Is calling someone disabled Prejudice?

Many people throw this term around without understanding it’s true meaning so I am looking to get them to think about it in a different light. First let me just say that we are all disabled in some way form or fashion, we are all different and have different skills and abilities. It is what makes us humans unique; we were created in God’s image, all of us. The Bible even says, to curse no man for we were made in his image, James 3: 8-10.

Prejudice by definition, is projecting one's own ideas and concepts about an individual onto them without knowledge or validity or truth. These preformed ideas are usually based on limited knowledge regarding a geographic or cultural locale. I contest that in so doing, we are actually disabling our own minds and ourselves. For the definition of disable is; “ to make unable or unfit; weaken or destroy the capability of; cripple; incapacitate: ie. He was disabled by blindness. ”

This is where I would like to pose a general question, since when has focusing on anyone shortcomings ever lifted our perception of anyone or see the best in them or the hope of Christ which lives in us? It doesn’t. If you notice the definition above again, it say to make in the beginning, that is referring to the person who is doing the projecting. The object, or person who you are judging is not actually what you believe they are just because you think it. We as a society must make room in our minds for the possibilities of an individual, and should not limit them to our musing or limited understanding of their attributes.

I would like to suggest that we are called to a higher calling, one of enablement, both of our minds and others. In Corinthians 12:11-13 , Paul mentions that we are all part of one body with diverse gifts and callings and that we should exhort one another in Hebrews 10:25. So I encourage you to step out of that box we have been living in and have an open mind regarding people’s abilities. I ask you to see them as different-abled and not disabled and renew your mind as in Romans 12:2.

P.S. Just another additional thought that crossed my mind on the subject. Sometimes we focus so much on the ability that we lose sight of the person and in our minds they become the disability we percieve and stop being the person. We need to all stop objectifying each other and accept each other as Christ did for us.