Let me say from the start that I have a strong faith and although I’m willing to discuss it, I have not started this thread to try and evangelise anyone. Simply I’d like to discuss with other autistic Christians how they cope with church, other Christians and trying to resolve their head around everything.
I'm agnosistic, for good reasons, I was rised catholic, my mom is religious fanatic, I suspect she is autistic too, but when autistic get to being religious fanatics there is no reasoning with them. if it's not in a bible it's not true basically
hooray 
I thought this might happen
I'm still here. I personally find it important not to be too hard on yourself.
Has anyone got anything to add to what they said three years ago? I'm interested in how everyone deals with difficulties in their spiritual walk, prayer, Bible reading, finding help and support on these issues which requires understanding. Has anyone found anything useful they can share to help other believers on the Spectrum ?
Has anyone got anything to add to what they said three years ago? I'm interested in how everyone deals with difficulties in their spiritual walk, prayer, Bible reading, finding help and support on these issues which requires understanding. Has anyone found anything useful they can share to help other believers on the Spectrum ?
May I ask why?
I am a Christian - Catholic - but only attend mass during anniversaries; of someone's death.
Last week, I ordered a Christmas Tree at Argos - which came on Saturday - however, I won't be putting it up until 08 December - the feast of the Immaculate Conception - as that was the custom at home whenever mum was alive.
Being Single
Hello I grew up going to church, and being in groups with children in general was hard, because it felt like everyone was looking down on me as if they knew better.
So eventually, I gave up, and stuck with my special needs friends. It made me feel more at home, but it made it harder for me to find a Christian boyfriend, someone I desperately wanted as a teenager.
I was so afraid that I would be a spinster for my entire youth life, not that I should be (God always says "Don't be afraid") , but my mum had Christian friends in her generation who never found their ones.
I prayed and prayed. Sometimes I would moan about being single to my parents, and they would always reassure me that I will find someone, and they were right.
I eventually met an autistic lad. He asked me if I would like to go out with him, as a friend (just us two) now I've never really been out with a boy on my own before. I was going to invite at least one friend to tag along with me, but didn't get round to it.
Anyway it went very well. We just seem to have a lot in common other than our backgrounds, we liked each other and he made me feel special to him, so it didn't matter to me weather he was a Christian or not. Really the main thing is they care about/love you. God answered my prayer :D
Hopefully I will stay with this guy is the one for me. It would be a shame to let him go, because he's so kind and caring and has a lot of the characteristics and qualities I like.
My mum also knows a Christian couple with an autistic daughter. She eventually found an autistic boyfriend, and they were later married. So it could happen to anyone.
NEVER stop praying <3
PS: I realize that you can still enjoy life even as a single. The one thing that keeps me going is having God in my life.
I used to be catholic but recently converted to quakerism and honestly it's so much better for me in terms of meeting for worship rather than mass and just how calm everything is and the welcoming atmosphere. Obviously this isn't why i chose to convert to this religion, I'm just lucky that my beliefs coincide with a religion that works so well for me. (This is not meant to offend anyone who is catholic, i have respect for all religions and my entire family and most of my friends are catholic)
I believe because I have faith the Lord my God, my Heavenly Father, which I know sounds like a circular argument but it truly is the case and that is the point. You can not tell someone how to believe you can simply show they why you believe and they either will or won't. Most people have faith for one of two reasons, either they were brought up in the church and so have always had faith or the Lord showed them what happens with faith. What I mean by that is that they had a miracle happen to them, or they witnessed a miracle or they know someone that a miracle happened to them and they heard that person's testament. In my own life, despite growing up in a Christian family where my father went back to being a Church minister and the negative impact that had on my life, a host of things have happened to strengthen my faith and to get me through the hard times.
I will give you just one example, and will happily tell you others if you want them. I left a solid job to work for the offshore safety division of the HSE and found it was my calling but there were lots of issues within the organisation, which I instantly saw and pointed out. Well the net result was that I got fired but at the same time I was seeing a Christian girl and got dramatically dumped after revealing something from my past I hadn't told anyone before, then having flown back from London to Aberdeen having been dumped I developed double pneumonia, which was when I got the letting terminating my contract. So unsurprisingly I was in a very darkplace and because of my upbringing, I couldn't speak to anyone about it. So once day, I was out in the car with my then young daughter asleep in the car behind me and drove down to a bench by the grey North Sea and stopped. I sat on that bench and had a smoke whilst looking out to sea. I had an overwhelming desire to just walk out into the grey cold inviting flat calm sea and just keep walking. Well I felt the Lord tap me on the shoulder and say to me "she needs you" and I turned round and saw the car and my daughter sleeping in it. That snapped me out of it and pulled me back to normality and gave me the drive to find another job and to get on with life, which I did, as by the time my notice period was up, with the Lord's help I had secured a new job with almost equivalent pay.
I hope that helps you to have faith, but I can't force you to and I certainly did not start this thread to evangelise, just to try and help myself be a better Christian, even if it has started some very interesting sub-threads including your own. So thank you for that and the opportunity to share part of my life story.
Try: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AspieChristian/ or https://www.facebook.com/groups/christianityandaspergers/ they, like any facebook group, can vary a bit but its interesting to talk to christians from other countries and many denominations
Whilst as I have not been sexually abused I can not sympathise or empathise with you in that regard, I can when it come sot church and abuse. You see from the age of around eight onwards my father was a church minister and he and my mother were not only always busy with church stuff, to the detriment of family stuff in my view, but I was also expected to help with church stuff regardless of whether I wanted to or not. Hence, for me church has a lot of baggage and going to it more so, but I have a strong faith and lean on the Lord, not as much as I probably should do and I know I am not a particularly good Christian at times, but I do have faith. So whilst there are wicked people in the church and outside of it, at least one of the most infamous American serial killers was in fact a church elder, that does not mean that all Christians and church goers are bad people. Whilst I for one believe the church as a collective whole should be more welcoming than it often is, from that perspective it is often no different to non-church organisations. Let's face it, even an autism group is often not that welcoming and is probably more a biological issue than a human trait, as it makes sense for any group to be non-welcoming at first until such time as the person is proved safe in order to protect the herd. So is there a question here that maybe our expectations when we go to church are too high? There is an interesting verse in Kacey Musgraves' "Follow your Arrow", which goes:
"If you don't go to church you'll go to hell (uuh)
If you're the first one on the front row
You're a self-righteous son of a
Can't win for losing
You'll just disappoint 'em
Just 'cause you can't beat 'em
Don't mean you should join 'em"
fair dos everyone has right to agree to disagree.its just nice to be part of this forum. regards gaz
