Does dementia diminish our worth? What happens to the image of God in us when a mind changes, fades, or forgets? Is disability the same as suffering? The answers to these questions begin with the words we choose. Our language shapes what we see and whom we value or turn away from.
This week on the podcast, John Swinton reminded me just how much our words matter. As he put it, “the kind of language you use affects the way that you look at the world.”
When we talk about people with disabilities only in terms of “suffering,” John pointed out, then suffering is all we will see. And what do we often do when we see suffering? We withdraw. We create distance. We sometimes hide behind terms and labels.
John urged us to “mind your language. Be very careful about the way that you talk about people,” especially in the context of disability and mental health. Diagnoses can be helpful, but they can also consume a person’s identity. “People get a diagnosis or get a definition of disability and it swallows them up,” he explained. “That becomes all that people can see, all people can think about.”
His alternative? “Make sure you’re always giving people back their names.” When we do that, he said, “other options for friendship, for community, for all sorts of things open up.”
Later in our conversation, John connected this to our theology of the image of God. He noted that as we age, we experience neurological decline. Dementia, he said, brings that reality into sharp focus. “If you assume that the image of God is just the neurological configurations that you have at any moment in history, then you’re always moving away from it.”
But that is not the story scripture tells. “I don’t see anything in the way that the image of God is talked about in scripture that says it fades away and comes back or disappears,” John said. “It’s there. And it’s there because God holds it there… It’s always held by God.”
In a world that labels, distances, and assigns value based on capacity, ability, or productivity, this is very good news. Every person bears God’s image. Not because of what we remember. Not because of what we can do. But because of who God is.
🎙️When the Church Tries to Fix What God Calls Good with John Swinton
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