Joni: Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada
Ken: … and I’m Ken Tada.
Joni: And welcome to Joni and Friends! And Ken I love it when you’re here during radio recording day.
Ken: Well Joni there’s a special reason why I’m here today to be on this radio program. You know just recently we came back from Washington, DC where you received the William Wilberforce Award.
Joni: Oh Ken, you’re embarrassing me but it really was an honor to go all the way to Washington DC and be presented the William Wilberforce Award.
Ken: … at the Colson Center.
Joni: … At the Colson Center by Chuck Colson and his team. You know, you’re the history buff. You’re the guy who taught US history for, what? Thirty-five some odd years and you know a lot about world history. Tell us who William Wilberforce was.
Ken: Well, first of all there was a movie out not too long ago, called Amazing Grace that talked about his life. But William Wilberforce was a parliamentarian, a British parliamentarian, who stood up against slavery, and I mean at a time when that was not a very popular thing to do.
Joni: Yes, and it was very lucrative—the slave trade—and of course it meant a punch in the stomach to the economic reality of a lot of British people when William Wilberforce stood up in parliament, and for how many years? Wasn’t it like 30 years that he campaigned against it?
Ken: … And really took some shots from some members in parliament for his stand.
Joni: Yes, and eventually the slave trade was abolished not only in Great Britain, but then some years later in the United States as well. And Chuck Colson, a great friend of ours, had always been inspired by William Wilberforce as well. In fact, what Wilberforce stood for in Great Britain, regarding social justice issues, Chuck Colson had taken that and used many of those principles in prison reform; so he and his team have created this William Wilberforce award honoring those people who have had an impact in righting social ills.
Ken: Well, guess what? You are very much a wonderful recipient for that award.
Joni: Well, you know I think Chuck recognized how strongly all of us at Joni and Friends advocate the sanctity of life because there are so many of unborn children with disabilities who are aborted nowadays. The abortion rate of unborn children with Down syndrome … I think that it’s 9/10 births where there’s a diagnosis of Down syndrome that the mother will choose to abort—isn’t that something?
Ken: … Unbelievable!
Joni: And even in many in many western European countries, infanticide—that is the killing of infants with disabilities—newborns are often euthanized, starved to death in hospitals. And we advocate strongly against that and we let people know how prevalent this really is and so I think that might be one reason Chuck chose me for receiving this award. But also, I think just to let people know that disability is not something to be fearful of and that we want to do all we can here at Joni and Friends to make life easier, make life more meaningful for those with disabilities. And of course we do that here at the ministry through our family retreats, they’re pretty awesome programs huh?
Ken: They are. We see often times many of these marriages are coming almost broken and then go away healed.
Joni: It is remarkable and so many times mothers of disabled children come so discouraged of having given birth to a child with multiple disabilities. But then, they get a biblical perspective—a biblical worldview—on how God can use that disability to not only shape the character of their child, but to even unify their family. Ken, thanks for being with me in Washington DC when I received that award. To have received it sitting right next to you meant the world to me.
Ken: Joni may I say that you are a well-deserved recipient of that award.
Joni: Thank you Ken. And listening friend, if you’d like to see a photo of this award—it really is quite unusual—we snapped a photo of it and I’ve posted it on our radio page today. Just go to joniandfriends.org
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