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Is it the reality of burdens or belief systems that kill our babies with disabilities?

April 21, 2010 by John Knight

I was looking for the article by Dorothy Wertz I referenced yesterday, and found this quote from Dr. Adrienne Asch in the article, “Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion: A Challenge to Practice and Policy” from the November 1999 edition of American Journal of Public Health:

If professionals and parents believed that children with disabilities could indeed provide their parents many of the same satisfactions as any other child in terms of stimulation, love, companionship, pride, and pleasure in influencing the growth and development of another, they might reexamine their belief that in psychological, material, and social terms, the burdens of raising disabled children outweigh the benefits.

A vast array of literature, both parental narrative and social science quantitative and qualitative research, powerfully testifies to the rewards-typical and atypical-of raising children with many of the conditions for which prenatal testing is considered de rigeur and abortion is expected (Down syndrome, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, to name only some). Yet bioethics, public health, and genetics remain woefully-scandalously–oblivious, ignorant, or dismissive of any information that challenges the conviction that disability dooms families.

In other words, though we can frequently provide evidence to the benefits of raising our children with disabilities, the belief system of people who are supposed to be serving us leads them to dismiss that evidence.  The only evidence they will consider are the burdens.  Thus, the only right answer for them is to abort our babies with disabilities.

I am grateful when researchers like Dr. Asch point out that it isn’t just the ‘reality’ of burdens that leads to higher rates of abortion.  We are also fighting an evil belief system that automatically assigns lower value to a baby with certain genetic characteristics.  Sort of like we used to do with children born with dark skin in this country.

But given the statistics on abortion of African-American children, maybe I am too quick to say ‘used to.’

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Let’s Add One More Factor

April 20, 2010 by John Knight

The horrors of abortion were in the news again last week, this time with a doctor performing an abortion on the ‘wrong’ baby.  As you can probably guess, the ‘wrong’ baby was diagnosed with Down syndrome.  Al Mohler, in his blog posting, Aborting the Wrong Baby, provides some helpful commentary on the subject.

Every time he does so, I end up looking at other information on the subject, and discovered this.

Dov Fox and Christopher L. Griffin, Jr., in their article for the Utah Law Review, Disability-Selective Abortion and the Americans with Disabilities Act, quote Dorothy Wertz from a 1992 article she wrote,  How Parents of Affected Children View Selective Abortion.  I’m going to look for that article.

According to Fox and Griffin, Dr. Wertz “identified eight factors that determine parents’ ‘revealed preferences’ for childbirth rather than disability-selective abortion:

(1) guilt over rejecting a child with a disability;

(2) the quality of life from infancy through adulthood for a child with a disability;

(3) whether the pregnancy is “wanted,” independent of fetal disability;

(4) optimism that children with disabilities will be cured or treated of the disabilities with which they are born;

(5) spousal compromises;

(6) financial constraints;

(7) risk; and

(8) the effect of a child with disabilities on existing children.”

I suggest we give parents one more factor: hope in God!

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Actually, I want to make it the SOLE factor, because all of the above from Dr. Wertz are based on personal feelings, predictions about the future, or information which may or may not be true.  God’s word, however, is always true.  And with his sovereign help, all of the above can be faced with hope.

Best of all, we can remind parents who God is in relation to all the people giving them information or advice about the future of their baby with a disability:

From Psalm 146:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

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Is it too beautiful?

April 19, 2010 by John Knight

As I lingered over some of the pictures in Just the Way I Am yesterday morning, the thought struck me:  will people going through hard times look at these pictures and not see their family situation?  The pictures of the children with disabilities (and their siblings or parents) are beautiful.

Frequently our lives are not like that.  My child has times when he does not carry ANY external manifestation of beauty.

That thought was quickly followed by this one:  of course the pictures are beautiful, because the children are beautiful!

Josh Hackney, the photographer for this book, overcame the Western cultural expectation that to look at or photograph disability is to look at and capture something strange or hideous or sad.  Josh worked hard to capture the children as God sees and created them – as God’s very own, for his glory.

Thus, Josh captured beauty!

Paul sometimes has bad days, and sometimes that results in my wanting to weep and hide over how hard everything seems to be.  And that doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with Paul or the situation. On those days, I have taken my eyes off  Jesus.

The fact is that God will supply all my needs (Phil. 4:19) in those moments, for me and for my boy and my other two boys and their sister and my wife and everyone else in Paul’s life.

How?  “According to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).  That kind of wealth is both infinite and indescribable!  Easily God can supply every need, no matter what it is.

So, I am grateful this book is full of beautiful pictures of extraordinary children, even if some people, at first, will struggle that these are not their experiences with the children with disabilities they know.

Because together with the words from the Bible that accompanies every picture and the work of Holy Spirit, God can turn their mourning into joy, like he has done so frequently for me:

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

Jeremiah 31:11,13

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Our story, in 90 seconds

April 18, 2010 by John Knight

Andrew Laparra and Stefan Green filmed Dianne and me last weekend.  This is what Andrew created out of that session.

To God be all the glory!

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Satire Saves?

April 17, 2010 by John Knight

Satire is dangerous for me because it tends to fuel bad things in my heart.

But this piece of devastating humor by Joe Carter could serve to shake people up and maybe save some of our precious babies.

I recommend it: Four Reasons You Might Be Aborted: An Open Letter to Fetal Humans

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How will you spread word of God’s good design in disability?

April 16, 2010 by John Knight

In Mark 1:32-34 we learn that Jesus was very popular with people experiencing disease:

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.  And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Why did the whole city gather?  Because people were talking about Jesus after he healed a man with an unclean spirit:

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee (Mark 1:28).

So I was greatly encouraged to learn how people intend to tell about God’s goodness through disability, using Just the Way I Am.

  • More than one person will be sharing the book with a family member or close friend who has a child with a disability
  • Several are bringing it to their pastors or elders
  • A student wants her college’s pro-life group to understand more about disability
  • Two couples are considering adopting a child with a disability – I don’t even have words for the picture of God’s adoption that brings to me
  • Two are bringing it into their work, and their work includes serving people with disabilities
  • A pastor is considering how it could be used in pre-marital counseling!
  • A missionary to a hard country wants to bring this message of God’s purposes and sanctity of life to the people he serves
  • A mom sent me a picture of her boy with her request for the book – and I wept at his beauty and her message to me, which was thoughtful and encouraging
  • Nine states were represented in requests for the book!

Do the above ideas give you any thoughts about spreading?

A great deal of my enthusiasm for making this book known is that it rightly centers on God and his word.  I am grateful to God that Krista and her family seek to make much of God through this book rather than the gifts that God provides!  We know in the gospels that some people followed Jesus just to experience earthly gifts – of healing, of food, or a hope for a new political system – rather than to treasure Jesus above all things.

Krista and her family do not make that mistake.  Disability is certainly hard, and Jesus is certainly a great treasure!

Posted in News, Scripture | 3 Comments »

Get a free copy of Just the Way I Am

April 15, 2010 by John Knight

Dianne and I saw an early copy of the book, Just the Way I Am: God’s Good Design in Disability, so we have already felts its impact.  We want everyone to see God’s glory and sovereignty rightly magnified through (not in spite of) disability!

So, we’ve ordered extra copies to give away.  On a first-come basis, you can request a free copy of this book and we will send it to you in May after we receive them.

We do ask one thing in return:  that you let other people know about it.

For example:

  • Email your friends and extended family
  • If you have a blog, twitter, buzz or Facebook account, that you blog, tweet, buzz or share about it
  • Take it to your pastor and tell him about it
  • If you are a pastor, that you tell your elders and congregation (and maybe consider buying a case for your families experiencing disability)
  • Ask your doctors, specialists, therapists, social workers, teachers, bus aides, etc. to take a look

When you hold this book in your hands, some of you, like me, will be astonished at God’s goodness in guiding and equipping Krista Horning and her family to work for four years to bring this book to reality.  You may not be able to NOT talk about it!  It really isn’t like anything else out there in how it makes much of God in disability using God’s word and pictures of God’s creation, along with the Horning family’s story of God’s care and goodness in their lives.

So, here’s how to secure your copy:  email theworksofGod (at) gmail.com.  You must first replace the (at) with @ like a regular email address (I’m trying to avoid spam).  Include your name and mailing address in your email and maybe who you plan to tell about this book.

Please, do NOT leave any personal information in comments.

Families involved with Bethlehem’s disability ministry do not need to reply – copies will be held for you.

Again, supplies are limited (but you can still order a copy at Desiring God).

Posted in News | 3 Comments »

A regular reminder not to waste your cancer

April 14, 2010 by John Knight

If you want to find out where someone lands on the sovereignty of God, try saying this out loud:  God gave me my cancer, for his glory and for my good.

You will not receive a neutral response to that statement.

On a monthly basis my wife visits her oncologist’s clinic so they can test samples of her blood and administer drugs and generally see how she’s doing.  And at various times during the year, she will have a PET scan, CT scan, bone scan and MRI.  Each of these scans allows her doctor to see her body in different ways, which lets her doctor know if her Stage IV breast cancer is active again.  So, 16 times a year, she is not just reminded of her cancer, but submits to other people’s invasive procedures.  It is a constant reminder in our household not to take the life of a wife and mother for granted.

But we would waste it if that is all we believed about cancer, or if that was the only good that we saw.

Dianne already knew that God was sovereign over all things, including her cancer, when she got her diagnosis in October 2004.  When Pastor John received his cancer news in 2006, he wrote about it in a very helpful way, made even better when David Powlison, who also was diagnosed with cancer in early 2006, added his commentary.

I recommend all 10 ways not to waste your cancer, or any disease or disability.  It can be found here at Desiring God’s website. Here is the first way:

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

John Piper:

It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.

David Powlison:

Recognizing his designing hand does not make you stoic or dishonest or artificially buoyant. Instead, the reality of God’s design elicits and channels your honest outcry to your one true Savior. God’s design invites honest speech, rather than silencing us into resignation. Consider the honesty of the Psalms, of King Hezekiah (Isaiah 38), of Habakkuk 3. These people are bluntly, believingly honest because they know that God is God and set their hopes in him. Psalm 28 teaches you passionate, direct prayer to God. He must hear you. He will hear you. He will continue to work in you and your situation. This outcry comes from your sense of need for help (28:1-2). Then name your particular troubles to God (28:3-5). You are free to personalize with your own particulars. Often in life’s ‘various trials’ (James 1:2), what you face does not exactly map on to the particulars that David or Jesus faced – but the dynamic of faith is the same. Having cast your cares on him who cares for you, then voice your joy (28:6-7): the God-given peace that is beyond understanding. Finally, because faith always works out into love, your personal need and joy will branch out into loving concern for others (28:8-9). Illness can sharpen your awareness of how thoroughly God has already and always been at work in every detail of your life.

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John Piper’s Endorsement for Just the Way I Am, by Krista Horning

April 13, 2010 by John Knight

From Pastor John Piper, who has been Krista Horning’s pastor for more than a decade, and the pastor for the other families represented in this book from a few years to more than a quarter century:

For the people in this book, the sovereignty and goodness of God have become a sanctuary for the soul in a life they did not expect to live.  When they affirm the goodness and wisdom of God in creating them for short-term disability and eternal super-ability, they do not do so without tears.  There is no glib trifling with pain.  They are learning the paradox of ‘sorrowful yet always rejoicing.’  They are learning how to be  brought low and how to abound.

They believe that in this fallen age, God’s loved ones groan along with the whole creation, waiting for the fullness of adoption, the redemption of their bodies.  They find more hope in God’s unsearchable wisdom and power and purpose than in the vagaries of natural processes or the assaults of Satan.  They believe that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for their complete renewal – spiritually and physically.  This healing is as sure as Jesus is precious – infinitely precious.  It is only a matter of time, a vapor’s breath, and they will be whole.  Because of the grace of God, these lives and this book exist for the glory of God.

You can order Just the Way I Am; God’s Good Design in Disability for delivery in May through Desiring God.

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You can study God the way a man studies the wife he passionately loves!

April 12, 2010 by John Knight

I loved this reminder from Josh Harris, author of Dug Down Deep:

“Theology matters because if we get it wrong, then our whole life will be wrong.”

The more I see people advocating for various forms of eugenics or aborting children with disabilities, or making God small in light of hard things like disease, or earthquakes or poverty, the more I see it isn’t a problem of information or education.

But if we know who God is, what he’s like, and how he loves, our whole perspective changes.  And not just head knowledge, but a heart-driven desire to know this God, the way a man wants to know the wife he passionately loves.

I know that has changed how I think about God and disability.  And it was God who did it!

I am grateful God replaced my foolish, small, sin-filled, man-centered concept of who he is (one in which I not only felt I had the right but the responsibility to question his wisdom, care of, and love for me and my boy) with actual statements about who he is from his own word, like this from Psalm 89:1-8:

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah

Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
with your faithfulness all around you?

And to those who still wonder if theology matters, I invite you to watch this short video from Josh Harris:

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