Children with the greatest need for a supportive community were the most likely to feel unwelcome.
America’s religious communities are failing children with chronic health conditions such as autism, learning disabilities, depression, and conduct disorders.
And they have been doing it for a very long time, suggests a just-published national study following three waves of the National Survey of Children’s Health.
The odds of a child with autism never attending religious services were nearly twice as high as compared to children with no chronic health conditions. The odds of never attending also were significantly higher for children with developmental delays, ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities, and behavior disorders. However, the study does not provide data for specific types of religious communities, such as evangelicals.
Sanctuaries were much more sympathetic to children with health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, or vision problems. Those children were as likely to be in the pews as children with no health conditions.
But children with conditions that limit social interaction, who are often excluded from other social settings and have the greater need for a community of social support, were most likely to feel unwelcome at religious services. Read More
Related Post:
Religion and Disability: Variation in Religious Service Attendance Rates for Children with Chronic Health Conditions
2 comments:
I authored the book INVISIBLE: WHEN FEAR AND SHAME CAUSE YOU TO HIDE, specifically to address how the church not only judges people with disabilities, but too often enables their abusers, especially if they are parents. It is not just autism that is looked down on by the church. It is disability, period. The damage families to do someone with a disability is horrendous. When church pasters contribute it, the effects can and will influence lives in ways that make recovery impossible. I encourage every church pastor to read this text. So they don't end up doing the damage other churches have done.
I authored the book INVISIBLE: WHEN FEAR AND SHAME CAUSE YOU TO HIDE, specifically to address how the church not only judges people with disabilities, but too often enables their abusers, especially if they are parents. It is not just autism that is looked down on by the church. It is disability, period. The damage families to do someone with a disability is horrendous. When church pasters contribute it, the effects can and will influence lives in ways that make recovery impossible. I encourage every church pastor to read this text. So they don't end up doing the damage other churches have done.
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