Christian Aspies

Post Reply New Topic

Bless you Lincoln that is how I feel too

*Raises hand*

Your sinner score: 200 of 200
Your works-based (heaven-qualifying) score: 0 of 200
Your faith-based (imputed righteousness) score: 200 of 200

You are very likely a Christian.

I had already been knowingly disabled by (supposedly-)other things almost a decade before I knew I'm an Aspie: IBS-D, Major Depression, Social Anxiety Disorder, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Painful Foot Syndrome. A.S. was, so to speak, icing on the cake! Tho actually it may answer most of my life's questions and problems, sort of an umbrella-condition.

Anyway, so in connection with all my physical and psychological difficulties, I had already gotten alot out of Jean-Claude Larchet's Theology of Illness. (BTW, if he's not an Aspie...! He's written a couple thousand pages in book form about early Christian Theology [original definitions of both words] of a certain kind and time period, and he's technically not even a Patrologist, 'merely' a philosopher. But I guess talent + interest do not necessarily equal ASD! )

Since I've been drawn towards Eastern Orthodoxy in the last decade, I've been more interested in this early Theology than is generally the case in the Western Catholicism of most of my life beforehand. And maybe I was more open to a very traditional-sounding message that God did not invent sickness and death, and God kills no one: The Fall of humankind and estrangement from God shattered the universe, not actually from some primeval perfection, but from the possibility or openness to such a gift from God, without Divine Intervention inside Creation/the universe (in the form of God's Incarnation in the life, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension into Glory, of Our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ). So everything from galaxies colliding, down to my long hours on the toilet, WE did it, the whole organic union of humankind did it, well-represented indeed by Adam and Eve in the biblical Book of Genesis! Some of this is my piggybacking other writers onto Larchet, but within what I believe to be The Orthodox Tradition ... though I should consider myself having a weak grasp of it if at all! But WE introduced all this going-awry into the universe by our free choice to try to go our own way, incapable as we are. What God does is try to spin it to our benefit, use what we've done as humankind to underline for us how bad we've made it, and how to fix it, ie, by becoming Godlike, or in Greek, Theosis, sometimes translated as Deification or Divinization: becoming, by His free gift, "partakers of Divineness" (2 Peter 1:4) ... not to be confused with godlike and apotheosis, which Orthodox Theology considers made-up and fictional, at best.

(How is this different from when all those non-Orthodox professional speakers and writers say similar-sounding things that we in the Western world are traditionally so familiar with? That's hard for me to convey without writing a book myself. But it's like taking things out of context and losing their meaning as augmented by their original context, by accident or on purpose.)

Long story short, as an Orthodox prayer prays, my illness had already been the occasion for a religious struggle for me, not because of doubt but quite by accident, discovering in Orthodox t/Theology a system that seemed to me to make the most sense of several I'd tried before. IOW, time on my hands, to read up on it. THAT changed the way I look at everything to do with Christianity, and continues to. But A.S. came into my awareness as 'just another illness.' Why? That remains to be seen.

OTOH, I have wondered sometimes if it's NOT an illness, rather Neurotypicalism is, and Adam and Eve were created "Aspie," and Jesus Himself was "Aspie," and NTism only came in with The Fall!! ! 'Autistic Liberation Theology,' anyone?! !! 'Aspergian Theology'?! "Half-jest and full earnest," as we Irish say!

God forgive me,
Pete

PS: Pardon my longwindedness ... This may be my No. 1 "special interest," religion/theology ... I even got most of two Master's degrees in it! But I'm not really equipped to debate many of the finer points of Western theology or religious philosophy, nor inclined to, hugely conflict-averse as I am! When I was a Catholic, I didn't 'do' Aquinas or Balthasar, and when I was a Protestant, I didn't 'do' Luther or Calvin, Spong or Dobson (though I almost completed a thesis on Hauerwas and Yoder). I'm really just answering the question from my own particularity, unique or not tho it be. Happy Easter, Good Pesach, and Kalo Pascha!

Hi, you are not ... tho I'm a convert, so do I count?! Or do we just come in and pee in Orthodoxy's gene pool?! !

Peter

Hey, Greenmouse, I may not totally agree with you, but I don't reject you. If it helps, while in Catholic high school I became involved in the Charismatic Renewal and experienced their "baptism in the spirit" and so forth. I felt my Quakerism was rather experiential in the '90s, too. In fact, a big appeal of Orthodoxy to me is how much its definition of Salvation makes sense, ie, embodied in the Divine gift of the experience of the vision of the Light of Mt. Tabor / Damascus Road / various other Biblical Theophanies, ideally even before death.

Pete

I agree with sparrowrose.

And I'm a Christian, but not a "born-again Christian". Where I have heard that term is in church, and it's nondenominational. To me, a "born-again Christian is a Christian who has been baptized. So I think that phrase can be translated in many different ways, and that the translation varies on location. Make sense?

I'm one.

Well, I am a Christian for certain, and an Aspie by suspicion. I may soon obtain that diagnosis formally, and then be able to definitely call myself a Christian Aspie.

Good to see you all here.

Where to start... well, I was diagnosed with autism as a child, but people often call me "high functioning", so I'm not sure what that makes me. I was later diagnosed with with schizophrenia as well. I'm a Christian, and a faithful member of a Presbyterian church. I was on here under another name years ago, but I decided to give it another try. My interests include music, history, ethnic cooking, computer programming, languages, and foreign cultures. I'm currently single, but hope eventually not to be. I suppose you can call me a geek, but I'm not really into comic books or video games, and my roleplaying game days are pretty much over. If any of this interests you, drop me a line.

I'm a believer but i believe in evolution too.

Baptism is a symbol of what has taken place spiritually. Born again means that you are now living a new life in Christ.

Traditional Roman Catholic here. Obviously not born again by American standards though.

I'm a terrible example, but I'm a Christian as well. I

I am a spirit-filled Christian.
I am very interested in talking with other Christian Aspies.
I also have a survey for Christian Aspies (and others on the spectrum) and how they relate to church. I am hoping I can compile the information and help other Aspies with their church experiences. If you don't mind taking about 7 minutes to do the survey, I would appreciate it.

Aspies and Church Survey

Hi I'm new here, but I'm a Christian and almost 100% positive aspie along with other health issues.

I am a Christian and I have Asperger's Syndrome. I love Jesus so very much. "God made me according to His perfect plan. I am loved and beautiful." That is a quote that one of my online Christians friends told me to write down and say everyday. I find it really hard being a Christian Aspie. I have NOT been doing well lately and I would really like prayer and maybe someone to talk to. Thanks.

Yes. I have tried a couple churches. But they seem to be so much focused on social things and family. I don't have any local family and I'm not that great at socializing. So I always feel left out at churches. But atleast I have God, I've learned to depend on Him when Christian friends stop being my friend.