conflicting convictions by promoting supports that serve the whole person and the family. From this engagement will develop a theology of autism/cognitive disability grounded in the mutual encounter of persons in community. Whether we understand our religious convictions in terms of “faith seeking understanding” or a “faith that does justice” or in wholly other ways, all persons of faith should find common ground in proclaiming the human rights of autistic persons to an appropriate and effective education across the life span. This conviction is grounded in the belief that all persons are endowed with the potential for lifelong growth and development as human beings; however we differ cognitively, we are the same in our endowment of human dignity and our capacity for fulfillment in community. From this discernment grows certain fundamental convictions: the inequality of educational opportunity for persons with autism is not simply a matter of public policy, but social justice. This disparity closely mirrors inequalities of economic status, which in turn are often grounded in legacies of racial inequality and de facto residential segregation that relegates persons who are cognitively disabled and poor to substandard educational programs. Everyone in the autism community knows just how unequally distributed are these vital and indispensable educational services, from early intervention to classroom teaching to vocational training. These inequalities are further evident from delayed diagnoses to inadequate services that can lead to physical harm done to autistic persons or members of their families. The fundamental inequality of autism services—and the demeaning competitive scramble into which most families are driven—call for action grounded in moral and religious convictions on the dignity of all human persons.
Kristina Chew, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Classics at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City and Jim Fisher, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology at Fordham University in New York City. They are the parents of a son with autism.
“The difference a cognitively ‘disabled’ person represents simply by her or his presence is an occasion for mutual understanding and perhaps an occasion of grace as understood in some faith traditions. Justice grounded in any faith surely demands that the person in community is to be known in and for oneself and as a member of community.”
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Autism and Faith
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