For Christians- Has being austistic affected your beliefs?

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I am making this post because I'm curious as to whether being autistic or not affects people's religious views. Considering that I consider myself a Christian (not the best one in the world), I thought I would seek out people of my own faith to answer, to see what they might say.

As for myself, being autistic has skewed my religious beliefs quite a bit. The Bible speaks about obeying God's Laws (the Ten Commandments), believing that Jesus Christ died on the Cross to pay for the sins of mankind so that men can escape damnation from their sins, and leading godly lives by seeking out God instead of the things of this world. These statements I readily agree with.

When it comes to "forgiving your enemies" when they sin against you, and "Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also", I have trouble doing this. Being autistic has always made me passive and non confrontational, and I have sought to be peaceful around people. But there have been times in life where people, without any justifiable reason, were hateful and mean to me.
I NEVER did anything wrong to them, and they choose to lash out at me, and being autistic, I couldn't understand why they were angry or hateful, and I was scared and couldn't fight back.

I felt like a victim, because I was autistic, and I couldn't fight back against those who unjustly mocked me or attacked me (verbally or physically). Feeling like a victim, I learn to hate those who hurt me, because I couldn't attack them back, and because they acted with malicious intent towards someone who did nothing to them. This alone to me makes their actions almost to the point of pure evil instead of ignorance and lack of self control.

The feeling of not being able to stand up to people who are confrontational because of being autistic, has made me at times in the past angry and furious at God, because I had been unjustly mocked and hurt, and I couldn't do anything about it (like standing up to the person, fighting the person, or getting back somehow). If I tried to lash out, I'd have a panic attack when the person would react to me negatively.

I have talked to God before and said "God, why did you make the majority of mankind complete, and left me almost finished, but not quite? Why can 99.9% of this world be able to be angry when someone is hateful to them and lash out, and I can't? Why must I be defenseless? Why must I be alone, never able to fight back?"


Being autistic has also affected how I view other Christians. I see them as very strong in their faith in God, and that they turn to God whenever they are down and out. I see them as feeling great emotions: love, compassion, kindness, etc, godly emotions. They have turned from their sinful ways and have accepted God.

As for myself, I started out good, and have always been a good person at heart. But according to the Bible, Ephesians 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast".

But overtime, I felt like a victim of being autistic, and I lacked faith in God. How was I supposed to have faith in Him when I was constantly reminded of my shortcomings? How was I supposed to have faith in Him, when I was alone, when I was isolated, when I did not have the emotional capabilities that my brethren took for granted. I felt like a human who wasn't full, a human person lacking the one piece of the puzzle that truly made him human.

Even now, unfortunately, I lack faith in God. I know He is the real deal, and that Jesus Christ died on the Cross so that all men would be free from sin if they followed Christ, and I believe in the doctrine of Christianity. But I don't have faith, I may have it for a little while, but once something bad pops up, or I'm reminded of being autistic, I lose faith. I also have lost faith because I've been alone for so long, and instead of meaningful social relationships with friends and significant others, I have replaced it with a thirst for knowledge, since emotionally I'm as dry as a desert.

Well this is how I've been affected by being autistic, what's your story?

I can relate to what you've posted. I too was bullied a lot in school and never would fight back. I had a few friends (or classmates who were nice to me) try and motivate me to stop taking crap from people, but I would just bottle up and walk away. Fortunately, I was never beaten to a pulp by anyone who just wouldn't take no for an answer.

To question or lack faith is more common than you may realize. I have questioned my faith from time to time. I never doubted that Jesus was the only way to Heaven, but sometimes would doubt that God is involved in my life. No one ever said the Christian life is easy. In fact, it is more difficult than a secular life in the sense that so many temptations to stray are out there and in your face, and it keeps getting worse as time goes on.

God created all of us, and none of us are the same. I strongly suggest a book by Stephen Arterburn called 'Healing is a Choice' which may help answer some of your questions.

It hasn't affected my beliefs in any way.

In my experience.

1. Nobody is complete. Most NTs are as screwed up as anyone with AS...their dysfunction just happens to be more socially accepted.

2. All "defect" and "dysfunction" is the result of sin. Everyone is affected in some way or another.

3. The key is how God can transform someone (defects and all) into something that glorifies Him.

4. Nobody will really ever fully understand the "WHY" of their lives until they personally meet God. If you're lucky, every now and then God will give you a glimpse as to "WHY" on some of your life issues, but you'll never understand it all until you reach the other side.

Has anyone come back from Beyond with the minutes of their Meeting?

ruveyn

Which assumes that there is a 'why' in the first place.

True. But it's a pretty good assumption to make, since it is a Christian doctrine that there is a "WHY", and since the OP specifically states that he is a Christian asking the advice of Christians.

Yes, the Christian doctrine states that we were created in God's image to bring glory and honor unto Him, who created us. God/Jesus wants us to live according to what His laws, and by doing so, we honor Him as Christian and therefore followers of God, who Jesus Christ is a part of.

Even so, this is but the "general" concept of why we are here and why God created us. It doesn't answer what our individual purposes in life or, what God has planned for us as individual people. God might call one person to be a priest or a preacher, another to be a doctor, another to be a scientist, etc, whatever brings glory and honor unto Him. However, I don't know what God has called me to do, and that is one of the points of my post, I feel that I lack purpose in life.

You make a lot of excellent points. Truth be told, I've felt that being autistic has made me weak, and thus I resented the weakness, and in misplace anger, resented the One who put me into existence. I often feel I am one step away from being neurotypical, and that being autistic keeps me away from it. I envy and resent the emotional capabilities NT's have, along with their power to be either assertive or destructive, a choice I have felt was never give to me fully.

Like I stated, I see everything from the point of view that I did nothing wrong, and that people have wronged me, and I couldn't do anything to maintain a sense of self esteem or pride, like acknowledging the offense and being angry, fighting back, or knowing that I could get angry and fight back. Thus, I've felt hopeless, and have lost faith to a certain degree.

I see injustices all the time that occur and nothing is done about them. I'm not merely speaking about myself, but others as well. I am often eager for God's justice, but that justice will come in time, meanwhile leaving open wounds for those who did nothing wrong.

Thank you, I'll look into it

This.

I don't think there is a 'why' - I think life is just a series of random events. I don't believe in 'fate'; I believe in coincidences, and cause and effect. My mum thinks this is a dull, unromantic way of viewing life. I disagree. Why must we believe that things happen for a 'reason' in order to enjoy them? A rose will still smell as sweet whether God put it there or it just grew there because that particular place had the right combination of water, sunlight and nutrients.

So there is no 'reason' why we happen to be autistic. We just are.

I have to keep reminding myself that God gets the most credit when He does something through someone who is deemed the least capable of doing it.

When we do something in our own strength, it does not glorify God. Sadly, we see the church too often catering the world's mentality and putting forth "qualified" people for jobs that need to be done.