[Alex Murphy]

...what can churches do? First of all, love and accept the individual and their family as they are right now. Get over the image of a perfect church where everyone sits perfectly still and quiet and obeys all the “rules.” A quiet pew is an empty pew. You want your church to grow? The mission field is right in front of you. However, if you put out unreasonable expectations, you will soon find an empty church. So there is a little more noise. Do you think God is not big enough to move in the midst of a little noise? So there is a child who won’t sit still. Get over it. One day we will all be held accountable to God for our actions. Do you really want to look God in the face and explain that you asked that family to leave because their child with autism was “disruptive” to your service?

Take a long hard look at the Bible. Jesus never said someone had to be perfect to be accepted and loved. Actually, we are told that we are all a part of the body of Christ. There is no one part more important than another…… if we believe the Bible, than that means, EACH INDIVIDUAL IN THE CHURCH IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS ANOTHER. That child that maybe loud and jumping up and down everytime the sermon starts…. Guess what? They are just as important to the body of Christ as the pastor, the board members, the Sunday School teachers. Hmmmm…. So if they are just as important, than they have a vital role in the church. It is the church’s responsibility to be sure they have a role to play. They have a gifts and abilities to be used for God. Help them find those gifts and use them accordingly.

[Alex Murphy]

Ping! Please note that, although the title is the same, this thread features a different article by a different author

[G Larry]

Most of our Churches have “Cry Rooms”.

Some families with autistic children choose to use them, while others do not.

Same is true for families with infants.

[Arthur McGowan]

People have the right to attend church services without screaming and other disruption from infants and other people.

[Tax-chick]

I think this author is very reasonable, since she observes that there’s not one easy “solution” for every church or every individual with autism. The concept of “accommodating the autistic” can seem impossible ... but if everyone is operating with love and goodwill, it might be as simple as having a seat in a corner where a child can draw quietly.

[mlizzy]

At the top of the autism post at this site, there are several links, a couple from moms who have ended (or reduced) their autistic child's "symptoms" through diet (gaps diet), the use of clay products, etc.

That being said, our own "active" kids, four in a row, went to daily Mass for the most part, and usually we ended up in the vestibule. It was a big enough area for them to move about, if they needed to.

When my brother-in-law became a priest, his motto was, "[g]et rid of the cry rooms; bring forth the children." He's been a priest/pastor for 20+ years. Autistic children would be welcomed at his parish, is my guess.

Good luck to the mother of this post. She's on a crusade; I hope she wins!

[TRY ONE]

The biggest problem with autism in the Church: Those with autism typically worship D-O-G

[Tax-chick]

I've been thinking about this the last couple of days, and it seems to me that just about anything could be substituted for "autism" in the title. Every human being has "special needs." Being a child, having a child, being old, sick, widowed, poor, unemployed, depressed, alcoholic ... . Every single person who comes in my church has individual needs; every family has specific needs. If our response to any need is, "We have a right not to be bothered by you," instead of, "What can we do for you?" then we as a congregation have failed in our mission.

Any church is going to fail sometimes - a person will be faced on the wrong day with a situation he thinks is too much. However, those should be exceptions to a general pattern of sincere love and sacrificial hospitality.

[informavoracious]

Somehow, when I went to church as a kid, children were well behaved and people with crying babies sat in the rear and stepped away when it got too loud. Kids in classrooms were well behaved too. What happened?

What about movie theaters and libraries and expensive restaurants? Should uncontrollable children have the run of them too? I stopped going to my local church because clueless parents would allow their kids to climb all over the pews, throwing Cheerios and squabbling. I found a nice, quiet Latin Mass where parents teach their kids they are in a special, holy place. If you prefer the raucous megachurch style, have at it. To each his own.

[yldstrk]

Come to the Catholic Church, we like live people of all kinds. Life is what it is all about, not fitting in to some country club kind of cool