Religious Signing: A Comprehensive Guide for All Faiths
Elaine Costello
Maybe I'm not yet understanding how ASL works, and how some signs fill in for others, you just need to know the context (like synonyms in English). Like how the signs for First and One Dollar look very similar, you need to know if you're talking about the order of something, or an amount of money.
After doing some research, here's my
opinion.
I went to Amazon and was able to see a portion of the book. For Buddhist; I got Choir. For Buddhism I got Body, or Flesh. I don't know anything about what or how Buddhists sing, but I know they believe the Flesh is an illusion.
For Hindu I got Fellowship of Believers, Brotherhood of Believers, explained in the text as "a partnership of people believing in Christ to support the Gospel and do charitable work for the church." Hindus don't "believe in Christ."
For Pagan I got Idolatry.
Again, maybe I just don't "get" ASL yet (forgive me, I'm still very new), but it seems to me these signs don't really match the religions they describe. It's like picking up a standard dictionary and looking up the word Deaf, only to find it says "people who are afflicted with the handicap of defective ears." That seems unfair, very biased.
I very much prefer the site
The interpreter's friend ty:
Reba) as its signs for the various religions seem to describe the religions as the practitioners themselves might describe them. It even contained words related to each religion, such as Atman, and Bodhisattva, which the book did not. I found this to be much more helpful on first look. I will do more research.
Thank you all so far. Any additional suggestions?