Down Syndrome and the Sins of Eve? Bible scholars, please explain!

I  realized, talking not only to my  husband, but to some of my writer friends, that I need to back this story up.  I left something important out that occurred.

Please understand that it is not my intent to offend anyone.  I was afraid to tell this part of my story for this reason.  But as my cousin and fellow writer Heidi says: "Ya gotta make it real."

So I'm going to tell you about an incident that occurred before I left the hospital. 

I was raised Catholic.  Never liked it much, but I went through all the catechisms and such as a child because my mother, who was a non-Catholic, signed some sort of a paper when she married my father in 1950, which stated she HAD to raise her children Catholic.  She kept her end of the bargain.

But she also told my brother and I, after we were confirmed, we could do whatever we wanted to. 

So as a child of the 60s and 70s, who believed (and still do) in free will, which the church really doesn't support, after confirmation at 13, I never went back.

But after having Mishayla, I felt the need for some sort of connection to a higher power.  Tony and Mishayla had already left the hospital late that afternoon.  Jared and Scott, my son and his father, were gone. I was alone with this ache.  Guilt, sadness; so many feelings were just overwhelming me.  So I thought, "what the heck?"

I called the nurse. "What it be possible to send a priest up here?" I asked.

"Sure," she said, "No problem."

When the gentlemen I thought was going to be my priest entered the room, he was not wearing a priest's garb, or even the collar.  I found this weird.  Well, I had been out of the church for so long, maybe they didn't wear them anymore.

He took a chair next to my bed.  Introduced himself.  I don't remember his name now.  I asked if he was indeed a Catholic priest.  "Oh, no," he said, nearly insulted at the implication.  He said he was from some local evangelical church in town.

Well, that was fine.  With the condition I was in at the time, I would take what I could get. 

I can't, all these years later, remember my conversation with this man verbatim.  But I remember the important parts. 

I remember asking why would God do this to an innocent child.  That I just didn't understand. 

This is basically what he said.

"You must understand that man is sinner," he replied.  "We must be punished for our sins.  The sins of Eve we all must pay for.  Your daughter was born, and children like her, to pay for these sins."

I didn't say anything.  I didn't know what to say.  Is that why my daughter was the way she was? Because of my sins? What sins had I committed? I was a decent person.  I wasn't perfect.  Nobody is. 

I felt sicker and more full of anquish than I had before this guy had come in here.  I wanted to throw his ass right out of the room.

He insisted that we pray.  I don't remember the prayer.  I was too shocked to even think.  I remember closing my eyes, and faking prayer.  All I wanted by then was his absence.

He left, and I felt horrible.

He showed up again the next day, when Tony came back to the hospital to pick me up, and take me down to UCLA.  It was very important to Tony that Mishayla be baptized before her surgeries.  Tony was also raised a Catholic, and still very much a believer in most of the church's teachings.  He told the minister he wanted his sick daughter baptized, and planned on having this done before her surgeries this morning.

"Oh, I don't think you or you wife are ready for that. You have to accept Jesus Christ into your heart before you can bring it to your children.  I suggest you wait until she is older."

I don't remember how Tony replied to this.  Of course he didn't agree with this at all.  This child was going to have life-threatening surgeries. She could die.  Why would we wait?

I was discharged, and we got in car.  During the drive, Tony asked me "What was the matter with that guy? How could he believe we should wait to baptize a sick baby? 

I had done this intentionally.  I had waited till we were gone from the hospital to tell my husband what the guy said to me, that our newborn daughter, who was ill and had a disability, was basically a demon.

I will not repeat, for the sake of what is proper, the words that come out of my husband's mouth regarding this man's opinion.  Bullshit was one of cleaner words he used. 

He was enraged, and the more enraged he got, the more enraged I got.  How unkind and unfeeling could somebody be? Okay, maybe those are his beliefs. But isn't it his job to render solace and comfort to those in peril? In need of God's love and protection? 

When we got to UCLA, they were prepping Mishayla for surgery.  Tony told the NICU nurse we wanted to have her baptized.  "No problem, that's easy," said the nurse.

Within a few minutes, Father O'Malley entered.  He was a priest at a Catholic church in Westwood, near the hospital.  We talked to him, and he was kind and comforting.  He said once she was well, if we wanted, we could bring her down to the church, and he would do a tradional baptism with family and friends. 

We stood over Mishayla, and made the sign of the cross.  The priest placed blessed water on her forehead. It was done in 5 minutes.

We thanked him for his attention and kindness.  Our daughter was taken to surgery.

Our little fighter, at about age 3

Over the years, this story has nearly become legendary in the Moore family.  Tony told his mother, who of course, was outraged.  Dorothy Roberto Moore is from a very large family, and she told all her family members, which is surely over 100 people, of this story.  Everybody knew it, everybody was mad.  I've told almost every friend I've met in the past 13 years, my college professors, everyone.

They all think it was a heinous thing to say to a mother who had just given birth to a child like Mishayla.  Where was the compassion? Where was the benevolence?  

But as Mishayla got older, I encounter these sorts of beliefs more than once.  People saying our kids are here because of sin.  One woman saw an eight month old adorable Mishayla in the library said to me "Oh, that child needs to get to church."  Every time this happened, it would make my blood boil.

I've also encountered it as an advocate as well.  Occasionally, the case workers at California's Los Angeles County Regional Center would come across a consumer's parent, who would not want our help because their church pastor had convinced the parent the child was not worthy of this help.  It was the saddest things I ever saw.  One parent asked to have one of our case workers removed when this woman tried to convince this woman that Down Syndrome was a chromosonal abnormality, and had nothing to do with God.  She said the case worker "didn't respect her beliefs."

Beliefs or madness? We all believed it was borderline child abuse.  But there was nothing we could do for a 5 year old boy, who was essentially being punished for being born by his own parent under the guise of religion.

As an undergraduate English student, I had a class called Bible as Literature.  Of course we didn't study the entire bible, but I don't remember anything like that in the bible, saying kids with disabilities were here on earth because of man's fall from grace. 

I have looked myself as well.  Can't find a thing.  Was this guy making this stuff up just to be mean? 

All these years later, I would still like to understand. 

So if any of you out there understand what this man said to me that day, I would like to know. Where are the bible passages? Where is the proof of this?

I would like to understand, because I pray this doesn't happen to someone else.  My suspecions tell me it has. 

So whoever you are out there, I welcome a dialogue.  Open up the understanding!!

If it indeed exists.