In a previous article I presented two different models of speaking about neurodiversity (and disability more broadly): person-first language and identity-first language. Both are motivated by a desire to love and affirm the dignity of others. The difference in the two models lies in how much weight ought to be given to neurodiversity in a person’s identity. Is he a person with autism (person-first language) or an autistic person (identity-first language)? A growing number of people in the neurodivergent community are advocating for identity-first language, seeing their neurodiversity as an inseparable part of their identity that need not be erased or hidden. As an AuDHD woman (someone with both autism and ADHD), I generally lean toward identity-first language when referring to myself and my children.
Yet, unlike many advocates of identity-first language, I find myself conflicted. As a Christian, I know that in Christ I have a new identity. How do I navigate the identity politics of neurodiversity as a Christian? If I’m a new person in Christ, should my identity as an ADHDer still get a seat at the table? Or would giving any meaningful weight or attention to my ADHD identity be akin to aligning myself with the world, and risk taking my eyes off Christ? If I’m a Christian, does my ADHD matter? Is exploring my neurodivergent identity a worthy pursuit, or is it a foolish distraction to be forever harping on about neurodiversity when I instead should have my eyes fixed on Christ?
The All-or-Nothing Identity Lens
Understanding the interplay between my identity as a Christian and my identity as an ADHDer (or anything else) requires care. There’s nuance here that can easily be overlooked by the classic “all-or-nothing thinking” that ADHDers can tend toward. When it comes to understanding my identity as a new-creation human (Gal 6:15; 2 Cor 5:17) living with an ADHD brain, both the “all” and the “nothing” approach ignore important theological principles and are ultimately inconsistent with the pattern of Scripture.
If I default to “all” and see my Christian identity as the sum total of who I am, my ADHD label becomes nothing more than an inconsequential feature, holding as much relevance as my hair colour or taste in music[1]. This is not how the Bible treats diversity. The New Testament epistles spend a great deal of time teaching Christians how their human identities inform how they are to live out their new identity in Christ, whilst also showing how their Christian identity gives new meaning to the identities they’ve always possessed.
Human Identities Matter
My human identity has implications for my Christian identity. There are ways in which a woman will live out her Christian identity differently to a man (1 Tim 5:1–2). Whilst carrying additional theological significance, Paul’s teaching on Jewish and Gentile Christians also demonstrates how there is a place for our cultural identity within our new life as a Christian (see for e.g. Rom 9–11). The same is true for our social position, whether we are working for a higher authority or are a master over subordinates (Eph 6:5–9).
Our gender, cultural or societal identity doesn’t dissolve upon conversion—they inform what our new identity in Christ looks like as we live it out. Our new identity in Christ celebrates and gives meaning to our human identity, as each diverse expression of humanity has the potential to glorify God in unique ways. Faith in Christ marks the birth of the new self, but that new self isn’t a blank slate identical to every other new-creation person. Just as diversity is part of the old creation, it is part of the new creation too.
Seeing our new identity in Christ through an all-or-nothing lens as “all” misses the validity of our human diversity; but we need to be equally careful not see identity in Christ as “nothing”.
Identity in Christ Transcends Human Identities
Overcorrecting from “all” to “nothing” means seeing our Christian identity as nothing more than an extra label we acquire at conversion. I have a friend who is a legal citizen of three countries. At the arrivals gate in Australia, the USA and Canada she can choose to produce whichever passport is most pragmatic at the time. Each citizenship she possesses is one of many, each distinct from the others, and each with moments of relevance and moments of irrelevance. We must beware of seeing “Christian” as just another passport.
Even applying heavier weighting to our Christian identity—as being of first importance—misses its transcendent nature. Our Christian identity does not fall into the same category as the rest of the identity labels. Our Christian identity scoops up all our identities and envelops them within a new way of being human:
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26–29)
Imagine a bucket of rocks, with each rock representing part of our identity. In my bucket there is a woman rock, a mum rock, a wife rock, an Australian rock, an ADHD rock, along with many other identity rocks and personality pebbles of various size and importance. Conversion doesn’t drop a giant Christian boulder into the top of the bucket. Instead, conversion creates a new bucket with a corresponding set of stones, but instead of being rocks and pebbles, they are glistening jewels and gemstones. Those identities and personality traits in the old bucket have been refined, perfected and made beautiful. My human identity still exists, but it’s been brought to completion and is now in alignment with my new identity in Christ. This won’t be fully realised until I see Jesus face-to-face. But as I wait for that day, the Holy Spirit is shaping me into a version of myself that is fit for eternity.
As a new-creation person, my old identity remains, but it exists in a new way in light of my new identity. Just as my Christian identity gives me a new way of being a wife, mother, woman, and Australian citizen, I now have a new way of living with an ADHD brain. My Christian identity doesn’t just matter more than my ADHD identity, my Christian identity redefines and reorients my ADHD identity.
A Better Way
The all-or-nothing pattern of thinking is one of the many challenges the ADHDer needs to overcome on a daily basis. But all-or-nothing thinking isn’t exclusive to ADHDers. Everyone has moments where our overly simplistic and rigid thoughts distort our picture of reality. Seeing the world with clarity means instead adopting a more complex understanding of God’s world. Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory speaks to how the gospel diagonalises our all-or-nothing frameworks, providing an answer that isn’t either/or, but is both… and neither:
Given a choice between two camps or positions in our culture, the Bible frequently settles for neither and presents us with something richer than both, a subtler solution that neither position has the resources to imagine. (p. 15)
Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean abandoning the self that identifies with ADHD experience. But becoming a Christian also doesn’t just give me a new club to belong to along with my many others. Beginning a new life in Christ means being the same person I was before, but with a reoriented life that is in submission to God instead of in rebellion to him. You could even say that as a Christian, my ADHD doesn’t matter less, but that in a sense it matters more than before I became a Christian—as one aspect of my life lived by faith. As I learn about ADHD, talk about ADHD, celebrate ADHD and advocate for ADHD, I can do all of this to the glory of God.
Person-first and identity-first language both tell part of the story. Many of the arguments about the best language model assume one must be correct. As a neurodivergent Christian, I don’t need to choose between my identity being embraced or erased; a choice manifested by which terminology I choose. As a Christian with ADHD, Christ has stripped me of my old self, clothed me in his righteousness and is conforming me to the pattern of himself. As an ADHD Christian, Christ is completing and perfecting every unique part of me and has brought me into a beautifully diverse community where I am both the same as and different to every other individual who has been adopted into his family.
My hope is that as awareness and understanding of neurodiversity continues its upward trajectory, we will begin to see an emerging body of content speaking to biblical neurodiversity alongside all the books, podcasts and social media platforms dedicated to biblical motherhood, biblical womanhood, biblical leadership and all the other ways the gospel shapes our varied experiences of being human. My identity as an ADHDer matters to Jesus, so as his disciple I should be seeking to equip myself and others to live out that identity boldly and meaningfully.
[1] I realise, of course that being a member of a music subculture, or even our hair colour and physical appearance, can be more than inconsequential for some people.
