The Demonic nature of identity politics

Disability, ethnic background, skin color, etc. I think this blatantly sums up what's wrong with identity politics. It's demonic and refuses to look at us as individual souls. https://t.co/WPRePwKsEX

— ☩ Daniel ☩ Roberts ☩ (@NewEnglandSun) July 30, 2020

This conversation was part of one I had with Michelle Maher on Twitter in regards to demons that we deal with. For me, my personal demon is autism. I am high functioning. But it is hard for me to understand social cues that appear normally for other people. Sometimes, I view people as attacking me when they aren't. And a lot of overloading situations lead to what is called a "meltdown". These are ways of handling that stress build-up.

But each autistic person is different. None of us come with a manual. Irregardless of our disability, we are not all alike. My mother very frequently likes to get me involved in activities with other autistic people. Activities and groups in which autistic people are all lumped together into a collective pool. That's a problem and that stems from an identity politics emerging in the autistic community. I prefer not to bring attention to my own autism for obvious reasons. Because I am not defined by my disability. I am defined by who I am even though other people may want me to be identified by my disability. And that reveals the demonic nature of identity politics that Michelle Maher brings attention to here.

We are no longer judged by our individual souls. We are reduced to being a part of a group and we receive collective judgment rather than the individual judgment that Jesus sees us. Liberal Protestants are correct in that American politics has led to a poisonous individualism. But there is also another side to the coin that liberal Protestants neglect. The poisonous collectivism. The Church's social teaching maintains both solidarity and subsidiarinism. I will never run a #ActuallyAutistic because I am not trying to score points on the grounds of my disability. We have our own stories and our own souls.

Just like each white person is different, each black person is different, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, etc. So is every autistic person different, every OCD person different, ADHD, ADD, etc. Going back to my misjudged social cues, there was a time I encountered the Crazy Church Lady before having much of a developed relationship with her. She commented on the blue birds outside the church reminding her that Spring was here. I believed she was attacking me. Telling me I should not look outside the window. She still does not understand me fully. She does not quite understand that I ask these repeated questions for clarification in a stressful situation. "Why can't I look outside the window?" "Why are you telling me I can't look outside the window?" Etc. Recently, it was "Where is [your daughter]?" I am a mixture when it comes to touch. Some people have realized this...like our deaconess who will ask if she may touch me before she touches me with holy water or says a prayer of exorcism over me. Crazy Church Lady has not...I should probably help her with that. She deemed it appropriate to give me an uninvited hug at that time and some reading this know what happened next and so I will not go into detail.

If you meet one autistic person, you meet one autistic person. I have difficulties with the groups that my mom would like me to get involved in with other autistic people precisely because they force me into an identity group that mitigates my own individual soul. That is a poisonous collectivism. We are meant to share the same goals in theosis, we are not meant to be reduced to the level of sameness. We are not all legs or arms or eyes or ears. As the body of Christ, we are collected together in different body parts. God is Trinity. He is three different persons. We are called to be collected the same way he is. But by reducing our lives to a certain disability or health malady, we are enforcing a demonic collectivism on people that destroys their individual souls. The souls that Christ wants us to have are unique and individual. But souls that collectively unite and come together in Him. I am autistic but not like other autistic people.