Things Neurodiverse Believers Wish NTs Would Onestand
I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the autism section since it's regarding both topics. I'm not trying to push faith on anybody, but I'm just trying to get people to understand some things so we can make the church more accessible.
First of all, our special interests are not idols. Autistic people obsess, and that's literally part of the condition. When you fuss at me for talking about my special interests, it's pretty much the same thing as fussing at me for reading braille. The thing is that there is a very clear example of people worshiping idols, and it absolutely does not look like a special interest. If you have ever read the story about the golden calf, they were not just talking about it a lot or knowing all kinds of trivia about it. They weren't holding it or carrying it for sensory stuff the way I do with Tikva. They were giving that calf credit for what God did, and they saw it as deity. I can obsess pretty hard, but I have never seen my bears or any musician I may obsess over or whatever as a deity.
The other thing I wish people would understand and that they would stop doing is using the Bible verse about putting away childish things. People have a really bad habit of ripping that verse out of context and lobbing it whenever they see anybody doing things or liking things that they consider "childish". That verse has nothing to do with collecting teddy bears or watching cartoons or anything like that. If you read the whole chapter, Paul is talking about love. Some people think the Bible is a collection of unrelated verses, but it's not. First Corinthians was a letter that Paul wrote, and it should be thought of in paragraphs, not random unrelated sentences. Do you really think Paul would be giving a whole discourse about love and then stop right in the middle to call out teddy bear collectors and then go right back to talking about love? This verse goes with the rest of the chapter. It's about how to love people, not my bears.
Have you considered building, or helping to build, a group of autistic Christians?
Not Christian myself, but groups of autistic people of particular religions are one of the kinds of groups I think the autistic community needs. (See Longterm visions for the autistic community.)
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- Autistic in NYC - Resources and new ideas for the autistic adult community in the New York City metro area.
- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.
Perhaps a message board, perhaps a chatroom (e.g. a Discord server), perhaps even a local in-person group in your area (to be organized via Meetup, if you can afford the Meetup organizer fee).
Some combination of the above would likely work better than any one of them alone.
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- Autistic in NYC - Resources and new ideas for the autistic adult community in the New York City metro area.
- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.
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