Not part of flock ADVERTISING Not part of flock Jesus is the champion of the little people. He even welcomed the tax collector and the prostitute. There are some people in Hawaii County who are handicapped, who are not welcomed
Not part of flock
Jesus is the champion of the little people. He even welcomed the tax collector and the prostitute.
There are some people in Hawaii County who are handicapped, who are not welcomed by those who would represent Jesus Christ. … They welcome those who arrive in a wheelchair or with crutches or a cane. They do not, however, welcome those who are aided by a service dog.
Those of us who depend on a service dog are not welcomed in Hawaii County’s Catholic churches. For there is a little-known loophole in the ADA law that allows churches to turn us away.
There are service dogs who aid the blind. They are called Seeing Eye dogs. Their owners are not welcomed in Catholic churches. Those people must leave their dogs behind and find another human whose arm they can cling to in order to attend Mass. They must leave their dignity behind.
There are those who suffer from seizure disorders and whose dogs sense the change in chemistry and are able to warn them before the seizure occurs. They are not welcomed. Danger awaits, should they go, for no human in the assembly is equipped to do what that dog can do.
Ditto for the human service dog team partners who are diabetic and who depend on their service dogs to warn them when their blood sugar levels are dangerously low. Their dogs are not welcomed. The human cannot safely attend Mass. They cannot go. For those of us who are balance-, strength- or gait-impaired, our service dogs are not welcomed either. We are not welcomed at Mass, for where the dog cannot go, we cannot go.
You see, there is a special bond between a human and a service dog. A special sense of what is needed and useful and what is not. To leave a service dog behind is to interfere with that ever-fluid communication.
The interaction between a service dog and a human is more than communication, it is constant training, and this is the nature of the human/animal relationship. Any professional animal trainer will tell you that.
I have been told by local priests to just tie the dog up somewhere outside or leave it in the car. I would like to think they do not understand how cruel their judgment and rejection is. Jesus would never have said that, and yet they profess to represent Jesus?
Maralyn Renken
Pahoa
