The Divine Roots of Sign Language?
Interested in some examples of sign language storytelling? Check out the daily devotions in ASL from Deaf Missions.
Unlike Mudras, sign language does not have its roots in mysticism. Or does it? I find that throughout a good part of history, there is a special brand of hearing people interested in sign language: preachers. Over the centuries rabbis, preachers, and imams have spent oceans of energy getting their gospels or holy messages heard by everyone. Hearing impairments can surely not take away people’s right to salvation?
Sadly enough, even in the Netherlands, not the most religious country in the world, evangelising and the education of the deaf are intertwined. At Effatha-Guyot they created some sign language material on the computer but most it concerns translations of bible material into Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN), aka Nederlandse Gebarentaal (NGT).
