Signs and Wonders: Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language

5: Conclusion and Implications

130 5 Conclusion and Implications In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries , Deaf advocacy for sign language in the United States was grounded in religious discourse. As Thomas H. Gallaudet brought education to deaf people in the United States with the opening of the American School for the Deaf in 1817, he more profoundly brought Protestant religion as well, and that influence would leave an imprint on the American deaf identity. As chapter 1 explains, Gallaudet’s efforts to bring education and language to deaf people stemmed from his conviction that it was his mission to help others to know God. This Protestant influence on deaf education left a lasting impression on the deaf community, which emerged because residential schools brought together deaf individuals who had been living apart. As more schools for deaf children emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century, oralists supported a national identity that emphasized the importance of speaking a common language. Because deaf individuals did not speak, they were set apart as outsiders in their own country . Fueling this state of affairs was the growing support for the oral tradition of education. As science progressed and influenced popular thinking, oralists used theories of evolution and eugenics to back up their claims that deaf persons needed to learn to speak and lipread in order to be on equal status with hearing Americans. For pure oralists, the use of sign language was evidence of a lower stage of evolution. Conclusion and Implications 131 The religious rhetoric found in schools, sanctuaries, and the American deaf community’s social activism engendered a deaf identity that proved crucial in confronting challenges posed by a dominant hearing community that threatened to end the use of sign language. The nineteenth- and early twentieth-century arguments favoring the use of manualism or the combined method of instruction (the latter was the chosen method of deaf ministers to convey sermons in signs and to advocate for the political interests of the emerging community) and the efforts to garner support for deaf community advocacy have cemented a deaf identity grounded in the use of sign language. Although society at large has become more secular while participation in religious services and evidence of religion’s presence in the deaf community have perhaps diminished since the last half of the twentieth century, I argue that the Protestant religion is still tied to the deaf community through the use of sign language. As the previous chapters illustrate, deaf Americans have faced challenges specific to their language use. By emphasizing speech and lipreading, oralists threatened the existence of sign language in schools for deaf children. In response, the deaf community united to defend its claim to sign language. Late nineteenthcentury debates on deaf education often split along ideological lines. Manualists aligned their arguments in favor of sign language with a Protestant ideology that endorsed the bringing of sign language to deaf Americans. Many viewed sign language as the “natural language of deaf people”—a theory that is supported by Gary Morgan’s and Judy Kegl’s study of Nicaraguan sign language among deaf children in two different schools.1 The combined system of educating deaf students was supported by many deaf community leaders. This method valorized both oral and manual teaching, emphasizing thereby that all deaf students should learn sign language and that sign language would be the method of communication in all matters of religious training and instruction. Oralists, influenced by advancements in 132 Signs and Wonders science, cited evolutionary theories to support the view that sign language use was characteristic of a species of lower development . Deaf individuals were outsiders to the hearing community, which was struggling to define its national identity, as well as to Christian educators who were seeking to save the heathens. In these challenging times, the deaf community appealed to the like-minded Protestant hearing community, using their shared religious beliefs as a way to build bridges and garner support for sign language. In addition to the dormitories and the vocational classes, the chapel typically remained a signing place at residential schools. Religious training maintained its importance at deaf residential schools well into the twentieth century. Chapel services not only transmitted the deaf community’s recognition of the value of sign language but also perpetuated a deaf identity that exuded morality . As oralists and manualists split on how to educate deaf students , they often agreed that religious training should...