This was the topic of Mike Erre’s lecture at the Lumen Conference this past Sunday at Mariner’s Church in Irvine. When I first saw the title of his lecture I was very intrigued because I myself have a baby with Down syndrome. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I know from experience that Mike is a very gifted teacher, so my expectations were high.
After Mike was announced, without a word he came on stage and began playing ball with his 2 year-old son, Seth, who has Down syndrome. As they played, a screen projected behind them; flashes of words began to stream. The first statement read: “He will be called many things:” Then one-by-one words flashed on the screen: “handicapped,” “disabled,” “abnormal,” “slow,” “retarded.” Then these questions: “But is he”? “Or are we?” That moment was filled with a lot of emotion for myself, and as I could tell, for the rest of the audience as well.
After a couple of minutes Seth went to sit with his mom in the audience as Mike paralleled our modern day society with that of Hellenistic Greece. He argued that the Greeks tried to attain the perfection of humans. Those that were most valued in Hellenistic society were men and women that were beautiful, intelligent, and powerful. He further argued that those that were least valued were the weak, the disabled, the “abnormal.” He cited several of the ancient Greek Philosophers including Socrates who spoke about what should be done in Hellenistic society with these latter individuals. All of them agreed that these should be cast aside, thrown into slavery, or thrown out of the city and left to die. And so he posed the question “Is Hellenism alive today?”
As he asked us to contemplate this question he held up several popular beauty and health magazines, pointed out our obsession with cosmetic surgery, and the reality that our culture has girls starving themselves so they can try and measure up to “airbrushed beauty.” He also informed his audience that in our culture 92% of women abort their babies after being given a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Also, new medical research has now made it possible for doctors to do a simple blood test on women during the first trimester of pregnancy that will let them know whether or not their baby has a triple 21st chromosome (Down syndrome) http://childrenshospitalblog.org/will-babies-with-down-syndrome-slowly-disappear/. These all seemed to point towards the evidence that our culture does hold beauty, strength, and perfection as a pretty high standard. Lastly, he asked his audience what the response of God’s people should be.
Therefore, the theology of Down syndrome is that we need to know that every person has worth and is significant because we are all created in the image of God. Our worth in God is not found in “function,” but is found in our “humanness.” His conclusion was that the people of God need to love people the way they are; if we are not doing this then we have not been the “body of “Christ” to anyone. The church should be the place where we pronounce the death of the Hellenistic view of humanity. He reminded his audience that everyone has limitations, handicaps, and imperfections of some sort, and we shouldn’t outcast anyone based on these.
He ended his lecture the same way he began it—with Him and his son playing ball. This time the words on the screen flashed: “I will call him many things:” “Adorable,” “Blessing,” “Loved,” “Appointed,” “Chosen,” “Son.”
People were captivated, they were moved, and hopefully they were convicted–I know I experienced all of these.
Listen to Mike’s lecture: http://www.experiencelumen.com/?page_id=137
–Suzette
