Disability Advocacy Archives

Faith, Fear & Authoritarianism: How Christians Can Resist Nationalism

By Liz Cooledge Jenkins

What happens when faith is co-opted for power? We are far from the first Christians to find ourselves forced to address this question. In A People’s History of Christianity, historian Diana Butler Bass traces 2,000 years of push and pull between one version of Christianity that cozies up to power—or seeks to seize it outright—and another version that sides with the people oppressed by this very same power.

Ron Sider Joins the Call to Reclaim the Name of Jesus

45 years after the founding of CSA, our Founder and President Emeritus, Ron Sider, is still hard at work making God’s radical love visible in this world! Hear what he and other leaders of the faith have to say about reclaiming the co-opted Name of Jesus in this short video.

Conflict Stirs Evangelical Debate

By Andrew F. Bush and Rob Dalrymple

Recently, the world watched the shocking televised split-screen images of Israel resorting to live fire against Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza, killing dozens and wounding hundreds including women and children, while simultaneously Israel joyously celebrating the opening of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.

What Is Addiction?

By Margaret Kim Peterson

I was surprised, a decade ago, when for the first time a student sat down in my office and told me that he was a sex addict. Of course I already knew that you can’t tell by looking at a person what may be going on in his or her life.

Running for Human Rights

By Sara Burback

On March 23, I had the opportunity to join over 7,000 runners of all ages gathered in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, awaiting the signal to cross the starting line to begin the 6th annual Palestine Marathon.

Losing at Monopoly: Blessed Are the Meek

By Scott Bessenecker

What if there were secret rules to the game of Monopoly, hidden to the greedy, the arrogant and the power-hungry? What if things like giving away property, loaning money at low interest rates, redistributing property when things got too lopsided or lowering rent for those who couldn’t afford to land on your space were actions that were recorded and honored?

In Blood

By Rachel Marie Stone

I was born the same year that a strange malady called GRID first began killing gay men in New York and San Francisco. My mom received several pints of donated blood right after I was born, a few years before HIV was identified as the cause of GRID.

On Believing LGBTQ Youth…And Everyone Else

By Ross Murray

In my time creating and leading The Naming Project, I’ve come to understand a principle that has become the bedrock of my ministry with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth:

Believe what youth tell you about themselves.

Review: "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

By Samuel K. Atchison
During my youth in the 1970s, it was common among some African Americans to refer knowingly to what was then termed the “master plan.”

For I Was a Stranger

By Ethan Tan

On November 9, 2016, I rode the regional rail to my grad school class. People cried on the train, on the street, in class. Instead of the usual lecture and discussion on social policy, our professor presided over a group therapy session where we were all stupefied at the prospect of a Trump presidency.

Tethered

By Amy Knorr

The miles on the GPS ticked down as we drove. I should have been happy. Fewer miles means closer to home, right? But somehow, the rolling numbers felt like the pull of a rope, slowly tugging my family out of the open pastures of vacation and back into the harness of everyday humdrum.

The Limitations of Welcome: An Interview with Amy Jacober

By Melanie Springer Mock
Amy Jacober remembers well the anger she felt when, in her early 20s, she saw a first-grade girl get kicked out of her church’s youth choir.

He Is Risen?

By Benjamin Capps

“He is risen,” cries the preacher, eliciting the nearly automatic and yet enthusiastic response: “He is risen, indeed, Alleluia!”

As someone who is tied into a more liturgical wing of the church, the Easter season is marked by its length.

Portrait of A Both Girl

By Katelyn Durst

I am not black.
I am not white.
I am somewhere between the ink and the page,
the word that is blurred out.
I am not what you assume
She speaks Spanish…
can’t quite place her….

Celebration and Suffering

By Sarah Quezada

My cell phone rang while I was at work. I picked it up and closed my office door. “My mom called,” my fiancé Billy told me, his voice small and quiet. “She and my dad were denied visas for the wedding.”

I sat silently for a moment, stunned.

What We Pray Is What We Believe: A Booklet of Uncommon Prayer

By Micky ScottBey Jones

A Booklet of Uncommon Prayer is now available electronically!

To celebrate, we’re reposting Micky ScottBey Jones’s beautiful introduction to these timely and life-giving prayers.

Prayer has been a constant in my life.

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