In other words, the common Christian’s focus on the blessings of the next world might just result in indifference to the injustices suffered by the blind, deaf, and mobility impaired in this world.

Even more resentment gets tossed at Christianity for its ostensible linking of physical and spiritual health. In the epigraph above, David Mitchell and Sharon Sndyer deride the apparent linking of physical healing and forgiveness of sins in the New Testament. As they would have it, Jesus’ healing of diseased or vision impaired individuals suggests that normal bodily function must precede Divine grace. Disability pride rejects such an equation outright because it capitulates to a narrow, stratifying definition of blessed.

Fortunately, physical excellence and health have virtually nothing to do with a robust spirit in the Christian faith. Jesus did not heal the sick because of condescending pity but because of real compassion that valued the perspective of those calling out for help. His healing of the body and forgiveness of sins were discrete, if proximate, events. Physical fitness may have quantifiable benefits on mental and spiritual health, but The Bible forwards no formula demanding it as a prerequisite for salvation. In fact, Jesus even suggests—in a passage I take more seriously than some of my friends—that self-inflicted disability is preferable to giving way under a besetting sin that erodes one’s relationship with God (Matthew 5:29-30).

One thing I like about some horror movies is their assumption that the material and spiritual worlds not only coexist, but are tightly interwoven. What happens to the body has consequences to the spirit, and vice versa: significant changes in the mind and heart often manifest themselves in the material world.

In the Pang brothers’ The Eye (2002), a young woman unable to see for most of her adult life is given a cornea transplant and regains most of her sight. Unfortunately for Lee Sin-Je, the deceased donor had been able to see the approaching demise of those about to die, a distressing ability which is passed on to our hero along with the deceased’s cornea. What intrigues me here is the idea that a supernatural sensitivity to the spiritual world could rest squarely atop a sensuous organ instead of deep within the possessor’s inmost being. Though preposterous on the face of it, the film’s fantastic premise reminds me that our material bodies do play host to spiritual influences. Either we let in those forces that would destroy us, or we open to a loving God who wants to reshape us from the inside (I Corinthians 3:16).

The decision is ours.