I was reading an article the other day about the challenges of being a sign language interpreter. It was interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the problem of dialect that is inherent in sign language, but the article happened to mention that deafness used to be considered a sin, which…okay?
St. Augustine wrote about how a child’s deafness was a sign of God’s anger with sins of the parents and taught that those who are deaf are unable to be saved because they can’t hear the Word of God. Weirdly, this makes perfect sense to me.
And, lest you think that this is another nail in the proverbial Christian coffin as regards my own relationship with the Church, the Talmud prevented deaf people from owning property at all. Or being witnesses in court. So there’s that.
And Everything In Between 