Deaf Christians often struggle to hear God’s word, but some find meaning in the richness of who they are
For years, my husband would say after we returned from the church, “I thought the sermon was good.” To that, I would reply, “I didn’t hear the sermon, as usual.”
As a person with a severe to profound hearing loss, I nearly left the church out of frustration and anger. In addition to hymns, spoken readings and testimonies, Christian worship focuses on the spoken word. As scripture says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
I am not alone in feeling discouraged by so much focus on the word of God and spoken words in Christian tradition. Many people with hearing loss leave or disengage from their Christian faith.
But that doesn’t have to happen. As a theologian, I study how adults with hearing loss worldwide engage with their Christian faith thr...