Manifest Destiny and the Black Legend
I think I am going to write a piece on how Martin Luther affected the lives of the Native Americans. I'm just finishing up a class on Teaching Hispanic Culture and Histroy, which shed some more light on a subject that has long interested me.
"Christians" have been "evangelizing" Native Americans for over 500 years and yet less than 10% of Native American people claim to be "born again" Christians. That is a "protestant" statistic. I'll have to check into the percentage of Roman Catholic Native Americans, which is probably about the same, or a little higher, at least in the Southwest.
Anyway, if you are interested...stay tuned.
8 comments:
Now that is a very interesting idea. One that I am looking forward to hearing about. Does the Barna Group do any research in the Native American area?
I'll check.
The Barna Group breaks down the United States of America's Roman Catholic population into White, Hispanic, and Black. The only source I could find that even came close to giving the number of Native American Catholics was a map, that showed my part of the country had the highest number of Native American Catholis, 44,001 to every 100,100 which is about 4%. The evangelicals I know say the percentage of born agains Native American's is 5%. Pitiful statistics for a part of the world that has been evangelized for over 500 years. A true spiritual stronghold.
I am curious as to what specifically this "Black Legend" is.
"Pitiful statistics for a part of the world that has been evangelized for over 500 years."
I don't see it as a pitiful statistic. Despite how hard people tried to get a people to abandon their beliefs in favor of those of an invading group, they held onto their beliefs. How many "Christians" do you think would hold onto their beliefs under the intensive "evangelizing" that these people have faced?
I see this as a wonderful statistic.
yeah wanderer you would, and if i didn't see such darkness and despair in this area, maybe i would too. And considereing the multitude of Christians who died for their faith, and are still dying for their faith around the world, I'd have to say, any "true" Christian would certainly hold tightly to their faith, no matter what. Granted, some American Christians are pretty wishwashy, what did you call the type "fluffybunnies?". A little persecution would probably do them some good. refiners fire and all that.
While no area is immune to darkness and despair, I must say it seems easier to find on reservations than in suburbian white america. Then again, if you were basically relegated to being a second class citizen, tucked away on a small parcel of land where even there your culture and history were significantly damaged and or destroyed outright, you would have a higher probability of feeling this way.
In this context, while I don't claim that Christianity itself is detrimental to them, I don't think evangelizing is likely to have helped in this department.
In some cases what has been detrimental in regards to evangelism is that it has often been seen as being a "change them" type of endeavor. The gospel of Christ is good news and it is best shared in the context of relationships and shared life. Making converts is, I believe, far different from making disciples. Many people came to the church in the earliest days because of how the people lived. No one was in need because everything was shared (sounds more like a commune than how most of us live nowdays). Also, there was a preaching of the good news and demonstrations of God's power. These very same things are happening in many places around the world though it appears less so in America and western Europe. In regards to your comment on Native Americans I would ask, is it because of how they were evangelized (you must wear these clothes and learn this language to be christian) or a spiritual stronghold, or both. I would tend to say both. The spiritual stronghold was made worse/stonger by the treatment and evangelism methods they received not only at the hands of Christians who may have even been well-intentioned but the government (local, state, and federal) as well.
Iheriter,
BOTH for sure
War continues to rage in the heavenlies, the spiritual strong hold is strong, and still the Christians can't seem to "get their act together"
Jesus is still seen as "The White Man's God" even though Jesus himself was most likely brown and Adam was red...
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