Faith by Hearing, the story of Gospel Recordings, was written by Phyllis Thompson in 1960 and published by Gospel Recordings, Inc. The booklet tells the story of Gospel Recordings Incorporated (1), a company that "captured" the languages of Native peoples the world over and penetrated the most resistant enclaves with the word of God via phonograph records. Brainchild of bed-ridden missionary Joy Ridderhof, the success of Gospel Recordings brings to mind the words of Matt Groening's Marge Simpson, "What I learned was that one person really can make a difference, but in most cases, they probably shouldn't."

Inspired by the simple faith of a poverty-stricken Colombian widow Ridderhof conceived of phonograph records for inspiration of the faithful. That electricity may have been lacking never seems an issue, nor the fact that poverty usually leaves little in the budget for home entertainment systems. Ridderhof attempted in vain to leave her widow with the solace of a single Bible verse, which her charge failed to memorize. Despairing, Ridderhof imagines,

If only [I] could have left [my] voice behind, to repeat that verse again and again, until by sheer force it was lodged at last in the poor little head! (2)

Joy Ridderhof was on a mission from God, her ends were clear. The means had to be more carefully considered. Knowing well the "power of a catchy tune to fasten itself on the memory," Joy Ridderhof arranged for Mexican singers to spice up the albums. She hired Native speakers to deliver her carefully scripted messages suspecting the Natives might be less receptive to her "clear, clipped pronunciation [that] must always brand her as a 'foreigner'." (3)

Let Go of My Ears, I Know What I'm Doing
Miss Ridderhof was not alone in her desires to sow the seeds of faith in the ears of the worlds' Native peoples. A world away another spiritual dreamer imagined paving jungle roads with his own good intentions.

...A young man, son of an American father and a Filipina mother, stood looking over the unexplored mountain regions of the long narrow island of Palawan. There in the jungles, almost inaccessible to the white man, lived the dark-skinned tribespeople, scattered in little hamlets throughout the unexplored area. His heart had been stirred by the knowledge of their spiritual need as he traveled into the forests to supervise the handling of the gum drawn from the tall palm trees. The little jungle dwellers of the island of Palawan were agile as monkeys as they swayed, tight-rope fashion, along ratten (sic) vines to the tops of the trees to gather gum. They could climb up the sheer face of a cliff carrying loads of rice, and even babies wrapped in a sling cloth resting on their hips. But fear caused them to bar very effectively the trails that led to their little villages, and the young agriculturist wondered how they could ever be reached with the Gospel in their own homes. (4)

Sitting on the back of a horse, while watching others work, should inspire concern for a worker's spiritual needs, and this would-be missionary of the latifundium was rightfully moved. He began by translating his workers' healthy skepticism and will to resist his indoctrinating efforts into simple, ignorant fear.

You may think I am picking on a past that included well-intentioned, if oft misguided, efforts now reformed into more enlightened methods. Two points need to be made. Christians are often blinded by the belief that the blood of the lamb washes away the sins of the past. This may be true on a personal basis but accountability remains. Amends need to made. A past that leaves others injured cannot be dismissed on the grounds of personal redemption. This is the height of irresponsibility and is probably the source of many of the problems our own youths face today. Christians must confront their past and reconcile themselves, if they are to learn from their mistakes and heal old wounds.

The second point is that the efforts of Gospel Recordings reach into the present through the efforts of Wycliffe Bible Translators and its associated Summer Institute of Linguistics, WBT/SIL. Gospel Recordings joined forces with Wycliffe in 1943 to penetrate the Native tribes of Mexico. Working in government-restricted areas a 'gramophone missionary' writes,

Hour by hour the gramophone tirelessly grinds out the Good News to sick souls, while we minister to sick bodies...These proud people entrenched in age-old religions scorned to listen to my preaching, but the records in their own tongue never fail to catch their attention - and you can't argue with a record... (5)

By 1958 Gospel Recordings had disseminated over 2,000,000 records worldwide, a feat rivaled only by Leroy Neiman's attempts in the United States to demoralize the middle class by blanketing the country with his prints. (6)

Know What I Heard
Sara Diamond, in Spiritual Warfare; The Politics of the Christian Right, examines the motives of the Wycliffe group. "In 1970, Wycliffe provided air and radio support for the Colombian national police when they suppressed a revolt by the Guahibo Indian tribe, one of Wycliffe's target 'people groups'." The kidnapping and execution of Chester Bitterman, a Wycliffe translator by guerrillas is thought to be associated with this event. (7) Stories such as these lead to questions concerning the present-day persecutions of missionaries whose unwelcome meddling in local politics may destabilize efforts at self-determination by Native peoples.

Diamond writes that Wycliffe's "close working relationship with U.S. government officials and allied foreign leaders has earned the missionaries a reputation as 'assets' of the CIA." In Viet Nam in 1960 SIL earned a grant from the US Agency for International Development (AID) to teach the Montagnards to read and write. At the time US forces were also training the Montagnards, to fight the Vietnamese National Liberation Front. Extra credit reading included materials on using M-16 rifles and explosives. (8)

The Word of God Falls on Deaf Ears
A bias towards 'hearing' the gospel has a long history in Christianity. Saint Augustine remarked on the words of Saint Paul, "The defect [of being born deaf] also hinders [impedit] faith itself, as the Apostle attests with the words: Faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:17)"(Contra Julianum 3,4). Inspired by Augustine and misreadings of Paul, many theologians up through the 20th century maintained that the deaf and dumb were excluded from faith and damned to hell. (9)

An exception was the French abbe de l'Epee(d. 1789) who built an institute for the deaf and dumb but met with considerable resistance and persecution. Ranke-Heinemann holds that any defect from the norm in a child was seen as caused by Satan or consort with the devil or demons. Luther recommended that changelings be drowned, since "such changelings [are] only a piece of flesh," and "no soul is in them." (Bachmann, pp. 183,191, 195. (10)

Aural Sex
Early Christians buried their own disturbed sexuality in weak efforts to sanitize and sterilize the Virgin Mary. Not only was SHE a virgin, but her MOTHER was a virgin. OK, and Jesus came out between her breasts, or as a light, or God repaired Mary's broken maidenhood. The debates raged through the centuries sapping the brain power of church elders with but a single thought between them. One of the more bizarre imaginings had to do with the conception of Christ. It seems that God blew in Mary's ear, or a dove flew in her ear or some such foolishness. That Freudians view these imaginings as springing from an infantile fixation with anal masturbation is a point that must be discussed elsewhere. (11)

Come Again?
However, Christian leaders today promote equally bizarre religious theories,

I have noticed something very creative. I have seen that God has made our ears look like unborn babies. Maybe that is why after that tragic death mothers can hear the sad cry. Is that why God has made them that way? (12)

In the spirit of lurid Christian imaginings I am compelled to note that the fetus more closely resembles a prawn, though I decline to guess what God had in mind when she fashioned them this way. Perhaps some opinions from the Cocktail Nation?