Before the 1860s and before the American Civil War, manual language was very popular among the Deaf community and also supported by the hearing community.[18] The hearing community viewed deafness as “[isolating] the individual from the Christian community”.[18] At the time, the people of the United States were fairly religious (notably Christian), and the hearing-advantaged believed that sign language opened deaf individuals' minds and souls to God.[18] Through this, the hearing community believed that manualism brought deaf people closer to God and opened deaf people to the Gospel, which brought manualism general acceptance.