If you, like me, are home now full-time with your autistic child, please know a few things:

1. You can do this -- you are mighty
2. You may not feel mighty
3. I am praying for you every day

We all know how much any change to routine is hard for our children-- all children in fact, but especially children and adults on the Spectrum. Many states, including mine, has asked us all to stay home - not to engage in public programs and not to gather in groups.

What this means for the ASD Community is of ...
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The controversy over vaccinations is heating up again. Like many controversies affecting the Autism community, people are polarized, and find themselves pushed into positions easy to ridicule. The issues are always more nuanced than the media makes them. The feelings, hopes and opinions of parents are strongly held, and quoting scientific studies or public opinion are probably not going to change them.

In my opinion, what we need to avoid is demonizing other parents. How we cope with the issu...
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Thinking today of what I wanted to write about, I came across a journal abstract published in May of this year. If you are one of those who likes to read the full story, click here. The publication is The Journal of Religion, Disability & Health. Here is a quote from the abstract of the article:

 "studies suggest faith community participation may be more limited for people with disabilities and their families. This study reports qualitative findings from a mixed-methods study exploring the ...
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A few days ago, a study presented in Environmental Health Perspectives journal (reported here) offered a potential glimpse into a linked between pollution and autism. The study, headed by Dr.Deborah Cory-Slechta of University of Rochester Medcical Center, found changes in the brains of mice exposed as babies to fine air particle pollution. These changes correlate to the brain diferences found in people with autism.

As many of us know, the search for the "cause" of autism is a primary source of...
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It came to me rather forcefully at our last Special Grace service (this past Sunday) how acclimated I have become to living in what we optimistically believe to be a sensory-friendly worship experience.

Sadly, we once again had no families coming to worship (more on this later) but we DID have some guests -- visitors from another church in the Diocese. Guests are always fun because they give a chance to articulate what we live. I know for myself I am often so immersed in how we do what we do t...
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Recently someone asked why we see A Special Grace as a Ministry of Evangelism and Mission. "After all, they said,"its really a wealthy white family phenomenon." You can imagine my reaction.

Even setting aside (with difficulty) the outrageous racism in presuming that "Mission" is only applied to ministries engaged with non-white populations (a whole other blog post!), the presumption of whiteness in autism spectrum diagnoses is..well...weird.

There's no reality to it.

A British Journal of Psych...
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I hear this on a daily basis. I know, I get it. Establishing a pattern of regular worship with a family member on the Autism Spectrum IS hard. We'd like to say it's not, we'd like to say it's a breeze, no problem. But that isn't the reality. The reality is, it is STINKIN' hard.

Church is hard from a sensory standpoint. Churches tend to be "echoey" places, where sudden loud bangs from dropped kneelers are not at all uncommon. Any music being played is often quite loud and orchestral (split into...
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Recently a clergy colleague asked this question: "How do we let people know we are not judging them?" 

 I have been thinking about it ever since. How do we let anyone know we are not judging them, when the popular image of Christianity promoted by sensational news stories is of a religion that both judges and condemns at the drop of a hat? How do we preach and teach non-judgment when whole churches turn out to hold signs telling the world that "God Hates ____ (fill in the blank)" ? How do we s...
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Recently, my Aspie son and I watched all the X-Men movies in order. We frequently do this--take a series of movies, watch them in order, then critique the nuances. As an aspiring filmmaker, my son likes to look for hidden themes and "memes" the director may have included.

In case you don't know the story of X-Men, it involves mutated humans who, through their mutation, possess supernatural abilities. The X-men are leery of "normal" humans, don't understand their motivations, but find themselve...
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Just a quick note on a small revelation I had this week. I started on twitter (never thought I'd like it, but I REALLY do) and discovered what a great place it is to network for the Rhythms of Grace ministry. It really is wonderfully comforting to endure a major meltdown from my Aspie son, only to see someone else tweeting that the same thing is going on in their life at that very moment! Real time communications are amazing.

Now maybe this isn't a revelation for anyone else, but as I started ...
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I recently read an old, old article by Frederica Matthewes-Green. Here is a link to it: click here.  It got me thinking and praying on the promise of being known by God, even from before we were formed.

I tell volunteers to be prepared for a different kind of joy when they work with autism spectrum children.

The payoff for most of us in children or youth ministry is seeing these young people grow in the Lord -- seeing their enjoyment of programs, an increase in knowledge, a growing awareness o...
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