The Paralympics celebrates our God-given equality. But there’s still a long way to go

After the excitement but ultimate disappointment of the Euros, I’ve enjoyed watching some of the Paris Olympics and now the Paralympics. Team GB is currently second in the medal table and it’s inspiring to see so many of our amazing athletes competing internationally.

However, we might compare the adulation and admiration for our Paralympians with another story in the news this week. Former Paralympian and crossbench peer Tanni Grey-Thompson tweeted about her dreadful experience travelling to Paris by train to commentate at the games. She found herself stranded on a train at Kings Cross, after the train crew and cleaning staff had left. Tanni was unable to summon assistance and in the end had to crawl off the train.

Of course she received apologies after the event from the train company. But from certain followers on the platform formally known as twitter, she also faced a barrage of criticism, suggesting that she shouldn’t be out on her own, shouldn’t have missed her initial train, shouldn’t have such a sense of entitlement…

This is not an isolated incident, and many disabled people find it incredibly difficult to travel by public transport. Issues that non-disabled people might not even notice, such as a lack of lifts or ramps or station staff, turn travel into an almost impossible challenge for many. And despite constant apologies and incremental improvements, the fact that this continues to be a problem seems to me to reflect the way we treat those in society who are different to the majority.

Every human being has etched in his personality the indelible stamp of the Creator

Responses range from dismissive (“oh it only affects a few people, it’s not a big issue”) to condescending (“shouldn’t you take a carer with you when you go out?”), to downright hostile (“why should they expect special treatment?”).

Those who are in a minority – whether through disability, race or religion – are often in effect seen as less deserving of respect and decent treatment than others.

Infinite worth

As Christians we have something very special and unique to say about all of this. The gospel gives each and every human being an awesome God’s-image-bearing dignity that we must not downgrade or ignore.

This concept certainly wasn’t familiar to ancient pre-Christian cultures. I read once of a letter from a Roman centurion who was away at war, to his wife who was pregnant. He casually writes about the harvest, about the weather and then says that, if the baby turns out to be a girl, she is to kill her…before moving back to writing about trivial matters to do with the family estate. We are horrified by this attitude nowadays, but perhaps we should consider the views of our own society where pregnancies can be terminated up to birth for disabilities such as Down Syndrome.

Christianity brings the radical and counter cultural principle that - given that all human beings are made in the image of God - they are all equally valuable at every stage of life.

Martin Luther King wrote in 1967 that this means: “There is no graded scale of essential worth. Every human being has etched in his personality the indelible stamp of the Creator. Every (human) must be respected because God loves him”.

This equal dignity of human life is – in the words of my friend Glen Scrivener – part of the air that we breathe as a society steeped in Christian values. But as the experience of Tanni Grey-Thompson and many other disabled people demonstrates, good intentions and sentimental words are often not followed up with practical, well informed policy change.

The Bible tells us that all humans have ultimate dignity at every stage of their lives. The question is: will we humbly acknowledge that in our thoughts, words and actions?