Our community, people, and mission field

Infinitus Ministries, encompassing the Infinitus Community, Infinitus Media and Resources, and Infinitus Explorations, intentionally live and move within and serve the neurodivergent communities, including but not limited to autistic folks.

As such, we are always mindful of the following facts:

  1. Autistic folks are somewhere between 4.5 to 8 percent more likely to be LGBTQ+ than their neurotypical cohorts, with about 19 percent of autistic people identifying as asexual.

  2. Autistic people are 3 to 6 times more likely than their neurotypical counterparts to be nonbinary or trans.

  3. Approximately 75 to 85 percent of autistic people are considered unemployed, with another study estimating only about 22 percent in employment (16 percent full-time), while those in the workforce are likely to be underemployed.

  4. 36 percent of autistic undergraduate students drop out of college, while 29 percent of the general population does.

  5. In general, autistic adults lack critical social, economic, and spiritual support; many of them, especially women, are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed due to institutional biases.

  6. A large plurality of the autistic community has negative experiences with religion and faith communities and feels alienated from them. Autistic persons are far more likely to consider themselves atheists. Another study indicates that many autistic individuals reject organized religions and tend to develop their own systems of beliefs.

This awareness leads to our collective commitment to uplift this community by:

  1. Intentionally championing solidarity, mutual aid, and economic development among the neurodivergent people within our community and beyond. We do this through promoting networking, collaboration, facilitation of mutual aid programs, and cultivation of entrepreneurial, community-based social enterprises.

  2. Creating an open and welcoming environment for people of all genders, familial configurations, and sexual orientations, actively countering sexist gender norms and cisheteronormativity.

  3. Cultivating an intentional space where one is free to think critically and explore one’s intellectual and spiritual curiosities.

  4. Advocating for alternative educational opportunities and leadership development processes for church leadership.

  5. Aiming for creating and cultivating a space for inclusion, belonging, repair and healing at all stages of our development and growth as a community.

Non-discrimination policy:

Infinitus Ministries does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic or cultural backgrounds, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, socioeconomic class, nationality, citizenship or immigration status, religious traditions or lack thereof, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, familial status, political affiliation, or political philosophy; it takes affirmative action to increase ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity. Infinitus Ministries reserves the right to be the sole interpreter of this statement should the need arise. As a faith-based community, Infinitus Ministries reserves rights to select and appoint to its community leadership and ministry positions those whose faith, commitment, theology, and values align with those of Infinitus. While Infinitus Ministries strives to create a welcoming, equitable, and accessible environment for all and to provide reasonable accommodations or alternative programming whenever possible, this may be limited due to our financial, personnel, time, and resource constraints, and/or any limitations and restrictions imposed by external parties. Furthermore, Infinitus Ministries reserves rights to create and offer programs and group activities geared toward a specific target population or shared lived experiences, which may be open only to eligible individuals that meet a specific criteria related to the purpose and intentions of such programs or groups.

The fifth commitment is in part inspired by the “Q+ Framework” of Seattle Quest Church, though we expand this framework beyond sexual orientation and gender identity. Infinitus Ministries is neither affiliated with Quest nor with the Evangelical Covenant Church (Quest’s former denomination) in any way, however.

Note

This project is under active development. Last update: 2024-07-26

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