I’m getting my Hauerwas introduction from Nelly through the wonderful little book co-written with Jean Vanier – Living Gently in a Violent World – The Prophetic Witness of Weakness.
Vanier is the founder of L’Arche and lives and works with people who are disabled. The following few lines in the introduction stopped me in my tracks:
If it is correct that in France in the next few years there will be no children born with Down’s syndrome because they will all have been aborted, then something is deeply wrong with our society. As my friend John, who has Down’s syndrome puts it, “That doesn’t make us feel very welcome does it?” And he’s right. One of the very real dangers for people with disabilites in Western cultures is compassion!
The clincher:
Our desire to alleviate suffering in the name of compassion easily leads to the destruction of people whom God has created and loves beyond all things.
the soapbox 