Joni Eareckson Tada (born October 15, 1949) is an American evangelical Christianauthor, radio host, artist, and founder of Joni and Friends,[1] an organization "accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community".[2][3]
With the example of her parents, Joni lived a very active life all through her growing-up years, enjoying riding horses, hiking, tennis, and swimming. On July 30, 1967, when she was 17 years old, she dove into the Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water. She had a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae and became a quadriplegic (or tetraplegic), paralyzed from the shoulders down.[4] During her two years of rehabilitation, according to her autobiography Joni, she experienced anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts. However, during occupational therapy, she learned to paint with a brush between her teeth and began selling her artwork. She also writes this way, although for most writing tasks she relies on voice recognition software. To date, she has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, and starred in an autobiographical movie of her life, and is an advocate for people with disabilities.[4]
Joni wrote of her experiences in her 1976 international best-selling autobiography, Joni: The unforgettable story of a young woman's struggle against quadriplegia & depression, which has been distributed in many languages. The book was made into a 1980 feature film of the same name, starring herself. Her second book, A Step Further, was released in 1978.[8]
Ministry and public life
She founded Joni and Friends in 1979, an organization to "accelerate Christian ministry in the disability community"[9] throughout the world. In 2007 the Joni and Friends International Disability Center in Agoura Hills, California, was established.[10] Led by Tada (founder and CEO) and John Nugent (president and COO), the Joni and Friends International Disability Center runs a multi-faceted non-profit covering a number of program outlets. The longest-running program is "Joni and Friends Radio", a five-minute radio program begun in 1982. It now runs four minutes in length and can be heard each weekday on over 1,000 broadcast outlets.[11] Tada also records a one-minute radio feature, "Diamonds in the Dust", that airs daily.[11] Both programs have received awards: "Joni and Friends Radio" received the "Radio Program of the Year"[12] award from National Religious Broadcasters in 2002, and "Diamonds in the Dust" won the same award in 2011 in the short program.[13]
Other Joni and Friends programs include Family Retreats (a camp/retreat experience for families affected by disability),[12] Wounded Warrior Getaways (which offer a similar experience for families of Wounded Warriors),[14] and Wheels for the World (which collects manual wheelchairs and other mobility devices to be refurbished by volunteers in prison restoration shops, then shipped overseas, where the wheelchairs are fitted by physical therapists to people in developing nations).[12] Joni and Friends also has produced 51 episodes of Joni and Friends TV,[15] and overseen the formation of the Christian Institute on Disability (a training and advocacy arm of Joni and Friends), among other ventures.[16] While the main office of Joni and Friends remains in Agoura Hills, California, smaller offices can be found across the United States.[17]
President George W. Bush calls on the Senate to support a ban on human cloning during an address on April 10, 2002. Pictured at center to the right of the lectern is disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada.
As of 2017[update], Tada is an adviser on many organizations, such as the Board of Reference for the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Young Life Capernaum Board, CBM International, National Institute for Learning Disabilities, and the American Leprosy Mission.[11] She also served on Love and Action, the Institute on Learning Disabilities, the Disability Advisory Committee, New Europe Communications, and the Christian Writers Guild, and as honorary co-chair of the Presidential Prayer Team.[25] She has been interviewed by the Chicago Tribune,[26]Ligonier Ministries,[27] and the Los Angeles Times.[28]
In November 2009, Tada signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration calling on evangelicals, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians to work towards changing laws which permit abortion, and other matters that go against their religious consciences.[29][30]
Music
Tada received media attention in 2014 for her performance of the title song from the Christian film Alone yet Not Alone.[31] With limited lung capacity due to her disability, Tada, had her husband, Ken, pushing on her diaphragm while she recorded the song to give her enough breath to hit the high notes. Tada has no professional training in music.[32] While the song's writers initially received a nomination for an Oscar in the Original Song category, the nomination was later revoked for what the academy deemed improper campaigning by the composer, Bruce Broughton.[33] Some controversy followed this decision, and subsequent media attention helped the song's official YouTube video, featuring Tada, surpass one million views.[34][35]
Books
Tada is the author of over 48 books on the subjects of disability and Christianity. Several of them have been children's books, including Tell Me The Promises, which received the Evangelical Christian Publishers' Association's (ECPA) Gold Medallion and the silver medal in the 1997 C. S. Lewis Awards, and Tell Me The Truth, which received the ECPA Gold Medallion in 1998. The life story of Tada was used by Czech composer Ivan Kurz in his opera Večerní shromáždění ketho (Evening Divine service).[34]
Personal life
Joni married Ken Tada in 1982. For many years, Ken was a high school history teacher and coach, though he is now retired.[36] Ken is sansei, meaning that he is the third generation to be born in the United States after his family relocated from Japan.[37] Ken and Joni live in Calabasas, California.[38]
In 2010, Tada announced that she had been diagnosed with Stage IIIbreast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy.[39][40] Her treatment proved successful, and she was declared cancer-free in 2015.[41] In November 2018, Tada was diagnosed with a malignant nodule on her chest wall near the site of her original cancer.[41] Radiation treatments for the nodule proved successful, and, in July 2019, she announced that she had once again been declared cancer-free.[42]
2009 Inducted into the Indiana Wesleyan UniversitySociety of World Changers and presented with an honorary doctorate while speaking at the university on April 1, 2009[51]
2009 Honored by Women in Christian Media with the Excellence in Communication award of merit for National Achievement in Christian Media[52]
^Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. (March 25, 2018). "Notes from the Pulpit Ministry"(PDF). Dartmouth Bible Church. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Tada, Joni Eareckson. "Remembrance of Bishop Cox"(PDF). Bishop Cummins Reformed Episcopal Church. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
