the Empathy List #141: the Gulf of America?
A History Lesson in Colonization, in which I discover the Christian colonizers' Doctrine of Discovery.
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Hello friend, Liz here.
Today I come to you with another book excerpt, one that hits differently in our current political climate.
For example: the Gulf of America? The annexation of the Panama Canal? Buying Greenland? I suspect you know what I’m talking about when I say that the desire for American colonization has not died.
Colonization is an instinct in my people, the white Anglos who crossed an ocean and annexed the shores of indigenous Americans before committing a systematic genocide against them.
The legacy of the West is colonialism. And I hate that the same instinct lives on within our political leaders up to this very minute.
Imagine my heartbreak, then, during the writing of my book, to see that my beloved Church was the initiator of colonialism in the Americas.
The 1493 Doctrine of Discovery was written at the request of the Spanish king and queen after Columbus’s return from the “New World.” In essence, the Pope of that time blessed the colonization of the continent across the ocean.
The Pope also verified the colonizers’ claim to take any land they wanted, in the name of God, supposedly, especially from so-called non-Christian “barbarous nations.” The aim was to capture the whole globe under the rule of Christ, and they believed (or wanted to believe) that annexing land was growing a Christian kingdom on Earth. (Sound familiar?) Plus if the non-Christians thought they could gain their land back by converting, the Church might grow, thereby satisfying Jesus’s “Great Commission.”
The reasoning here is deluded, deceitful, and downright evil. Ultimately, it led to the genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas and horrific acts, often done in the name of Jesus.
Sometimes Christians say that we must bury the past. What’s the point in digging it up, brushing off the bones and flagellating ourselves for the sins of our fathers?
But I believe the God of Bible demands that we must face the horror done by the Christian church across its history.
We must unwind lies from truth, repenting of the harms of the past and present. Only then can we understand and embody the truth of God as expressed within the Bible.
To do that, however, means returning to the site of past war crimes to identify the bones of the dead. I mean this literally and figuratively. Only a thorough reexamination of our history can initiate repair.1 Only a fearless return—literally turning around, an about face—can be classed as repentance.
In that spirit of courageous repentance, I’d like to share with an excerpt published on Red Letter Christians, in which I explain the Doctrine of Discovery in greater depth.
Tell me: how have you had to reckon with the horror of Christianity in your own past? I know for many of us, we have our own personal horror stories. How have you healed? How have you sought healing for others?
Incidentally, this is also the reason I believe that Black Americans deserve reparations from our government and from white Americans. Repair does not happen when we avoid or diminish. Repair requires restitution to be classed as genuine. Trust is only restored by an act that costs something from the abuser. (More on that in future posts.)
That colonizing spirit is still alive and well for sure. With you in seeking a different way - honesty, repentance, real repair.
Its interesting when you look at the doctrine of discovery and yes it is still alive an well. Now the current President of the US is looking to exact the same powers - I am a Canadian - and he continues to threaten annexing Canada among the other countries he is looking to take over, history keeps repeating itself.....and we keep ignoring it.