Why Is There Autism: A Christian Perspective
While many religions share a similar belief system as the one expressed in this podcast, the views presented are the personal views of the author, Thomas D. Taylor. The views expressed do not represent the views or opinions of MIDNIGHT IN CHICAGO.
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We usually precede our podcasts with an announcement stating that we are not medical professionals, and we tell our listeners to consult board certified medical professionals on all medical issues. We also state that we are not legal experts, and so advice our listeners to consult attorneys for professional legal advice. Those announcements still apply, but this time around, we feel it necessary to state that we are not ordained ministers, and that those who identify with a particular religion should consult their clergy regarding any and all spiritual matters included in this discussion.Additionally, even though I am a co-creator of the Midnight In Chicago project and primary writer of the Midnight In Chicago podcasts, the opinion I give on Christianity as it applies to autism are entirely my own and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Midnight in Chicago or its related endeavors.
I wanted to offer my opinions to those who have often asked the questions “Why is there autism? Why did God make these people different? And why does He allow them to quote suffer end-quote with it?”I do not presume to know the will of God, yet neither can I ignore what the Bible says about death, disease, suffering, and healing. I believe the Bible to be God’s Word after all. I have been reading The Concordia Self-Study Bible NIV version to see if I can find some answers to the difficult questions I just mentioned. Any Biblical quotes which I offer will be taken from the aforementioned Bible. The NIV is of course a Protestant Bible, and so those of the Catholic faith will surely want to consult their own Bible for elucidation. Atheists, agnostics, and those of other religions may even find some meaning in the passages I cite, even if they do not believe in the Christian God per se.
Many people in terms of Biblical history, when did diseases, disorders, and death begin to occur?The answer to that question is almost “In the Beginning.” If you take a look at the chapter of Genesis, God first made man “in his image,” and then made three additional fundamental changes to the human body thereafter. To begin with, he made man, as it is laid out in Genesis, Chapter 1 verses 26-27: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”It is significant, in my opinion, that it is mentioned three times that man was made “in God’s image.” He did not make man exactly like Himself; he made men in his image. An image of a being is not the same thing as the actual being, just as a photograph of a person is not the person. No one can get a complete picture of a person if they are looking at a photograph, or even a hologram, because the representation of the actual person might in some way be flawed in its representation.
As we know from the genesis story, the first man and woman give in to temptation. This is a flaw of character, and reinforced the fact that men and women are not perfect as God is. Genesis Chapter 3: 6 verse 6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her and ate it.” God changed man and woman three times. Change number one to the human form was when God decided to create woman as a companion for man. In Genesis Chapter 2 verses 21 to 22, this is explained: “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”
Change number two came after this man and woman, Adam and Eve, sinned by seeking forbidden knowledge. God said to Eve: Genesis 3 verse 16 says: “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.”Change number three came to both Adam and Eve: Genesis 3: Verse 22 to 24: “And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”From this we can say, in layman’s terms that from the very beginning of man’s history, God has made each of us in His image, but not EXACTLY like Him. God has since changed the essential makeup of man’s form twice (first removing a rib to make the first woman, then making him mortal) and God has changed the woman’s form twice (first making her childbirths painful and then making her mortal).
Since the time of these changes, only one person born on earth, Christ has defeated death permanently, and it was not Christ who resurrected Himself, but God who resurrected Christ. People may ask “What about Lazarus?” In John Chapter 11, we read that Jesus raised him from the dead, but it does not say that Lazarus lived forever.I can draw an inference here and I would caution listeners that this inference may be an erroneous one. People should remember to consult their clergy on spiritual matters for a view in keeping with their denominations. But my opinion is that we know we will die because God said that we will. My opinion is also that because each person is made in the image of God, and because no two people are exactly the same (not even identical twins) we can expect that we will each meet death differently. In fact, we have no reason not to expect this is the case because the Bible seems to imply this it in Psalms 139: 15 and 16:“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Even the confused and bewildered Job reflects upon this when he says in Job 14 verses 1-6: “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. 2 He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure. 3 Do you fix you eye on such a one? Will you bring him before you for judgment? Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! 5 Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. 6 So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired man.”As for what the Bible say about disease and disorders, the Bible makes references to both in numerous anecdotes and parables. Sores, boils, leprosy blindness, are mentioned. And in Mt, 9:2, Mark 2: 3, and Acts 9:33 paralytics are mentioned. There are many instances of people speaking in tongues as well. Too many afflictions, diseases, and disorders to list out here. Are we to believe then that God created autism? Well, it is interesting that scientists are now finding out that autism has its roots in genetics, because this scientific evidence seems to support what the Bible says in Psalm 139 verses 13 and 14: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Just a comment about this passage: The speaker here, who is likely to be King David according to the Concordance - like all humans must know he is mortal, flawed, prone to catching diseases, yet even so, he praises God for how wonderfully he was made. So if we, who are images of God, are flawed by virtue of not being Gods ourselves, it stands to reason that people who have differences MIGHT have been made by God that way deliberately. Is that one of the things that causes me to have an acceptance of autism? Yes. Essentially, the speaker is praising God for creating him the way he is, although he knows that he is NOT perfect. Now, some people would see autism is a defect. Why would God build such defects into people? I have no way to explain every single instance of deliberate imperfections and differences, but the Bible provides examples to elucidate what God’s reasons are for creating SOME people with differences. In John Chapter 9 Jesus heals a man who was born blind.“As he went along, he saw a blind man from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “”Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
In other words, it was part of God’s plan that this man might be born blind so that people would see Jesus heal him and come to believe in God. Even people faced with certain afflictions doubt God’s wisdom in making them different. The best example of this is Moses, who balked when God told him to talk to Pharaoh. In Exodus 4, verses 10 to 15.: “Moses said to the Lord, “Oh Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”So the implication is that Moses was born with a difference but when his purpose was made clear to Him, God explained that he is responsible for creating that difference. And that he would help a person with one of those differences when it came to be the proper time. And more than that, and more significantly, God gave Moses the right to refuse this offering. In verses 13 to 16 of the same chapter, we see how this plays out: “But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know we can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were a God to him.”That is almost like an autistic refusing to learn something new and a parent made to work for them on their behalf. And this is why I believe we should afford people on the spectrum respect when they say they do not wish to be treated or cured. This is why I created the motto “Love People With A Difference” which MIC has adapted as its slogan.”Now, in the Biblical parable, Aaron basically gets drafted into doing Moses’s job. Aaron obliges willingly. Verses 27 and 28 tell us: “The Lord said to Aaron, “Go then into the desert to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord sent him to say, and also about the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.”
Nowhere do we hear a complaint from Aaron about this duty bestowed upon him by God, and I daresay his brother.Now as Biblical scholars know, Aaron is a brother, not a parent. Yet there are TWO instances of someone being made a parent of a different child in order that God’s will might be accomplished. One of these instances occurs with the Virgin Mary, the other with a relative of hers named Elizabeth. In Luke 1, verses 30-38, we read: But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 “The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she was said to be barren in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”39 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.“I would say then, that all parents should accept the children God provides them with.Try to imagine the situation. Mary gets up in the morning thinking she is going to go about her day like any other, and she goes to bed at night knowing that she is going to give birth to the Son of God. SHE accepts this situation. SHE accepts this pregnancy which she did not ask for. From her perspective, it was an unplanned pregnancy. Yet in response to this situation, she says “I am the Lord’s servant.”
How are we to know that God has not made plans for any of the babies that mothers carry with them now or have given birth to? Let’s remember the very significant words of God from that passage: “For nothing is impossible with God.” An angel, who is a representative of God, speaks these words.We cannot know God’s will, but we do know from Psalm 139 verses 13 that God “knits people together in their mothers’ wombs”. Coupled with the comment “For nothing is impossible with God.” it also suggests that it does not matter how people are created, they can be changed if it is God’s will. The Virgin Mary bore a child. Elizabeth, a relative of Mary’s who was thought to old to be able to bear a child had one also. They were changed for a purpose. I would postulate that many autistics are made the way they are because they also have a purpose. Likewise, if God wants to CHANGE an autistic for a particular purpose, that is possible also “For nothing is impossible with God.”
To extend my postulation, perhaps parents of autistics have “found favor with God” as Mary has. In the passage I read, the angel spoke of Elizabeth, a relative of Mary. Now who was that? That was the mother of John the Baptist. Luke Chapter 1 verses 11 through 20 tell us about the coming of John the Baptist in great detail.“Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. 12 When Zachariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him; “Do not be afraid, Zachariah: your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and you may rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from birth. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers of their children and the obedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the lord.”
18 Zachariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 19 “The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 Now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, which will come true at their proper time.”Elizabeth took on this responsibility willfully and happily: In verses 24 and 25, we read: ”After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this to me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
What I find interesting is that with Mary, the angel says that she has “found favor with God” and this is why she is chosen for the responsibility of carry and giving birth to Jesus. And here we now have Elizabeth saying “The Lord has done this to me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”If we remember that Mary says: “I am the Lord’s servant” and Elizabeth believes God has shown her his favor, it means that God has chosen very special women to give birth to special children because he FAVORS these women, and the women repay God by doing what God asks of them and showing appreciation for the favor they have received. Now, what about differences in general though? How does God feel about them?There are a number of passages in the Bible which talk about this issue. Each passage is different.
Although Jesus is talking about sin in Matthew Chapter 18, for example, he does acknowledge the fact the people themselves may see differences as a bad thing when he uses the example of differences for a lessen in verse 8: “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.”Who does not fear being maimed or crippled? So the Bible here plays upon our fears about being maimed or crippled to make another point about sin. Nevertheless, in 1st Timothy 4:4, the Bible says: “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”As reading of the verses that come before and after that passage will reveal that God is actually talking about food, BUT, if God is perfect, and can do no wrong, then how can anything God created be evil? Or bad for that matter? PEOPLE may do evil things, but they were not originally MADE that way. Adam and Eve CHOSE to be evil when they sought knowledge that was not theirs to have. And what WE regard as BAD is a descriptor applied from OUR perspective and not necessarily God’s.
Imagine a person who has a “bad” facial deformity. If this person is made in the image of God, then there must be something within that person’s image that IS reflective of God, and so that person cannot be bad even if we think his deformity IS bad. If clarity is needed on this point, this same concept is mentioned in Colossians Chapter 1 verses 16 and 17, and it refers to ALL THINGS God creates. Not just food. 16 “for by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” What does that passage mean to me?It means that if all things were created by God and for God, what right do we have to tamper with what God creates? We also know, as is told to us in 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 6: “The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.”
He says in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11, verse 9: “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”So about any forthcoming in utero genetic tests for autism, what would I say?If it’s used to alert parents that they need to make special preparations for the coming of the child, I think it’s great. But if it is used as a determining factor in the termination of the pregnancy, I think it becomes an instrument in the overthrow of God’s plans. In MY opinion, we do not have the right to make such choices about pregnancies for ourselves and I would suggest that the Bible addresses this point. The Bible says to people themselves who bear grievances against God for whatever reasons in Isaiah 29:16: “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”?
Now, there are many passages in the Bible about Jesus healing those who are sick or those who have differences, as well like to call them these days. What is that all about? Very interesting those passages. In looking at my concordance, the word “heal” is listed as being used 44 times, the word “healed” is listed as being used 73 times, the word “healing” is listed as being used 28 times, the word “heals” is listed as being used 6 times, the word “health” is listed as being used 11 times, the word “healthier” is listed as being used 1 time, the word “healthy” is listed as being used 7 times,Some of these passages refer to the spiritual healing of sin. Others reference a plant’s or nation’s wounds or affliction or health. But the majority of the passages DO address the health of people directly. The one I personally find most interesting is Mark Chapter 1 verses 29-34: 29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.”I find the passage interesting because whether it is one or many who are sick, only those who ask directly or those who ask on behalf of others are the ones Jesus chooses to heal. In the Bible, Jesus goes from place to place healing those who ask for it, but the one thing he does NOT do is heal everyone on earth.And surely he CANNOT because, as we have seen in other Biblical passages, they are designed with what some would call “bad flaws” for a purpose.
There ARE instances where God denies prayers: In Isaiah 1: 15 the Bible speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah: “When you spread your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood."The Bible says in Romans Chapter 12 verse 12: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. My feeling is that if we feel we are afflicted, we can pray. If we feel others are afflicted, we can pray for them. And if it is God’s will, healing will take place. But we must not question God’s will either. We are also free to seek treatments and cures of course, for anything that affects us or those we love, yet these treatments and cured will not work if God has other plans, or if God has designed us so that we cannot be treated or cured.
“Why is there autism?”I don’t know. But as a Christian, the Bible tells me to believe that God does.“Why did God make autistics different?”I don’t know. But as a Christian, the Bible tells me to believe that God does.“Why does God allow them to quote suffer end-quote with autism?”I don’t know. But as a Christian, the Bible tells me to believe that God does. He also tells us that those who feel they suffer can pray for help, and that we can pray for those whom we think are suffering.
So in conclusion, what are the words I would like to leave people with? God knows; we don’t. And so we should pray for enlightenment. That is my Christian perspective. We ought to “Love people with differences.” More specifically, we ought to “Love People With A Difference.” That is my personal perspective.
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© Thomas D. Taylor, 2008. All rights reserved. The MIDNIGHT IN CHICAGO Audio Podcasts on Autism and transcripts cannot be reproduced without first obtaining written permission from the copyright owner. Contact bruce@midnightinchicago.com to request permission. Thank you.