community

Trigger warning: Some of the following quotes mention suicide.

Some quotes of interest from some reading I was doing today:

Conner, Caitlin M., Amy Ionadi, and Carla A. Mazefsky. “Recent Research Points to a Clear Conclusion: Autistic People Are Thinking About, and Dying by, Suicide at High Rates.” The Pennsylvania Journal on Positive Approaches 12, no. 3 (November 2023): 69–76.

“[A]utistic people are more likely to die from suicide than non-autistic people. Autistic people are also more likely to have suicidal ideation and to make attempts.

Based on rates from a recent meta-analysis (statistical analysis to combine rates from published studies on the topic), 20% of autistic children and teens reported suicidal ideation in the past year, and 10% reported suicide attempts. Non-autistic children and teens comparatively report rates of 14.2% for suicidal thoughts and 4.5% for suicidal attempts. This suggests that the rates of suicide attempts are double in autistic children and teens compared to non-autistic children and teens.

The comparisons for adults are even more striking. For autistic adults, 42% reported suicidal ideation in the past year, and 18% reported attempts. In studies of people who were first diagnosed as autistic in adulthood, over 60% reported having suicidal ideation. Comparatively, non-autistic adults reported rates of 4.8% for suicidal ideation and 0.7% for suicidal attempts. Therefore, available data suggests that autistic adults are 25 times more likely to make a suicide attempt than non-autistic adults. …

One reason for higher rates of suicidality in autistic people might be that many known risk factors (that increase a person’s risk) for suicide are also more likely in autistic people. The most commonly cited examples of these risk factors are depression and lacking social support, but other risk factors common in both suicidality and autism include rumination (getting ‘stuck’ on negative thoughts and emotions), loneliness, difficulties with problem solving, difficulty using coping skills when upset, experiencing trauma or abuse, and being impulsive. …

Studies have also examined protective factors (related to being less likely to have suicidal thoughts or behaviors) like social support, finding that autistic adults’ feeling of having supportive social connections is associated with a lack of suicidal thoughts or attempts. …

Additionally, research has shown that there are potentially unique risk … factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in autistic people, like masking their autism characteristics, autistic burnout, and sensory overload. … [O]ften autistic people experience suicidality as a reaction to repeated negative social experiences.”

Cynthia Tam, Kinship in the Household of God: Towards a Practical Theology of Belonging and Spiritual Care of People with Profound Autism (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2021).

“Among the different disability groups, Ault et al. found that individuals with autism were the least likely to receive welcome and support in the faith communities [Ault et al., “Congregational Participation,” 58].”

“[B]y examining the data of church attendance in the American National Survey of Children’s Health over the ten years ending in 2012, Andrew Whitehead discovered that young people living with autism were consistently the least likely to be attending a church [Whitehead, “Religion and Disability,” 387.].”

“People with autism are commonly portrayed as people living in their own world, not interested in social relationships, and unable to empathize with others’ emotions. … This way of understanding autism is constructed based on societal norms for acceptable behaviors.”

“However, if we listen to the voices of people with autism published in recent years, we will hear that they do want to have social relationships with others. More often than not, we, people in society, are responsible for the communication breakdown and the failure to connect with those living with autistic experiences.”

“What does it mean to be a church for everyone? It is, to state the obvious, to suggest that church communities are not always as welcome and loving towards those whom they consider to be ‘strangers.’ Despite the fact that the central doctrine of the Body of Christ informs us that we should be a community where difference is present, but never divisive, many congregations still struggle to include people with particular forms of difference. Time and again we find stories of people with disabilities being excluded from congregations… The church has become a place of struggle rather than welcome.” (John Swinton, “Preface”)

“Thomas Reynolds calls the church that sets up social boundaries between the abled and the disabled, the ‘cult of normalcy’ [Reynolds, Vulnerable Communion, 59–60]. ‘Normalcy,’ according to Reynolds, is a ‘cultural system of social control’ [Reynolds, Vulnerable Communion, 49]. It presumes a certain bodily appearance and the ability to be representative of a community’s identity. As such, it marks out who can and cannot belong to the community. To belong, they have to be like us.”

“Once we understand how the perception of people with autism is socially constructed, examining how we currently belong as a church … will show sharply the societal norms that have crept into the church. Instead of valuing all members of Christ’s body, the church has adopted societal standards such as independence, productivity, physical appearance, and appropriate behavioral etiquette in how we welcome and value each other. … Discovering how we perceive and receive members with unique differences will also cause us to re-examine the nature of the church and how we belong as a community. The ultimate goal is to reimagine the Christian community as God’s loving family in which members, regardless of differences in abilities, stand in solidarity with each other.”

Michael R. Emlet, Autism Spectrum Disorder: Meeting Challenges with Hope (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2023), 15–16.

“[W]e who are more neurotypical must not jump to conclusions about what is sin and what is not. Our tendency may be to shade the truth a bit to protect our reputation, or to tell someone what she wants to hear to avoid a conflict. … There is something to learn here from someone on the autism spectrum. After all, they find it difficult to be sneaky or deceitful, and their honesty catches us off guard.

Let’s not forget the strengths that individuals with ASD can bring to the table: unique and creative insights, passionate and exhaustive knowledge of particular subjects, ability to think visually and systematically, intelligence, and a quirky sense of humor, to name a few.”

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Roman 12:15 ESV)

The above commands are harder than we might assume at first blush.

When we are weeping, it can be hard to rejoice, let alone rejoice with others in their rejoicing. Their own rejoicing can remind us of our own lack thereof. Or we can even be tempted towards envy.

When others are weeping, weeping with them requires the inconvenience of acknowledging their turmoil and entering it with them. This always requires sacrifices, and sometimes we’d rather stick our heads in the sand rather than be disturbed by inconvenient truths.

Both commands, in other words, require de-centering ourselves and centering others, which, in my experience, we don’t like to do. We like to think we like to do this, and we convince ourselves by doing so in ways and at times when it’s convenient. Community is easy when all is well. But even when such community feels vibrant and meaningful, it’s nothing more than a “thick clique” if it reaches its limits at the point when things get hard. That’s not community; that’s just the facade, a cheap replica.

Love loves through the difficulty.