{"id":5361,"date":"2008-06-02T06:33:38","date_gmt":"2008-06-02T06:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html"},"modified":"2008-06-02T06:33:38","modified_gmt":"2008-06-02T06:33:38","slug":"church-bars-autistic-teenager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html","title":{"rendered":"Church bars autistic teenager from Mass"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were just talking about this<\/a> when I posted the story<\/a> about the kid with autism getting voted out of kindergarten. This is a hard call because the environment during a service\/Mass has to be free of disruptions. It’s very hard when kids make noise during the service but you never want to exclude someone who wants to attend.<\/p>\n

Carol Race thinks it’s important for her 13-year-old son to be in church on Sundays for Catholic Mass.
\nLeaders of the Church of St. Joseph once felt the same way, but not anymore. They say Race’s autistic son Adam is disruptive and his erratic behavior threatens the safety of other parishioners.
\nThe northern Minnesota church has obtained a restraining order to keep Adam away, an action that has been deeply hurtful to the Race family and has brought them support from parents of other autistic children.
\n“My son is not dangerous,” Carol Race said. The church’s action is “about a certain community’s fears of him. Fears of danger versus actual danger,” she said.
\nIn court papers, church leaders say the danger is real. The Rev. Daniel Walz wrote in his petition for the restraining order that Adam \u2014 who already is more than 6 feet tall and weighs more than 225 pounds \u2014 has hit a child, has nearly knocked over elderly parishioners while bolting from his pew, has spit at people and has urinated in the church.
\n“His behavior at Mass is extremely disruptive and dangerous,” wrote Walz. “Adam is 13 and growing, so his behaviors grow increasingly difficult for his parents to manage.”
\nCarol Race said Walz’s claims are exaggerated.
\n[…]
\nAdam is one of five children. The family’s home in nearby Eagle Bend has separate study rooms so the other children can read books and use crayons that Adam could otherwise destroy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The church suggested they watch a video feed in the basement of the church but she refused saying that they might as well stay home and watch it on TV (not a very good argument when you consider the fact that the reason she is obligated to go to church is for the Eucharist which she can’t get at home). I don’t see why this should be an issue since she has no problem segregating her son from her other children at home so they are not disturbed by him. I think it’s clear that she understands that he is disruptive and should try to work out a solution with the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were just talking about this when I posted the story about the kid with autism getting voted out of kindergarten. This is a hard call because the environment during a service\/Mass has to be free of disruptions. It’s very hard when kids make noise during the service but you never want to exclude someone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,402,397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-religion-2","category-social-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch bars autistic teenager from Mass - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church bars autistic teenager from Mass - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We were just talking about this when I posted the story about the kid with autism getting voted out of kindergarten. This is a hard call because the environment during a service\/Mass has to be free of disruptions. It’s very hard when kids make noise during the service but you never want to exclude someone…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-02T06:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Susan Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Church bars autistic teenager from Mass - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Church bars autistic teenager from Mass - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","og_description":"We were just talking about this when I posted the story about the kid with autism getting voted out of kindergarten. This is a hard call because the environment during a service\/Mass has to be free of disruptions. It’s very hard when kids make noise during the service but you never want to exclude someone…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html","og_site_name":"Reformed Chicks Blabbing","article_published_time":"2008-06-02T06:33:38+00:00","author":"Susan Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html","name":"Church bars autistic teenager from Mass - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-06-02T06:33:38+00:00","dateModified":"2008-06-02T06:33:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/b4e41455e911277a4681a65e81271065"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/06\/church-bars-autistic-teenager.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Church bars autistic teenager from Mass"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/","name":"Reformed Chicks Blabbing","description":"Politics and current events from a Reformed perspective, by Michele McGinty","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/b4e41455e911277a4681a65e81271065","name":"Susan Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/020\/02041661cf28a19369e083191c05c819x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/020\/02041661cf28a19369e083191c05c819x96.jpg","caption":"Susan Johnson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/author\/sjohnson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}