Why Faith Communities Bash Autism

This topic has been heavy on my heart for a few weeks, even though I address some of this in my novel Deaf, Dumb, Blind & Stupid. If I have to answer the question (especially since I’m so involved in the faith communities), it’s pure ignorance. Many people are so narrow-minded to the point that they think that autism is a disease. The truth is that autism is not a disease; it’s a different way of learning. Sure, for many people who are autistic or are on the spectrum, anxiety and a mental illness will come with it (and there’s a cure for that). I find that the older I get, the more ignorance I see when it comes to people who have challenges. In fact, many will bash others who are autistic, but heaven forbid they have a child living with autism. They would want others to be sympathetic to them and their children. According to Autism Speaks, autism is a complex disorder of the brain. And when I minister to faith communities about autism (as I educate people about it), I say that just like body parts get sick, brains get sick. Autism is a little different because although it’s associated with intellectual disability, and there are difficulties in motor coordination and attention to include physical health issues, many are gifted in visual skills, music, math and art.

I encourage you to visit www.autismspeaks.org to find out more information about it.

Continuing on with the topic at hand. Faith communities bash people with autism because of pride within themselves (believing they’re better than others because they don’t have it).  As I said in my blog last month entitled “My Healing Journey (Part 1),” the better neurotypicals (non-autistics) understand our journey, the more acceptance and support we will receive from them. And it’s recorded in Scripture that people perish for a lack of knowledge. Because of that lack of knowledge, it’s very easy to judge and discriminate against those living with autism. There is no cure of autism, but some of the symptoms do have a cure.

I find it very interesting that faith communities frown on people who are struggling with something (a life crisis, a health crisis, etc.), pointing fingers at them saying it’s because of a lack of faith. But when the table is turned, they want all the sympathy they can get, and will stand in any prayer line for prayer. In my book, I call it hypocritical. Everybody needs mercy and not everybody is perfect like YOU! I also find it interesting that we tend to bash the spouse when they have challenges, as if they had nothing tragic happen to them. Faith communities need to be able to support each other, just like married couples challenge each other (and not ridicule each other).

Think about it. Faith communities have become so callous to the point, when someone says they’re going through something, one of two things will happen: either they’re say you’re healed (and you don’t need to see a doctor), or it’s because of a sin that you caused or your parents. That’s not very loving if you really think about it. What I love about God is that He created everyone unique. I believe everyone has a thorn of some sort (according to 2 Corinthians 12:9), but watch this: His grace is sufficient. We don’t glorify God FOR it, but IN it.

Near the end of my novel DDBS, I make this statement: There are so many people who are plagued with ADD, AD/HD, PTSD, BPD, or Bipolar, and we steadily punish them for their mental differences and chemical imbalances. Galatians 6:7 says ‘don’t be deceived because God is not mocked. Whatever we sow, we will reap.’ I ask you a question: Why are we only sympathetic if OUR child has a mental disorder? On the contrary, if you know someone whose child has a mental disorder, they need a beating. This is unfair, and reflects the worse part of human nature.

Faith communities have challenges, and we need to stop acting like we’re immune to them. Faith is acting on what we believe, but denying it is faith. In fact, denial is foolish. And denial has been the trend for generations. We need to grow up, deal with what we’re struggling with, so that we can overcome. Everybody deserves love and compassion, not judgments because they are different!

This blogpost post is not intended to bash the faith communities, as I am a part of the Christian faith communities. And because I deal heavily with it, I see a lot of attitudes that are not godly causing church dropouts or causing other brothers and sisters to be infected with that attitude and they become extremely callous. That’s not healthy, and we must be healed from our pride. The easy way to heal from pride is to deny yourself and humble yourself.

Blessings,

The Mayne Man

We've Fallen & Can't Get Up

During my shower this morning, I was praying (and repenting) of some things from my past. God showed me some dark areas that needed to be exposed to be set free from (mostly abandonment – when the truth of the matter is, I didn’t look to Him during my dark period in life that started in May 2011 till now), but surprisingly, He also revealed to me the hearts of some people.

1. Many are aware that some of the people we’re following are false, but we still continue to do so (or we’ll close our ears and eyes so we don’t admit that we’re wrong). Translation: we worship the creature over the Creator.
2. Many are allowing the economy, reputation and fame to cloud our judgment to where we follow after those who are false for that small piece of fame. Question: what profits a man to gain the world at the cost of your soul?
3. Many are not even honest with God but more importantly, themselves as to why they deal with people. In other words, their world revolves around them and are just determined to get what they want or they will assist in crucifying you (Judas Iscariot was a prime example of this).
4. Many just don’t believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Plain & Simple! If we still continue to follow after those who are offended of preaching salvation, then we don’t really believe the true message of Jesus. At the same token, there will be many who will turn away when they hear that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
5. Many of us are just downright selfish. We want things on our terms when we want it (even if it’s not the will of God for our lives). Adding on: we’ll do whatever we can to protect our position or status in the world (and even in the church world).

In the natural, it appears that we’ve fallen and can’t get up. But the truth is, we can get up, we just have to be willing to swallow and repent of our pride!

I’ll share a little of my struggle these past two years. I saw a lot of things happen to me in my personal life, and it just got to the point where I went into total depression. I knew God was there, but it felt like He was silent to me. I can count on one hand the people, who prayed for me but the majority were telling me to “get over it,” or “I don’t want to hear your prayer request, but you need to hear mine.” And asking for people to pray for others who are lost was like twisting their arm, but they would come to me asking to “pray for my sick family member.” The two positive things that came out of this depression for two years are the following:

1. I’m still alive
2. My novels DDBS & Pieces of Me emerged

We can get up, we just need to surrender our pride and ask God to expose those dark areas of our lives. As you can see, this was dropped on my spirit within the past 45 minutes and felt pressed to type this up. Blessings!

An Assignment Greater Than You

The title came to me as the Lord was showing me something about what you’ll be reading. The text will come from 1 Samuel 16:1-13. I know this will be familiar to a lot of people, some of what I’ll say you might’ve heard before, or this will be brand new. Either way, I’m letting the Lord lead.

The second half of my dream was this: I was at my job and I had an altercation with someone and I just walked off the job. I went to my therapist and told her that if I go back to the job, I’m going to hurt somebody. Initially my dreams are a shock, but as the day progresses, they get revealed. And actually, my dreams over the past 3 months have a common denominator, and it’s that I have an assignment greater than myself. And I know a few of you reading this have an assignment greater than yourself. I’ll talk about the pros and cons about this later in this post.

Now 1 Samuel 16:1-13 was during the time when Saul was rejected as king and a new king was to be anointed. The Lord sent Samuel to Jesse to anoint one of his sons to be king. Now what struck my interest was the fact that Jesse didn’t even consider David to be the one. It wouldn’t surprise me if Jesse didn’t call David because he was not only the youngest, but he had an assignment (tending to the sheep), and Jesse wanted to ensure that David was on that task. But the Spirit of the Lord had a different plan. In verse 11, Samuel was like “do you have any more?” Jesse responded like this, “there remains the youngest AND (my emphasis) he keeps the sheep.” It wouldn’t surprised me if Jesse didn’t want Samuel to bother David, but again, the Lord had a different plan and told Jesse to get David. And of course, David was anointed to be king. During David’s anointing, he wasn’t groomed like his other brothers when they were presented. He was pulled from the sheep when he was anointed. The beauty of this scenario was that God doesn’t look on the appearance, but the heart. People can look good and put up a front, but their heart can be so dark!

Now David didn’t become king over Israel immediately. He would wait until Saul was dead. BUT, there were some things that David had to do before becoming king over Israel (and he would be the only one equipped to do it – such as take down Goliath). So, what can we take from this? Some of you reading this know that you have an assignment greater than you, and that’s truly a blessing from God.

I’ll start with the cons first: some of you know that you have an assignment greater than you, but you jump ahead of God by jumping into your assignment on your own strength. That’s dangerous and you are of course, out of order! Some will become prideful in that assignment and they will start parading in it for self-aggrandizement (or for bragging rights to look spiritual to others or perhaps to get the kudos from man). Again, you will be out of order!

The pros of having an assignment greater than you: you have been chosen in such a time as this. That means God has His hand over your life. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy, you will be tried. At the same time, you may not have time to prepare for the call (in other words, things that God is doing in your life which are a blessing to you and to others are happening at a pace that you’re not expecting – and that’s actually a good thing). All you have to do is remain humble (and obedient), and be able to adjust your life (as to how you see it) to the will of God.