Aaliyah Bryant

Chapter 118 of the book For Hearing People Only talks about the Deaf community and

churches. It seems that churches in Bluffs, Iowa is reaching out to the Deaf community.

However, this passage explains if other parts of the US is doing the same. The answer to that is

not enough are but as some are, some Deaf people are refusing to be touched leaving us with a

separation of churches. Then, it goes into how the relationship between churches and Deaf

education which is old. Deaf children received an education and was sent away to monasteries to

keep them away from society and from reproducing. Today, there churches that have a Deaf

outreach program but some churches are preying on naïve deaf people claiming to save their

souls and spread intolerance about other religions.

I have learned so much about Deaf education and churches from this chapter. First things

first, I learned that the first source of education for Deaf children was churches. However, this

wasn’t really for their benefit as they were sent to monasteries to not be apart of societies nor to

reproduce. I also learned that Gallaudet’s son was an Episcopal priest and founded the first Deaf

congregation in the United States. Last but not least, I learned that there are fundamentalist

churches that engage in Deaf outreach can be harmful to the community by spreading negativity

and claiming that they are “saving the Deaf”.

This chapter has increased my views on churches in the Deaf community. There are

fundamentalist churches that are still out there till this day believing that they are saving the Deaf

community but they are doing the opposite. The reason for this is that some Deaf people have not

had any religious education and they are easily brainwashed by these churches. I want there to be

ways where Deaf people can be religiously educated to prevent these churches from taking

advantage of them. That way, churches can be beneficial to the Deaf community.