Nothing about us without us (part 2) Suffer the Little Ones?

Jesus reference to the Little Ones in the Gospels can be quite puzzling. The designation "little ones" in Matthew 18:6, 10, 14 may refer to disciples like Peter whose faith was weak in the midst of difficult circumstances. In 10:41-42 Matthew recorded Jesus' description of prophets and righteous men as "little ones."

It could be said of people diagnosed with autism are the "little ones" of our society. Trying to voice the view of their unknown and almost un-knowable world is extremely difficult. But articulate we must. Someone once said, 'Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend. '

“When a parent doesn't even know how much of the world his child with Autism understands, how can that parent expect them to appreciate the finer notions of an invisible world? How do we explain the concept of God, or faith, or even prayers?” asks Melissa Gray mother of Brenna a preschool child with Autism.

Is the key to the notion of spirituality of those with Autism then more do with what we understand by knowing. Is knowing necessarily a precursor to faith? So often, spirituality is spoken of in terms of knowing God. But what do we mean by knowing?

I believe that we need to to use a hermeneutical key to unlock anything that resembles an understanding of Autism and Spirituality. This term is nothing more than the science of interpreting what scripture says, exegeting passages so they make sense, or presenting an idea which is used as a cornerstone for other ideas, a sort of code-book which explains a host of little known secrets, a program which unravels the intricate details of a complicated set of beliefs.

Let me paraphrase a passage for 'Hyperchoise - living in an age of divserity' by Graham Cheesmen to illustrate this.

Hermeneutics has become a vital area of current philosophy that emphasises the distance between (a situation) and its reader and interpreter. The (situation) is embedded within a specific culture with all its presuppositions, which the reader cannot fully enter. The reader, in turn comes form to the (situation) with pre-understanding based upon this own (context), culture and experiences.

Therefore, is our search for an inclusive spirituality to find some means by which people with Autism can be included in ours, or we in theirs, or in fact a search to find some new notion of a truly inclusive theology.

Dean Wells, preaching one Advent Sunday in Duke University Chapel said,

"If there is one social group who expose the link between our attitude .... to God, it is people with severe learning disabilities. Such people simply take up a tremendous amount of time. And it is time that it is very difficult to render in money or commodity language, because many such people don’t seem to progress, if progress means become like the rest of the population. It’s no use being sentimental about such people, because many are exasperating company in the way they dismantle all of society’s presuppositions about logic, manners, and private space. The tendency of our society is to treat such people in the same kind of way we treat time. Either we treat people with learning disability as a commodity, needing to be housed and cared for and somehow dealt with. Or we treat such a person as an enemy, a person whose life should if possible be prevented from coming into existence, or at least be prevented from unduly damaging the lives around it . But our task as Christians is to come to see such a person as a gift and a friend. A gift, because in their life God is giving us something we did not have before, someone we need to be everything God calls us to be. And a friend, because in finding in relating to this person we have nothing to fear, we discover that our true hope lies not in our striving but in God’s grace. If you do one thing for God this Advent, spend some time with a person with a severe learning disability. The way you relate to this person will epitomize what you believe. "

In doing this, who really are the little ones ....... for of such.........?

To be continued