John Christensen is a life-long ELCA Lutheran, currently working with the World Council of Churches as a Project Officer in the Churches’ Commission for Health & Healing, and the WCC’S Ecumenical Disability Advocates’ Network (EDAN)
I am the son of not one but two Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastors. I have been a part of the church my whole life. I currently work as a project officer for Mental Health Advocacy for the World Council of Churches (WCC), as well as being one of the WCC staff members responsible for the Ecumenical Disability Advocates’ Network (EDAN). It is that last role that makes me the most proud because as a person living with a life-long disability, being in a disability advocacy role is a powerful thing. “No conversation about us, without us,” right?
Working in a transversal space between disability advocacy and mental health advocacy is also an important thing to celebrate because, as I keep reminding people, “You cannot have a conversation about disability without having a conversation about mental health, and you shouldn’t have a conversation about mental health without having one about disability.”
It is estimated by the World Health Organization that 1.3 billion people or approximately 16% of the world’s population experience significant disabilities. Additionally, even pre-pandemic, nearly 970 million people (12.5% of the world’s population) struggled with a diagnosable mental health condition, with that number rising significantly in recent years (WHO, 2019 & 2023). Yet still, in many spaces (even church spaces!), both mental health and disability are nearly taboo topics.
Given the reality that mental healthcare is not readily available everywhere, churches have a unique and vital opportunity to become a safe space for those in need. But we cannot simply say we are a safe space; we must put it into action. Too much of the time, churches preach living a “God-ly” life and that can get members stuck in thinking that we need to be “perfect” when it is really our imperfection that draws us closer to God. We may look around our church and think, “I am the only one struggling. Everyone else’s lives seem good. I must be doing something wrong.” The reality is, the only thing wrong that we’re doing is thinking that we are alone or that God loves us less because we’re struggling.
Jesus’ disciples weren’t oligarchs, politicians or celebrities. He ate with sinners and the unclean, and he brought tax collectors and fishermen to be some of his closest advisors.
“(The leper said,) ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing’ ” (Mark 1:40-41, New International Version).
Though some may interpret it differently, I believe that Jesus was not indignant of this man of physical and societal ‘uncleanness’ coming near to him – but to the fact that the man questioned Jesus’ willingness to heal him. If we are to “(i)mitate God (…) in everything (we) do,” then why do we so easily shy away from those we too easily categorize as different (i.e. unclean) in comparison to ourselves? (Ephesians 5:1)
If we do not have love for our neighbor who we can see, how can we then say that we have love for our God, who we cannot see? The challenge, then, is this – to see God in our neighbor. “Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me,” says the Lord, “you failed to do it to me.” (Matthew 25:45, The Message).
May we work harder every day to not just see but seek out God in everyone we meet, trusting that it will enrich not only our own life but those in our communities and our world.