Who gets to tell the story?

by James Blackhall.

I have been thinking a lot about who gets to tell their story, and other people’s stories, and who’s reflection on scripture we listen to. I started thinking about this again as I reflected on neurodiversity. The Methodist Church recently accepted a report around Healing Ministry and those with Neurodiverse conditions.[1] These include things such as Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and other conditions – that are a wide range. As someone who is labelled ‘neurodivergent’ I admit that I often find I haven’t been able to tell my own story – because my story is told for me. When I hear of healing, in both the Biblical text and in contemporary discourse, I find it difficult. Perhaps it’s because I’m someone who some would see as ‘should’ be healed, or about whom they make assumptions that I would want to be healed, and I would argue that, for me, neither of those assumptions are correct. This is of course as true in society as the church – even if that healing maybe understood differently. One thing I often seem to wrestle with is what I would like help with and to be ‘treated’ for and what things I would want to embrace as me.

This challenge is true as much in the stories we tell of scripture as in people’s lives now. Within scripture, it was through preaching that I became aware, a few years ago, of how many stories are not present in the Revised Common Lectionary – and that they were particularly ones that involved women. Why do we never have, for example, Huldah who speaks the truth to power – a narrative which I have used to explore what scripture means. Or Rhoda, the maid – or possibly slave girl – in Acts 12 who was the one who recognised Peter. Beneath the comedy of that passage there is something to be said for the fact she is named and yet not believed. Today, in a world still marked with misogyny, too many women are either unnamed, unrecognised or not believed. While the Bible is a complex text there are many texts that show strong women, and if explored would allow many more to see themselves in the story. Even when we do tell stories, do we often tell it from the male point of view or that of the victor? Do we read texts like Hagar, and as we celebrate Abraham and Sarah, underestimate the abuse that is present, and yet it is in this woman who was treated as an object that God is revealed, and she comes to know God as the God who sees (Genesis 16:13). Do we discredit the strong female characters such as Mary Magdalene?

Applying this to neurodiversity, which is where I began, I have become interested recently – and am currently working on – how one can read scripture with attention to neurodiversity and how neurodivergent people can see themselves in the text. This is not about diagnosing biblical characters – I couldn’t possibly do that – but about looking at possibilities. A bit like queer theology has explored characters such as Ruth and Naomi from a different lens, without categorically saying this is what they are, I wonder how a neurodivergent theology could look at some of the characters from the Bible. Again, this has its pitfalls – Naomi Jacobs writes about her disappointment on finding a paper doing something that started off by looking at Peter as if he had ADHD and then, instead of exploring that in a positive way for those with ADHD, used Peter, and ADHD, as a metaphor for the whole church.[2] As we tell stories it is important not to use people as a metaphor. I’m glad that we are moving away from using ‘blindness’ as a metaphor for sin and ‘deafness’ as a metaphor for people choosing not to listen to God, for example. We need to give people agency to tell their story – to not simply be an object but to be the subject of the story and how we discuss what impacts their lives.

I return to healing and the fact that Jesus was known to ask what people wanted rather than force something on them even when what they would want may appear obvious to others. Thinking of where I want to go – I want to read scripture as the person that I am, made in God’s image, which includes my neurodiversity. I want to read scripture attentive to the possibilities of other people’s lives and not just from the lens that has dominated us. I want us to be able to share the stories of scripture and ourselves in a way that empowers all people to see their God given potential, and to realise it.

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[1] Methodist Church, Healing Ministry and Neurodiversity: Response to Notice of Motion 2022/201 (2025).

[2] Naomi Lawson Jacobs, ‘Speaking with Us, Not for Us: Neurodiversity, Theology and Justice’, Journal of Disability &  Religion, 27.4 (2023), pp. 584–605 <https://naomilawsonjacobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Manuscript_Speaking-With-Us-Not-For-Us.pdf&gt; [accessed 8 July 2025].