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Christianity and Aspergers

I am sure there are some Christian groups that will try to "cure" autism via prayer, but I have not encountered them. Although, when I was a christian I was part of a group that would try to pray "afflictions" away (e.g., Rheumatoid Arthritis, headache, etc.)

It is not part of my experience, but a brief Google search shows articles by CBN and other fundamentalist groups of Christians that propose examples of children who have been "cured" of autism; sounds like balderdash to me.
 
Roderick0616 said:
It is not part of my experience, but a brief Google search shows articles by CBN and other fundamentalist groups of Christians that propose examples of children who have been "cured" of autism; sounds like balderdash to me.
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I do have experience with those kind of churches. Being mostly NTs, it is not uncommon for these to mistakenly say "autism" when they are actually referring to co-morbid conditions. Those are fair game in my book. Depression, for example, is still depression whether one is an NT or an autie.

That confusion between autism vs. a severe co-morbid condition shows up in other arenas, too.
 
My LFA nephew loves church and sings in the choir. I have no idea what, if anything, he thinks about Christianity or if he even understands what "God" is supposed to be as he is non-verbal. He wears his earplugs and choir robe, carries his own Bible and Sunday School lesson book, and sits in the choir loft between two trusted friends who have known him all his life and understand him. They discretely remind him "no self talk please" when he talks out loud and whisper a reminder to use "discipline" so he won't disrupt the service. He loves singing the hymns, the responsive reading of scriptures by the congregation and minister, and is lighting fast at looking up Biblical passages. He also has a beautiful singing voice. It is a small church, everyone knows everyone else, and no one judges or cares if others have disabilities. Everyone is welcome and accepted as they are. He does have meltdowns, though, when he can't go to church. It is an important social part of his life and he likes the routine and schedule of it.
 
It is a local lake park where I go on Sunday morning while family members go to the church house. Unknown to them, I go there to worship and recharge. I grew up in church but it was always a lonely place for me.

This park is a place where I can step off the merry-go-round of the world around me. It is a beautiful spot with a lake surrounded by trees with some ducks, squirrels, and geese as its residents. It has fishing piers and a decorative water fountain in the middle of the lake. I look forward to these visits where I can take a long walk and reflect upon whatever comes to mind while being amidst God’s creation.

I get a good bargain by going to my recharging place. Three for one. My physical body gets exercise, my mental gets some of the cobwebs cleared in my brain, and my spiritual gets prayer time and meditation.
 
A parable is a type of analogy. And I was wondering if since some people with aspergers struggle with body language and social cues, if this in turn can be the reason parables are hard for me to understand. Or is it my co-morbid schizo affective doing it?
 
Clintos said:
Does anyone practice this and have you found that it helps? do you accept autism or do you fight it, to be healed from it?
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I'm a Christian Aspie (christianaspie.com) and I have no problem in serving God. I never thought about being healed from Asperger's, I serve God through it.
 
I grew in a very religious family-parents are heavily right-leaning democrats-and autism is very evident on my mother's side. I obviously have it, I'm sure she has it, my youngest brother has it and the older one has tendencies. Unfortunately, my mother side is also very old-fashioned, rural and dysfunctional. I was raised to believe my disorder was a temporary thing-that it would be fixed with enough "discipline." You get the picture.

Anyhow,

I believe God sees it differently. How can I do what He put me here for if I won't acknowledge who He made me to be? Who am I, or anyone else, to say His work isn't good enough?

My disorder presents a lot of challenges, especially since I've ignored them for so long, but I believe it only points me toward a greater need-for salvation. I cannot function without accommodation-this is what I'm learning-and I can't live without grace.
 
I accepted Christ long before I'd even heard of autism or Asperger's, in any form. Having said that, I still talk to Jesus a lot in prayer. I don't know why He made me this way, but I do believe He has a reason for it. A difficult but important thing to remember, is that our lack of understanding God's reasons doesn't equal their or His absence.
 
Can I just say how lovely it is to read through so many posts on the subject of religion without coming across a single cross word. A rare thing these days....
I thought I'd pitch in:
I was raised as a Roman Catholic (Polish heritage) but my logical mind makes real faith seem beyond me. It's something I have struggled with all my life. I still attend Mass... I love singing in the choir and following the convoluted ceremony with all its prayers and responses. It is calming and peaceful, and I sit in the same seat every week, with the same people around me.
I see the same wisdom that is the basis of all the great religions, and try to live my life accordingly, doing good in my own way, and helping others where I can. I'm 50 next year, and I think I'm pretty happy with the current arrangement, and I think a benevolent God would be too.:rolleyes:
 
I feel I see practical applications , while those around me want to spiritualize everything. They believe there is only reward in Heaven, and that any good you receive on earth is by providential coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence as the term is used today, two instances brought together by random accident, but two instances that coincide.
 
I'm Christian and Aspie. I see it from a lot of different angles. God loves me how I am, even if everyone else thinks I'm broken. I used to pray to be healed but I believe He told me to instead pray to be able to accept and cope with it. It concerns me that being an aspie means being self-centered, and Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I wonder to what extent that's possible or expected of aspies? I can love people in the sense of desiring that good things happen to them, but not so much in the sense of really being interested in their lives. But I think that's partly because their lives are so different from mine. I find it easier to have empathy for someone else who has also experienced rejection and sadness.
 
Antonio said:
It concerns me that being an aspie means being self-centered, and Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I wonder to what extent that's possible or expected of aspies?
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That is also true of NT flesh. We all need to defer to the Spirit and let Him love others through us.
 
as regulars know,i am LFA and have mild intellectual disability which both cause me great struggles understanding the bible part of christianity but i do class myself as a christian,i was made a catholic [i cant remember what that is called] as a young child, my parents physically dragged me to church but i was very disruptive and some of the other church goers were impatient and ignorant,i started fighting my dad when i got big enough so he stopped taking me,he didnt like doing it anyway as he is a protestant/church of ireland so he felt out of place to.

as a 33 year old,i am trying very hard to go to a specific RC church ive never been to before [but i know of another LFA who goes there who is accepted for his behaviors] as i really want to understand,but i think i get freaked out and end up making excuses and not going,the first church has really ruined it for me.

i struggle greatly with the bible,,so its like sitting through someone talking foreign language; to me,but god has helped me through some tough times,i speak to him a lot whether its in my head or outloud,i ask him to give me the strength to cope with whatever it is [sometimes its a change in my routine,a hospital appointment or im getting a different support staff to the one who was planned, sometimes its to cope with seeing my mum drunk as after 20 odd years im still not used to it].
but god gives me strength to cope and i thought he would never do,because when i was around 17 i got into LaVeyan satanism-their bible is very little about hard concepts to follow but about managing day to day life,everyone hated me for it including my family, and my satanic bible was thrown out by support staff,plus at 18 when i was asked by [UK] social services adult learning disability team to mark on the paper which religeon i was,there was nothing for satanism or 'other',i showed them my bible and they told me satanism isnt a religeon and they actually marked me down as a christian.

this was a hard time for me,i came back to christianity in my late twenties i think because i was under so much hatred from support staff, quite recently i told my favourite support staff [a catholic] who has known me for a few years that i used to be a satanist,she went crazy at me and said 'i could never be friends with a satanist, theyre all devil worshipping evil people...' i interrupted her rant and said i never actually worshipped a devil and anyway i am a christian now and she said 'thats ok then' , i always wonder if god will have hated me for going to another religeon but i was really struggling with understanding the world and needed something to turn to.
 
Honestly? No. One of the things about AS is most of us have a higher IQ. ( IOW : We are thinkers by nature. ) I'm sorry, but for me personally, logic rules out religion - period. I view religion as simply "opium for the masses". If it helps you, though - go for it. Use it. Just don't let it use you <3 ( Never "hatcheck" your brain at the door, and follow blindly, is what I mean. )
 
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