Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

Troubling the water, a gospel for the ‘unmet’

OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist  |  March 16, 2023

These days, I can’t get this Gospel text out of my head:

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The ill man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.”  Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

That story from John 5:1-9 has haunted me since March 9, 2023, when I joined an audience of several hundred people in the ACE Theater Complex at the North Carolina School of the Arts for the premiere of “Unmet: North Carolina’s Two Developmental Disability Crises,” a documentary focusing on families of adult children with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The two crises include:

  • That more than 15,000 disabled individuals are on a waiting list for a North Carolina Innovations Waiver that would fund in-home and community services, enabling them to avoid institutionalization.
  • That low salary funding makes finding in-home caregivers difficult if not impossible.

Limited funding for the waiver program by the North Carolina Legislature has left some people on the waiting list for upward of 20 years. Further, disabled North Carolinians featured in the film have aged out of other publicly funded programs, and their families cannot afford extensive caregiver assistance.

Bill Leonard with with the film’s producer, photojournalist Robin Rayne.

While one of those individuals received the Innovations Waiver, his male caregiver, who affirms love and admiration for his client, acknowledges personal difficulties in making ends meet given the low hourly wages (set by the Legislature).

Those not yet admitted to the waiver program have significant physical and intellectual disabilities. Caring for them requires substantial energy, sensitivity and personal responsibility; their parents are senior citizens, ever concerned for their children’s future.

A substantial number of the film’s viewing audience was seniors, each of us apprehensive about the future of our sons and daughters when we are no longer in the world, a reality that ultimately confronts every such family.

And our family is no exception. Our daughter, Stephanie, a person with a variety of special needs, turns 48 in April and has lived with us since birth. Candyce and I are in our mid-70s, with reasonably good health, but live with the knowledge we are one MRI away from disaster.

Recently, we shared a Zoom conversation with dear friends in Massachusetts who are our age and also have a daughter with special needs. Our parallel lives mean we often finish each other’s sentences when we compare our situations and the uncertainties of our daughters’ future. Together, we spoke about their gifts and skills, struggles and fragilities, along with their implicit and explicit terror that we will not always be here to offer love and care.

Our two families are but a tiny case study in the thousands of families with “unmet” needs as daughters and sons, mothers and fathers grow older. Here in Winston-Salem, Bill Donohue and Deb Woolard, parents of a son with DownSyndrome, founded the NC Waiver Action Team, to lobby for legislative extension of benefits for those on the ever-expanding waiting list. Interviewed prior to the premiere, Bill was asked what “takeaways” he hoped Unmet would produce.

He responded: “At one level, I want them to be outraged, I want them to be aware. I want them to be curious. I want them to be motivated to share it with their churches and their Scout groups and their neighbors. I want them to be indignant about the Legislature’s inactivity. Mostly I want them to be effective citizens and address everybody in our community as full-fledged fully throated, fully expressed people in our communities.”

He noted: “We have 800 waiting in our county alone. And we hadn’t gotten a waiver in five years. So those 800 became 820, 830.”

“We ask for justice and compassion, advocacy and activism.”

In the midst of this uncertain future, families related to disabled persons do not ask for sympathy, worse yet, pity. We ask for justice and compassion, advocacy and activism in response to gaps in support provided by legislatures and other entities for long-term response.

And what of churches? At this moment in time, innumerable American congregations across the denominational/theological spectrum are at their weakest fiscal and organizational juncture in years. Many are internally divided by “wars” over culture and doctrine. Are they too weak or distracted to assist the disabled?

The issues raised by Unmet took me back to the first article I ever wrote about our daughter. Titled “Handicaps and Wholeness,” it appeared in The Christian Century, March 14, 1984.

It begins with this interrogative:

“Daddy, am I handicapped?” our 8-year-old daughter inquired one day recently. “Who said you were?” I asked, defenses rising. “’The kids,” she replied, “at church.”

They were right. She is a multiply handicapped child, and she was bound to hear that word applied to herself sooner or later. Perhaps it was better to hear it at church than somewhere else. Yet I wonder what the children or adults who readily recognize handicaps in our daughter and other people will do next. Is there really a place in the body of Christ for those with physical and mental deficiencies? As the parent of an autistic teenager recently told me, “If I could find one Sunday school, Protestant or Catholic, that would accept my child, I’d go there.”

In 2023, I no longer use the word “handicapped” to describe Stephanie’s situation, preferring instead the term “person with special needs,” or “intellectually and developmentally disabled.” Always I am struck by the ways in which Jesus of Nazareth identified with and responded to such people in his own world.

As I wrote in 1984, Jesus frequently validates his messianic calling through his response to those outside the “normal” or “respectable” framework of life. When the Baptizer inquired, “Are you the one or should we wait for another?” Jesus replied, “Tell John what you hear and see: the blind recover their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, … (and) the poor are hearing the good news.”

In 2023, I am haunted by Jesus and the man at the “pool of Beth-zatha” who had been waiting 38 years for someone to help him into its healing waters. Reread the text above and note that it has no verse 4, which was added to later manuscripts to explain why the disabled thronged that pool. The KJV translates it beautifully: “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”

“Healing can come even without a cure.”

In John’s Gospel, Jesus responds to the man’s disability and “he picked up his mat and began to walk,” apparently fully cured. Not so for those who carry that diagnosis in our world. If Jesus’ gospel means anything in 2023, then we are the ones who must respond to the people who “have no one to” help them toward a healing quality of life in long-term safety and protection. We are the ones who must “trouble the water,” to provide healing through community services, vocational training, attentive caregivers, and a secure place to live when parents can no longer do so. Healing can come even without a cure.

Many are still waiting for that kind of sustaining care. Might we and our churches find ways to “trouble the water” in response to those with special needs here and now? Surely, we can do that; indeed, we must. At the very least, we can vote for people who will actualize such care for those whose needs remain “unmet.”

That’s water well worth troubling. And when the healing comes, surely, Jesus will be pleased.

Bill Leonard is founding dean and the James and Marilyn Dunn professor of Baptist studies and church history emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C. He is the author or editor of 25 books. A native Texan, he lives in Winston-Salem with his wife, Candyce, and their daughter, Stephanie. 

 

Related articles:

How the male-centered image of God marginalizes women and disabled persons | Opinion by Mallory Challis

When will disability become a personal issue for you? | Analysis by Mallory Challis

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)

OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
More by
Bill Leonard, Senior Columnist
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      News

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      Opinion

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      News

    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      Opinion


    Curated

    • At launch rally in Waco, former president sets the stakes for Trump ’24 campaign with apocalyptic, violent, genocidal rhetoric

      At launch rally in Waco, former president sets the stakes for Trump ’24 campaign with apocalyptic, violent, genocidal rhetoric

    • Judge rules immigration officials violated pastor’s religious freedom rights

      Judge rules immigration officials violated pastor’s religious freedom rights

    • A ‘historic’ day in Israel ends with a political compromise — and big questions about the future

      A ‘historic’ day in Israel ends with a political compromise — and big questions about the future

    • NY’s power to regulate religious schools trimmed by judge

      NY’s power to regulate religious schools trimmed by judge

    Read Next:

    New court documents show First Baptist Houston leaders knew of allegations against Pressler in 2004

    NewsMark Wingfield

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      OpinionCarlisle Davidhizar

    • How the church of the Nashville shooting winds through history, gender wars, church discipline and the SBC sexual abuse study

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      OpinionBrad Schwall

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why we should amplify women in all roles of church leadership

      OpinionBrittany Stillwell

    • Lent, confession and the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • What pastors may not say, but really want us to understand

      OpinionMark Tidsworth

    • Religious leaders must step up to support our trans siblings

      OpinionPaul Brandeis Raushenbush

    • Antisemitic-motivated assaults at record levels

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Peter James Flamming, ‘bridge-building’ pastor in Texas and Virginia

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New court documents show First Baptist Houston leaders knew of allegations against Pressler in 2004

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • A tragic tale of death on the Mediterranean Sea amid Tunisian and British migrant backlash

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • To increase congregational health, decrease domestic violence

      OpinionGeneece Goertzen-Morrison

    • Movements expand and contract, Black Lives Matter co-founder says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • From a Gen Z perspective, another ‘Jesus Revolution’ seems improbable

      OpinionMallory Challis

    • Trumpism is leading America to the valley of dry bones

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Christian nationalism runs rampant as Christians and cult leaders alike believe Trump was chosen by God

      AnalysisLaura Ellis

    • Dear churches who invite women to preach

      OpinionSarah Boberg

    • ‘He Gets Us’ is feeding information to data analysts and, ultimately, conservative political groups

      AnalysisKristen Thomason

    • Ukrainians join European Baptists to help quake victims in Syria and Turkey

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Two Baptist seminaries among six ‘recommended’ by new Global Methodist Church

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • How dare they publish that list

      OpinionArthur Wright Jr.

    • Advocates for constitutional ban on female ‘pastors’ in SBC publish a list of 170 churches they deem in violation

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Antisemitic-motivated assaults at record levels

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Peter James Flamming, ‘bridge-building’ pastor in Texas and Virginia

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New court documents show First Baptist Houston leaders knew of allegations against Pressler in 2004

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • A tragic tale of death on the Mediterranean Sea amid Tunisian and British migrant backlash

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Movements expand and contract, Black Lives Matter co-founder says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ukrainians join European Baptists to help quake victims in Syria and Turkey

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Two Baptist seminaries among six ‘recommended’ by new Global Methodist Church

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Advocates for constitutional ban on female ‘pastors’ in SBC publish a list of 170 churches they deem in violation

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Former staff at Knoxville church see a familiar pattern in Northern Seminary’s complaints about Shiell’s leadership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Egged on by evangelical influence, Ugandan Parliament passes harsh new anti-gay bill

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Judge’s dismissal of 36 churches’ lawsuit holds implications for other UMC departures

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Barna finds pastors are exhausted and isolated, which could be an opportunity for change

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • One-third of Northern Seminary students express no confidence in trustees

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • He was wrongly put on Death Row and believes you could be too

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Paula Faris makes a case for motherhood

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Sociologists find LGBTQ United Methodists, allies stay in UMC out of hope

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • First American woman appointed a missionary beat the system by funding herself

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Jimmy Carter leads by example one last time

      NewsMallory Challis

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Karen Swallow Prior to leave Southeastern Seminary

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Acting chair of Northern Seminary board resigns in protest of board’s ‘official silence’ about Shiell

      NewsElizabeth Souder

    • Amid rampant antisemitism, most Americans think highly of Jews 

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      OpinionCarlisle Davidhizar

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      OpinionBrad Schwall

    • Why we should amplify women in all roles of church leadership

      OpinionBrittany Stillwell

    • Lent, confession and the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • What pastors may not say, but really want us to understand

      OpinionMark Tidsworth

    • Religious leaders must step up to support our trans siblings

      OpinionPaul Brandeis Raushenbush

    • To increase congregational health, decrease domestic violence

      OpinionGeneece Goertzen-Morrison

    • From a Gen Z perspective, another ‘Jesus Revolution’ seems improbable

      OpinionMallory Challis

    • Trumpism is leading America to the valley of dry bones

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Dear churches who invite women to preach

      OpinionSarah Boberg

    • How dare they publish that list

      OpinionArthur Wright Jr.

    • ‘Woke’: I don’t think that word means what you say it does

      OpinionRoger Lovette

    • The Russian Orthodox Church is a big loser in the Russian-Ukrainian war

      OpinionAndrey Shirin

    • On the path to immigration justice, it’s time for Biden to change course

      OpinionSalote Soqo

    • If a story is meant to evolve, then so are we

      OpinionKaitlin Curtice

    • Angels among us

      OpinionMary Alice Birdwhistell

    • Let’s stop treating the dignity of women as a secondary issue good Christians can disagree on

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • An Anglican in Babylon

      OpinionLee Enochs

    • Listen to the voices of women

      OpinionKathy Manis Findley

    • Stranger in the Village: James Baldwin and inclusion

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • How can we say thanks? Reflections on the influence of Andrae Crouch

      OpinionDoug Haney

    • The SBC: ‘They are who we thought they were’

      OpinionKris Aaron

    • Blowing the whistle on wedding fouls

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • ‘Grandmas make the best banana bread’

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • Troubling the water, a gospel for the ‘unmet’

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • At launch rally in Waco, former president sets the stakes for Trump ’24 campaign with apocalyptic, violent, genocidal rhetoric

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Judge rules immigration officials violated pastor’s religious freedom rights

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A ‘historic’ day in Israel ends with a political compromise — and big questions about the future

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • NY’s power to regulate religious schools trimmed by judge

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Amid rise in antisemitism, Yeshiva University focuses on Holocaust education

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Is Pope Francis ‘The Only One Who Can Make A Difference’ In Uganda’s Anti-LGBTQ Bills?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • “We Will Fight You for It”: Can Womenpriests Save the Catholic Church?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Whitney Houston’s family wants to highlight her gospel roots

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pelosi on cleric who barred her from Communion: ‘That’s his problem, not mine’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Criminal or Not, Trump’s Case Is a Moral Test for Christians

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Netanyahu vows more active role in Israel’s judiciary fight following a day of tense protests

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Jimmy Carter’s religious values were never far from his presidency or his policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pioneer of gospel music rediscovered in Pittsburgh archives

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • As The King’s College faces closure, scrutiny turns to its backers

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Communicators for Christ: how homeschool debate leagues shaped the rising stars of the Christian right

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israeli leader halts bill against Christian proselytizing

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Trump’s arrest ‘prediction’ inflames holy war narrative and sanctifies violence — welcome to Trump ’24

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • German prosecutors examined late pope in abuse probe

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Court rehears case to protect Oak Flat, an Apache sacred site in Arizona

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Antisemitism on Twitter has more than doubled since Elon Musk took over the platform – new research

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israel’s Reform rabbi and legislator on judicial overhaul: ‘It doesn’t look good.’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israel, Palestinians pledge moves to curb violence ahead of Ramadan

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pope promotes ‘humanitarian corridors’ for asylum-seekers

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Tim Keller and Beth Moore, On and Off the Stage

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Alarmed by their country’s political direction, more Israelis are seeking to move abroad

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS