Entre a “cultura surda” e a cura da surdez: análise comparativa das práticas da Igreja Batista e da Igreja Internacional da Gra a de Deus no Brasil

The aim of this article is to carry on a comparative analysis of two missionary activities with deaf people in Brazil, namely, Baptist Churches linked to the Brazilian Baptist Convention and Igreja Internacional da Gra a de Deus (IIGD), in its temple headquarters. In this comparison, we will analyze the way this two protestant experiences shape categories such as deafness and cure. Firstly, we shall analyze the logic of the missionary practices at Baptists churches, in which the cure of deafness is understood as both a metaphor of conversion and a diacritical sign of a so-called “unreached people”. Secondly, we analyze the practice of IIGD, where the search for the biological cure of deafness seems to be the main reason of insertion of deaf people in this institution. Our goal is to demonstrate the different meanings that deafness and cure have in the relations which are established among the agents who configure these practices. Such meanings inform us about broader social and political processes.