Sadly, because of the influence of secular culture found in media, schools, and even most churches, you won’t find God’s Truth lived out in the current special needs culture. In fact, surveys show that 87% of special needs families end in divorce.

Unfortunately, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. The narrative being propagated through even the most well-meaning professionals and programs within the special needs community are ultimately not anchored in the Truth of God’s Word. Without the hope of Jesus and the blessing of the body of Christ, it’s no wonder why these families fail to remain families.

By and large, the church has lost its way in this community. On top of the natural barriers to attending a church as a special needs family, the theology of special needs has literally been hijacked by the world. The church today has in many ways, traded in the Truth of God’s Word, for the “professional” recommendations of a “me” focused culture, essentially promoting a victim mentality among these special people and their families. As the people of God progressively buy into the cultural narrative that the “special needs professionals” do it best, the church loses sight of what God says about the people He has made in His image and the family He has designed to thrive for His glory. This drift has been detrimental to the special needs family and society in general. These children and families are no longer encouraged to "rise to the occasion," but rather enabled to continue in a "me" focused reality, resulting in further frustration and discontentment of their circumstances.

Unfortunately, this is not even the worst of it. As a result of this reality, many churches and organizations today are not even sharing or upholding the Truth of the Gospel with this population. In fear of adding "insult to injury," or dismissing the intellectual ability of someone who is nonverbal, the sinfulness of sin and the need for a Savior through Jesus is over-simplified to "Jesus is your friend." This half-truth becomes a lie, skipping over the fact that we are all born into sin and in desperate need of a Savior--each one of us, regardless of complexities. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, coming down to live among us, living a perfect life on our behalf, suffering the consequences for human sin, providing payment for our sins through His death on the cross, and offering the hope of eternity with Him through His resurrection. Yes, Jesus is the Christian's friend Who knows our weaknesses and all of our needs, but to stop there is to fall gravely short of the Truth. He is ultimately, above all, our Savior. When you skip over the sinfulness of sin, you miss the merciful beauty of the Gospel through Jesus. If you miss the merciful beauty of the Gospel, you have missed the Gospel altogether.