Published on 12, July, 2020
Is there anybody out there who feels they so much want to fit in with everyone else but struggles to at church. Does your church open and understand your autism. What can we do to change struggles we have in a busy church environment? Autism christian bible study groups etc? I am thinking at random. What are your thoughts and what are your struggles?
I found this thread today when I was feeling very overwhelmed and it has been such a blessing to me. As an autistic Christian I often feel very isolated and alone. Most autistic people I meet dont share my faith and most Christians I meet dont share or understand my autism. I feel like my faith and my autism are the two biggest charachteristics in my life and I cant find many people I can share them both with. Reading through all these comments and knowing there are so many other autistic Christians going through the same things I am is such a comfort. Struggling with the noise of PA systems, knowing who to talk to during tea and coffee afterwards, dealing with the feeling that people might think autism is something for God to "cure" , it makes me feel really comforted knowing Im not alone with this stuff. Also I often find understanding the Bible as an autistic person very difficult, does anyone else struggle with this? I feel like all the sermons Ive heard and books Ive read in my life are about how to follow God and understand his Book from a NT point of view and for people with an NT brain. I am still on my journey of how to figure out my own personal understanding of the Bible and my relationship with God with my autistic brain but I think I understand it has to be different to everyone elses if that makes sense
I didn’t read the bible much until I got into eschatology as a teen. Looking at the bible as a code that had to be unraveled made a lot of sense to me.
not that I’m suggesting it’s in anyway for an elite. Just that the author clearly intended the reader to use their brain figuring out what it means. And indeed the Bible it self says as much.
I'm aware of the apocrypha. I don't put much weight on it personally. Never seemed to ring quite the same when I read it as the canonical books if that makes sense. I suppose what I'm saying is the bible shouldn't be read uncritically. You don't just read every sentence at face value out of the context of the rest of the book. Go look up the Hebrew and greek. Do a bit of research on the history the people referred to lived in so you can maybe understand why things that feel odd to a modern way of thinking were done. That sort of thing.
I actually took Hebrew and greek as electives at university. I can't honestly say I remember that much though but I do remember enough to look things up in a dictionary with out much trouble.
That is a very Gnostic approach Peter, and one that I also identify with. Are you familiar with some of the non-canonical stuff too? A touch of The Gospel of Thomas from Nag Hamadi perhaps - one of my special interests. Different translations and iterations of essentially the same sayings, stories and proverbs can present themselves to me in very different ways - both from within the different parts of the Bible itself and some of the more fringe documentation that abounds on the interweb these days.....I find it all pretty fascinating.