Christians with AS...Church Troubles

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I love God but His people scare me.

Anyhow, do other Christians with AS have trouble at church? The service is usually fine. But the handshaking and eye contact required before and after.... UGH! Some of my most spiritual moments were on Sundays when I skipped church to go to a nature sanctuary and read the Bible. I liked observing God's creation out in the open instead of being confined in a building made by man. Many of the people in my church are very touchy and huggy. I am not like this at all, so I think a lot of the people assume I'm a nasty. I'm not a "normal" female, and much less a normal Christian female. I'm not touchy, motherly, or sugar sweet. I want to worship but sometimes I feel such anxiety at church that I leave the moment the service gets out. How do other Christians with AS cope with this? I feel so nervous during fellowship time when people randomly come up to me to ask me about my life and my job.

I cope by not going to church. I remain Christian, read the Bible, keep my beliefs... but take the socializing out of it. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do... but it works.

I'm also a female with AS and get very anxious about those things. I also get anxious if toddlers yell in church because I feel like wringing their neck and that's not very christian thinking. The noise goes right through me and I think the parents should take them outside until they calm down.

Ditto.

I used to go to church regularly, but it always felt like I had to hide or put on a mask of sorts. I can't stand being hugged, and can barely tolerate handshaking. I always had to escape and collect myself before it gets too intense.

I stopped going to church not long after a particularly painful experience, when I asked for help from everyone I knew there and got nothing but lip-service. Nobody actually DID anything. Pretty soon after I stopped, a thought occurred to me. It seems like being depressed or unhappy in church is a mortal sin, judging by the behavior of those around me. They always seemed overly happy to be there. Why would I want to be in a place where I'm not really free to be myself or allowed to seek real help?

Another thing that drove me away was after I learned about AS and talked with a few people, the college pastor said in a sermon that it's impossible to be a solitary Christian. That really bugged me. My religious beliefs aren't going to change the fact that I have AS. The way I see it, forcing myself to be in a situation that causes me pain is just self-torture and not a Christian thing to do. Lesser of two evils and all that, I stay home and do the best I can on my own.

I only go to church once a month because the Baptist church I'm attending now is VERY touchy. We are told to hold hands and look each other in the eye at the benediction every Sunday which is excruciating. The pressure to socialize before, after, and during the service is also extremely uncomfortable and draining. Why do I keep going? I don't really feel like there is any other church in my town that would accept me and my beliefs.

I really miss the Episcopal church I attended where I used to live because it was very formal which cut down on a lot of the social interactions, but I still felt like I was participating in a community.

Thanks for your input. I always felt like a bad person because of my strong desire to be alone, even amongst others with similar religious beliefs. Our newer pastor is really into the hold hands and greet your nieghbor stuff.... ehhhhhhhhhhhh I do love the people in my church but they still scare me and I do not want to shake their hands.

I used to volunteer almost full time at my church. I can't anymore. I wrote a blog about it just yesterday:

http://zachlassiter.wordpress.com/2007/ ... -upset-me/

I can definitely understand those feelings.
There are a lot of people in my church though, so I haven't too often been spoken to, since I would just stay where I was and wait for the greeting time to end.

Agree 100%. I hate it when people try to turn Christianity into a social clique. The original coptic Monks lived in total seclusion from the outside world and grew stronger in their faith. So how can it be impossible to be a "Solitary Christian?" If someone told me that I'd go crazy because of their ignorance of history.