It is well-documented that faith communities have much to offer[i] people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). These communities can provide opportunities for belonging, making new friends, finding advocates, using their talents in service, and even developing a social network that increases the chances of securing employment.[ii] Practical benefits abound.
But what if…
What if none of that was true? What if there was no particular socially pragmatic benefit available from a particular faith community or practice? What if a person isn’t going to find a job, make new friends, or discover a mentor for a new hobby? What if this place doesn’t serve donuts or their coffee is bad? What if there’s nothing there for the person beyond reasonably polite acceptance?
What if the only thing to be found in this faith community was the exploration of faith itself? What if someone’s attachment to this gathering was solely for the purpose of a personal spiritual journey that offered a look beyond themselves?
Concrete and abstract
One of the things that has been historically dismissed by people in general, is the ability of people with pervasive intellectual disability to grasp the very abstract concepts involved with spirituality. Too often, we have distilled the experiences of people with I/DD down to childlike faith[iii] or holy innocence. It was made clear early on in my training that people with I/DD often tend toward concrete as opposed to abstract thinking,[iv] a characteristic usually attributed to young children. It is an element of professional education and training that is still taught today in terms of general language and learning theory.
The concern is a natural path of logic that goes like this: People with I/DD often struggle with abstract thinking and spirituality is an abstract concept; therefore, a sense of the Divine may lie beyond their grasp.
I understand where the question comes from. Personal experiences of spirituality don’t fit very well within developmental explanation or objective measure. That said, someone else’s experience of the divine is simply not ours to define or measure in the first place. Your story is not mine to tell.
It may be time to challenge the question. Is this about a disability that gets in the way of sophisticated abstract thinking? Or could it be time to invite spirituality into our broader understanding of humanity?
The uncomfortable question
It boils down to an uncomfortable question. If we are willing to disregard the uniquely human experience of spirituality in the lives of people with the most pervasive needs for support, what else about that person are we willing to disregard? After all, spirituality is hardly the only thing that reaches deep into human life, or that defies developmental patterns of explanation.
What other deep and uniquely human experiences are we willing to dismiss from their lives? Tread carefully, because the list of possibilities is long—hopefulness, aspiration, creativity, aesthetics, imagination, courage, curiosity, love, a sense of wonder, or simply pondering what came before us and what lies after.
Those who question that people with I/DD can experience a full sense of spirituality risk questioning their full humanity. And how much of that humanity, piece by piece, are we willing to carve away?
[i] Carter, E. (2019) Carter explores what it means to be a community of belonging for people with disabilities. Notables.
[ii] Carter, E., Gaventa, B. (October 2021) Putting Faith to Work: How Faith Communities Can Support Employment for People with Disabilities. Administration for Community Living. https://acl.gov/news-and-events/acl-blog/putting-faith-work-how-faith-communities-can-support-employment-people
[iii] Morstad, D. (2015) Exceptional faith. Larger Table. https://largertable.com/2015/07/28/exceptional-faith/
[iv] Aster, H. (2021) The Psychology of Abstract vs. Concrete Thought. Shortform. https://www.shortform.com/blog/concrete-thought/
largertable.com 