JOHN DEMPSTER: What the woman who is 'religious but not spiritual' can teach us all about a greater love
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Sometimes you hear people saying they’re “spiritual but not religious,” meaning that they don’t follow a particular religious tradition, but seek to connect with the divine through meditation and reflection.
In contrast, in her new booklet With all your mind: Autism and the Church Erin Burnett describes herself as “religious but not spiritual”. The Belfast-born author, herself a person with autism, struggles with phrases describing faith as a “relationship” with God, or with Jesus. She finds it hard to relate to people – the social skills of relationship seem a code difficult to crack – and harder still to relate to an invisible God.
She is encouraged by John Shelby Spong’s words: “God is a verb that invites us to live, to love, and to be,” says Ms Burnett. “Whenever we act in love and live life to the full we are experiencing God.” Hence “religious but not spiritual” – acting in faith, while not emotionally uplifted by faith.
Drawing on research, she outlines some of the characteristics of people with autism, while emphasising that each “neurodiverse” person is unique.
Autistic people can be extremely sensitive to noise and light, and may find loud worship intimidating. Many see things very literally, and are puzzled by metaphor. They may be drawn to legalistic, fundamentalist expressions of Christianity, and become obsessive about obeying rules to the letter.
They can be refreshingly direct – like the child in the famous story who pointed out the obvious fact that the emperor had no clothes.
Around 40 per cent of people on the spectrum have some form of learning disability, and may struggle in churches where the emphasis is on understanding and assenting to doctrines. Thirty per cent are non-verbal and must find ways of communicating and reaching out to God which are not word-based.
How difficult “church” can be for folk with autism!
An inclusive church will aim to be a home for us all, neurodiverse and neurotypical, welcoming us with all our differences as God’s unique people.
God too finds ways of connecting. As a teenager “desperately lonely and yearning for connection”, with no sense of God’s presence, Erin Burnett wanted a friend, and didn’t know how to “make” one. She was hugely encouraged by Jesus’ words: “I no longer call you servants. Instead I have called you friends.” That assurance, she says “spoke to a void in my life that needed to be filled”.
