Moral Injury and Religious Ableism: A Constructive Vision for a Future of Disability Justice

Existing in a world not built for disabled bodies and within millennia of hierarchical church history which still today too often insists that some bodies are better than others, this paper examines the moral injury experienced by disabled people when dealing with the ableist theology of their faith communities. While in recent years some scholars working at the intersection of psychology and disability have thought about moral injury itself as a type of disability, I am instead interested in the way that ableist theologies taught by and reinforced in community cause moral injury for disabled Christians whose perception of the Divine does not match the embedded, communal theologies they have been taught. Through dialogue with disabled and not-yet-disabled scholars, this paper offers a first practical step beyond religious ableism in order to disrupt the continuing violence and cocreate healing for disabled beloveds who have been morally injured by the church.