I want to thank Barry for introducing me to the subject of neurodivergent people / children and the mistreatment they suffer. I have been on the lookout for stories about the abuse this community suffers ever since. I had no idea of it until Barry explained it, just as fundamentalist religious leaders attack the LGBTQIA they are also targeting neurodivergent kids / people claiming they have demons in them. Damn, there is no limit to the harm these people will cause promoting the idea that their god is perfect and wouldn’t create anyone different from the accepted norms. Hugs.
A pastor in Richland is facing intense backlash for comments he made during a sermon last week at Beulah Church.Published: Sep. 12, 2023 at 7:22 PM CDT|Updated: Sep. 12, 2023 at 7:24 PM CDTOn Wednesday, September 6, Beulah Church in Richland, Mo., held a live-streamed sermon hosted by Pastor Rick Morrow. In the sermon, Morrow made comments that caused a massive backlash in the Richland community and across the country.
In the sermon, he said, in part, “Well, either the devil has attacked [children with autism], he’s brought this infirmity upon them, he’s got them, or God doesn’t like them that much, and he made them that way…my God doesn’t make junk. Quit putting a Band-Aid on it and saying, ‘Oh, it’ll be okay. We just need to treat this or treat that.’ How about you just cast the demon out and then treat all the problems?”
The comments caused an uproar, and none more so for parents like Casey Cox and Erica Hennenberg. Their daughters, Romey and Memphis, love the tire swing outside, love arts and crafts, and are on the autism spectrum.
Morrow says while he understands the frustration, he’s upset that people didn’t understand the meaning behind the comments.
In defense of the comments, Morrow said
“By junk, I met autism, that condition, the illness or the neurodivergence,” said Morrow. “All of us have issues; all of us have problems. All of us have conditions. All of us have sicknesses and diseases and illnesses. And I just refuse to blame God for those things. ”
He had said that autism is born from demonic influence, defending the statement by saying,
“Yes, either in or around on, somehow it’s affecting,” said Morrow. “And when I say a demon, you people want to, like I said, they want to get that Hollywood description of what a demon is this nasty, so ugly and, and that’s not the case, it’s just an evil presence. It’s just the presence of evil.”
What’s more is that in addition to being a pastor, Morrow was on the board of Stoutland schools until resigning from his position amidst the backlash.
KY3 reached out to Stoutland Schools. It responded with this statement:
“The District is aware that a member of the Board of Education, in a setting and capacity outside of his board member role, made comments that have been interpreted as derogatory toward individuals with certain disabilities. One member of the Board of Education does not speak for the Board of Education as a whole, nor the District itself. The District is steadfast in its compliance with both the requirements of and the spirit of non-discrimination laws and our own Board-adopted policies regarding the same. Our school district welcomes students of all backgrounds, regardless of ability, and provides educational opportunities and services to each and everyone with commitment and care. I can confirm that the District has received a letter of resignation from the Board member, which will be presented to the board as a whole at the next meeting.”
For parents like Cox and Hennenberg who are worried about an Autism diagnosis or for people who are interested in learning more about the condition, Cox founded a non-profit called Show-Me Romey, named after her daughter Romey. They say the main focus of the group is to educate people in all areas on what autism is and where it comes from
“We can’t have autism acceptance until we have autism awareness,” said Cox. “And autism awareness is education.”
Cox and Hennenberg say people who make blanket statements about autism don’t understand the condition or the families it impacts.
Autistic children, special needs children, they are different, but they are not less,” said Hennengerg. “They are different, not less.”
If you want to learn more about autism, visit them on their website,.Showmeromey.org or their Facebook page.
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Scottie's Playtime 
Shame on that minister. He also ought to resign his ministry. He’s leading people into the wrong ways. We humans received the grace of people who have minds to understand how minds work, so that diagnoses can be made, and people can be helped and given tools for daily living. I think this minister is afraid of anybody the slightest bit different. I shouldn’t judge like that, but I’ve worked with kiddoes on the spectrum, and they’re amazing. I subscribe to a Substack by a neurodivergent man whose writing blows my mind to the point I seriously can’t find words to respond to him about how impressed I am with his material-I’m not worthy of wasting his time. I know there are many who are more profoundly affected by their divergence than those I worked with, and I’m sorry about that, and hope that their caregivers don’t have an ignorant minister like that, so all can find their joy.
Also, this is a fine place to include this info, because you’re correct that neurodivergent people are given short shrift in general.
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Hello Ali. Neurodivergent people are just that, people. They are not lessor nor evil or bad. This is an uneducated man who fails at one of the most important qualities of a religious leader, empathy. He seems to be too much about himself and not enough about others. Hugs
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Thank you Scottie.
Morrow’s’s upset that people didn’t understand the meaning behind his comments? Perhaps because he used a religious paradigm instead of a pathological paradigm. While his message is framed in religious terms, it’s not that different from the views of much of the non-religious community. He describes autism in terms of having sickness, disease and illness, as being caused by demonic influences, an evil presence. He goes on to say that his God doesn’t make junk [emphasis mine]. How is this in practice any different from the pathological standpoint that autism is a disorder than requires radical intervention and treatment. Both Morrow’s perspective and that held by the wider community demonise autism. Hell. there’s a whole hundred million dollar industry built on that very demonisation. Instead, from an autistic perspective, it’s a natural variation of human diversity that has much to offer the rest of humanity if it was given a chance?
Morrow goes on to suggest casting the demon out and then treat all the problems. Isn’t this just what the “autism industry” does now? The “gold standard” for autism “treatment” is ABA therapy – conversion therapy by another name. Both were co-developed by Ivar Lovaas with essentially the same goal in mind. In the case of “deviant” sexual or gender behaviour, it was to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through the use use of electric shocks, loud noises, and physical restraints to punish them for their “deviant” actions and reward them for their “normal” ones. In the case of autistic children it was to make them indistinguishable from their “healthy” peers by using more extreme versions of the same techniques. I’ll conjecture that they were more severe because Lovaas viewed those “deviants” as still being human, whereas he considered autistics less than wholly human.
While conversion therapy is now widely regarded as ineffective and unethical, autistic children can still be subjected to up to 40 hours per week of ABA therapy (if their parents can afford it). Such torture teaches autistic children that their needs and wants are less important than the needs and wants of non-autistic folk. They are taught they have no autonomy of their own and must comply with the expectations put on them by neurotypical folk. Is it any wonder that these autistic children often go on to develop PTSD, eating disorders, and other mental health issues including suicidal tendencies in later life?
Finally, may I state, that while too many people still believe that same sex attraction or a trans identity is deviant and in need of treatment, cure or punishment, the lot for autistic folk is worse as too many people still believe we’re less than human. I’ll let Lovaas himself describe what too many people still believe an autistic person is: “You see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in a physical sense – they have hair, a nose and a mouth – but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person“.
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Oh Barry, My dogs that love gravy this is horrible. I had no idea! How in this day and age can such thoughts have any standing. To think that autistic children are not human is beyond abhorrent. I am used to dealing with religious leaders that attack the LGBTQIA because of what they think their god tells them, but to have trained child care workers based in medical science say such things about children who are different is beyond my understanding.
Barry it is well-known medically that conversion therapy doesn’t work to change sexual orientation, at most it changes behavior for a short time. I cannot not see how subjecting a child to those tactics simply to try to force them to “behave like the other kids around them” is legal or in any way accepted by modern society. The reason religious parents get away with doing it to their gay kids in some states, but not all, is that in the US religion gets a pass from a lot of social standards. I admit I never thought much about autism. I am on the watch for abuse of neurodivergent people now but before it did not seem like a big deal in society. My view was let people live, and we should try to help everyone have as good a life as possible, living their life as themselves. Unless someone is hurting themselves, they have the right and deserve to live as they are, with what ever support systems they need. We don’t institutionalize blind or deaf people, they live their lives with support from society. I think that people on the spectrum deserve the same assistance and respect.
Hell as for his god not making junk, he has never seen my body. If that was designed this way it would be recalled as defective by the manufacturer. Thank you for bringing these issues to my attention. I will do my best to be supportive and an advocate for decent treatment and respect for neurodivergent people. Best wishes
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