Last night I saw an interesting TV movie about two parents in conflict about treating their son’s deafness with a cochlear implant. The conflict arose because the father could hear but his wife was deaf. She along with her two deaf parents were totally opposed to the thought of putting an implant into her son’s brain so he could hear again. They were opposed to it like many deaf people are today because they have adopted a mindset that their deafness is not a disability but something that makes them unique. They have developed their own culture because of the challenges they face with interacting normally with hearing people. They have their own language for communicating with each other and they do not want to regain their hearing. Using devices like hearing aids or implants would disconnect them from their culture. They believe they were made this way and they should not want to change that aspect of their life. This is something very hard for me to understand because as a disabled person I would never want to continue life the way it is now if if there was a cure or some kind of treatment that would allow me to be more like “normal people”. I have no problem admitting I have a disability. My body doesn’t function correctly and I would never say that this makes me who I am. I know that when Christ returns and our mortal and decaying bodies are changed I will not be missing my old way of life. I just wonder what a deaf person would think when God restores their hearing. Surely they wouldn’t say something like “God, I appreciate your desire to restore my hearing but I would prefer to remain deaf”?
Posted by: Douglas Mehling | April 21, 2008
Understanding the deaf culture
Posted in Main, Perspectives | Tags: cochlear implant, deaf culture
I’ve seen this situation depicted in stories on TV before, apparently it’s not that uncommon among those who are deaf. They look at us as outsiders and once a deaf person is able to hear again, they too become an outsider, or at least someone who is outside of their special world.
It is hard for us as hearing individuals to grasp knowing that they really don’t understand what they’re missing. To hear music, the birds, the wind, or maybe the cry of a baby, it’s more than difficult of us to understand why you would never want to hear the world around you.
It’s like the blind not wanting to see, or the disable not wanting to walk. I guess there’s a certain bliss in being ignorant of the world around us through deafness, to be able to tune it out. (When I was a teen my mother would turn off her hearing aid when I would crank up my amp. and practice with our garage band. It was her way of tuning me out.) But why would you not want to be restored with all of the sense God intended for us to have?
Sin has brought all of these problems upon us. It’s like giving victory to the Devil, “You’ve won, you’ve robbed me of my health, my hearing, my ability to be fully human and I am happy with that”.
It will be a wonderful day when we can all be restored to what God intended us to be. I’m sure even the healthiest and strongest man will be amazed at the difference in what we’ve become to accept as the norm compared to the life God will give us.
Unfortunately some of those who are deaf also don’t have a problem accepting their disability. Often we have no problem accepting the status quo, as we gain weight, grow old and allow our bodies to slide into disrepair or whatever. We are fortunate to live in a time when some of these things can be corrected or over come, where the blind can see and the deaf can hear… Or at least sometimes.
Unfortunately, there are those who have accepted the norm of sin in the world and in their lives and don’t wish to change that either.
Douglas, your blog was well written, good job!
By: jhan on April 23, 2008
at 9:10 pm
Big difference between elective surgery and allowing your child to experience one of our senses. I’m not in their shoes, but can’t imagine that this would even be a debate!
By: Claire on May 8, 2008
at 9:34 pm