In a different voice: Sign language preservation and America's deaf community

Bilingual Research Journal, Fall 2000 by Burch, Susan

From the establishment of ASD in 1817, which enforced religious participation by its students, religion remained a central feature of the Deaf community. Inspired by the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century, reformers and missionaries like Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet established Deaf schools in large part to save Deaf people from the absence of God's word. Gallaudet's family maintained ties to Deaf education and to Deaf ministry, as did Laurent Clerc's progeny. Thomas Gallaudet and Francis Clerc devoted their lives to missionary work among the Deaf. Deaf people, too, rapidly filled lay positions in churches, and ultimately entered the ministry. Many major leaders in the Deaf community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century shared a religious background, including Henry Winter Syle, Guilbert Braddock, J. W. Michaels, A. G. Leisman, Olof Hanson, and James Cloud.

In Deaf churches, ministers preached in Sign Language in part because it was pragmatic: Deaf people were incapable of reading lips from distant pews. As one minister claimed on behalf of his fellow clergymen "but to be really comforting and satisfying, as service for the Deaf, not less than for the hearing, must be `in such a tongue as the people understandeth' and for the Deaf that means the Sign Language" ("Survey Report," 1929, pp. 12-13). Communicating religious thought through Sign Language also was tied to religious dogma itself. Many Deaf ministers claimed that God had given Deaf people the language of signs in order to create a bridge to His kingdom. Daniel Tuttle, Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri, even offered a "Prayer on behalf of the Sign Language" in which he thanked "our Heavenly father for the Sign Language for the Deaf, and for the blessings which the use of it hath brought"("A Prayer for the Sign Language," 1925, p. 3).

In the early nineteenth century, such creationist ideas were popular, but even as society searched for scientific answers to social conditions and physical impairments through the theory of Social Darwinism, and later eugenics, Deaf rhetoric about Sign Language suggested divine roots and spiritual significance. Throughout the early decades of the twentieth century, J. W. Michaels, for instance, frequently reminded his parishioners that God had created Deaf people and provided for them "by means of the Sign Language and so the Deaf now hear [see] the Word and the Gospel preached" (see Landes, 1965). A. G. Leisman, another Deaf leader and clergyman, likewise was effusive in his poems and sermons about Sign Language, writing for example, "O master of all languages, we thank Thee for the power and the glory of the Sign Language ... Thou knowest what is best for the Deaf, and Thou art just" (Leisman, 1947, p. 29).

That signed sermons filled a need for both religious affirmation and accessibility to knowledge no doubt increased the popularity of Deaf churches in the early twentieth century. Deaf publications frequently noted churches hospitable to Sign Language and visitations from Deaf ministers. In contrast, J. W. Jones, superintendent of the Ohio School for the Deaf, noted correctly in 1918 that general attention to religion had declined in mainstream society and that those recruited to teach the Deaf came less frequently from the ministry. Nevertheless, Deaf people's attendance at churches had grown (Jones, 1918, p. 11; Palumbo, 1966, p. 65). The Episcopal church lead missionary work among the Deaf. Inspired by the Gallaudet family's commitment to education and faith, seven Deaf men had entered the Episcopal priesthood by 1900. By 1930, fifteen more had followed (Gannon, 1981, p. 183; see also NAD Proceedings, 1904; The Rustler, 1906; The Silent Review, 1911). Deaf Protestant leaders faced the challenge of cobbling together scattered communities of Deaf people even across state lines. Despite these obstacles, by the 1930s many ministers to the Deaf had established churches-either independent or partnered with mainstream ones-in most northern states and in virtually all major cities (Jones, 1918, p. 24; "Sign Worship," 1936, p. 26). Other denominations quickly expanded their scope to include Deaf outreach programs. At the Philadelphia All Soul's Church, ministers to the Deaf even held a conference on Sign Language ("Sign Worship," 1936, p. 26).