The Ability of Pain: A Visit & Theological Conversation with Rev. Dr. Garth Baker-Fletcher

Last updated on: July 18, 2015 at 10:46 am by Jeff Hood

The Ability of Pain: A Visit & Theological Conversation with Rev. Dr. Garth Baker-Fletcher 2015-07-18T10:46:27-06:00 Jeff Hood

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

* This interaction is derived from a recent conversation that I had with Rev. Dr. Garth Baker-Fletcher at a rehabilitation facility where he is recovering from hip surgery. A retired professor, Baker-Fletcher is the author of Somebodyness: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Theory of Dignity (1993), *Xodus: An African-American Male Journey (*1996), My Sister, My Brother (with his wife Karen) (1997), Black Religion After the Million Man March (1998), Dirty Hands: Christian Ethics in a Morally Ambiguous World (2000) & Bible Witness in Black Churches (2009). A cherished friend, I affectionately call him Brother Garth.

J: Brother Garth thank you for this time. How do you define pain?

G: I am going to string some defining words together for you. Pain is a shocking, singular, grading, raw, fierce, determined, frightening and empowering experience. How would you define it?

J: Pain is a jolting and dislodging experience that we always want to get out of. We always want to find the way to make it stop. How do you deal with constant pain?

G: I have had lupus since I was a child. The medicine they gave me to treat the lupus destroyed the ball joint in my hip. Literally, I have surgery after surgery to fix this hip implant (it looks like a tadpole). My daughter has always called me handicapable. I’ve always pushed back against being in a wheelchair. Regardless, I had ten surgeries in the first ten years that I had this implant and I’ve had to just stop counting since then. The pain was jolting and dismembering at first and has since become a chronic event that keeps me away from the business of life. Being in regular pain and in the hospital is an isolating experience. I often feel very alone. People make the assumption that they can’t comfort you and therefore they stay away. The sense of solitude is an additional corresponding painful sickness.

J: The spiritual pain seems as raw as the physical pain.

G: There is no question about it Brother Jeff. You have develop a spirituality capable of pushing back. You have to dare to believe in a God that has the strength and fortitude to carry you through. Do you think there is such a thing as social pain?

J: The pull of the normative is strong. Our sickness is that we expect everyone to be like everyone else. We create categories and force people to fit. If you are black then you need to act black. If you are gay then you need to act gay. If you are white then you need to act white. The categories become a prison that does not allow for individual expression. Our uniform expectations are the weapons that we use to inflict social pain on others. Do we not understand that queerness is a gift from God? Living into our spirit we are able to combat the sickness of uniformity. There is nothing more painful than living in a society that expects you to be something other than you. So what we do is we get on a pain management regiment. Our spiritual life is our only form of pain management. To be born is to suffer. We have to find a way to survive despite the pain. Unfortunately, we have developed this sense that everything is supposed to be safe and pain free. We are delussional. The only way we can live honestly is by pushing into the danger of life with an eschatological hope that God will meet us in the end.

G: I have had five surgeries in the last year. I am now in a position of chronic pain. Over and over I have experienced the shock of pain. I feel this is very connected to our social sicknesses. Those who exist outside our normativities are faced with shocking pain over and over. Violence is a regular occurrence because the antinormative is the greatest threat to normativity. At 59, I have finally come to the conclusion that I am disabled. To be disabled in this society is to be on the outside. The only way the disabled person gets to come back in on the inside is if you conform to the expectations of the society. Normativism is the meta-ism. All other oppressions flow out of a concept of normal. I will probably be in pain the rest of my life. Our society teaches us that pain is something we have to get over. What happens when you’re not going to get over it?

J: What happens if we start to view disability as a higher level of ability? It seems to me that those who are learning how to live through pain on the level that you are…are almost superhuman. I think about my dear friend Rev. Justin Hancock. From a motorized wheelchair, Justin does more in one day than most people accomplish in a lifetime. Disabled persons seem to be functioning at a higher level of spiritual ability.

G: When I started experiencing the othering of disability in my younger years, everyone assumed that I just needed to be healed. I have had no more painful of experiences than people trying to heal me. As I have grown older, I have realized that often I am the one that needs to be doing the healing.

J: Have you ever thought of yourself as superhuman?

G: I had a dream one time along those lines. When I was a teenager, I dreamed that I carried all the pain that I had on my back. I was so strong. I looked like a superhero. I had muscles everywhere. When I looked at the rest of the world, all the people looked like stick figures. I have thought about that dream ever since. In the mystical nature of that experience, I realized that going through this pain was a gift that I could give the world. I think there is a sense that the disabled are spiritually superhuman. I think you have some of that.

J: In my own suffering with bipolar disorder, I have to come to a place where I saw my mental disability as a mental ability.

G: We have that connection as well. In the words of some of the disability theorists, maybe we should call ourselves differently-abled.

J: I still don’t think that gets at the spiritual point we are making…that disability is a higher spiritual level of ability.

G: On some level, I agree with you. Although, I think we are on the right track. We have got to lead an uprising against these normative terms and ideas that have oppressed our ability to truly see and experience our self and each other for so long.

Amen.

fresh writings

Thoughts

Previous Post

July 17, 2015

The Vision

Next Post

July 21, 2015 The Apocalypse

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Danny & Jeff fresh writings latest poetics north texas fellowship of reconciliation Sermon theology from death row Thoughts Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who were the first two sons of Adam and Eve?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Seth and Enosh Cain and Abel Isaac and Ishmael Jacob and Esau