tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post7733297870215736922..comments2023-09-26T03:53:17.142-04:00Comments on Pentimento: Autism and The Sins of the FathersPentimentohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-5688841239379466702014-10-15T20:27:28.224-04:002014-10-15T20:27:28.224-04:00Thank you for your comment, Allan. I agree with yo...Thank you for your comment, Allan. I agree with you that, if there were biomarkers for autism that could be detected in utero, the result would be a holocaust even greater than that of unborn babies with Down. The bioethicist Gerard Nadal once wrote a piece in which he suggested that autism's purpose was to teach us, as a culture, how to truly love. Perhaps there's some truth to that.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-1608947957628250212014-10-15T16:59:57.882-04:002014-10-15T16:59:57.882-04:00Pentimento, Bravo! People equate any kind of suf...Pentimento, Bravo! People equate any kind of suffering with evil and want to eliminate it, not accepting that the cross is not optional. I know that God made me the way I am and that sometimes it is a challenge for the people who love me, but that I am challenged in my love for them too, and God triumphs when I accept others and love them anyway. On a societal scale, I think of all the children aborted because they tested positive for Down's Syndrome. They would have been called simple. Caring for them may have seemed simple compared to caring for us non-neurotypicals. Is it a coincidence that we can't yet test for autism? If we did, and then tried to eliminate autistics, God would have to discipline us. I picture us as the answer to disobedience (God rolling up his sleeves--we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way). When people make a nasty comment that implies I'm a little retarded, I find myself chuckling and thinking, "No, I'm not simple, in fact, I'm really complicated!"Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05320238477798288464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-7365664653072433162014-09-28T20:28:27.094-04:002014-09-28T20:28:27.094-04:00Thank you for your comment, Morénike. To be fair, ...Thank you for your comment, Morénike. To be fair, I don't think that Deisher is saying that autism is a sinful state per se, but that it is the result of grave sin. Which is subtler, perhaps, but just as bad. Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-91992117725934820682014-09-28T20:19:54.465-04:002014-09-28T20:19:54.465-04:00I am an Autistic adult, a non-denominational Chris...I am an Autistic adult, a non-denominational Christian, and a parent of Autistic and non-Autistic children. The idea that the neurology my children and I were born with is "sinful" thoroughly disgusts me, and the fact that an attempt to conflate Scripture, vaccination, etc in this manner is appalling. The Bible states that I am "fearfully and wonderfully made" and that God knew me as I was "knit together" in the womb. There is nothing sinful about being Autistic, and in fact when I read the accounts of certain Biblical characters (John the Baptist being one, but not the only), I see a great deal of characteristics of neurodivergence. This saddens me a great deal. Morénikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17360855353262663284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-87605716318226606302014-09-27T22:36:20.623-04:002014-09-27T22:36:20.623-04:00Thank you all for coming here and weighing in. I ...Thank you all for coming here and weighing in. I very much value your input.<br /><br />I heard that the captcha was acting up, so I removed it. I hope it doesn't cause any more problems.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-59288972090144708862014-09-27T22:12:18.328-04:002014-09-27T22:12:18.328-04:00Hi Pentimento
I posted an excerpt and a link to ...Hi Pentimento <br /><br />I posted an excerpt and a link to your blog, asking my autistic friends & allies-of-autistic friends to comment here, as I know a number of same who are Catholic or other Christian sects. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/liz.ditz/posts/10152821534816535" rel="nofollow">Facebook post</a><br /><br />I gather there's been some difficulty in commenting.Liz Ditzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03455722013211350247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-10381824887744708772014-09-27T20:16:02.870-04:002014-09-27T20:16:02.870-04:00I am an autistic adult who converted to Judaism af...I am an autistic adult who converted to Judaism after growing up attending both Presbyterian and Catholic churches at intervals (mother and stepfather). I am beyond appalled by this hateful study. CChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06338465547298726792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-43570939494848738332014-09-27T19:56:31.811-04:002014-09-27T19:56:31.811-04:00A friend from self-advocate circles shared a link ...A friend from self-advocate circles shared a link to this post on fb. This is really a conversation worth having… and yes, there are a number of Christian self-advocates to have it.<br /><br />I have trouble engaging with remotely anti-vax arguments, but the rest is interesting and I will post more when I've thought about it.<br /><br />Lastly, you are a wonderful writer!Halanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-193558158094503422014-09-27T19:48:20.861-04:002014-09-27T19:48:20.861-04:00I'm an Autistic activist, though not religious...I'm an Autistic activist, though not religious (graduate of Catholic school & raised Eastern Orthodox, however).<br /><br />The presentation of brains like mine as the result of evil is unconscionable, and is yet another thing that people use to justify hurting and killing us--I know of several murders of autistic children where the killer said things like "won't be autistic in heaven" or "sending to Jesus" as their defense. I did very well in my morality classes & I get the impression that this is not consistent with the pro life ethic we learned about--my life is not worth less than another life, is not evil, just because I am neurodivergent.<br /><br />It's also inconsistent with the "God does not make mistakes/garbage" thing. A number of religious (mostly various denominations of Christians) parents of autistic people (never us ourselves...) say that in one moment & bemoan the punishment that we are on them the next. It's not logically consistent.<br /><br />It's disappointing that someone is using the tenets of a faith that I grew up around to endanger people for being like me (as being dehumanized by being the personification of evil makes all of our lives less protected) and also to scare people out of possibly the greatest medical advance of all time. It's not ok. It isn't at all consistent with either what I learned in religion classes or what I discerned by thinking about what my ethics are and what is right.<br /><br />It's ableist fearmongering.Neurodivergent Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02815685510033244185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-11923823761303048132014-09-27T16:08:42.598-04:002014-09-27T16:08:42.598-04:00"And that is why, in the end, we shouldn'..."And that is why, in the end, we shouldn't trade the atrocities of the past for anything."<br /><br />And that is why, Enbrethiliel, published your hysterial comment. :)Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-89958107054325734532014-09-27T15:58:30.515-04:002014-09-27T15:58:30.515-04:00+JMJ+
The issue of vaccines developed using the ...+JMJ+ <br /><br />The issue of vaccines developed using the cells of aborted babies also came up recently on my blog. The commenter who brought it up said, "Sometimes you have to accept that the past is the past." (Interestingly, she and her husband have chosen <i>not</i> to vaccinate their children.) <br /><br />The context was a discussion of a fictional trading game called Blood and Roses, in which the object is to make a better world by exchanging human achievements for human atrocities. (For instance, if the price of preventing the Holocaust were the loss of all the works by your favourite composer, would you make the trade?) As the conversation lengthened, we came to agree on two things. The first is what you've pointed out here--for we couldn't think of anything truly horrible that didn't result in <i>some</i> good later on. That is, every atrocity can follow the template of Calvary; or as you put it, the aborted baby can be seen as a type of Christ. The second involves the way that the Mystical Body works. Let me explain with a non-religious example . . . <br /><br />I used to know a young woman who had been abused as a child. She went on to study Psychology and was <i>fascinated</i> by case studies of other abused children. I wouldn't say it was always a healthy fascination, but it helped her to deal with her own past: if she could see the pain of those children transformed into something that was really helping many psychologists and their patients, then she could believe that her own suffering could be transmuted into a net gain for the world. And <i>that</i> is how the Mystical Body works: as the sufferings of Christ belong to all of us, the sufferings of those whom He has saved can be united to His own and also belong to all of us. And that is why, in the end, we shouldn't trade the atrocities of the past for anything: it would be a denial of our oneness with those whom we supposedly care enough about to save. Salvation isn't an external transaction, but an action of and in a single body, like the circulation of blood. <br /><br />Anyway, I hope that this makes up for my first "hysterical comment." =P Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-1613879022067109912014-09-27T15:29:53.028-04:002014-09-27T15:29:53.028-04:00+JMJ+
HYSTERICAL COMMENT!!!
(Oh, Pentimento, I...+JMJ+ <br /><br />HYSTERICAL COMMENT!!! <br /><br />(Oh, Pentimento, I couldn't resist. =P)Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.com