In the pile of papers I referenced yesterday were some old test scores. Since Paul attends public schools, they assess his educational progress as mandated by various federal and state bodies.
The things they want to measure, he can’t do. His scores on reading, reading comprehension, math, math concepts and the like were as low as you can score and still be breathing.
The things they can’t measure – like his inherent, God-created dignity as a human being – he excels at.
I used to cry when those came in the mail every year. They still make me sad, not because of how severely disabled they ‘objectively’ show him to be, but because this is the cultural measure of his worth.
And therein lies a danger to children with disabilities not yet born. These are the objective measures of ‘reality’ that doctors and social workers and university professors understand – and which are communicated to parents who live in and breathe the air of this culture. The decision to do away with such seemingly worthless human beings then appears to be obvious.
No, let us talk about what is truly real. God creates some to live with disabilities (Exodus 4:11), he knows all their days (Psalm 139:13-16), he will supply every need (Philippians 4:19), and he knows the end from the beginning (Revelation 21:5-7).
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
John Knight on one of those quiet sorrows of raising a child with disabilities
Read the whole thing here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for posting this, Paul. I read Reason in the Balance by Philip Johnson years ago. It was chilling to realize the consequences of a naturalistic world view. John's words remind me that some of the nightmare scenarios that Johnson predicted are already with us.
ReplyDelete