If I Confess with My Mouth: Boundary Markers, Conversion Narratives and Autistic Belief Practices

This article considers evangelical conversion and the practices that are associated with it. Evangelicals use the giving of oral testimony as a method of illustrating the change that occurs at conversion. This becomes, the authors argue, a boundary marker that cannot be bridged by autistic people who do not communicate using speech. Making use of Acts 15 as a hermeneutical tool to address the lived experience of people who have otherwise not been included, we argue that the example of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak is a model for proxemics as a declaration of faith. The evangelical belief in conversionism is maintained, but a non-speaking autistic person is able to demonstrate this in other ways, following the haemorrhaging woman’s example.