I will openly acknowledge that Lamar Hardwick, the lead pastor of Atlanta's Tri-Cities Church and a pastor with autism, wasn't on my disability theology radar and I wasn't sure what to expect from his upcoming release "How Ableism Fuels Racism: Dismantling the Hierarchy of Bodies in the Church."
I was blown away.
With "How Ableism Fuels Racism," Hardwick proposes that ableism and the resulting disability discrimination are the root causes of racial bias and injustice in American culture and in the church. Weaving together a tapestry of historical records, biblical interpretation, and disability studies, Hardwick examines how ableism in America led to the creation of images, idols, and institutions that would ultimately fuel both disability and racial discrimination.