Orthorexia, OCD, and Autism: My interview on the Autistic Liberation Theology Podcast

I did a bold thing recently: I let my new friend Laura Sommer, host of the Autistic Liberation Theology Podcast, interview me about my history of disordered eating and OCD, and we reflected together on the experience through the lens of autism and liberative theology. Now the episode is available for you to listen to or read the transcript: 

Laura welcomes AuDHD pastor and professor Rev. Dr. Taylor Denyer to discuss neurodivergent fixations around “ethical” eating. How do we move from individualistic blame and personal shame into grace, community support, and effective action against systemic injustice?

Content warning for OCD, scrupulosity, paranoia, disordered eating, food

Taylor

Autism Pride Week: Vocab Lessons

 Friends,

You already know that June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and June 19th is Juneteenth, but did you know that June is also Neurodiversity Pride Month (with June 18th being Autism Pride Day), and July will be Disability Pride Month? While the proximity of these celebrations on the calendar is coincidental — each are tied to different events/birthdays — , I view it as beautiful serendipity. 

Language is ever-evolving, and a lot has changed in the neurodivergent and disability communities over the past few decades. Thus, my friend Rev. Angela Wells suggested that I, a disabled AuDHD queer woman, write an Autism Pride tutorial for her congregation’s newsletter with great vocabulary words I’ve learned, key distinctions, and some words that should be tossed out. For brevity, I’m only including a sample of words that directly impact the autism community in this post. 

Awareness vs Pride: For the neurodiversity and disability communities, there is a big difference between having an awareness event versus a pride event. Pride events center and celebrate the people behind the label. They are about rejecting bigoted stereotypes that others associate with us and focusing on what we love about ourselves. Awareness events are about educating the population outside of our community. They tend to focus on our struggles and perceived deficits, and, sadly, often do not center our voices. Thus, awareness events can unintentionally be highly offensive. The debates around awareness vs pride are complicated; we must differentiate between when medical innovations are desired and when the “cure” we seek is transforming the beliefs and social systems that harm us. Note that most autistic persons have related medical issues, so an individual can proudly see their neurodivergence as integral to who they are (e.g., “I am autistic”) and wish doctors could solve the problems that come with it (e.g., “I have conditions that disable me”).

Neurodivergent vs Neurotypical: A neurodivergent person is anyone whose brain wiring — by birth or later event — diverges from what society views as normal. A neurotypical is someone who is not neurodivergent by their society’s standards, and thus does not experience struggles or marginalization due to their neurotype.

Neurodiversity and NeuroTribes: These terms frame neurological differences as being a natural part of a diverse human population. They stand in contrast to models that treat variations of brain wiring as aberrations to be eliminated. Usage example: Christ UMC is a neurodiverse congregation that advocates for neurodiversity in leadership structures. Neurodivergent persons from various neurotribes are represented on its committees, and together they consider the needs, preferences, and gifts of all the community when creating worship, study, service, and fellowship opportunities.

The Neuroarchy: The social systems/structures that privilege neurotypical brains while marginalizing divergent ones.

Neuroqueer: This beautiful word sits at the intersection of neurodiversity and queerness and defies one-sentence definitions. Please read Nick Walker’s 800 word unpacking of it: https://neuroqueer.com/neuroqueer-an-introduction/

Monotrope/Monotropism: These are my other my favorite new words. A person with a monotropic mind tends to focus on one interesting thing at a time. In contrast to neurotypicals with polytropic minds, monotropes are extremely good at sustaining intense focus (hyper-focus) for remarkable periods of time, which has its evolutionary advantages. However, it can also create “tunnel vision,” resulting in a failure to notice other important things, including social cues. Check out monotropism.org to learn more.

Masking: Hiding or suppressing one’s neurodivergent traits in order to pass as neurotypical and thus avoid rejection/marginalization. Folks who are skilled at masking often don’t get the supports they need and end up struggling with anxiety, depression, and burnout, especially in adulthood. When they do seek mental health help, they are often misdiagnosed.

Asperger’s and High Functioning/Low Functioning Autism: Toss “Asperger’s” from your vocabulary unless it is what you chose for yourself. You can google why it is problematic. If someone received that assessment before the label was removed from the diagnostic books, they are autistic with low support needs. We also no longer speak about people based on the degree to which their “functioning” is useful to the capitalist economy. When necessary, we differentiate based on a person’s support needs, noting that support needs can fluctuate over time. A person who was once labeled as “low functioning” or “profoundly autistic” can be described as having high support needs, or Level 3 autism.

The Puzzle Piece vs the Autism Pride Logo: It is important to know that there is a major divide in the autism advocacy world: those who frame autism as a tragedy, something that deprives parents of their “real” children and thus must be treated and cured, and those who view it as a difference that deserves support and affirmation. Which autism symbol you use marks you as either potentially safe or definitely unsafe to autistic youth and adults. The “therapy” pushed by the puzzle piece group, for example, was developed by the same man who created gay conversion “therapy.” Thus, my household is a rainbow infinity loop family.

Want to Know More? Here’s a Reading List To Start Your Journey!

Neurodiversity Affirming Training Handbook

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

Neuroqueer Heresies

Autistic and Black: Our Experiences of Growth, Progress and Empowerment

Divergence: Toward a Neurodivergent Latinx Liberative Social Ethic

The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

With All Your Mind: Autism and the Church

The ADHD Field Guide for Adults

The Sacred Spark: Exploring the Hidden Gifts of ADHD in Spiritual Leadership

Blessed Minds: Breaking the Silence about Neurodiversity

“Working as ‘Rebellious Disruptors’: Neuroqueering and Cripping Academic Spaces Within the Sociology of Religion”

“Prophetic Prospects for Awkward Neurodivergent Liberation Theology”

The Brain Forest (illustrated book for reading to children)

More of a Podcast Person?

Check out the Divergent Conversations and Autistic Liberation Theology podcasts

I guest preached this month! A Fish Tale: Luke 5:1-11

 

Friends,

As I am currently based in Cairo, Egypt with my main jobs being teaching seminary courses at MTSO and acting as Gal Friday extraordinaire for the United Methodist bishop over the North Katanga, Upemba, and Tanzania annual conferences, I don’t do much preaching these days. This is a bit sad, because writing liberative commentaries on biblical passages is lowkey my jam.

Earlier this month I got the opportunity to remotely guest preach for Christ UMC in Columbia, MD. My friend Rev. Angela Wells is the pastor there, and as she was taking a family vacation and April 12 was the official kickoff for the Miracle Sunday Initiative (a campaign for endowed theology scholarships for UMC seminaries outside of the USA), she asked me to pulpit fill. The first part of my talk consisted of opening intros and an explanation of why the creation of this scholarship fund was an important justice issue.

Then, I pivoted to the scripture text that had been chosen for Week 1 of the initiative: Luke 5:1-11. (This is where the attached video begins) That’s the one about Simon Peter, James, and John catching a redunculous number of fish thanks to Jesus’ intervention and then choosing to leave everything and follow him. If you grew up hearing this story in church, you might think you know where I went with it, especially on a clergy scholarship fundraising day. But, if you know my preaching style, you know that traditional talking points is not how I roll.

Instead, I explored the socio-economic situation of this fishing community, what it means in terms of the local ecology when a crew of professional fishers spend all night on a lake and catch nothing, the impacts of extraction-based colonial systems, and who sold, ate, and were supported by the mountain of fish that were left on the shore. I talked about the disciples’ family members, Peter’s mother-in-law as well as the parents of James and John. I highlighted the difference between answering an invitation that could result in persecution versus what Jesus never asked of the disciples: to abandon vulnerable relatives to abject poverty.

I also talked about the Hebrew scriptures’ use of the image of fishing for people as being akin to hunting down evil doers. I suggest that Jesus’ invitation to Simon Peter, James, and John was not the invitation that gets presented in Sunday School. This was about joining an economic justice movement

Finally, I left the congregation a couple questions to chew on: What have they felt a call to do that feels more than they can accomplish on their own? What work would they need to leave behind in order to be a fisher for justice?

May pondering upon these thoughts provide food you this week.

Taylor

Rev. Dr. Taylor Denyer

Paper Presentation Proposal—The autistic Christ: Introduction to neuroqueer liberation theology

Hi all.  I just finished drafting a paper proposal.

Thought you might be interested what is cooking in my mind: 

The autistic Christ: Introduction to neuroqueer liberation theology   

Postcolonial liberation theologians have long challenged “Western” theologies that rely on White patriarchal power structures, pathologize and victim-blame those who do not conform to their rules, and promise delayed (post-death) rewards to those who stoically accept their subjugated status. To add insult to injury, the Western Church portrays itself as the primary custodian of the knowledge of the path to salvation, which it then “bestows” to the rest of the world. Through this hubris, the Western Church has, ironically, deprived itself of the opportunity to experience the Kin-dom that Christ describes in our holy scriptures.  

By centering the experiences and theological lenses of “the rest,” the Western academic community begins to humble itself enough to tap into a vast reservoir of knowledge, allowing it to engage in the work of deconstructing imperial mission praxes, and potentially learning how to gain immediate—not deferred—entrance into the Beloved Kin-dom.  

There is, however, a category of people rejected as defective (and, in many cases, viewed as sub-human) by the dominant Western Church whose unmasked voices are only starting to be heard by academia, and their existence crosses all regional, linguistic, ethnic, gender, socio-economic, and temporal divides: the neurodivergent. 

While mainstream Western society still treats neurodivergence as an aberration to eliminate, in recent years a pride movement has gained momentum among neurodivergents, who through the rise of social media platforms have found one another, formed community, and engaged in liberating reframings of their shared differences. This author is among the “lost generation” of adults who, due to their abilities to sufficiently mask their autistic* and/or ADHD* traits, grew up with the pain of social alienation but without the understanding of the causes. 

The exponential growth of these proudly neurodivergent online community networks have led to the birth of new scholarly constructs (e.g., Dr. Nick Walker’s coining of the term neuroqueer) and the emerging field of neuroqueer liberation theologies. Neuroqueer theologians are engaging in the work of subverting theological frameworks in a way that is both groundbreaking and ancient, revealing to their colleagues truths that have been hiding in plain sight: the prophets of old, numerous biblical heroes/heroines, and even Christ as described in the Gospels code as neurodivergent when viewed through a modern Western assessment lens (e.g., Laura Sommer’s podcast series “Autistic Liberation Theology”). 

Hence, I assert, the Kin-dom of God does not simply make space for neurodivergent/queer minds, it is neuroqueer. This distinction is critical to any holistic theological conversation about solidarity, liberation, and belonging.

This proposed paper presentation would unpack these terms and assertions at the introductory level, creating a pathway into the conversation for those who are just now hearing about it.          

*I embrace efforts to replace these problematic terms, but in the context of this abstract am using the ones most widely known to communicate my neuro-differences. Note also that a significant percentage of neurodivergent persons do not have the resources and/or abilities to fully participate in these online communities.