Symposium shines a light on Deaf Liberation Theology

On March 28-29, Dr. Kirk VanGilder, Associate Professor in Gallaudet’s Religion Program, is co-organizing a symposium, “Signs of Hope: The Claggett Statement and Deaf Theology Today,” with his colleague, Dr. Audrey Seah from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

This event’s origins connect back to when he was a graduate student in 1993 and VanGilder was inspired to look into the overlaps between Deaf culture and religion. He spent long hours at the library at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, scouring card catalogs and large volumes of journal indices, as he worked his way back in time, searching for headings with “Deaf” in them.

“When I got to 1985, it was electric to see the words ‘Deaf’ and ‘Liberation’ tied together in the title. It was like a bomb went off in my head and consciousness to know that yes, we HAD been talking about Deaf liberation theology even in the time when liberation theology was still a fairly emerging field and approach,” VanGilder says.

VanGIlder had come across an article published in Sojourners Magazine entitled “Breaking the Shackles,” written by ASL Linguist, Charlotte Baker-Shenk. The article describes how a group of ten hearing and deaf people from different Christian backgrounds gathered for four days in June 1984 at the Claggett Retreat Center in Maryland. It includes the culmination of their work during the retreat: the writing of “a statement of our shared faith, hurts, and hopes,” and they named it the Claggett Statement. It was a “sign of the growing sense of a new time of cultural expression in Deaf communities that preceded DPN. Yet it is still largely an unknown document within Deaf Studies,” says VanGilder. 

Originating in South America, Liberation Theology was rooted in the social and political currents of the ’70s, and ’80s. Liberation Theologists saw Christianity as a frame for consciousness-raising for the poor and oppressed and as justification for changing inequitable social, political, and economic structures. Liberation Theology, as applied in religious settings with a focus on interpreting the meaning of faith, dovetails with frameworks for Deafhood and disability rights since they begin with the lived experiences of oppressed and marginalized people and seek liberation from oppression. 

The movement strongly resonated with the group that drafted the Claggett Statement and became one of the earliest expressions of Deaf Liberation Theology. The ten authors of the Claggett Statement applied Liberation Theology to the context of Deaf communities by explicitly naming oppression experienced by deaf people by medical, social service, and educational institutions, interpreting practices, and the church as a whole, for failing to recognize Deaf people as equals. They outline damage done by an inordinate focus on oralism, the lack of qualified interpreters, and the devaluing of ASL as language. The statement asserts pride in deafness, deaf culture, and language, and the right for Deaf people to “know the Gospel in their own language and relevant to their own context.” The statement closes with an appeal for Deaf and hearing Christians to join together in the “struggle toward freedom.”

When VanGilder came across the Claggett Statement, he says “I was at the early stages of what I’d later learn to call my Deafhood journey in discovering both my identity as a Deaf person and a call to ministry in The United Methodist Church.” A mainstreamed student, he did not use ASL for communication regularly, but his hearing deteriorated in high school. “Entering college in 1989 was the start of a journey to learning new ways of being,” he says. One of his biggest influences was a fellow Deaf student, Julie Bonta, at Ball State University, who had been present at Gallaudet in 1988 during DPN. “She sort of adopted all us hard of hearing mainstreamed students there and became our ‘Deaf mother hen’ showing us there was a culture and a language that was ours as well,” he explains.  

The latest part of his journey includes co-organizing “Signs of Hope: The Claggett Statement and Deaf Theology Today,” with Seah, who first came across the Claggett Statement while researching Deaf Catholic history. A scholar of Deaf Catholicism who has published on Deaf Catholic material culture and worship, Seah suggested marking the Claggett Statement’s 40th anniversary. Together they worked to organize a panel at the 2024 American Academy of Religion meeting and wanted to do more. Seah was able to find support for the symposium from the College of the Holy Cross’ McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture due to the College’s longtime connection with the Deaf community; Holy Cross has a Deaf Studies department, is where the Deaf Catholic Archives is housed, and hosts a weekly Bingo event for local Deaf senior citizens.

A highlight of the symposium is a panel gathering the seven living authors (Charlotte Baker-Shenk, Pamela Dintaman, Patrick Graybill, Susan Masters, Bill Millar, Ella Mae Lentz, and Sheila Yoder) to look back on the Claggett Statement. Other panels will discuss its contributions and provide views from contemporary theological and Deaf Studies standpoints to examine what Deaf Liberation Theology can be in the 21st century.

The event, “Signs of Hope: The Claggett Statement and Deaf Theology Today” takes place on Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29, and will be live-streamed on Zoom.

See the schedule and more information here. Registration closes on March 15, 2025.

Banner images at top: Kirk VanGilder, left (photo credit: Jennifer Nelson) and Audrey Seah, right.