Autism in Personal and Pastoral Reflection

[Terry_Sampson]

• I have been acquainted with five autistic people since the early 2000s:
  • 2 elementary school children around 7 years old at separate schools, and 1 high school sophomore around 15, all during my School Psychologist Internships lasting 9 weeks each;
  • One of two sons of close neighbors whom we have know their whole lives, and both of whom are now in their mid-20s.
  • And the grandson of a next-door neighbor who visited his grandfather with his mother, almost bi-weekly and who is now abpit 20.
• The first 2 were a delight, IMO, and an easy introduction to neurodivergent young children.
• The 4th has “blossomed”, so to speak, within his secure family and, although still living at home, has learned to drive and is not attempting to get his driver’s license, working out at the gym, and hoping to work as clerk in a grocery market or delivery person.
  • The 5th is the principle character in the following story:
    • His grandmother and my mother-in-law were “comadres”, i.e. mutual god-parents, neighbors, and both loved gardening, next door to each other. The women’s husbands were responsible for watering their separate yards. My father-in-law was the most willing. Mr. Garcia watered his yard and flowers more and more haphazardly the older he became. Mr. Garcia’s watering annoyed my the be-jeezus out of my mother-in-law because he flood both sides of the fence and, because our yard is lower than the Garcia’s, plants and dirt ran down our driveway.
    • Eventually, the Garcias and my in-laws began to die: 1st first Ms. Garcia and then my father-in-law. Then Christmas 2009, my mother-in-law died and was buried. Sometime later, Mr. Garcia’s daughter and grandson visited him; and while his daughter did light chores in her father’s house, her son played in the yard. When the daughter took a break or finished her chores, she joined her father and son in the backyard. And while they sat under the jackaranda tree, the autistic kid told his mother that "the old woman next door had appeared and asked him to tell his grandfather that she was sorry for giving him a hard time over his haphazard watering and flooding her plants and the driveway. Shocked by her son’s story, she told her father what my mother-in-law had said. And years of annoyance and grievance just washed down our driveway, leaving only this story and me to tell it here. And the daughter told my wife and me the story, so that we would know that my mother-in-law is alive and well and that we’ll see her again in the next world, if not sooner in this world.

[Randy]

I greatly appreciate your wife and your vulnerability and frankness in sharing these struggles, @marusso Pastor Russo.

I think that this discussion can help a lot of people.

I have shared this, and will share it more.

[Randy]

@jpm

Great observations. The one above hits home as some people seem to connect to God emotionally and spiritually, whereas some of us have to have a more logical or intellectual relationship, and that approach is often disparaged in the church and you hear such things as “You can know all about the Bible and still not be a Christian,” quoting the Bible “even the demons believe.” It can be hard, and often I identify with the father who cried, “I believe, Help my unbelief!”

Wow, this is a great way of describing it… I think that many on this website are on the autism spectrum–and many are just learning that that is the case about ourselves.

Here, too, is a cartoon I first saw on the Humor thread, which seems relevant, and made me chuckle.

[knor (Kai)]

Good observations.

One thing I have noted is that churches may be challenging environments for ND because there is often an expectation of warm social relationships, including talking with many people. There is perhaps not an opportunity to just walk in, sit and listen because someone always comes to greet and discuss. Great for NT but not ND.

A practical solution to this problem may be that you come to the meeting at the last minute, when the service is about to start, and leave the place immediately after the service, before anyone comes to talk. Coming a minute after the service has started would be an even better option but for some ND, coming late may be such a problem that they rather stay out than come too late.

We once asked from a ND person visiting our home with his wife that what would be the optimal church for him (he was a believer). His answer was: a church including one person.

[St.Roymond]

@Kendel

you might find this discussion interesting and valuable: Autism, Rationality and Religious Belief — Ship of Fools

From that link:

1. If you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person;
2. Everyone’s autism presents differently and therefore phenomena that arise from autism in me do not necessarily arise in other autistic people, and that doesn’t mean they aren’t rooted in my autism. To put it another way, you cannot simply say “well my cousin is autistic and they don’t so it’s not an autism thing” - it doesn’t work that way.

Those apply to being bipolar as well. I was in a support group for a while in my university days where one therapist insisted we shouldn’t say “I’m bipolar” but “I suffer from bipolar disorder”, while another held that we should identify closely with the condition and so the first phrase wasn’t a bad thing.
One big difference in bipolar terms is that some of us can – to use the old terms – be both manic and depressed at the same time, something a German researcher called “dark mania”. That isn’t common and it sets those who experience it apart from other bipolar folks. Another difference is in duration of episodes; some people can cycle between manic and depressive eight or ten times in a day on occasion while for others episodes last days.

I was told by one health worker that I have autistic traits that show sometimes that could possibly qualify as autistic, at least while I’m in a mild to moderate manic phase.

@knor

It is not bad to be silent together.

One of the people I felt closest to in my life hardly talked and I didn’t need to either. Even at the Seattle Seafair for the parade (we were in a marching band) one year we went through almost the entire place without a word – lots of pointing and grinning or scowling and body language, but nothing spoken (other band members thought we were weird and made jokes about us having telepathy). I don’t know if he ever knew how much he meant to me.

@knor

Yet, social situations are exhausting

I find that when I’m doing conservation work. Every now and then someone really wants to know about what I’m doing, and I will fall into what one acquaintance called “salesman mode” and be bright and communicative, but afterwards I generally switch from whatever I was doing to something meditative and mellow requiring not a lot of energy or thought.
Right now I can’t remember if that’s an aspect of bipolar or not.

[St.Roymond]

@Kendel

Churches do a terrible job in general including those with disabilities and diversities as normal members of the Body of Christ.

I tried one church in my university years and left the second time I was there when the pastor asked for anyone with “a demon of mental illness” to come forward and be annointed and prayed for. They were all so certain that everyone is actually “normal” unless there’s demonic stuff involved.

[Christy (Christy Hemphill)]

@MarkD

One question I would have involves forming a relationship to the divine. Is that also challenging or perhaps an area of advantage?

I was recently at a Bible translation conference and one of the plenary speakers mentioned that all of the metaphors and figurative language of the Bible can be very challenging for many people on the spectrum who struggle to interpret it. He suggested that there should be a Bible translation in very literal language. As someone who loves all the figurative language, I thought this was an interesting thought.

[St.Roymond]

@jpm

The one above hits home as some people seem to connect to God emotionally and spiritually, whereas some of us have to have a more logical or intellectual relationship,

Up until the event that triggered my bipolar affliction I fit with the first line; afterwards it’s been more the second.

[Terry_Sampson]

• The propensity of the Deaf (i.e. from birth or pre-lingual Deaf) to read the written word and assume that it is literal in meaning has consequences that range from magical to humorous to tragic, and least frequently, IMO, salutory and realiastic. And trying to interpret the written word figuratively can leave the Deaf person not trusting the interpreter.

[Kendel]

Oh my goodness!

It’s almost how I felt after reading John Piper’s book “When I don’t Desire God.” He concluded, if I remember rightly, that if the reader doesn’t desire God as he prescribes the reader should, then the reader might be experiencng depression or some form of mental illness. And Piper didn’t understand about that.

Eyeroll.

I was disappointed to say the least.

THanks for your openness about your experiences.

[Christy (Christy Hemphill)]

That’s why we need good signed Bible translations. They are in the works in many of the major signed languages of the world. At the conference one of the plenaries was given by a Deaf presenter. There was an interpreter into spoken English. Someone complimented her on how expressive her interpretation was and she shrugged and said “Well, he was a very dynamic signer. Some signers are boring and some are very animated.” I thought that was so fascinating and yet, obvious.

[Terry_Sampson]

• I saw my ffirst here: Deaf Missions App: Old Testament, New Testament, ASL Passages, and “The Life of Christ”
• Deaf signers.
• I’ve out of touch with the Deaf almost too long, I struggled to understand Genesis.
• My cousin, youngest child of Deaf Parents who had 5 kids: 2 Deaf daughters, 1 Hearing daughter, and 2 hearing sons. Ursula has been a life-long interpreter for the Deaf and is married to a Preacher in West Virginia.
• Her Deaf sister liked the app. Ursula emailed me this:
  • " Hello Terry,

Yes I have heard of it when they were starting out with this project.

I looked over the beginning chapters of Genesis and of Exodus. The expressive signing, facial expressions are very well done.

Unfortunately, especially the Genesis one, the story teller embellished some passages and omitted others.

If they presented it as Bible stories, I would agree to that. But it seems by the title ASL Bible, they are presenting it as the scriptures being signed. The one in Exodus comes much closer to doing that.

So I think it would be creatively interesting for the deaf to watch, but not necessarily spiritually sound.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I appreciate it.
Blessings to you and your wife.
With love,
your cousin Ursula

• I don’t know how “creationist” mt cousin is, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that she’s a YEC.

[Christy (Christy Hemphill)]

Interesting. I presented a paper at that conference on implicit values that go into assessments of translation quality, and one of the (minor) points was that the quality control metrics we have been accostomed to using for written translations don’t align as well with the values expressed by the Deaf community for evaluating signed translations because of the performative and necessarily embodied nature of signed languages.

[Terry_Sampson]

• In my ancient experience, there are roughly two kinds of ASL Interpreters: stage performers and serious. non-performing interpreters. Pity the Deaf at the mercy of the performers. I weren’t one, except entertaining family or friends.

[Christy (Christy Hemphill)]

This was just voice interpretation from ASL to English over an audio channel. The plenary talk was given in ASL by a Deaf man.