A REVIEW OF “MY BODY IS NOT A PRAYER REQUEST”
My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church. Dr. Amy Kenny. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2022. 208 pp. $19.99 (paperback).
“This book is my scream,” (1) Dr. Kenny announces in her preface, and the exhaustion and anger she feels as a disabled woman in America is evident throughout this searing work. Dr. Kenny is tired: tired of well-meaning but poorly-informed members of her church offering to pray away her crippled leg, tired of people telling her she isn’t “really” disabled, and tired of a church culture that sees disability accommodations as an inconvenient afterthought rather than a central part of an inclusive Gospel.
Dr. Kenny organizes her book thematically. The first four chapters describe some of the common frustrations she and other people with disabilities face: urgent pressures to cure their ailments even at great personal cost, discrimination, doubt, and injustice. As Dr. Kenny points out, churches are exempted from compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, (2) which means that people with disabilities are unable to take any legal action if churches decline to accommodate their needs. Apart from the obvious emotional toll this exacts on her and other people with disabilities, there is another problem with this attitude: it is completely contrary to a Christian ethos. We cannot say “come as you are” and then build no ramps for wheelchair users to enter; we cannot follow the Jesus who commanded us to care for the “least of these” and then treat his disabled children as an afterthought. Dr. Kenny also offers several readings of key Scripture passages on disability. Zechariah 8 was especially fascinating, as the prophet foretells that in the New Jerusalem, every old person will hold a cane – a signifier of disability – as a sign of their age.
Chapters 5 is the most personal of the book, as Dr. Kenny confesses her opposition to the ableist order in which she lives. In Chapter 5, she makes it clear that she does not particularly want to be cured of her ailment. In fact, after enduring dozens of experimental treatments with no success, she now simply embraces her disability (much to her doctors’ incomprehension).
Chapters 6 through 10 describe various ways that able-bodied people can be better allies. The focus of this book is, understandably, on learning more about what people with disabilities experience, but Dr. Kenny is also forthright in her call for advocacy and justice work. Chapter 6 discusses microaggressions (and not-so-micro-aggressions). Chapter 7 describes the randomness disabilities can introduce into someone’s energy, mood, and pain levels, and how able-bodied people can understand a disabled person’s experience. Chapter 8 describes the foundations for a theology of disability, while Chapters 9 and 10 suggest that God and the true Church are, in some important ways, disabled already.
Dr. Kenny is especially interested in Christian eschatology (study of the last things and Christ’s Second Coming) and how it impacts her experience. People frequently tell her that her disability is a result of the Fall, and that in heaven she will be able-bodied. The ideal human body, in other words, is a fully able one; disabled bodies are substandard and will be “fixed” at the Second Coming. Against this, Dr. Kenny marshals a formidable arsenal of biblical data drawn from the prophets. Zechariah 8 plays a key role again. Jeremiah 31 promises that God will lead the blind and lame back to Jerusalem on a “level path” – in other words, an accessible path. Micah 4 describes the lame as being members of God’s remnant without any suggestion they must first be cured or made able. All of this suggests that the New Jerusalem is characterized not by the homogeneity of the bodies within it, but by the care that its members show each other. God does not build a perfect city by filling it with able bodies. God builds a perfect city by making one in which all bodies can feel at home.
Dr. Kenny’s incisive and convicting work will be appreciated by many. Her writing style is light, snappy, and appropriate for a nonspecialist. Each chapter concludes with a “Top Ten” list that will both shock and interest the reader. However, the book is not entirely appropriate for someone with no background in disability studies. Important concepts are sometimes introduced without explanation, or explained toward the end of the book rather than when they are first introduced. While Dr. Kenny’s self-described “scream” is convicting and incisive to the reader familiar with disability theory, those less convinced of her general thesis might not walk away persuaded. As such, this book is best read by someone with some exposure to disability issues who is curious to better understand their implications for faith. Such a reader will find this book a rare treat.
Another equally important audience for this book is parish ministers. Those of us in the mainline are usually serving churches with a high concentration of elderly people, and age-related disabilities are quite common. As I read Dr. Kenny’s description of her experiences, I found myself wondering how they might help liberate my parishioners from internalized ageism. How might those living with near total deafness or blindness, for example, benefit from seeking societal healing and inclusion rather than a medically impossible “cure”? Can well-off white disabled congregants come to see how these disabilities unite them with other groups in need of liberation? Perhaps most critically, can Christians of all races, classes, and abilities rethink the Kingdom of God in terms of mutual aid and solidarity rather than a “perfected” – that is, perfectly able – body?
The stakes raised by the lived experience of people with disabilities could not be higher. The Church will be judged based on how it treats such people, and it risks betrayal of its mission if it fails to honor their full humanity. Moreover, the very vision to which the Church aspires is often shaped by ableist underpinnings that dramatically distort Christian witness. We need theologies equal to the magnitude of the challenge before us, and Dr. Kenny’s book is a welcome aid in the work.
Kenny, Amy. My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church, xii. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2022.
Ibid., 34.
