The DRM Guide to Disability Resources on the Internet: Sponsors

	DISABILITY RESOURCES ONLINE
	Monitoring, Reviewing and Reporting on Resources For Independent Living
	Updated 11/2008
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Two New Views Of Religion

Including People With Disabilities In Faith Communities: A Guide For Service Providers, Families, & Congregations
by Erik W. Carter
Paul H. Brookes Publishing, 2007. Softcover, 236 pages, $24.95.



A Dynamic God: Living An Unconventional Catholic Faith
by Nancy Mairs
Beacon Press, 2007. Hardcover, 142 pages, $23.95.
Here at disabilityresources.org, we tend to stay away from taking stands on "hot" topics – that is, of course, unless such controversial topics are disability-related. When we come across books dealing with disability and its relationship with a subject such as religion or politics, for instance, we feel obligated to pass along this information to our readers, while knowing that it will not interest all of them. With that thought in mind, however, we would like to spotlight two recent books that focus on disability and religion for those readers who might find them of interest.

In Including People With Disabilities In Faith Communities, author and advocate Erik W. Carter examines how congregations from the Judeo-Christian faiths, can go beyond merely ramping entrances to making their houses of worship and all their activities truly accessible. In addition, he examines how caregiving professionals can liaison with congregations to widen opportunities for involvement in worship, community activities, social and spiritual growth, and age-appropriate roles. This thought-provoking work explores ways everyone can work to move from segregation of people with mainly developmental disabilities to full integration in all aspects of a congregation.
Ordinarily, we wouldn't recommend a volume of personal essays titled A Dynamic God, but, as long-time readers of disability literature will attest, any book by Nancy Mairs is cause for celebration. Mairs, a feminist scholar and disability activist with a highly-respected body of memoirs detailing her world view shaped by multiple sclerosis, continues her familiar themes of radical faith and activism, the merging of the personal and the political, and how faith shapes her family life. Always to the point and spiritually and globally motivated, Mairs has written another book that defies categorization as much as its author.

-Reviewed by Sally Rosenthal


About the reviewer: A former college librarian and occupational therapist, Sally Rosenthal, a frequent writer on the topics of disability, companion animals, and working dogs, attends a progressive church with her guide dog who sleeps through the sermons.