Decolonizing Your Faith

 When I was in elementary school we were taught stories about our country - George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, Abe Lincoln building his family's log cabin - that were not true. The biggest lie that probably has done more harm is the myth of "manifest destiny."

Manifest destiny was the belief that white Europeans had an obvious and certain right to expand westward and claim land for themselves. Many a clergy person in white churches promoted this belief in biblical terms, claiming that to move west was to bring the Christian faith to "those savages on the plains." The harm this belief system as reeked on our country is almost unmeasurable. Entire nations were wiped out or severely reduced by violence and disease. The peoples who were here before the Europeans arrived were made to give up their freedoms for the sake of "expansion and prosperity" of the United States.

Paired with the Catholic Church's Doctrine of Discovery, these ideas have poisoned our faith because much of this was done in our name. As we live today, this is not something that is of the past. These same themes are being articulated by our politicians and many a clergyman. These ideas lead to outrages things being said about our neighbors, that people who have immigrated from Somalia are committing fraud and violence, that Muslims are plotting against you, that everybody seeking asylum are really terrorists. All of these people want to do harm to "This Christian Nation." 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is working at repenting for our part in this abuse. The
ELCA has produced "A Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to American Indian and Alaska Native People." In this publication this statement is made:

We commit to better understanding the Doctrine of Discovery, identifying the ways in which it is still used to oppress Indigenous people, and how best to realize our church’s repudiation of such a sinful ideology. Therefore, we commit to partnership with Native nations and with Native organizations that educate, support, and interpret the rights of Indigenous people, including the National Congress of American Indians and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. We commit to national and international advocacy through our ELCA Washington Office, the Lutheran Office for World Community at the United Nations, as well as in state and local legislative bodies. We commit to learning about treaties, and to engage our members in advocacy for treaty rights as they affect current issues of justice.

I encourage you to take time to study and understand these issues and to deepen your faith. Take time to read about how treaties have been abused, how children where taken from their homes a placed in residential schools "to make them conform to society." And pray. Pray for wisdom and understanding that leads to help make changes that lead to true justice and peace.