It is Paper 14 of 52 today - "Autism and Christianity: an ethnographic intervention", Bustion, 2017, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Seems appropriate for #EasterSunday

#WeeklyPapers #Autism #NeurodiverseChurch

I've chosen this paper because some research shows autistic people are less likely to have religious faith than non-autistic people, but I'm interested in what faith might be like for autistic people who do believe.

Also, I started out in anthropology, so 'ethnographic' appeals!

Abstract (bear with me on this one, I raised my eyebrows at first)

Most work on autism and religion is based on the idea of an 'absent self' in autism and that w/o sense of self, can be no sense of God (hence, eyebrows )

OR

Autistic ppl are authorities on own experience!

This paper takes autistic people as authorities on their own religious lives, and examines what they say about this through an ethnography of three online Christian communities.

Autistic Christians construct 'a distinctively Christian understanding of neurodiversity...

#Autism

...and a distinctively aspie (ok, not ideal language choice there but is echoing what is used by the participants) understanding of God'

This is going to be fascinating!

Key note: this paper only looks at Christian faith/practices.

#WeeklyPapers #Autism #NeurodiverseChurch

Opening sentence - autism has been theorised as an 'absent self' i.e. lack of theory of mind.

Second - we should query autism's construction as a deficit.

Next para - philosophers have been using autistic ppl for thought experiments w/o talking to them!

I like this author

We should include autistic voices, not separate philosophy of religion from lived theologies of autistic persons of faith - YES!

And this history has 'impoverished the field' (so stealing that phrase!)

Have a feeling I'll fangirl my way through this everyone.

#Autism #Religion

Absent Self Theory essentially says autistic ppl struggle to integrate experiences into a coherent sense of self

(This combines ToM, sensory issues, weak central coherence etc into a kind of super-theory. I kinda like it, but from a psych p.o.v. I have questions)

#Autism

Next heading - The Trouble with Absent Self Theory

She's very clear about what she's arguing here, and I love a good subheading (structure helps *so* much with reading/marking, students take note!)

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #NeurodiverseChurch

1) criticised by social scientists (yup!)

2) criticised by autistic activists - it encourages people to interpret what is said by an autistic person as a 'performance of selfhood' rather than genuine first-hand account of lived experience

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

As a personal note on 2)

I wonder if that underlying assumption is why many 'objective'/quant reviewers/editors/journals struggle to accept samples with self-dx ppts, or qual work.

An assumption autistic ppl don't 'know' themselves so are unreliable reporters on their lives?

Oh wow, whole discussion of stimming as a form of autistic sociality, with multiple autistic scholars cited. Adding all of this to my ever-growing list of papers I need to read.

Points out that 'absent self' theory is philosophically untestable, as we cannot read thoughts!

As we cannot prove or disprove absent self theory, we must assume autistic people's accounts of first-order lived experiences are as genuine as those of non-autistic people.

Wild this argument is being made for the first time in *2017* in philosophy...

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Absent Self in Religious Studies

Academic theologians/philosophers have taken social/behavioural scientists (psychologists) at their word on absent self (our bad)

Created theory that if don't know self, can't see God as intentional agent, can't 'know' God

Who can??

#Autism

They have therefore "use[d] autism as a shorthand for being cut off from God and other people to reflect on the notion of empathy or the practice of Christian love"

Wow.

People who came up with this possibly didn't mean to be so dehumanising, but just no.

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Autistic people have often been seen as an occasion for another's faith (e.g. the gift of raising an autistic child to strengthen a mother's faith in God - example taken from another paper)

But not as possessors of faith themselves.

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #NeurodiverseChurch

As ever, the focus has been on parents and church communities in terms of the impact of an autistic person in their life, not the perspective of autistic people themselves.

I know this is getting better. This paper is part of that in this field, but it makes me cross

#Autism

Only two (!) previous papers on autistic exps of Christianity, both single interviews of autistic person and non-autistic researcher. Both based on 'absent self' theory and so do not give scope for true exploration of these experiences.

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Apologies - one paper was with Jewish Israeli teenagers, not both Christian studies.

Even when these young people described their lives in terms of faith, this was assumed to show 'appropriating religious narratives' rather than genuine belief

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #Faith

Ethnography

Online ethnographic method of ...

Wait for it...

LURKING

I love it. Both as a methodology, and for not attempting to give it a fancy academic name. There was lurking, and so it was called.

(All public data btw, no breaches)

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #Lurking

Interesting discussion of the differences in the three autistic Christian communities..,

1) WrongPlanet, non-believing members of the wider network often hijack the Christian forums to 'debate faith' or otherwise attack those looking to meet Christian autistic ppl

#Autism

2) ASPIESCentral, Christians are also a minority in the community whose conversations are frequently interrupted by nonreligious members to the point where mods have banned religious debate (I assume because it was so upsetting/heated)

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #Christianity

3) subforum of Autism & Aspergers group for Christian members where (unsurprisingly) they form a majority of the community

People talk about it being one of the few places they can combine "the Christian part and the aspie part" of their identity

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Forum is seen as a place where people can 'express their full selves' w/o criticism from nonreligious autistic people found elsewhere

Several quotes from posts about feeling welcomed, accepted - probably what people were looking for on other forums too

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Even tho 3 forums have different atmospheres around religion, community building in similar in all.

Often an alternative to physical church, as these spaces can be hard to enter/participate in for autistic people

1) sensory - noise, touch, dress code
2) social - as ever

Disclosure - I am the daughter of a vicar.

I can attest to the sheer ridiculousness of the cliques and social games that can be part of some churches.

I would also like to attest, though, that not all churches are like this. Not every person in every church is like this. Truly.

Some people talked about masking as a way to be able to feel they could access church, and not sharing that they are autistic because they feel it would be awkward.

Importantly, this was not because of any shame in being autistic!

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #NeurodiverseChurch

Many participants in all forums talked extensively about neurodiversity.

Many saw neurodiversity in a Christian light - as being blessed with the ability to see and experience the world in a special way, as potentially being less sinful e.g. not lying

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Sorry for the pause, @erinomoran just sent me cake from America because I'm on my own for Easter!

Back to it...

Autistic people also felt that traits of loyalty, honesty, compassion and acceptance of differences were traits in common with the early Christians and disciples

They felt they 'used' their autism to glorify God

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #NeurodiverseChurch

Some felt that they knew God better than they knew other people, and that because God knows all languages, They also know "how to speak Aspergian" (ppt quote)

This means they see autistic as equally able to have a relationship w/God, contrary to academics

#Autism #WeeklyPapers

Some members of the forums speculated as to whether Jesus himself was autistic - seeing him as obsessed with the Kingdom of God, not worrying about social norms or impressing people, and doing things differently

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #NeurodiverseChurch

Conclusion

Autistic Christians build online faith communities partly in response to finding offline communities hostile (even if online spaces can also be unwelcoming)

They build their own neurodiverse theology, and undermine academic assumptions about their faith

#Autism

My Thoughts

I am *really* glad I read this paper.

It's great to see IFL being adopted outside the autism-specific research field. It's great to know people are doing this work. I hope this author is doing more, and I look forward to reading it.

My Thoughts 2

Is it exactly how a psychologist would go about studying this topic? No.

But I don't think it needs to be. Ethnography is a well-established methodology with it's own merits (and issues) just like any other.

This paper recognises this and does good with it

My Thoughts 3

This is more personal.

It makes me sad that autistic people of faith feel unwelcome in the spaces which should be the most welcoming.

I recognise every single one of the issues raised by the participants here. People can be the best, or worst, part of any church.

What I would say:

Some churches ARE welcoming, and don't care if you stim in the pew or turn up in the same clothes every week or will only take communion from one person or don't take it at all and if you never join a single rota or group.

We just need more of them like that.

I don't know how we do it - I wonder if the current options online feels more accessible to people, and how we could support inclusion and community building and welcome around the technology we are all using.

But we should be doing it.

#Autism #WeeklyPapers #NeurodiverseChurch

To sign off - this is the cake I've just been sent!

So I'm going to go and enjoy eating it in the sun, and call my family, and look forward to a week off next week.

Look after yourselves, and happy Easter!