Autism and the church

Creating a welcoming space for autistic people in our EMC congregations

Most of us know someone in our close circle of family and friends who is autistic, or you may be autistic yourself. As autism becomes more widely understood in our society, this raises the question of how churches can create welcoming spaces for autistic people. Perhaps your church is already far along in developing ways to welcome autistic people. That is excellent! However, if your church is new to this conversation, I hope this article can be a way to open space for this topic. Let’s briefly look at three aspects of autism and the church:

1. What is autism?

2. Why is it difficult for autistic people to feel welcome in churches?

3. What are some practical ways in which we can work toward creating welcoming spaces for autistic people?

What is autism?

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Autism is fairly common, with approximately 1 in 50 children/youth currently diagnosed with autism in Canada, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Defining autism is not straightforward, as there is great diversity among those who are autistic. Is it a disorder, as implied by the term “autism spectrum disorder,” or is it a way of being that is simply different from being neurotypical?

From a clinical point of view, autism is a “neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent impairments in reciprocal social communication and social interactions and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interest, or activities” (Mark L. Batshaw et al., Children with Disabilities, eighth edition). Symptoms of autism from this perspective are described as: abnormal body posturing, poor eye contact, inappropriate social interaction and lack of empathy (Daniel Bowman Jr., On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith and the Gifts of Neurodiversity).

In contrast to this, the Autism Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) describes autism not in terms of medical symptoms, but as a particular way of being and viewing the world. Here are some of their descriptors:

1. Autistic people may have particular interests in things that others don’t care that much about.

2. Routines and rituals can be highly important to autistic people.

3. Many autistic people experience hyper or hypo sensitivity to things such as light, touch, sound, smell and taste.

4. Some autistic people may not be able to speak, but this does not mean that they do not have important things to communicate.

5. Autistic people may need help with daily tasks.

These descriptors may raise questions about the differences between “high-functioning” or “low-functioning” autism. Certainly, there are a great variety of support needs within the autistic population and these needs may ebb and flow over the course of a lifetime. According to the current diagnostic criteria, however, all autistic people are now considered to be on a spectrum, without separate diagnoses given for Asperger syndrome or other “forms” of autism (https://www.autismcanada.org/history-of-autism). Having said that, there may be reasons that an autistic person prefers to describe themselves as having Asperger’s, or use a different descriptor, in which case it would be most helpful to be respectful of their preference.

There are also questions surrounding what language to use when referring to autistic people. Should we speak about an “autistic person” or a “person with autism”? “Person with autism” is widely used among medical professionals, as it is seen as a way of defining individuals not as primarily autistic, but as primarily human beings. However, because this language mirrors the language around illness (such as “my friend with cancer” [Armand Léon van Ommen, Autism and Worship: A Liturgical Theology]), it is seen by some autistic people as problematic. For the purposes of this paper, I have chosen to use “autistic person,” but I want to acknowledge that not every autistic person will feel the same way and may prefer other terms to describe themselves.

Why is it difficult for autistic people to feel welcome in our churches?

Whether we are conscious of it or not, every church community has expectations of what it looks like to be a “normal” churchgoer: come to church every Sunday, greet your neighbour with a handshake, stand during this particular bit of the service, and so on. What unfortunately can sometimes happen is that our definition of “normal” creates an awkward and unwelcoming space for autistic people who do not look or act “normal.”

Part of the problem is that, without us necessarily being aware of it, our sense of what is “normal” corresponds to our sense of what is good. A friend of mine, who suspects she may be autistic, becomes quite anxious when sitting through a church service. She also has lived and worked in the world of academia. I asked her about her experiences of having to sit still and listen to sermons or lectures in each of these settings. She said: “In academic lectures, it feels like if I can’t handle them, I am incompetent. If I can’t handle a church service, it feels like I am a bad person. Both hopefully aren’t true, but feeling like a bad person feels worse, I think.

I think most of us would agree that the ultimate good that we strive for as followers of Jesus is not culturally “normal” behaviour but rather lives transformed by the Spirit at work in us. The function of the church is to become a place where everyone is given the opportunity to flourish. That is the way in which transformation can begin to take place. In 1 Corinthians 12:21–25, the apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians that listening to and caring for the needs of everyone in the church is an essential part of what it means to be the body of Christ. He says:

… Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.… God has put the body together … so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (1 Corinthians 12:22–25)

Creating a welcoming space for autistic people

We as Christians, then, all need to be committed to creating a community that is more welcoming for those with disabilities and, in this particular case, autistic people. Ann Memmott, an autistic autism professional, says this: “most autistic people experience ‘shutdown’ brain events if exhausted beyond our limits. This means that, when too overloaded … our brains may stop us talking and maybe moving” (“Welcoming and including autistic people in our churches and communities”). In order to help reduce the amount of sensory overload that autistic people experience in church, Memmott suggests providing a quiet space for people to retreat to when needed and avoiding bright and flickering lights.

Due to their need for structured environments, the spontaneous nature of some church activities can also be highly challenging for autistic people. Autistic author Daniel Bowman Jr. describes growing up in the church. He found that spontaneous church activities (e.g. popcorn prayer, socializing over coffee) placed him in a constant position of wondering why he could not just “roll with it” (On the Spectrum). He says this: “If it’s already been a long week, I may need a Sabbath that includes … staying home from church.” For those of us who place a high value on attending church every Sunday without exception, we need to realize that we could be placing an unspoken but very real burden on autistic people. Allowing them freedom to recuperate in their own time may be a gift we can give them.

One of the challenges about trying to address the needs of autistic people in our congregations is that, just like any other group of people, there is significant diversity among autistic people. For one pastor to try to decipher the needs of those who are autistic in his or her church could be an overwhelming task. It also may be very difficult or impossible for autistic people to speak up on their own behalf. One way in which our churches could support autistic people and their caregivers is to become advocates on their behalf, so that they do not need to carry the burden all on their own.

Still more work to be done

This article has by no means included all the important areas pertaining to autism and creating welcoming churches that need to be addressed. However, I hope it can help to begin the conversation and guide you and your church toward asking important questions around this topic. For autistic people and neurotypical people to live together as one in our churches, there is work to be done, and it will not be easy or straightforward. But if we can move forward in the right direction, acknowledging our mistakes along the way, then I believe we can become more like the sort of unified body of Christ that we are created to be.

This article comes from a paper Stephanie Fast submitted for a course she took called Theology of Disability.