Would you support disabled Christians, Muslims or Hindu?

[Eric_Hyom]

If you had a job supporting people with disabilities, some of whom cannot get into town on their own, how would you feel about supporting them in their place of worship if they were an Anglican or Muslim or Hindu?

Eric

 

[Valke2]

I think it would be a great sin to refuse to support such a person if that was my job.

 

[Publisher]

If we are all made in the image of God and carry within us a portion of the Light of Christ, that Light which enlightens every person no matter what faith, I would consider it a privelege to do so, it would be an act of compassion and mercy.

 

[Auriel]

Of course I would. I would not even have to think twice about!

 

[pigtown]

Did Mother Teresa refuse to help the Hindu population in India? She is a good example of the way we should all act. A person’s religion shouldn’t matter. If helping him means entering his house of worship, then go.

 

[KarenNC]

If you had a job supporting people with disabilities, some of whom cannot get into town on their own, how would you feel about supporting them in their place of worship if they were an Anglican or Muslim or Hindu?

If you had a job running a cash register, do you get to determine what folks are allowed to buy?

Turn it around and ask yourself whether if you were to become disabled and unable to provide your own transportation, would you want your assistants to help you continue to attend the form of worship of your choice or are you content to leave it up to whatever they want to do?

If your child were severely disabled and had to be placed somewhere and/or needed assistants to go anywhere, would you want your child to have the option to continue in your faith tradition or have to attend that of whichever aide happened to be working that shift (if s/he had the chance to attend at all)?

If you cannot bring yourself to do this part of your job, perhaps you need to look for another one.

 

[dessert]

If you had a job supporting people with disabilities, some of whom cannot get into town on their own, how would you feel about supporting them in their place of worship if they were an Anglican or Muslim or Hindu?

Eric

I worked in home care for many years, and drove people to many places and of course it was my job but there are many who have no one. and Jesus said this is the person you see you help.
There are many war veterns that have no one so I believe God wants us to help.
If I went to their place of worship I would have to be seperate and I don’t think they would expect me to join in as a worship member.
D.

 

[Mirdath]

I’d go. Wouldn’t participate in the service, of course, but I would stay by my charge respectfully. It isn’t about me; I have a duty to the people who are my responsibility.

On a related note, I’ve given some consideration over time to the thought that one of my hypothetical future children might someday ‘get religion’. I came to much the same conclusion: I’d go with them, be a part of the social community if not the faith community, and support the kid in his or her decision. It’d be my job as a parent, and one I would do willingly and graciously.

 

[SerenaHC]

Ditto, ditto, ditto. When I worked in group homes, I took residents to the Quaker silent meetings. It’s a nice time to pray quietly in your own tradition. You don’t have to participate with them, just do your job so they can follow their own beliefs.

Where I worked, it was the law that people in group homes had the right to practice their religion. Refusing to take someone to do that could be a problem legally.

 

[mommyof4]

I think it would be a great sin to refuse to support such a person if that was my job.

I agree.

 

[strngrnrth]

I could never help people go to a religious service I don’t believe in unless I had a way to talk to them about my own beliefs. I think it would be encouraging a mistake to deliver them to a false religion. A big mistake. I couldn’t do that to them without at least trying to help them toward knowing the Truth. I haven’t had this dilemma at work yet, but I am in a position of responsibility to the disabled at work and I have thought about related issues.

 

[SerenaHC]

I could never help people go to a religious service I don’t believe in unless I had a way to talk to them about my own beliefs. I think it would be encouraging a mistake to deliver them to a false religion. A big mistake. I couldn’t do that to them without at least trying to help them toward knowing the Truth. I haven’t had this dilemma at work yet, but I am in a position of responsibility to the disabled at work and I have thought about related issues.

Although I understand your dilemma, if you’re working in their home in supported living, a group home environment, or an institution, you’re in their home, not yours, and you can’t force your beliefs on them. However, you can be absolutely scrupulous about your own conduct at work so that they are drawn to you and the source of your personal holiness. And there’s nothing stopping you from wearing a cross or a T-shirt with an inspirational saying on it. You just have to remember that this is your job, not your neighborhood, and you are governed by rules and regulations to allow the clients you serve free practice of their own religion. Don’t worry. Holy Spirit will take care of them, since they’re generally not able to make the best decisions for themselves.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Thanks for all the replies, I found them very helpful, and of course I welcome any other views too I know this question has posed a huge test of conscience, and I think to admit openly is very brave; whatever your point of view may be. My own views and actions are to support people whatever their faith, but this was not always so; there was a time I would have been troubled about going into another place of worship.

The kind of job I do now is not for everyone and I am starting to understand the reality of sacrificing your own needs and desires unconditionally; it is not always easy to do when supporting someone else; even if they are disabled.

Just to bring one further thought for consideration, the company I work for supports a few thousand people with varying disabilities in homes around the UK. Do you think it would be better to have some homes with say just Muslims in, and some Christian, some atheist, etc.

Or do you feel there is any advantage in having diversity of beliefs in all the homes?

In the spirit of praying for greater interfaith friendship

Eric.

 

[KarenNC]

I could never help people go to a religious service I don’t believe in unless I had a way to talk to them about my own beliefs. I think it would be encouraging a mistake to deliver them to a false religion. A big mistake. I couldn’t do that to them without at least trying to help them toward knowing the Truth. I haven’t had this dilemma at work yet, but I am in a position of responsibility to the disabled at work and I have thought about related issues.

Then you would do well ethically to only seek employment in situations that are run explicitly by and for people who share your religious beliefs or that do not involve assisting others in this way so that the issue does not arise given that you know this to be a weakness of yours.

Proselytizing to clients is never okay, especially if those disabilities include cognitive disabilities or mental illness. It is not ethically okay because you are in a position of power and trust over them. It is for much the same reason that sexual contact with clients is not okay—they are not considered to be in a situation to be able to truly consent fully, like a student with a teacher, a patient with a doctor, etc.

Again, put your child in that position. If your child with mental retardation or mental illness lived in a group home, would you expect him to be able to attend church (your affiliation lists Christian) without hindrance or attempts to convert him even if his assistant for that day was Muslim or Wiccan? Or would you expect to have to put up with regular deliberate attempts to actively convert him to Islam or Wicca as the price he has to pay to get a ride to church?

In short, it is unethical to abuse one’s position of trust in that manner.

 

[KarenNC]

Just to bring one further thought for consideration, the company I work for supports a few thousand people with varying disabilities in homes around the UK. Do you think it would be better to have some homes with say just Muslims in, and some Christian, some atheist, etc. Or do you feel there is any advantage in having diversity of beliefs in all the homes.

There are certainly advantages in those in the home sharing the same beliefs as it makes it easier to attend religious services together if desired (and the simple logistics of getting several folks to different religious services potentially at the same time with limited staff), celebrate holidays together, deal with any dietary concerns, etc. Also, hopefully, that would mean that any staff working those homes would know going in that this was the situation and that if they had problems with being able to deal with doing their job for a Jewish or Muslim or Christian (or Catholic, as that raises issues for some Christians) resident they would not work in that environment. There may also be issues of the desires of the individual residents (or their guardians) to live with folks who share their beliefs if possible.

There are other issues than simply religion to consider as well—individual compatibility (just because two folks are Christian doesn’t mean they are going to get along well as roommates), levels of support required and hence staffing requirements, population density (are there enough atheists or Muslims or Hindus in a particular area to have a home just for them that still allows them to be near family), is there enough funding to provide individual settings like this, etc.

With a properly trained and supportive staff, a mix of beliefs can be a very enriching experience for some folks. Realize that this is not just a Christian/other situation----you also have to contend with various types of Christianity. The Catholic and the Pentecostal are both Christian, but that doesn’t mean that their religious services are interchangable or should be treated as such.

 

[strngrnrth]

a weakness of yours.

In short, it is unethical to abuse one’s position of trust in that manner.

I don’t feel that way; to me it would be a gross abuse of trust not to share the Truth with a dependent person when the topic is clearly in the air and I have an open chance to speak. If I develop a disability and have to spend the rest of my life in a confined environment and a cure for a fatal disease that I develop is discovered, what if a nurse who knows the cure and has access to it is in charge of ferrying me to one ineffective, expensive and possibly dangerous outmoded therapy after another? Shouldn’t she take a risk by telling me there is a real cure out there, and what it is? To me that kind of courage and outreach to the needy is the heart of moral ethics.

 

[KarenNC]

I don’t feel that way; to me it would be a gross abuse of trust not to share the Truth with a dependent person when the topic is clearly in the air and I have an open chance to speak.

Then, frankly, you do not belong in a situation that would require you to be in such a position over a dependent person unless that person’s guardian agrees with such tactics and knowingly puts that person in such a situation.

If I develop a disability and have to spend the rest of my life in a confined environment and a cure for a fatal disease that I develop is discovered, what if a nurse who knows the cure and has access to it is in charge of ferrying me to one ineffective, expensive and possibly dangerous outmoded therapy after another? Shouldn’t she take a risk by telling me there is a real cure out there, and what it is?

Depends. Are you positing here that you are also of legal age and mentally competent to handle your own affairs? If not, she should approach your guardian on this sort of topic, not you.

Is this nurse taking on the role of making your health decisions for you based on what she thinks is best? Refusing to take you to a treatment you want to pursue because she doesn’t like it, thereby denying you the opportunity to make your own decision?

To me that kind of courage and outreach to the needy is the heart of moral ethics.

Would you call it “courage and outreach to the needy” if someone who were Muslim or Wiccan or Hindu felt and acted the same way toward your dependent person without your permission? Would it be “courage and outreach to the needy” for every school teacher in this country to feel free to proselytize the children in his or her classroom in the name of the religion s/he prefers? They may feel just as strongly as you that they have the “Truth” and that it would be a good thing to do.

Is it “courage and outreach to the needy” when a Protestant attempts to convert the child of a Catholic without the consent of the child’s parent? Or a Catholic attempts to convert the child of a Protestant?

The “heart of moral ethics” is not taking advantage of one’s position of power over another to unduly and inappropriately influence them to one’s own point of view.

 

[mommyof4]

The “heart of moral ethics” is not taking advantage of one’s position of power over another to unduly and inappropriately influence them to one’s own point of view.

 

[strngrnrth]

The “heart of moral ethics” is not taking advantage of one’s position of power over another to unduly and inappropriately influence them to one’s own point of view.

Yet I see the issue as a matter of sharing or withholding vital information in a time when it is needed most.

 

[KarenNC]

Yet I see the issue as a matter of sharing or withholding vital information in a time when it is needed most.

Then choose an appropriate venue and method in which to do so. To make a person’s ability to attend their chosen form of religious worship contingent on having to first listen to you proselytize to them about your own worship is inappropriate.

I do not know with which Christian group you are affiliated, but for the purposes of illustration, let’s say that you are Baptist. Would it be appropriate for a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses to stand outside the entrance to your church and require that, in order to have the possible option (not guarantee) to enter the Baptist church, everyone must first listen to the sales pitch of the JW’s? And then they get to decide whether or not they feel like letting you enter that Baptist church even after listening to their pitch?

That next week, the Catholics were on duty, so you had to listen to the Catholics tell you all about how wrong not only the Baptist church is, but also the JW’s, and how much better theirs is before you could enter? Then we follow that up the next week with the Mormons? And on, and on, and on? Each group also promises that if you will only come to their church, you won’t ever have to listen to such a lecture again, you will have total free and clear access and they will be happy to take you as many times as you like.

Remember that you have no way to get into the church unless whoever happens to be there that day agrees to let you in. Remember that the people you are having to repeatedly say “no” to (and potentially make angry) in order to get to your church may also control your access to things like leaving the house, even going to the bathroom, getting out of bed or eating.

At what point do you give up attempting to attend your own religious worship service of sheer frustration and exhaustion with this process, particularly if your emotional and physical resources are already stretched to the limit just in dealing with your disability? At what point does a person who may have a mental illness or cognitive disability become hopelessly confused about how to stand up for his or her rights to worship in the way they please or say “yes” to one of the groups just to make them happy or get them to shut up?