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Those differences are general differences and it is not always clear which form of autism a person has.  My official diagnosis was PDD, meaning that I am autistic but they don’t specify which form I have. Another psychologist might have diagnosed me with Asperger’s. In fact, the entire autism spectrum is most likely going to merge into one diagnosis.  Psychologists look for the exact same traits when diagnosing any form of autism.

That’s more of a scientific view of autism.  We need to take a more spiritual view of autism.  The Bible says that we are  made in God’s image.  God is so great, that everyone put together cannot completely reflect God.  For this reason, every person reflects God in a different way.  I would like to highlight three positive traits of the autism spectrum and how these traits are a reflection of God.

Caring- People with autism tend to be more caring.  They easily get moved when they see that a person is in need.  I personally care strongly about the issue of abortion.  The emotional effect it has on women has been difficult for me to handle.
God strongly cares about people in need.  In the Old Testiment, He constantly tells people to care the orphans in widows.  He commands reapers to not collect any wheat that they have left behind after harvesting the field.  The wheat that is left behind is to be left to the poor.
In the New Testiment, Jesus tells a man to sell all of his posessions and give them to the poor.  The New Testiment also tells us to care for the widows and orphans.

Non-judgemental- People with autism except everyone as they are.  They tend to befriend people whom society rejects and do not care whether their friend is a part of a group that they aren’t supposed to befriend by society’s standards.  Aspies also overlook people’s flaws.
I first became aware of society’s division in high school.  People of certain jobs are frowned upon.  There is a political divide, a racial divide and class divide.  I’ve personally seen it happen.
God is judges us according to our deeds, but not by society’s standards. The Bible says that Christ is the lord of all and does not distinguish between Greek and Jew, slave and free or male and female.  Today, God does not distinguish between CEO and minimum wage worker, Democrat and Republican or teenager and adult.

Thinking differently- I will now have to address autism and intelligent.  Some people with autism have amazingly above average intelligence.  Others have below average intelligence.  Above average intelligence is particularly common in Asperger’s.  There are instances of people with low functioning autism who are intelligent.
Intelligence in people with Autism is a different type of intelligence.  Intelligent people with Autism think differently.  Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton probably had Asperger’s.  They advanced science by thinking differently.  A large number of other brilliant minds from history showed signs of autism, but there is not enough evidence to make a strong case.  Some people with Asperger’s are a huge asset at the company that they work for because they think differently.  One of my professors told me that I think differently.
The Bible obviously shows that God thinks differently.  He uses people in circumstances in ways that we never would expect.  Most of what God tells us in the Bible goes against the way that humans think.  God understands a lot of things we don’t.

Those are only three of the ways in which people on the autism spectrum reflect God.  I came up with a total of nine positive traits of autism that reflect God.  That list is missing.  One last thing, do not associate autism with Rainman.  Rainman is one case and every case is different.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

Even though Jakes legs don’t work, his Avatar’s legs work.  When he controls the avatar, he enjoys living as a Na’vi.  It becomes a second life.  He goes through various rituals of the Na’vi and fully embraces their customs.  He enjoys life as a Na’vi because he can use his legs and has fallen in love with one of the Na’vi.

The idea of taking on another life can be seen when a child plays games by pretending.  It can be seen in adults when they play video games.  We do it on our Facebook.  Online video games, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, allow players to create their own character and freely explore another world.  People take on these other lifes because they are trying to escape their problematic life and would like to live a better life.

The second theme in Avatar is environmentalism.  Protecting the environment of Pandora is a major part of the plot.  The Na’vi worship nature.  Everything in nature is part of a goddess named Eywa.

Nobody doubts that the issue of the environmentalism is important in today’s society.  Companies are advertising products that are environmentally friendly.  Politicians have talked about the environment in the last presidential election.  Television channels are promoting environmentalism. Conservative news talk has been talking about it.  Environmentalist groups are at my school to recruit people to work for them.

Do the themes of taking on another life and environmentalism have spiritual connections?  We take on another life because of our desire for Heaven.  Every person has a feeling that life is not the way it should be.  Life is not the way it should be because everyone has sinned.  If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you will live an eternal life in Heaven.  Life in Heaven is not just better; it is perfect.

Environmentalism has spiritual connections.  Nature is amazing.  Biology class taught me how complex a leaf really is.  If you really want to see how amazing nature is, watch nature documentaries.  God created nature to show how amazing, beautiful and complex he is.  Nature is neither as beautiful, nor as amazing nor as complex as God.

People love nature, but ignore its Creator, God.  The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel shows us how we could not have nature without a creator.  I personally wonder where we get the feeling that nature is beautiful if there is no God.

Our biggest priority should be to love God, not take care of the environment.  If we love God, then we will naturally take care of His creation.  I am not advocating for liberal policies.  I will say that even conservatives care about the environment.

Environmentalism and taking on another life are only two of the themes in Avatar.  Just like any other story, its themes have strong spiritual connections.  There are two main spiritual point that you should take away from my review of Avatar.  First, life in Heaven is perfect.  Second, we need to worship the Creator of Nature.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

I would like to use this to point out one of the problems that I have with materialism.  We fall for marketing techniques and buy things we do not need.  When we die, we loose it and it goes away.

The best example of this is the film Citizen Kane.  At the beginning of this movie, a man named Charles Foster Kane dies.  The film goes through flashbacks of his life and all the stuff that he accumulates.  The movie ends when the flashbacks are over and all of Kane’s things are burned.

At the end of life, we really do loose everything.  It all gets thrown away or passed on to someone else.  With this in mind, we need to know what is important, as well as why we desire material things.

We desire material things because there is some type of hole in us.  We try to fill that hole with all types of stuff.  This can include sex, relationships, drugs, food and material things.  God is the only one who can fill that hole.

He fills that hole when we enter a relationship with him.  Man kind used to be in a relationship with him God, but was disconnected from that relationship when the first man and woman sinned.  As a result, we are disconnected from our relationship with God.  Jesus died on the cross so that we can enter into a relationship with God.  Because Jesus died, we enter into an eternity with Him.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

The secret to a spiritual conversation is how to get the conversation going, without being too pushy.  You don’t always know a person’s attitudes towards Christianity or how they discuss, so you have to find that out.  I naturally lack social judgement, so I tend to avoid spiritual conversations.

I’ve been discussing this with other believers and I will have to learn.  The question is what opened my Grandfather’s heart to asking me about curch attendance?

I’ve been calling him since seventh or eighth grade.  He is in his eighties, so he can be a bit lonely at times.  I’ve also listened to what he has to say.  He was a kid in the Great Depression, so he’s talked a lot about that.  He’s also talked about some of the antiques and historical items in his house.  There’s a lot of other stuff that he talks about that I could go into.

Granddad, which is what I call him, appreciates my calls.  He even thanks me in the Sioux language.  He doesn’t get out as much, so a phone call really makes his day.  We’ve built quite a relationship.

I called Granddad on Sunday March 21, 2010.  He actually asked me about my church attendance.  The questions were about where I went.  I was shocked and didn’t know what was going through his mind when he asked the questions.  Granddad’s questions were a sign that he was more open to spiritual conversations.

I’m now learning how to have a spiritual conversation.  Granddad is more open because I’ve taken the time to listen to him.  I never mentioned anything spiritual because I am not sure if he’s ready.

Most importantly, I let God do the work.  His weakness has become obvious in his old age.  He might have some regret over the past and my mom did give him the salvation message in a letter.  God is clearly doing some type of work in his life, but I don’t know what.  I know that he will accept Christ if I make him the offer.

I need God’s strength to do this.  It can feel overwhelming and difficult.  I will probably call him on Thursday.  A chiropractic adjustment will clear my mind.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

This healthcare bill will not lower costs.  It will only get people covered.  There are ways to get costs lowered.  Tort reform has worked in Texas.  We need to let people buy health insurance across state lines.  This means that insurance companies will be able to compete with more companies in different states.

There are consequences to forcing companies to buy health insurance for their employees.  They will be forced to raise prices.  There will be less money for the businesses to pay people.  There is also an economic cost when government provides for people.  Money is limited.  There is no guarrentee that government can provide much insurance as it tries to provide for everyone.

Let me just say that the insurance exchange is a joke.  There is an insurance exchange.  You get a price quote from one company then another company gives you a price quote.  It’s a normal part of the free market.

The cost of healthcare is increasing because people have insurance.  Doctors who take insured patients will charge more.  The patients accept the more expensive services because they are paying only a fraction of the cost.  Getting insurance for everyone will increase this effect.

The passage of the healthcare makes me upset, but I don’t let it bother me.  As things get worse politically, I realize that it’s not what’s most important.  What’s very important is that people get reconnected to a relationship with God.  This actually affects people’s eternities.  We will all die and all of our medical care will be undone.

Also, God can work in any situation.  I’ve been to countries that have been worse off then America.  God has been doing amazing things in those countries.  In fact, Christianity spread like crazy in the first century.  Their political situation was worse then we could imagine.

In fact, I’ve been going through spiritual growth.  My unsaved grandfather has been asking me questions about my church attendance.  I still have more spiritual growth to go through.  I find that these situations are more important than the economy or healthcare.  After all, we will die, but spiritual matters affect eternity.

In Christ
James Tuttle

Glenn, you are a Mormon and Mormons are not Christians.  There are differences between the god of Mormonism and the God of Christianity.  That is not the main point of this post.  The main point is that Glenn Beck villainizes progressives.

Wrong ideology does not make a person evil.  I’ve talked to progressives.  I’ve met progressives who honestly believe in caring for the poor and the environment.  Everyone should care for the poor and the environment.  They have good intentions.  I believe that they take environmentalism to an extreme, global warming is not real and that some progressives don’t understand the economics consequences of their ideas.

As a Christian, I have one major problem with progressivism.  They believe that we can progress to a great society through political policy.  We can never have a great society on Earth because man kind has fallen into sin.  I don’t have a problem with reform through political policy, but we should put our faith in God, not a political or economic system.

I do believe that our longing for God appears in progressive ideas.  Progressives believe that in a great society, nobody has needs.  That is True.  In every society on Earth, there is some group of people who are in need  In Heaven, there will be no needs.  We will have our most important need fulfilled, a perfect relationship with God.  There will also neither emotional nor physical pain.

I should address my views on the environment, because it is an important part of progressive ideas.  We need to take care of the environment.  We should not help the environment to the point that people are negatively effected.  God created the environment and nature so that we can see how great He is.  We cannot make it our biggest concern.  It’s another attempt to make a great society.  Some progressives love the environment, but ignore the Creator of the environment.

I do have a problem with people who want government to help the poor with other people’s tax dollars, but don’t donate their own money.  There are people on both ends of the political spectrum who donate their own time and money.  I do have a respect for Jimmy Carter for helping Habitat for Humanity, even though he had different political ideology.

Our most important concern should be our relationship with God.  You need to enter a personal relationship with God.  After that, it’s your job to build that relationship and lead other people into that relationship.

Progressives are correct to say that we should help the poor and the environment.  The purpose of this post is not to discuss the role that government should play in these two causes.  The point is that we cannot achieve a perfect society and should be more concerned with spiritual matters.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

Most of the members of Penn State Students for Life are Catholic and I am Protestant.  We discussed many spiritual issues, not just our differences.  Some of the stuff he had to way was deep. All Christians could agree with it.  I saw these Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ.

There is less of a strained relationship between Catholics and Protestants.  There has been some improvement.  Christians still need to do some work to improve the relationships.

Part of the problem with relationships between denominations is ignorance.  We believe stereotypes about other denominations.  Here’s an example.  I’m Pentacostal and my best friend is Presbyterian.  Non-Pentacostals think there is a lot of speaking in toungues at a Pentacostal church.  You might be surprised by how little I’ve seen people speaking in tongues at church.

We also don’t fully understand the theology of other denominations.  I’ve discussed predestination with my Presbyterian friend.  Pesbyterians are strong supporters of predestination.  I didn’t find it logical, but didn’t think that it was a major issue.  Predestination seemed to have a conflict with free will and God’s desire for everybody to be saved.  If God wanted everybody to be saved, why would he only choose some people.  God decides to save everyone, but a person must choose to accept that gift.  My friend agreed with those points, but said that God already knows who will accept the gift, therefore having predetermined who he will save.  I then realized that that form of predestination is quite logical.

That uniting of Christians of different denominations is powerful.  It is often done by working with non-profit organizations.  It happens between Catholics and Protestants in the pro-life movement.  In fact, it is one of my favorite parts of the pro-life movement.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

Wealth Redistribution:  Liberals say that if government doesn’t help people, some people will not be able to make enough people to live.  Conservatives say that if the government tries to help people, there will be many problems.  Some people will be lazy and not work.  Families will be ruined.  People won’t even be much better off.  Money will be used inefficiently.  Both liberals and conservatives are correct.

Healthcare:  Liberals claim that not everyone can afford healthcare, a basic necessity.  Conservatives claim that that government run healthcare will decrease the quality and accesability to healthcare, as well as add a thick layer of government healthcare.  Both sides are right.  Once again, both sides are right.

I’m saying that both sides are right to make a point.  We cannot have the perfect economic system.  The socialist system is messed up, as well as the capitalist system.  Both systems will have poor people.  In the socialist system, the people who run government make themselves rich, while letting people in the country stay poor.  A free market system will also have poor people.

I’ve seen so many situations in which the Church could step up.  There was one girl in my high school who had poor grades because her aunt forced her to take care of her brothers and sisters.  That’s the perfect situation for the church to step up.  I also wonder if there are ministries out there to help people affected by autism.

I have seen the church step up in many ways.  Angel Food Ministries helps people buy food at a low price.  One church near my school helps a man with low functioning autism.  The more the church does small things like that, the less people will be in need.  Also, the Curch uses money a lot more efficiently then the government.

In Christ,
James Tuttle

This girl seemed to be a bit freaked out by my pacing.  She defriended me on Facebook.  This is a good example of how we judge people the wrong way.  It is the result of ignorance.  Few people understand autism.  I understand it, so I know what is going on when a person repeats a motion or obsesses over a topic.

This points out one of the reason for falsely judging others, ignorance.  We don’t understand everything.  That’s why it is important to learn.  That way, we are less likely to come across situations about which we are ignorant.

We also judge people based on their flaws.  There is a problem here.  Everyone has flaws.  Some people’s flaws bug me, and other people don’t have flaws that bug me.  Various factors affect which flaws bug which people.  I know people with flaws that get o my nerves.  In this case, I tend to look more at their flaws.  Some of these people are rather nice.

I have a friend who gets annoyed at other people’s flaws.  These people seem nice to me.  Then again, their flaws don’t get on my nerves as much as it gets on my friend’s nerves.

That’s all I have to say about judging others.  We come across situations about which we are ignorant.  Our presumptions are quite false.  And by the way, that quirky guy with Asperger’s is probably rather intelligent.

In Christ,
James Tuttle