Thanks for your comments. I’ve enjoyed reading what you’ve had to share over the past few months and appreciate the questions you’ve raised in this current blog. I’ve had many debates with people over the definition of “spirituality”. To me, this word is nebulous; everyone prescribes their own meaning. Some say religion and spirituality are one and same while others proclaim they can be considered as separate and independent. Yes, this would be an interesting theological debate for another occasion. :)

Personally, as a secular humanist, I am opposed to any form of dogma. Life on this current physical plane is completely screwed to the gills because of all the myriad conflicting dogmas at play. This ties in to my resentment of Mr. Moore’s attempt to establish ASL as some sort of a Christian vernacular. Uh-uh, not gonna happen. Not only is the concept of the Society of ASL Guardians “corny”, but absurd and asinine as well. No one out there gets to tinker with my language the way Mr. Moore intends to without me stepping up and throwing down.

But in the meantime, reading your post has caused me to reflect back on a blog I made as a Guest Blogger here on DeafDC.com back on October - in the midst of the Gallaudet Protest - entitled “The Spirituality of Gallaudet” (which you can find at my own blog site by clicking on my name).

One of the things I talked about in this blog was the spiritual aspects of deafness…to quote:

“Now, when I talk about the spiritual, I am not referring to religion. I’m not talking about which church you attend, or what God you worship. Rather, I am talking about the spirituality of Deafhood - of the thoughts and beliefs and ideas and concepts and struggles and dialogue that define a process by which Deaf people identify themselves and their existence in the world. It is this spirit of Deafhood that defines the Deaf Community, a community which has looked to Gallaudet as a symbol of such spirit for nearly 150 years.”

In writing this, I was attempting to explain that spirituality does not need to have anything to do with organized religion. The two are not necessarily synonymous. Nor, for that matter…does God have to represent any specific organized religion - Christian or otherwise.

Now, before we turn this into a theological debate, I do agree with you that it is rather presumptious of Mr. Moore to lay claim to the idea of ASL as a “God-given gift to Deaf people.” Whether or not you believe in the concept of the Divine, I highly doubt that God (by whatever name you choose to refer to the Deity) thumped a bunch of Deafies on the head and handed them over a copy of an ancient version of the “Signing Naturally” ASL book.

But I can’t help wondering if in fact what George Veditz and Matthew Moore were actually trying to do was speak from a frame of thought that might be comparable to what I was trying to do with my own blog - that spiritualness of deafness, of which ASL is an important aspect. And in the process of doing so, dragged God (erroneously or otherwise) into the picture.

I don’t know, Allen. As I said, it’s interesting food for thought. Certainly language came about as a result of people’s need to express themselves, and communicate with others. Definitely we need to acknowledge the positive contributions that the Deaf Community has made toward the development of their own language over the years.

But at the same time, there is a part of me that does think about the “divine aspect” of language - not as in specific languages, per se…or as I said earlier, in the idea of God handing languages over to homo sapiens…but more as part of the whole mythology of mankind - the stories and legends and traditions and beliefs that make us who and what we are today (sort of a la Joseph Campbell). If we look at this from that perspective, then could we say that language being a gift from the gods ranks right up there with Prometheus giving humankind the gift of fire?

Damn, I’m not making any sense here, am I??? Blame it on that second glass of mead I just finished…

As for this whole Society of ASL Guardians - I can’t decide whether to shrug them off as just some sort of corny joke, or give them the benefit of the doubt and adopt a “wait and see” approach. They certainly don’t impress me all that much, and I agree with your comments and concerns as to what exactly is their mission supposed to be and how are they intending to carry it out?

Hmmm…like I said, interesting food for thought. Or am I just guilty of analyzing things TOO much?

While I do agree that most Pagans do not subscribe to the traditional biblical image of God as a white bearded authoritarian old man, this is not to say we don’t recognize the male deity.

Yes, there are those of the Pagan Path who do eschew God in preference of a Divine Feminine - who may be referred to as The Goddess. Most of those who subscribe to such beliefs are practitioners of the Dianic Tradition.

However, most Pagans believe in the polarity of male and female, and thus honor both aspects of the Deity. During our rituals we call down both a Goddess…and a God. We recognize that we need the male energy just as much as we do the female, and that both speak through us…but certainly not for us.

Matthew Moore just re-phrase George Verditz’s quote - “sign language is the noblest gift God give to deaf people”. People do this stuff all the time.

I am a longtime atheist. I just let people say whatever they want and move on with life in general.

President Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush exploited the holy words for political opporunity. No big deal!

I was asked by several deaf individuals to join the “Silent Knights of Order” pretty long time ago. Guess what? I turned their offers down! I was never a fan of secret society anyway.

Samuel Jones and John Pitt are several fine examples of luridicious deaf individuals like bringing up the motion at the NAD Conference to send spies to the Alexander Graham Bell meetings/conference. Nobody seconded their motions. LOL!

Robert L. Mason (RLM)