For many years Barbara Erichson taught pre-K autistic children. Frequently during class, the children scratched her, pinched her, even bit her and carried on in all sorts of ways that were injurious to her and detrimental to her work. She was not offended.
She knew the children were autistic, profoundly handicapped, caught up in their own little worlds with all their needs for structure, the longing to communicate and the inability to do so. With this disability came frustration, anxiety, fear, anger and so on.
Barbara envisions God as a pre-K teacher and all of us humans as autistic, profoundly handicapped. And so we live in our own little world shaped by our DNA and all the programming enjoined by our particular culture. Sensing our own uniqueness, we have tremendous difficulty communicating with those around us. Out of sheer frustration, anxiety, fear and anger we end up acting in inappropriate ways which, we were taught, offend God. Barbara suggests we do not offend God; we simply act inappropriately, going against the right order of things, hurting ourselves and others.
