“The God of Israel, incarnate in Jesus Christ, is disdainful of the kinds of social or symbolic capital that we consider to be important, and always has been: he draws near to those whom we naturally consider to be marginal or even contemptible and elects them to involvement in his work of salvation. In his hands, those who are naturally considered worthless can be potent agents of blessing. This has an immediate bearing on how we value those with autism within the church, for God expects the same values exemplified in his work of salvation to be embodied in all those united in Christ.”
“Churches and church leaders will often pray that their numbers will grow by providing young families, and that their needs will be met by God providing wage earners and promising future leaders: they pray, in other words, for normal solutions to the challenges they face and expect divine blessings to have such normality. The presence of a socially challenged adult with a recent diagnosis of Asperger syndrome or of a disruptive child with profound autism will not necessarily be seen as an answer to such prayers.”
Autism and the Church: Bible, Theology, and Community by Grant Macaskill
