Secular Benefits of Religious Participation

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Secular Benefits of Religious Participation

• Jeff McNair, Ph.D
• California Baptist University
• MTI Conference
• 10/05

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• Not surprisingly, the secular and religious
  service systems have even greater ignorance of
  (a) each others existence, (b) each others
  current capacities and activities, and (c) each
  others potential for enhancing the others
  contributions to the lives of families with
  children who have disabilities.
• (Heifetz, 1987, p. 131)

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What do most people do?

• Normative structures in social experience
  Structures experienced by most individuals in
  society (Rappaport, 1993)
• Princeton Religion Research Center
• attended church in the last 7 days

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What is normative?

• 60 of individuals with disabilities from
  religious families (McNair Rusch, 1991)
• 50 of individuals with dd attend church
  (McNair Smith, 2000 Kregel, Wehman, Seyfarth
  Marshal, 1986 Schalock, Harper Carver, 1981)
• 80 of churches have individuals with dd in their
  congregations (McNair Swartz, 1997)
• 81 used religious beliefs to help themselves
  feel better (Rogers, Poey, Reger, Tepper,
  Coleman, 2002)

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What is needed?

• Although many parents of children with
  developmental delays talk about the pervasiveness
  of religion as a cultural theme in their everyday
  lives, this fact is not reflected in the
  literature
• (Weisner, Beizer Stolze, 1991, p. 649)

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Secular benefits of religious participation

• Interpretation of disability

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Interpretation of disability

• Created in the image of God (The Bible)
• Understand ourselves by how we are perceived
  (Haworth, Hill Glidden, 1996)
• Feelings of rejection to feelings of receiving
  Gods grace (Fitzgerald, 1997)
• Others . . .

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Interpretation of disability

• Family connectedness

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Religion and families of children with
developmental delays (Weisner, Beizer Stolze,
1991)
Religious Non-Religious p families
n28 families n2 Religiousity and beliefs about
families and children Family connectedness 77.1
51.7 lt.089 Highly engaged in joint
activities 87.1 41.4 lt.01 Highly compassionate
couple relationships 85.7 55.2 not sig Family
support is the most important focus 42.9 10.7 lt
.033 Did not mention seeking family
support 3.7 34.5 Parental roles Parent rates
nurturance highly impt. part of
role 82.1 41.4 lt.011 Parents definitely were
the final and most responsible agents for
their child 57.7 18.5 lt.014 Child with
developmental delays provided parents with the
opportunity to help 46.2 4.4 lt.003 (Figures
are percentages except for chi-square (p) values
for significance)
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Secular benefits of religious participation

• Interpretation of disability
• Supports

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Supports

• Spiritual supports
• Spiritual growth/stages of faith (Fowler, 1981)
• Physical supports (instrumental supports, Unger
  Powell, 1980)
• Food, money, clothing, etc. (McNair Swartz,
  1997)
• Mediating structures (Berger Neuhaus, 1977)
• Emotional supports
• Membership (Ferguson Ferguson, 1993)
• To families (Fewell, 1986)

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Secular benefits of religious participation

• Interpretation of disability
• Supports
• Networks and network participation

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The Importance of Networks

• Its not what you know, its who you know!
• How is someone integrated?
• Parent/Family/Friend network
• 40-60 of people attend church regularly

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Mediating Structures (Berger Neuhaus, 1977)
Network

• mediating
• structures

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Types of Networks

• State Supported Network
• Contrived Network
• Existing Network
• Self-developed Network

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Network evaluative criteria (McNair, 2000)

1. Durability/Stability 2. Extensiveness
(Laterality, Variability, Verticality, Number of
Members) 3. Community Position 4. Potency
(Physically, Emotionally, Spiritually) 5.
Naturality (Existing, Normalizing, Natural,
Promotes Independence, Provides Dignity,
Potential to contribute to the network) 6. Cost
(Financial, Other) 7. Associated Bureaucracy
(Eligibility Criteria, Waiting Period, Criteria
for Ongoing participation) 8. Reduplication 9.
Sensitivity to the individual case (Caring
Distance) 10. Network philosophy (Participation
rules, Recruitment, Connectivity)- 11.
Accessibility 12. Transportability
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State Supported Network



State agencies
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Contrived Network
circle of friends
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Existing Networks
Local churches
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Self-developed Network
Where everybody knows your name
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Why would a state agency take people to a
faith-based group?

• Durable
• Extensive
• Potent
• Natural
• Cost
• Bureaucracy
• Reduplication

• Sensitive to the individual case
• Network philosophy
• Accessible
• Integrated
• Responsibility
• Community position
• (based upon McNair, 2000)

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Why are churches natural places?

• How do many people become connected with a
  community?
• People come from families
• Contain community members
• Interactions are non-paid
• Help all their members
• Faith group guiding principles

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Real integration

• If agencies are serious about embedding people
  with disabilities in the community as opposed to
  just having them live there, then they must
  assist people in making connections. A
  tremendous potential source of natural
  relationships for people . . . is the church,
  parish, synagogue or mosque. Some group home
  staff members have missed opportunities to enrich
  the lives . . . and increase the number of
  nonpaid relationships they experience by failing
  to be more open to and creative about, connecting
  people to neighborhood churches or reconnecting
  people to the church in which they have grown
  up.
• (Hoeksema, 1995)

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Secular benefits of religious participation

• Personal benefits
• Personal growth
• Greater understanding of right and wrong
• Responsibility through opportunities for service
• Behavioral changes
• Anger
• Language
• Compassion
• Service

• Social benefits
• Friendships
• Recreation opportunities
• Benefits of being a part of a network
• Vocation
• Independent living

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Ensuring access to religious participation

• On one level, not your role . . .
• Person/Family/Friend identifies
• On another level, it is your role . . .
• Must ask the question, Are you interested?
• Tremendous potential benefits to people who
  choose to be involved so they . . .
• Must know they have the choice
• Must know the options they have
• Must be given the opportunity to try out programs
  in order to make a choice

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Note to professionals in a faith-based community

• YOU need to work to develop faith-based supports
  within your church
• No one else within the faith-based institution
  has your level of expertise
• Faith-based group leaders can be a bottle neck
  in fully developing supports within a faith
  setting

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For more information . . .

• Visit the links at my website
• http//www.jeffmcnair.com
• To download powerpoint, click on the link to
  lectures then MTI2005 It should be available
  by this weekend (9/23/2005)

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