Genre:Â Christian Nonfiction
Page Count: 175+ pages
Published:Â 2022
Potential Triggers: medical trauma, ableism
Mental Health Topics: disability
When I opened this book, I was hopeful. The subtitle for this book was "Disability Justice in the Church," and that is something that struck me as quite interesting. Coupled with the yellow cover with flowers surrounding a wheelchair, I thought, "Well, why not try it?"
I was left speechless with what I found.
For anyone looking for a religious book that shows a different perspective on life, this is the book for you. Meant both for disabled and non-disabled readers, Dr. Amy Kenny wrote this book to uncover what it's like to be on the receiving end of ableism day in and day out. As a disabled activist, she shares different aspects of her story from curatives and discrimination to justice and blessings. Among these, she shares things that people have told her and what her response was to them as a Christian.
All throughout this book, we see references to scripture, among other works. With plenty of side reading to be done, this is a thinner book (<200 pages) with so much to bite into. For a person who's usually uncomfortable with books like this, I was astonished to see how invited I felt by her, to see her worldview and how she tried to be accepting of others even though they were unintentionally cruel to her. It's a life that many disabled people lead, and writing this--both to disabled and non-disabled people alike--allows her readers to not only learn what it might be like on the receiving end of their well-meaning comments but also how people simply neglect to look outside of their own worldview.
My favorite part of this book was that it started off by saying that being disabled is not a sin. So many people are disabled for so many different reasons, but she emphasizes that this is not due to any fault of the disabled person. It's not because they sinned or don't have faith, and who says that we'll all be non-disabled in heaven? Yes, we will be made new, blemish-less, but who says that disabled people are "blemished"? Isn't it just a difference? This is only one example of the things that Dr. Kenny dives into in her novel.
Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone remotely interested. It's one that I intend to eventually get for myself and annotate as I re-read it, and I'm a person who rarely does that. This book opened up new thought horizons for me and gave me resources to continue the journey, and I hope it does the same for many other people.