TIM VERMANDE’S GOOD FIGHT Protesting, Pew Cuts, and the Pandemic BY DAROLYN “LYN” JONES
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression. ~Isaiah 1:17 Tim Vermande’s life work with the United Methodist Church (UMC) may be the church’s best kept secret. Tim is a resistor and protestor—an activist. Born in South Bend, Indiana with cerebral palsy, he also had polio as a child. The doctor who diagnosed him after his mother’s difficult birth said he wouldn’t live to be 5 and
would never be able to read. His parents were told to institutionalize him. They refused. Instead, they fought doctors and school boards and supported and loved him into the wonderful human being he is today. Tim is now in his late 60’s, has degrees from Indiana University, Southern Methodist University, and Dayton Seminary is the United Theological Seminary in Dayton OH—and is flourishing.
Tim works for the Committee on Disability Ministries and the Committee on Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Ministries in the UMC. He tackles not only ableism, but also racism and sexism. Because Tim is a wheelchair user and grew up prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, lack of accessibility is something he has always had to endure. Even after the ADA, too many of the spaces and places in most communities remain inaccessible--and religious organizations are exempt from complying with the ADA. After earning his degree in history, Tim dreamed of becoming a history professor. He applied for a position at a community college in Arizona, teaching religious history, but was denied because the job description required a professor to be able to carry fifty pounds of books up a set of stairs. After that and many other ableist incidents, where Tim sadly found that religious institutions were often the least inclusive, he contacted a journalist who did a deep dive into this kind of discrimination. The investigative article, “Disabled People Need Not Apply,” became one of many small steps
Tim and Blaze
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June 2023