I found this great article today. It is from the Associated Press, and is actually reporting that a Protestant Church is publicly apologizing for the manner in which it has treated Native Americans. What is this? One of the signs of the Apocalypse. The fundamentals better start praying cause this is a miracle. However, I will reserve my optimism that utopia is coming with the Rapture, and they will all be taken away, because it is only one church. Check this out;
NEW YORK — Members of one of America's oldest Protestant churches officially apologized Friday — for the first time — for massacring and displacing Native Americans 400 years ago.
"We consumed your resources, dehumanized your people and disregarded your culture, along with your dreams, hopes and great love for this land," the Rev. Robert Chase told descendants from both sides. "With pain, we the Collegiate Church, remember our part in these events."
The minister spoke on Native American Heritage Day at a reconciliation ceremony of the Lenape tribe with the Collegiate Church, started in 1628 in then-New Amsterdam as the Reformed Dutch Church.
The rite was held in front of the Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan, where Dutch colonizers had built their fort near an Indian trail now called Broadway, just steps away from Wall Street.
The Collegiate Church was considered the "conscience" of the new colony, whose merchants quickly developed commerce with the world in fur and grains — till then the turf of the natives.
Surrounded by Lenape Indians, the Dutch colonists "were hacking men, women and children to death," said Ronald Holloway, the chairman of the Sand Hill band of Lenapes, who lived here before Henry Hudson landed 400 years ago.
The Indians dispersed across the country, eventually ending up on government-formed reservations. On Friday, some came from as far away as Oklahoma.
During the ceremony, Chase embraced Holloway and, as symbolic gestures of healing, the two sides exchanged wampum — strings of beads used by North American Indians as money or ornament. A boy representing the Lenapes and a girl from the Collegiate Church put necklaces on each other.
While Friday's ceremony exuded warmth and openness, accompanied by an Indian drumming circle and the haunting sound of a wooden flute, the feelings leading up to the reconciliation were mixed.
"After 400 years, when someone says 'I'm sorry,' you say, 'Really?' " Holloway said before the ritual. "There was some kind of uneasiness. But then you've got to accept someone's sincere apology; they said, 'We did it.' We ran you off, we killed you.' "
In New York City, the Collegiate churches are composed of four congregations including the landmark Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue led by the late Rev. Norman Vincent Peale.
The church plans to sponsor educational activities and exhibits to teach children history — including the Indian reverence for preserving the purity of the land taken over by the Dutch colonists.
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That Reverend Chase has a lot of guts! Probably a real honest guy, I'll bet he'll soon be ostracized from the church.
ReplyDeleteFunny how this article was so low-key in the media, and no mention of reparations? I suppose so many Indians have been misplaced now, they have no power in numbers to form a decent protest.
Thanks for posting this article.
Yes, I agree. At least Reverend Chase has the nerve to be a bit transparent.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the native population of Canada suffered at the hands of Catholic colonization on reservations. The people have become so marginalized and impoverished that it has almost become impossible to become educated and actualized without having to be an activist first to get where you are going. People who are successful are seen as a person who has had to overcome animosity to get where they are, and often this is as simple as getting a degree, and keeping a job. Sad.
Yet another social consequence of religion.
400 years ,isnt that a sign of how arrogant faiths have been.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is still christians out there today who almost seem bewildered,and cant understand what folks see so wrong about religion and faith beliefs.
Darwin waited 150 years for an apology from Church of England.Personally i think thats rude enough .But 400 years after having split and devided folks who had a great reverence for preserving the purity of the land and strong interests in family and community.
Seems kinda shocking.
It really does.
ReplyDeleteIn the 50's, in Canada, the government and the Catholic church would accuse a family of being unfit. They would remove the children and place them in their institutions. The mothers would often self destruct and die, and the kids would be subject to Catholic teaching and horrendous abuse on the reservation schools. It is shocking.
This is coming back to how religion is a disease on our society. Back to the Dawkins quote that I posted.