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The Religious ViewThe first references to deaf people come in the ancient laws of the Middle East. The Bible mentioned “Then the Lord said unto him, who hath made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Exodus, 4:11 And also in
Leviticus 11:14, “You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind ...” Deaf people were given some rights as citizens but they were not allowed to hold property, which was a major disadvantage. In Greek times, Socrates assumed that the deaf had to use gesture and pantomime. Aristotle said that deaf people were also dumb, but they could make sounds (not speech). This was a major statement which the Christian Church accepted and so all deaf people were treated as if they were dumb and as a result could not be educated at first. Although this seems strange, the Church was the main authority. The Church taught that only God has the power to create and to cure deafness and through the Ministers of the Church, God could affect the sensory abilities of the individual. As a result, deafness was determined by God’s will. To find out if someone was deaf he would need to be taken to the priest, who could pronounce on such things. Since the priest could not alter the deafness, then the people became labelled and their position in society was fixed. They could not marry and they could not hold property. For over 1,000 years deafness was not treated other than by trying to fix the ears. And the Church saw deafness as having happened because God had decided. Often the view was presented that the deafness was a punishment - usually of the parents for some sin. Not surprisingly this led to (and still does) to the hiding of the deaf child. The hiding was feasible in a rural society but less likely nowadays. The key aspect of the church view was that deafness was decision by God and as such it could not be challenged. Since the prevailing view was that deafness was a loss, people had to accept their burden - it could not really be altered except by miracle. In terms of the deaf person himself or herself, they were expected to shoulder this burden as all penance done in this life would make it easier to reach heaven. The introduction of tortuous procedures to learn speech, by the church-led teaching profession, could be justified as adding to th4e penance of the deaf person. It was obvious that the person would become hearing in heaven. [Will deaf people be hearing in heaven?] |
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