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Peacemaking, Disability andHealingDavid L. Coulter Co-Editor MDPublished online: 25 Sep 2008.

To cite this article: David L. Coulter Co-Editor MD (2002) Peacemaking, Disabilityand Healing, Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 6:4, 1-5, DOI: 10.1300/J095v06n04_01

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EDITORIAL

Peacemaking, Disability and Healing

I was 21 years-old when I committed myself to peacemaking as away of life. In a paper I wrote for a senior theology course at the Univer-sity of Notre Dame, I described the value inherent in all persons and re-alized that this meant I could never kill another person for any reason.The year was 1969 and the Vietnam War was forcing many young mento think carefully about such issues. I signed a published statementpledging never to fight and applied for conscientious objector status inthe draft. The draft board denied my application because I was going tomedical school and already had a “better” deferment, but I remained aconscientious objector in my heart then and have remained so eversince.

The following year when I was in medical school at Yale, the link be-tween peace-making and healing first became apparent to me. After theNational Guard fired on and killed several students at Kent State Uni-versity who had been demonstrating against the war, many campusesmobilized for similar demonstrations in the spring of 1970. When theNational Guard was called out to suppress a large antiwar demonstra-tion on New Haven Green, I was one of a small group of medical stu-dents who volunteered to be “monitors” who would try to keep thepeace and to provide first aid if it were needed. That night we stood inbetween the demonstrators and the Guardsmen, urging both to stay

Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, Vol. 6(4) 2002http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J095

2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.10.1300J095v06n04_01 1

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calm and not to provoke one another. When the Guardsmen fired theirtear gas and drove the demonstrators off the Green, we retreated withthe demonstrators and did what we could to help those who neededhelp. The white armbands we wore that night as peacemakers meant asmuch to me then as the white coat I have worn as a doctor ever since.

I had been a member of Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peaceorganization, for a number of years but had not attended their NationalConference until this year. Even in the sweltering heat of Detroit inJuly (with no air conditioning in the meeting rooms), the experiencewas invigorating and thought-provoking. Listening to Bishop ThomasGumbleton deliver the plenary address on “Living Nonviolence in To-day’s Reality” (a criticism of the war-making attitude and plans of thecurrent administration), I began to think about the reasons we are calledto be nonviolent peacemakers. Jesus asks us to love our enemies(Mattthew 5:44) because God causes the sun to rise on bad men as wellas good, and we must be perfect just as God is perfect. Perhaps anotherway of understanding this is that God loves all of us, friend and enemyalike. We should love our enemies because God loves them as much asus. Peacemaking then is a way of striving to be perfect in our contem-plation of God’s love for all persons.

What does this have to do with disability? I think the message is thatthe dignity, value and worth of each and every person is based on God’slove for all of us. God’s love is unconditional and thus our value as per-sons is not based on what we are or are not. All God asks is that we ac-cept this love, which is the foundation of Christian faith. Indeed, whenJesus healed the sick and cured people with disabilities, he asked onlythat they accept His love and believe: “Your faith has made you whole”(Matthew 9:22). God’s love for all of us is always there, whether we ac-cept it or not. If God loves and values everyone–friend and enemy,able-bodied and those with disabilities–then we are called to accept thatlove and value everyone as well. Peacemaking and healing are thus bothreflections of God’s love and the value inherent in all persons.

There are many definitions of spirituality, and indeed it may meandifferent things for many of us. Acceptance of God’s love is one suchmeaning, with the corollary acceptance of the inherent value of all per-sons. Describing our vision for this Journal, we wrote, “The Journalstrives to explore the richness of religious and spiritual life in both per-sons dealing with issues of disability and health as well as in those wholove and support them.” This issue pursues our vision of understandinghow the experience of disability informs both spirituality and health.Disability is broadly construed in these articles and includes a variety of

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physical and mental health disorders. Healing for people with disabili-ties is a complex business and has much to learn from spirituality, asseveral authors demonstrate.

In the lead article, Rev. Barbara Hedges-Goettl provides a theologi-cal basis for thinking about including people with disabilities in com-munities of faith. She describes a vision of the Image of God (imagodei) in which the ultimate worth of each person is in being loved byGod, and states, “Our fundamental worth depends simply and solelyupon God’s interest in each of us each moment as the person we happento be, with or without a disability.” The Body of Christ consists of thecommunity of all persons, and thus “We are all necessary for the com-pletion of the Body of Christ.” Furthermore, community implies partic-ipation and sharing between all members of the community regardlessof disability, so all have an important role to play. These theological re-flections provide a powerful argument for including people with dis-abilities in the life and activities of faith communities.

In the second article, Lisa Hollingsworth and Mary Didelot describethe application of transpersonal therapy with people with disabilities.Transpersonal therapy is based on the principle that humans are bothphysical and spiritual beings and seeks to help people to “ascend be-yond their ordinary limits and attain higher levels of consciousness, in-cluding transcendence of self, cosmic awareness, ecstasy, wonder andaltruism.” The role of the transpersonal therapist is “to assist the clientto process dimensions of their experiences, uncover personal beliefsthat make up the client’s worldview, generate positive beliefs to ne-gate negative beliefs and to develop beneficial behavioral and spiri-tual practices.” They describe how integrating the “faith factor”within transpersonal therapy is a way to help people with disabilities todiscover hope in their lives and provide several practical suggestionsabout how this might be accomplished.

The third article does not address disability directly but provides anintriguing look at how spirituality and health may be linked. Readersunfamiliar with the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology mayfind this article difficult, but the knowledge gained will be well worththe effort. Joseph Doster and his colleagues conducted an original re-search study to compare the impact on immune functioning of extrinsicspirituality versus intrinsic spirituality. Most recent literature on the re-lationship between spirituality and health has used extrinsic measuressuch as religious affiliation, church attendance and other religious be-haviors. Doster and his colleagues tested whether intrinsic measuressuch as the importance of spiritual issues in one’s self-construct would

Editorial 3

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provide a more powerful insight into the relationship between spiritual-ity and health. The aspect of health they examined was immune func-tioning as measured by a number of blood tests. Study subjects weremostly healthy volunteers, although some had chronic medical condi-tions. The results showed that individuals whose spiritual self-experi-ence strongly contributed to their sense of personal identity (intrinsicspirituality) had healthier immune functioning. Furthermore, this effecton immune functioning of intrinsic spirituality was stronger than the ef-fect of extrinsic spirituality. The authors suggest that attention to intrin-sic aspects of spirituality is a promising area for future research on therelationship between spirituality and health.

In the fourth article, Jack Hely introduces the hypothesis, “Peoplewith disabilities not only constitute a community that makes space forGod in the world, but by participating in the act of hospitality as signand sacrament they will challenge the Church to be such a communityby identifying with them.” Hospitality as sign indicates God’s inner orhidden purpose, while hospitality as sacrament indicates the visible ful-fillment of God’s grace in the community. Hely understands that peoplewith disabilities are already part of the Imago Dei and the Body ofChrist, as Rev. Hedges-Goettl showed in her paper. The metaphor ofhospitality evokes the idea of the Church as God’s household in whichwe are hosts for those who come to visit as guests. As hosts we can wel-come guests or “strangers” such as those with disabilities, who havemuch to give to enrich the community. But since people with disabili-ties are already part of the Body of Christ, perhaps it is they who are thehosts and we who are the strangers. Perhaps it is better to realize that,“hospitality calls for both host and stranger to be present in reciprocalacts of hospitality” that include a willingness to welcome the other toenter into my world as I am willing to enter into the world of the other. Achurch that reflects this sense of hospitality and becomes a communitybased on God’s love for all of us (as described earlier) provides spacefor people with disabilities to liberate themselves and become equalmember of the Body of Christ. By doing so, people with disabilitieshelp all of us to make space for God in the world today.

The Spiritual Encounters series include articles that describe howreal-life experiences sometimes provide powerful spiritual insights thatenrich our lives and teach us important messages that we can share withothers. In the Spiritual Encounters article included in this issue, JosephHavranek describes a program that encourages people with a particulardisability–chemical dependence–to have a spiritual encounter that canbecome a form of healing that they can share with others. In fact, be-

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cause of the implications of chemical dependence, many programparticipants had other disabilities as well (such as bipolar illness, or-thopedic impairments and residuals of gunshot wounds). The spiritualencounter is based on a transformation of the 12-step program into anexplicitly Christian format. Participants come to accept God’s love andto trust in God. Trust leads to forgiveness which leads to healing. Hav-ing accepted God’s love and trust, the participant can then help otherswho are suffering from chemical dependence to be healed as well.

Thus in this issue of the Journal, our vision of “Religion, Disabilityand Health” is transformed into an understanding of “Peacemaking,Disability and Healing.” The articles show how the fundamental insightof peacemaking, that all share equally in God’s love, also means thatpeople with disabilities share God’s love and are valued members of thefaith community. Healing through spirituality can take many forms,from transpersonal therapy to a church-based 12-step program, and maybe mediated through physical effects on immune functioning. As thiseditorial is written, the Nobel Peace Prize has just been awarded to Pres-ident Jimmy Carter, one of the greatest peacemakers of our time whoseefforts have always had a strong spiritual basis. Now the challenge is toextend our vision of peacemaking and healing to benefit people withdisabilities.

David L. Coulter, MDCo-Editor

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