May 13, 2007
Religious Education and Autism
Over at AutismVox, Kristina Chew posts about a conference last year, on autism and advocacy, that included discussion of religious education for those with autism. Her post includes several links, and it’s all interesting reading.
It’s a topic about which I have not yet posted, but which is of great interest. I’ll make a few quick observations.
Objections to religious instruction for autistic children are not made on religious grounds, but on the human basis of ‘realism’ or ‘practicality.’ Parents themselves often fall into this way of thinking, but the objections can easily come from priests, pastors, or rabbis who contend that realism or practicality prevent inclusion of an autistic child in the ceremonial life of the church or synagogue. More often than not, an especially officious lay-person will deliver the message of supposed practicality, common sense, or realism.
I’ll approach this as Lutheran, but the same conclusions hold for other Scriptural beliefs. These messages are invariably contrary to Scriptural teaching, and represent a cold, false, and anti-traditional approach. Through Scripture — without any doubt — autistic children should be included in the life of the church. When you hear someone arguing otherwise, you hear someone who stands against Scripture and Doctrine, and places human rationalization against religious teaching.
I’ve heard these contentions from ‘realism’ and ‘practicality’ more than once, and less than a year ago heard a Lutheran Circuit Counselor contend that bringing the disabled (not specifically those with autism, but other conditions) into the worship service produced ’stigma’ for a nearby church that adopted that approach. (He used the word ’stigma,’ and thus simultaneously confirmed himself to be both doctrinally-false and obtuse.) That’s the way of the world, though: many clergyman see themselves as managers of competing needs, and quickly abandon their teaching for the sake of imagined managerial interests. They’re actually poor managers, but then they really don’t know what they don’t know.
