Bloody (Evangelical) Christians

[davidgillon]

I'd no sooner rolled onto the high street this afternoon than a teenager came up to me, I'd guess his age at 16-18.

"Excuse me," 

He'd caught me literally half-on and half-off the kerb (fortunately the high street is pedestrianised on Saturdays), so he got a glare to start with.

"Can I ask you a question."

At this stage he could still conceivably have been asking for directions, and he was too smartly dressed to be a beggar.

"What?"

"What happened to you?"

"What? Why should I tell you? Have you any idea how rude that is?"

At this stage he started to look uncertain, but apparently was convinced his answer would show that he was in the right:

"I want to pray for you, I'm a Christian."

Wrong person to try that on.

"Why would you want to do that? You don't want to do anything for me, you want to feel good about yourself. Christianity has an appallingly negative attitude to disability. Look, God created us in his image, yes?"

He nods.

"Well here I am, in his image (gesture at myself and the chair), why would I want to change that? Don't pray for me, go away and pray for your own illumination."

It's never really happened to me before, ISTR short-circuiting a couple of attempts to start up that sort of dialogue and friends have had it happen multiple times, but it's the first time someone has plunged in so bluntly. And of course the wheelchair is probably a factor.

I think the thing that shocked me most about it was demanding to know "what happened to you" as his opening, the utter ignorance of disability and basic etiquette it reveals beggars belief.

Comments

[davidgillon]

{Applause}

There's definitely a problem out there with disabled people regarded as public property, to be interrogated at will. I'm not sure there's any universal solution beyond education, which is a long term solution, but clubbing them individually when they try to stick their noses into our business can't hurt!

[lilysea]

Yeah, if a child is curious I will sometimes politely and mildly engage and say something like "It's a power wheelchair. I use it because walking is bad for me." I want to teach children that wheelchairs are normal and not to be afraid of. (After all, some of them will grow up to need one.)

but I've suffered enough rude adults already that rude adults I encounter in the future will not be coddled.

Another time on a train I had a creepy man in his 40s-50s ask in a really nosey way "How long have you been... [trails off, indicating powerchair]"

and I said in my best cross school teacher voice "That's REALLY NONE of your business" and he got all huffy and apologetic, sputtering about how he didn't mean to be rude, He meant well, Wah wah wah, soothe my ruffled feathers, and I just ignored him until I got off the train at the next stop (which was my stop.)

[cxcvi]

In my experience, the only question that you're allowed to ask like that in the context of trains and wheelchairs is "how long have you been waiting for someone to help you get on [or off] the train?"; The usual answer being along the lines of "too bloody long", of course...

[lilysea]

*nods*

Fortunately this was a train station I could get on and off without anyone helping me... there are several like that in Perth, Western Australia.

[davidgillon]

That! Assuming they turn up at all of course - I'm running about 50-50 on things not going according to plan when travelling by train.

[davidgillon]

{Applause again}

There's the educating children side of things, and then there's the appallingly ignorant adults, and seemingly nothing inbetween.