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Deafness: A gift from God?

Roger J. Carver

“The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’” (Exodus 4:11).

As Pastor Rudy Unger launches into his sermon, everything becomes completely silent, including the pastor’s voice, save for a Sign Language interpreter sitting in one corner whispering into a microphone.

A worship service at the Deaf Community Christian Church is a flurry of activity – people chatting with each other, getting up and sitting down, hands waving in the air, lights flashing on and off, children running around or fidgeting in their seats, bass vibrations from the drum machine booming through the floor, and so on. It is a service full of noise, both visual and auditory, but a visitor would be hard pressed to hear words.

The Deaf Community Christian Church (DCCC), based in Burnaby, B.C., is the only Deaf church affiliated with a Mennonite Brethren Conference in North America. Participants, ranging from young children to senior citizens, often pray for healing for others and themselves for a wide variety of illness and ailments, but there is an important distinction – not once in the history of this church has anyone prayed to have hearing restored. It is a church that celebrates deafness as a culture and considers it a gift from God, since it believes He ordained it, according to Exodus 4:11.

It might strike the typical hearing person as odd; deafness is a terrible calamity, isn’t it? Yes, it is for those who grew up dependent on their sense of hearing and then lost it. For the Deaf, however, it is a different matter altogether. Most of them have never experienced hearing and do not feel the same sense of loss as would hearing persons. They grew up comfortable with their deafness. In fact, deafness is intrinsic to their identity.

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful” (Psalm 139:13-14).

A Deaf American theological student, Elizabeth Von Trapp, referring to Psalm 139:13-14, asks: “Do these words only hold true for those who are born free of defects of any kind? Does this then mean that I was not fearfully and wonderfully made, that somehow God ‘messed up’? Am I less than whole, damaged goods, and somehow not so loved by God because of this?” She considers whether she has suffered as one who is deaf in a hearing world: “Yes, and with great intensity. Is that suffering because I was malformed by God in my mother’s womb? Is my suffering God’s fault? Unequivocally, NO!” She believes she was made perfect in God’s eyes and ascribes much of her suffering to the insensitivity of the hearing world and the loneliness she endured in it.

This brings us to the next question – why would God create Deaf persons, as well as persons with other disabilities? If He wanted to, He could have created us all physically perfect. But how would He be able to measure our hearts if there was no one else less perfect to whom to demonstrate our love, understanding, acceptance and compassion? It is as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”

Many Deaf Christians rejoice over their deafness in the knowledge that God has singled them out for a special purpose. God has given them the ability to listen with their eyes and to perceive the beauty of His creation in a different light. They may not be able to hear leaves rustling in the breeze, but they can see them quiver harmoniously with each breath. They may not be able to hear birds sing, but they can be just as captivated by their rhythmical twitching. They are able to perceive how other persons are thinking or feeling just by looking into their eyes or at their body language. They view Sign Language, an extraordinarily beautiful and complex visual language, as a gift from God. God wanted to show that human beings, His ultimate creation, are capable of doing anything; He created them in such a way that if they were lacking in something, they would be able to make up for it. Indeed, God made it possible for people to communicate without requiring sound or hearing.

There have been attempts to “integrate” the Deaf into hearing churches with the support of sign language interpreters during worship services, and there are many churches that do this. They are to be commended for their efforts to include Deaf persons. Deaf Community Christian Church in Burnaby is actually an offshoot of the Deaf ministry at Willingdon Church in the same city, and, for a while, Deaf persons were included in Willingdon Church’s regular worship services. However, it increasingly became apparent that this arrangement was not working well, and eventually they were allowed to have their own separate worship services and, ultimately their own church. There have been similar stories in other churches.

What are the barriers to full inclusion of Deaf persons in regular churches? Some of these barriers are:

Sign Language interpretation: Many persons who provide sign language interpretation in churches are not trained as sign language interpreters, and they usually are not fluent in American Sign Language. More often than not, Deaf persons do not get the same message that their hearing peers receive directly. Interpreters are usually available only for worship services, meaning that Deaf persons cannot access other services that the church offers to its hearing members such as Sunday school, pastoral counselling, committee meetings and special events. Fellowship with hearing persons: Only a few Deaf persons have the ability to speak and lipread well. The vast majority of Deaf persons do not, and in many “inclusive” churches not very many hearing persons are skilled in Sign Language. As a consequence, communication between Deaf and hearing persons is often limited and superficial; it is very difficult to establish and sustain meaningful fellowship between these two groups. Cultural and linguistic differences: Deaf people have a culture that is distinctive from that of hearing persons. The cultural differences revolve around the differences between the visual perceptions of the Deaf and the auditory perceptions of the hearing. To the hearing, facial expressions make the Deaf look like an “emotional” people, but to the Deaf, they are an essential part of American Sign Language, allowing them to “hear” nuances in communication. The Deaf are not as musically inclined as the hearing, and they can become restless and bored during lengthy praise times in hearing worship services. Lines of sight and lighting during worship services are just as important to the Deaf as are acoustics to the hearing. It is not enough to have them read the Bible and other Christian literature to “compensate” for what they lack in hearing because most Deaf persons have English literacy problems. Inadequate outreach: The Deaf, being a small minority within a hearing church, might not have enough clout to bring about better accommodation of their own needs or to have their church allot a significant portion of its resources to bringing the gospel to other Deaf persons in the community.

These are just a few of the many barriers that restrict the complete integration of Deaf and hearing persons into a single church. This is not to say the Deaf do not want to be involved with hearing persons. In fact, Deaf Community Christian Church includes many hearing persons who are made to feel welcome: parents of Deaf children, children of Deaf parents, Sign Language interpreters and students, spouses of Deaf persons, and others. The difference between DCCC and hearing churches is that it provides a milieu in which Deaf persons are free to worship and serve God in their own way. DCCC is also able to allot a significant portion of its resources to bringing the gospel to the Deaf community. In short, DCCC brings to Deaf persons the same qualities enjoyed by hearing persons in their own churches.

In 1984, a group of Deaf Christians, pastors of Deaf churches and other interested theologians and workers met together at a retreat in Clagett, Maryland to discuss the spiritual condition of Deaf people, whom they recognized as an oppressed group within and without the Christian community. They together came up with “The Clagget Statement” in order to effect the spiritual liberation of the Deaf. Of particular interest is the following point from the Claggel Statement: “We believe it is necessary to stop trying to communicate the gospel through hearing people’s eyes, through their interpretation and understanding of the Bible, and through their methods. Deaf people have the right to know the gospel in their own language, and relevant to their own context.”

The Deaf Community Christian Church was created for this reason, in order to make full use of the gifts of Deaf people and to bring God’s gift of deafness to its full potential just as He intended.

Roger J. Carver is a member of Deaf Community Christian Church.

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Last modified April 19, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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