It should also be noted that this is in rural Minnesota, a small town church with limited resources.  I don’t have the answer to that because I don’t know the layout of their facility.  In our church we could have them sit in the balcony and that would limit his interaction with other people to only those in the balcony.  In my previous church, a large church, they had a great big cry/play-room that would be perfect for him, where you can see the service, participate in the service, but are walled/windowed off from the sanctuary to limit movement and noise - and by big I mean 40+ people can worship in this space, and it has a great view of stage and excellent speakers for sound.  I don’t think this small rural church has the resources to create such a thing, nor do they necessarily want to modify their sanctuary in this way.

Big Chris
http://mrclm.blogspot.com

Very sad situation.  We faced a similar one over an elderly member, in fact the emeritis pastor of that very church, who had taken to speaking during the sermon, was incontinent, and so forth.  Sunday morning church was his wife’s sole social opportunity.  After a heated elders’ meeting, it was decided to let love for this man of God prevail and those who were overly distracted by him choose another service to attend.

But this one is different because of the potential of injury to other worshippers.  My oldest daughter once took some special training in order that she could accompany an autistic child to children’s worship, AWANA, and so forth and permit his parents time to worship.  I wonder if perhaps an adult could be found to do something similar for this young man.

Honestly, this whole thing infuriates me on many levels. I have a great amount of experience with and empathy for individuals with disabilities. My older brother has a form of mental retardation called Angelman Syndrome and I was the primary teacher/caregiver for a 10 year old autistic boy for over a year. The child that I took care of was not violent in the least, but sometimes had stimulatory behaviors that are usually referred to as “stims.” His particular stims were usually jumping, flapping his hands, and making joyful squeals. During church, he would sit most of the time, but there were moments when he would either be experiencing an overly stimulating experience or was excited by the gathering. He would jump, squeal and flap his hands. Once in awhile, he may have accidently grazed a person sitting in front of or behind him. Was it intentional? Never! You know what the other parishoners did, they praised God for the gift of the child’s presence. His innocence seemed to helped God’s light to pour straight from his soul. These church members have an opinion that I fully agree with that individuals with these “disabilities” are God’s blessings on earth to show us of HIs eternal love, joy, and patience.

Now, what right do these individualsof the Minnesota church have to try to tell the family and the child that they aren’t allowed to sit in the sanctuary to experience worship? What would God or Jesus want in this sitauation? It is outright discrimination and should be illegal, let alone completely against any moral code that should be held by the church. If there are members who are disturbed by the child’s expressions, perhaps it is THOSE people that should find another room to sit in to view the worship services. Or perhaps, they should actually dig a little deeper into the Bible that they are carrying with them on Sundays to discover precisely how Jesus would treat this child.

The ignorance and pettiness of this world infuriates me at times. Maybe the reason that boy was placed in that congregation was so that the members would learn vital lessons about love and acceptance and stepping outside of their own confined worlds. Perhaps, just perhaps, God is trying to reach into their services to help them realize He is still a real and living God and that He wants them to reach out to His children on this earth that need their love. But of course, that might require tolerating things that are a little noisy, or a little out of the comfort zone. We couldn’t have that, now could we?