{"id":393,"date":"2010-10-08T08:53:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T08:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html"},"modified":"2010-10-08T08:53:37","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T08:53:37","slug":"a-celebrity-who-gets-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html","title":{"rendered":"A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Thumbnail image for jamiefoxx.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/113\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308-thumb-100x141-18309.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"141\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span>I&#8217;ve written before about how often celebrities seem ignorant about the realities of life with a disability (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/08\/whats-up-with-hollywood-and-the-r-word.html\">What&#8217;s Up With Hollywood and the R-Word<\/a>?&#8221;). I&#8217;m always eager to hear stories of families with individuals with Down syndrome, but I was particularly delighted to watch <a href=\"http:\/\/www.etonline.com\/music\/101510_Jamie_Foxx_on_Caring_for_Down_Syndrome_Sister_I_Don_t_Call_it_a_Condition_I_Call_it_Living\/#\">this video<\/a> from Entertainment Tonight of Jamie Foxx with his sister De Ondra, who has Down syndrome. In Foxx&#8217;s words, &#8220;I don&#8217;t call it a condition. I call it living.&#8221; Spend two minutes watching, and it will make you smile. You might even call it living too. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I also watched &#8220;Glee&#8221; for the first time this week (I know, I know, I am utterly out of the cultural loop. We don&#8217;t even have a TV at the moment so I had to join my grandmother to watch it. She has Tivo). I watched it because I&#8217;ve heard there&#8217;s a teenager with Down syndrome on the show. She didn&#8217;t appear this week, but another character, Coach Sue, visited her sister with Down syndrome (or some other developmental disability?) in this episode. The episode centered around questions about God&#8217;s existence, and Coach Sue explained that she had stopped believing in God when people made fun of her sister in spite of her prayers. When she admits this to her sister, her sister simply smiles. She says, &#8220;God doesn&#8217;t make mistakes.&#8221; And then, as Sue is leaving, her sister asks, &#8220;Would you like me to pray for you, Sue?&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The episode demonstrates plenty of spiritual confusion&#8211;confusion over the laws surrounding church and state, confusion over what makes Christianity Christian (suffice it to say, one kid worships Jesus through a grilled cheese, and a visit to an African American church involves &#8220;Bridge Over Troubled Water&#8221; as the gospel number of the day). Sue&#8217;s sister was the only one who demonstrated any kind of spiritual maturity. She loved her sister without browbeating her. And her faith remained strong in spite of what Sue perceived as adversity. To watch the whole episode, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fox.com\/glee\/full-episodes\">here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Thanks, Hollywood, for offering some perspectives on disability in general, and Down syndrome in particular, that go against the grain.&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve written before about how often celebrities seem ignorant about the realities of life with a disability (&#8220;What&#8217;s Up With Hollywood and the R-Word?&#8221;). I&#8217;m always eager to hear stories of families with individuals with Down syndrome, but I was particularly delighted to watch this video from Entertainment Tonight of Jamie Foxx with his sister&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome","category-family"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might... - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might... - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve written before about how often celebrities seem ignorant about the realities of life with a disability (&#8220;What&#8217;s Up With Hollywood and the R-Word?&#8221;). I&#8217;m always eager to hear stories of families with individuals with Down syndrome, but I was particularly delighted to watch this video from Entertainment Tonight of Jamie Foxx with his sister&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-08T08:53:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308-thumb-100x141-18309.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might... - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might... - Thin Places","og_description":"I&#8217;ve written before about how often celebrities seem ignorant about the realities of life with a disability (&#8220;What&#8217;s Up With Hollywood and the R-Word?&#8221;). I&#8217;m always eager to hear stories of families with individuals with Down syndrome, but I was particularly delighted to watch this video from Entertainment Tonight of Jamie Foxx with his sister&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-10-08T08:53:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308-thumb-100x141-18309.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html","name":"A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might... - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308-thumb-100x141-18309.jpg","datePublished":"2010-10-08T08:53:37+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-08T08:53:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308-thumb-100x141-18309.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/jamiefoxx-thumb-200x283-18308-thumb-100x141-18309.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/a-celebrity-who-gets-it.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Celebrity who Gets It and a TV Show that Just Might&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}