The R-Word

When Buddy was diagnosed with Williams syndrome, we read a lot of literature that used the phrases learning disabilities, cognitive delays, and intellectual disabilities. In years past, the phrase mental retardation was used to describe those with Williams syndrome and the like.

March 2 was the national Spread the Word to End the Word day--a day dedicated to raising awareness about the use of the word retard in all of its various forms. I appreciate the fact that the addage "words can never hurt me" is not true, and that words do have the power to inflict pain. And I appreciate the desire to raise awareness about the harm just one word, when used pejoratively, can do. However, it seems to me that eradicating a word from a nation's vocabulary isn't necessarily the answer.

Those truculent bullies who currently use the r-word to demean others will simply find another word with which to tease and taunt, will they not? Soon enough, I would surmise, learning disability will become the new r-word and those in the know will come up with yet another euphemism to describe those with mental handicaps. And what sense does it make for a teacher to reprimand a student for using a word that is "dehumanizing" and then turn around and teach that same student that, within the evolutionary worldview, we're nothing more than animals descended from ape-like creatures?

Instead, I would suggest the focus should be on teaching that each individual--regardless of mental capacity, skin color, or gender--is an image-bearer of the Creator. God has created everyone fearfully and wonderfully and with the purpose of bringing glory to Himself. We do not share an ancestor with apes, nor are some people more "highly evolved" than others. And, in His Word, the Creator has shown us through His Son that we are to be kind to one another, speaking to and about each other with gentleness, helping those who are weaker than ourselves. We can encourage people to understand that each of us is in the same position before our Creator--sinners in need of salvation. When we receive the gift of eternal life in Christ, we are transformed inwardly through the power of the Holy Spirit into the image of the Son of God.

While there's a certain dagger that runs through my heart when I hear someone carelessly use the r-word, it seems to me that discontinuing a word isn't necessarily the answer but that reminding people of what the Word teaches is.