1. Deaf Liberation Theology and Deaf Teología Indígena
Marcel Broesterhuizen
ICF Chair for Pastoral Ministry with the Deaf
Faculty of Theology
KU Leuven (Belgium)

2. A hearing God? God imagined as a hearing person
Charlie Hollywood
Signing to God as to a hearing person
Broniak & Luberti
English seen as the proper way of praying
Hannah Lewis
Sign Language as unfit to address God
Deaf pastoral ministry as preparation for integration
Liturgies: Mostly in sign supported speech
Consequences
JESUS CHRIST NOT DEAF
metaphysics and religion alien to Deaf culture

3. A seemingly forgotten past
19th Century: religion and Deaf communities
Deaf pastors from 19th century on
Deaf congregations under Eugenics and Oralism
Breeding grounds of Deaf leadership
Conservation of Sign Language
George Veditz (1913): The noblest gift God has given to Deaf people
A forgotten past
Beth Lockard
Pastoral Ministry by hearing pastors as a one-way street
Hearing pastors do not defend Deaf interests
Consequence: Deaf people flee the Church

4. Spiritual colonialism
NCOD study on 94 Catholic Deaf people
No connection between daily life experiences and Christian tradition
Christian tradition full of hearing world view
Hannah Lewis
Construction of Deaf people in Christian theology: immoral, impulsive
Phonocentrism
Jonathan Rée
The core of Western religious tradition?
Christianity vs. Deaf culture
Deafness to be healed vs. Deafness okay

5. Conquista and colonialism
Conquista: the Spanish conquest of Latin America
Destruction of indigenous cultures, gap between rich and poor
Hannah Lewis
Spiritual colonialization
Gustavo Gutiérrez: Liberation Theology
Poor = agents of own destiny
People’s daily experiences as source of theology
Campesinos: indigenous theology (teología indígena)
Applied to minorities in rich countries
Women – black - Hispanic people - people with disabilities
“Epistemological privilege”
Deaf know best what Deafness is
Liberation from audism

6. Deaf liberating pastoral ministry
Irreversible paradigm shift in pastoral ministry:
Active involvement of deaf people
Deaf Liberation Theology in action
Christians for the Liberation of the Deaf Community
Claggett Statement
No imposition of hearing norms
Deafness as a gift of God
Access to the Gospel in Sign Language
Solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world
Empowerment of Deaf people
Actions
Bible translation into Sign Language
Deaf leadership trainings
Formation of Deaf people for pastoral ministry

7. Characteristics of Deaf Pastoral Ministry
Deaf-led
Deaf indigenous Churches
With own Deaf forms
Focus on drama and action
Deaf communication
No longer SimCom or MCE
Focus on Deaf identity, Deaf rights, Deaf culture
Deafness as wanted by God
Examples
Conference 2003 in Mexico City
June 2008, Rome
Integration of Deaf and Catholic culture
Oralism and discontinuity in Deaf community
Deaf pastors more effective

8. Deaf Liberation Theology in the Future
Hannah Lewis: a liberating-shaped Church should have
A Deaf space
A space where Deafhood is the norm
A story telling space
Not only biblical stories, but also (Deaf) people’s stories
A creative space
The creation of an own religious culture
Enculturation, in Catholic theology
Christianity is about concrete persons and communities
Looking for the elements of truth inherent in each culture that might enrich the larger community
Enculturation into Deaf culture = grasping the values of Deaf culture
Adds to Christian tradition

9. Deaf Diaspora? Changes in the Deaf community
Cochlear implantation, mainstreaming
Closure of residential schools for the Deaf
Decline of Deaf clubs
Scattering of the Deaf community
Diaspora = forced dispersion
Two aspects of Deaf experience remain:
Restricted communication with hearing, smooth with the Deaf
Being with the Deaf = being with one’s own people
People want to be at home
A global virtual Deaf community arises
Accent on personal relationships and belonging
Fun, Friendship, Fellowship, Faith
Enculturation = Deaf people continue to create a harbour

10. Enculturation into visual humanity
The desire and the drive to create signs is deeply rooted in our fundamental human need for communication. The truth is “we cannot be truly human apart from communication … to impede communication is to reduce people to the status of things.” Deaf people, being of a human variety, have refused to be reduced to the status of things and have found ways to communicate visually and developed visual languages. That is the essence of their being.
Ben Bahan, "Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the Human Race," in Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking ed. H-Dirksen L. Bauman (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2008),