbed my hand that held the harness of my dog guide
as I was dragged back to my seat—two pews behind my wife. Her
other sisters and brothers-in-law were seated together by this same
team of people, but my wife and I were not. Consequently I could
not console her at this tragic time when she needed me at her side.
Here’s an example of another congregation’s attitude.
Before one Sunday morning worship, my wife and I were sitting on
a sidewalk in front of a church, where I held my blood-soaked foot.
I had received an injury from a tumble I took when my sandal caught
the edge of a curb. The folks entering the church walked around us
as they traveled the twenty-five feet to the front entrance of the
church. One person commented that I had a nice dog. Nobody stopped
to ask me if I needed help. Nobody mentioned to the church administrator,
who sat at a table next to the front door, that there was an injured
man on the sidewalk. I’m not invisible—or am I?
In both of these scenarios,
I felt the pain of insensitive acts. Although I brought my concerns
to church leaders of these two faith communities, neither group
followed through on their pledge to educate themselves or their
congregation. These church people seemed to miss completely the
point that Jesus once made: all are welcome at God’s
table.
Ron Cottone met my questions
head-on, lifting up the importance of values. “Attitudes are based on, and reflect, values. Values
are formed to help us deal with our fears; and to help us feel safe
both socially and psychologically in our communities. As we grow
up, our communities and our families teach us values that make us
think that we’re safer if we follow those values…. Unfortunately
there’s a lot of teaching about difference that ends up creating
[negative] values…. For example, ... ‘Don’t trust
anybody who looks different, or acts differently or thinks differently
than you.’ That kind of value system often gets put into people
as they grow up…. When they become adults, [people] don’t
examine these values…. And they don’t see how [these]
attitudes can get reinforced in a whole community of people with
similar attitudes, [pushing the group] to exclude instead of include.“
Cottone believes faith-based
groups need to expand their group identity. “Faith-based
communities are really set up well to be welcoming and inclusive.
But transcending difference, transcending group identity, is always
a challenge. And it is a challenge that is easy to ignore because
the power group that runs the community has the authority to reinforce
and reward the privilege of maintaining the status quo and not inviting
the expansion of group identity. Exclusionary group identity attitudes
are challenged by Hebrew Scripture when it talks about welcoming
the stranger, welcoming the alien, welcoming the traveler, welcoming
whoever comes to you. A relationship with a person, who is made in
the image of God, starts with hospitality and respect. So, in respect,
you welcome that person into your midst.”
Cottone’s strength is
in organization development; he has worked with inclusion programs
at the Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis and Rosemount United Methodist
Church. Thanks to Cottone’s
efforts, the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist
Church has resolved that all United Methodist Churches in Minnesota
hold an Inclusion Awareness Day on the second Sunday of October and
that they all perform an accessibility audit in their places of worship.
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For help from DAMI, contact
Ron Cottone at ron.cottone@disability-awareness.org, or at 612-230-3264.
DAMI is supported mostly by individuals and local congregations including
the Basilica of St. Mary Catholic Church, Pax Christi Catholic Community,
Wayzata Community Church and the MN Annual Conference of the United
Methodist Church.
