185: Dis / Ability

**Kirk Patston** (0:00)
At the historical moment that we're in, there's a reluctance to put any negative language around impairment. So I appreciate all of that.
That said, I feel like in all of that really well-motivated stuff, we've lost the capacity to say disability has a sadness in it.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
Will you marry me?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:38)
I'd make a good husband, Jenny.

**Amos Yong** (0:43)
You would, Forrest.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:47)
But you won't marry me.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:52)
You don't want to marry me.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:57)
Why don't you love me, Jenny? I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is.

**John Dickson** (1:15)
That's one of those heart wrenching moments in cinematic history. The moment Forrest Gump played by Tom Hanks tells his best friend Jenny that he loves her only to receive a seeming rejection. Forrest Gump won six Academy Awards and another 45 awards because it managed to successfully capture the joyous simplicity of the life of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75
The moment is heartbreaking. Though because we realize that both friends are speaking the truth to each other. Forrest is not a smart man as the world measures smartness, but he is a good man and he'd make a loving husband. He's different from us, but at the same time, he's one of us. And that's the nub of the troubled relationship with disability.
Is Forrest disabled? He can't do certain things like conjugate verbs and complex mathematics, which I can't do either, but he can run, he can communicate, he can drive a fishing boat. And with the support of others, he's capable of much more. So in those respects, he's not disabled at all.
And I should say that the word disabled is a contested term. Some reckon it shouldn't be used at all because the dis in the word disability has negative connotations. After all, it comes from a Latin term meaning to lack something or miss or fail. But as of 2026, when we're recording, disabled still is the standard terminology. When there's an agreed alternative, I'll be changing quick smart. But I'll use the standard term for the rest of this episode, acutely aware that it might not be the best language for many people. And that brings us back to Forrest. Is he someone to inspire us, someone who needs our compassion perhaps, or someone to simply let be?
Maybe it's all of the above. Maybe disabilities are meant to be both celebrated and, in a way, mourned. And if that sentence makes you feel uncomfortable, you're in good company. The company of people who have wrestled with Christianity and disability. Is disability something to be ashamed of? How should we respond to it? Should we be trying to cure it? And will there be disability in heaven? Big questions. I'm John Dickson, and this is Undeceptions.
Each episode of Undeceptions, we explore some aspect of life, faith, history, science, culture or ethics that's either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten. With the help of people who know what they're talking about, we're trying to underieve ourselves and let the truth out.

**Jerra Patston** (5:13)
Something like this, fellas. One, two, three, four.

**John Dickson** (6:03)
Well, that's my new friend Jerra Patston. Viewed one way, Jerra is a 29-year-old man with an intellectual disability, autism, and a list of other things. And then you blink and you see a guy who's a great singer, a creative songwriter, and a joyful conversationalist.
Jerra, tell me how long have you been playing music?

**Jerra Patston** (6:31)
For about five years.

**John Dickson** (6:33)
Five years?

**Jerra Patston** (6:34)
29

**John Dickson** (6:35)
Yeah. And so you sing and you play guitar?

**SPEAKER_8** (6:39)
Yeah.

**Jerra Patston** (6:40)
Percussively. I call it percussively because it's a percussive instrument.

**Amos Yong** (6:44)
Yeah.

**Jerra Patston** (6:45)
So you can just strum it.

**Amos Yong** (6:46)
Yeah.

**Jerra Patston** (6:47)
And normally, support workers put a capo on.

**Amos Yong** (6:49)
Yeah.

**Jerra Patston** (6:50)
So it's in open tuning. So the idea is to strum it and then make a song out of it.

**John Dickson** (6:56)
Actually play a chord.

**Kirk Patston** (6:58)
Yeah. Yeah.

**John Dickson** (6:59)
And then you write songs as well.

**Kirk Patston** (7:02)
Yeah.

**Jerra Patston** (7:03)
So just about everyday things. So mostly when I had braces on my teeth, when I couldn't eat nachos.

**Amos Yong** (7:09)
Yep.

**Jerra Patston** (7:09)
And the other one I wrote was about Paul McCartney. Didn't play Mulligan Tire in the video clip.

**Amos Yong** (7:17)
Yep.

**Kirk Patston** (7:17)
Yep. Yep.

**John Dickson** (7:18)
You went to a concert.

**Jerra Patston** (7:19)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (7:20)
And then he didn't play it.

**John Dickson** (7:21)