Newspaper obituaries are a useful window onto history and reading accounts of the life of the late politician Alf Morris this week reminded me just how different Britain was 50 years ago before Morris and fellow MP Jack Ashley championed the disabled. Until the late 1960s disability was something that was seen as essentially a private misfortune. When I was a child you would often see outside shops models of little children in callipers holding out a collection box. They were objects of pity and seen as different. Alf Morris altered all that, introducing with cross-party support legislation to make life easier for the disabled. But Morris didn't just help improve facilities, mobility and access, he also helped change a mindset. Disabled people were not to be hidden from view but were as much part of society as the able-bodied. We've still a long way to go, as recent stories about the harassment and bullying of people with special needs shows. But there's certainly been change, driven by a desire for social justice. In the Christian tradition that desire for social justice has been inspired by the account in Matthew's Gospel of how people will be judged by the way they treat others. Christ tells his followers that people will be blessed if they serve the vulnerable as if they are responding to God himself. "When I was hungry, you fed me, " Christ says, "When I was sick you cared for me, when I was in prison you visited me. " It's clear from the Gospels that at the time of Christ people with disabilities or disease were on the outside of society, and were often feared. An illness like leprosy or a disability put you on the margins. But Christ urged that the vulnerable should be drawn back into society, that the rest should walk alongside them. And yet there's still a danger with Christ's call to visit the sick and feed the hungry that it will be interpreted as an invitation to bestow our help like Lady Bountiful's, to make a distinction between them and us. But Christ's words must be read alongside his other urging too: to love one's neighbour as oneself. Then feeding the hungry or caring for the sick is about giving people respect and dignity because we understand they are, indeed, just like us. Alf Morris and Jack Ashley helped society make huge strides but they wouldn't have wanted people to be complacent. The disabled might have been given more respect. But what about the elderly or those with dementia? They seem in sore need of an Alf Morris, and of society being reminded of Christ's words too.
新闻讣告是非常实用的历史之窗，本周，读着已经作古的政治家阿尔夫·莫里斯的生平，我意识到50年前的英国和如今相比是多么的不同。那时，莫里斯和同为议员的杰克·阿什利还没有开始捍卫残疾人的权利。在1960年代之前，残疾被视为个人的不幸。在我的孩提时期，常常会看到戴着双脚规形夹孩子们拿着募捐箱站在店外，像模特般一动不动。人们十分同情他们，视其为异类。阿尔夫·莫里斯改变了这一切。他引进了跨党派支持法案，残疾人的生活因此轻松了不少。然而莫里斯不仅仅帮助改善了设施，使残疾人的出行更加方便，他还改变了人们的观念。残疾人不再躲藏在人们的视线外，而和健全人一样是组成社会的一份子。鉴于最近有关特殊人群遭受骚扰和欺负的报道，我们还有很长的一段路要走。不过在社会正义的驱使下，情况发生了明显的变化。在基督教中，《马太福音》激发了人们对社会正义的渴望，它讲述了人们如何对待他人，就会受到怎样的评判。基督告诉他的追随者，如果他们像服务上帝那样服务弱者，他们就能得到上帝的赐福。“当我饿的时候你给我食吃，”基督说，“当我生病的时候你照顾我。当我入狱时你来看望我。”从福音书中可以很明显的看出，在基督那个年代，残疾人或病人是游离于社会之外的，并常常让人感到害怕。残疾还有麻疯病这类疾病把人推向社会边缘。但基督呼吁弱者应当被带回社会，其他人则应陪在他们周围。然而在基督的呼吁声中仍存在着危险因素，他要求人们探望病人，给饥饿的人食吃，这会被诠释为像富太太一样去施舍，会在他们和我们之间划下一道鸿沟。不过基督的这番话应和他说的其它的话放在一起看：像爱自己一样爱自己的邻居。那么，给饥饿的人食吃或者探望病人就是在给他们尊重和尊严，因为我们明白他们和我们一模一样。阿尔夫·莫里斯和杰克·阿什利帮助我们的社会前进了一大步，但是他们绝不愿意人们就此自鸣得意。残疾人应得到更多的尊重。不过老年人和痴呆患者又应如何呢？他们似乎亟需一个类似阿尔夫·莫里斯这样的人，还需要一个把基督的话语铭记在心的社会。
