In an attempt to gain support for the disabled, and help to erase some of the ignorance of disability during their time, Thomas Gallaudet delivered a sermon.
In 1824, Thomas Gallaudet gave a sermon at Burlington and Montpelier in Vermont; in Portland, Maine; and in Concord, New Hampshire. The purpose of his sermon was to promote increased awareness of people who were “Deaf and Dumb.” He wanted to help people of his time to understand that the words, “But, as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see and they that have not heard, shall understand”, applied very literally to people who were hearing and speech impaired. He suggested that if we have the spirit of Paul we will not neglect the “heathens”, or the hearing and speech impaired. He felt that faith could become a strong source of energy and encouragement that could be used to help people with these disabilities. He reinforced the identification of the term “heathen” with the Deaf and Dumb by further defining who the heathen were.
Thomas stated that there were millions of heathens in Europe, Asia, Africa and America; that they were a “melancholy host of immortal souls” that were still “enveloped in ignorance, superstition and midnight gloom.” He accused the heathens of idolatry, and sacrificing flesh to a deity, as well as many presumably non-Christian expressions of faith to inappropriate beings. He accused them of immoral and profane acts, and ignorance of God. Thomas points out that these were some of the heathen, but also goes on to state that the heathen also existed in the villages, towns and cities his audience had grown up in; heathens who knew nothing of Jesus. He then indicated that there were other heathens, ones who were actually the fellow men of the people he was preaching to, heathens who were even related to them.
These heathens lived in the middle of society, knowledge, the arts, sciences, government, and the gospel. Unfortunately, they knew nothing about all of this beauty of human existence. He pointed out that these people who have no knowledge of society or God often viewed them with amazement or fear, and looked around them at society and its offerings in wonder. Thomas Gallaudet then stated, “These are some of the heathen; long-neglected heathen; the poor Deaf and Dumb, whose sad necessities have been forgotten, whole scare a corner of the world has not been searched to find those who are yet ignorant of Jesus Christ.” So, while there were many people who could be seen as heathens during Thomas Gallaudet’s day, he stated in his sermon that he was only speaking of one particular group of heathens; the Deaf and Dumb.
He compared the ignorance of the Deaf and Dumb to a desert, filled with superstition and sin. He suggested that the audience might provide a little stream into that desert, a stream that brings cheer and refreshment and consolation from such a stream. Thomas stated that he only craved, “a cup of consolation, for the Deaf and Dumb, from the same fountain at which the Hindoo, the African, and the Savage, is beginning to draw the water of eternal life.” Thomas’ use of a natural metaphor to express a need for human action is admirable; the ignorance of other human cultures present during his time is not. For the time-frame that Thomas Gallaudet lived in, he was asking the people he was speaking to for a lot. He continued his sermon by asking the people if they should include the Deaf and Dumb in the group of people called “heathens.”
The vices of the Deaf and Dumb did not include scandal, falsehood, blasphemy or profanity, Thomas said, because their ears and tongues won’t allow them to pursue such things. They are fairly immune to seduction; guile and sin are induced by others. So, he says, God has kept them from many of the evils of the world. The Deaf and Dumb need the same grace as everyone else, he suggested, and need to mould their hearths to conform with God. They also need an interest in Jesus, he said. Thomas then suggested to his audience that it was their duty to give the truth of God and Jesus to the Deaf and Dumb, that Christ has ordered them to spread the news of salvation to every creature under heaven, and that they would be ignoring God’s order to spread the word if they do not make his name known to the Deaf and Dumb; they are only heathens because they are ignorant of the Lord.
Thomas then said that it would be impossible for anyone who has grown up with the knowledge and spirit of the Christian people to understand the awe, delight and astonishment that the first glimpse of the understanding of God could provide for someone who has not. He asked the people around him to imitate the example provided by the Apostle of the Gentiles and become sympathetic toward the Deaf and Dumb. He asked them to help remove the “moral waste-ground”, that it didn’t matter whether that ground lies in Asia, Africa or near at home.
The action Thomas suggested must have seemed daunting to some of his listeners because he reassured them that they are not spending effort on “fruitless and unpromising soil.” He stated that the soil had been run over with thorns and briers of ignorance, but that with some planting and water, and the blessing of God, it could become a garden which bears fruit, and “which may yet flourish with immortal beauty in the Paradise above.” They should not leave the Deaf and Dumb to live in unhappiness, without the fellowship of man.
Thomas said that we should cheer “these lonely, forsaken and hapless beings.” He felt that we should help them to enjoy the industry of the day, and teach them how to judge, distinguish, imagine and “pourtray.” We should make the Deaf and Dumb employable, making them valuable members of society, and bring them the dignity that the rest of society enjoys through social interaction. Thomas spoke to his audience, suggesting that if he could only bring some of the Deaf and Dumb before them, letting them see who these people are, and the light in their eyes as they first begin to understand who God and Jesus are he would have no need to appeal to their sympathy.
The thought that they, his audience, had contributed to such a cause would help them sleep at night, and give them something to feel good about. A smile from someone who is Deaf and Dumb would be more than adequate recompense for their actions. He ended the sermon by suggesting that they imitate God in the spirit of his gospel, and reaffirmed that they are His disciples, and that “we are meet for the inheritance of that kingdom, where there will be no more sin to bemoan, or suffering to relieve.”
Thomas Gallaudet is an example of someone who had the wisdom to not only view the inequality of a particular group of people, but to take action in order to help that group of people. His use of religious sermons to promote the well being of people who were hearing or speaking impaired seems very brave to me; I have not studied the mental models of Christians in the early 1800’s, but asking people for more when they were probably struggling to make a living must have been a tremendous task.
A sense of equality surrounding race, class, gender and disability was non-existent during his time, making his efforts to promote the well being of the “Deaf and Dumb” all the more spectacular. Mr. Gallaudet is an example of using the tools you have in order to reach a better end. His efforts to enable people with hearing and speech disabilities are very much a marker in the history of people with disabilities.
