Christianity in the Modern World Modern Christians

¶ … Christianity in the Modern World

Modern Christians looking back into history may find it hard to comprehend the various atrocities that have been committed in the name of Christianity. While religion has consistently been an excuse for one group to claim superiority over another, nowhere was this more apparent than when the Puritans came to America. While the lens of time reveals the Puritan actions against the native population to be both arrogant and cruel, it is important to remember that the Puritans did not view their actions in the same manner. In contrast, their actions were motivated by their deeply held religious belief that it was their divine mission to come to America and begin a colony where they would be free to practice their religion.

Like many modern-day advocates of religious freedom, the Puritans had a narrow view of the term. They did not seek religious freedom for all, but merely the freedom to practice their own religion, which was actually pretty rigid. The Puritans believed that God had created a covenant with them, and that they were the new Israelites of God's master plan.

These beliefs had cause a rift between the Puritans and King James of England. The Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England, while King James vowed to force the Puritans to conform to the Church. After determining that they were unable to reform the Church, a group of Puritan separatists went to Amsterdam in search of more religious freedom. Amsterdam did offer more religious freedom than England, but the Puritans still feared that outside pressure would disrupt their group. At this point, the Puritans realized that freedom from persecution was not synonymous with religious freedom, and decided to go to America.

A group of Puritans, led by William Bradford and now referred to as the Pilgrims, fled Amsterdam for the perceived freedom of the New World. While it is familiar knowledge that the Pilgrim ship, the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, many are less familiar with the fact that the Plymouth Rock was not the first place in America visited by the Pilgrims. In fact, the Pilgrims stopped in Cape Cod. It was during this layover that the native population would receive its first hint about the Puritan views of entitlement and superiority. The Pilgrims discovered large hordes of grain, which had been stored by the Native Americans for the winter. The Pilgrims took all of the food, claiming that God's providence was shining upon them.

In this way, the Pilgrims began abusing the Native Americans even before they actually met.

The Pilgrim belief that God's providence was shining upon them did not continue; after landing at Plymouth Rock the Pilgrims experienced a harsh winter, which killed nearly half of them. The number of Pilgrim deaths was limited due to the assistance that the Pilgrims received from the Pokanokets. Although the Pilgrims had been the recipients of charity from the Pokanokets, the Pilgrims still believed that they were superior. In fact, when the Pokanokets signed a treaty with the Pilgrims, the Pilgrims believed that signaled the Pokanokets' willingness to acknowledge the superiority of the English and their culture.

One of the most interesting things about the Pilgrim claims of English superiority is that those claims were largely based on misunderstandings about the Native American way of life. The Pilgrims believed that farming was a more appropriate way of life than hunting or fishing. Furthermore, the Pilgrims considered themselves farmers. However, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that the Native Americans of New England were also farmers, the Pilgrims continued to dismiss them as hunters and fishermen. As a result, the Pilgrims alleged that the Native Americans were "sinfully squandering America's resources."

Claiming that they could make better use of the land, the Pilgrims claimed that they were entitled to the Native American's land and took it by whatever means necessary.

The issue of whether the Native Americans were farmers or hunters was far from the only dispute that the Pilgrims had with the Native American lifestyle. In fact, the Pilgrims were incredibly intolerant of the differences between the Native Americans and themselves. The Pilgrims characterized the Native Americans as savages because the Native Americans lacked, "Christianity, cities, letters, clothing, and swords."

In fact, the lack of swords, or, more accurately, the lack of modern weaponry, did place the Native Americans in a vulnerable position. With the use of modern weaponry, the Puritans had the ability to impose their will upon Native Americans, and the fact that they felt entitled by the divine made them very willing to do so.

Of course, the Mayflower Pilgrims were only the beginning of the Puritan influx into America. In 1630, another famous Puritan settler, John Winthrop, came to America. Winthrop differed from the group led by Bradford in that he came with England's blessing. In fact, Winthrop had a royal charter to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony (MBC). Winthrop was not a separatist; instead, he wanted to preserve the autonomy of local churches, while keeping them under the auspices of the Church of England. Like Bradford's group of Pilgrims, Winthrop believed he was on a divine mission. He believed that by coming to America, he could establish a Christian community that would reveal to the world how great a God-fearing community could become. In fact, Winthrop believed he would create a "city on a hill' that would serve as a model for all other communities.

In order to create this exalted community, Winthrop acknowledged that he had to fulfill his duty to God. The Puritans believed that they had a covenant to God. Under this covenant, the Puritans had four duties: to have a conversion, acknowledging the true God; to establish a community of believers; to strictly adhere to the covenant of civil order; and to commit, as a community, to the binding covenant with God.

This covenant was not merely a religious agreement; it had the power of law. The Puritans considered those chosen by the Lord to be wise about the scripture to be saints. The saints had the power to rule in both secular and ecclesiastical matters; using the scripture as their guide. Therefore, although the Puritans had come to America in search of religious freedom, it is clear that they did not believe in any separation between church and state.

Once Winthrop had established the MBC, Puritan presence in America grew dramatically. For example, in 1630 there were approximately 1,200 settlers in Boston, but by 1636 that number had grown to over 11,000. As a result, the settlers desired even more land. Their desire for land was solved, in part, by an outbreak of small box in 1634, which decimated much of the Native American population. While modern people are aware that the Puritans brought the small pox to America with them, and that the Native Americans were vulnerable because they had no resistance to small pox, the Puritan's viewed the epidemic as God's way of providing more land for them. In fact, William Bradford wrote, "It pleased God to visit these Indians with a great sickness."

Bradford was not alone in his lack of sympathy for the dead Native Americans; John Winthrop also believed that, "God was just making room for the colonists."

The Puritan attitude towards the deaths of those Native Americans foretold an increase in the inhumanity shown by the Puritans towards Native Americans. The facts were simple: the Puritans needed land and the Native Americans had it. In fact, although the Puritans believed that they made better use of the land than the Native Americans, they actually needed much more land to sustain each person. As a result, Native Americans were pushed out of their own lands, and forced to encroach upon lands belonging to other Native groups. The result was displaced Native Americans and conflicts between the Native American nations.

Furthermore, it was not the nations that the Puritans considered hostile that suffered the most from the settlers' invasion of Native American lands. In contrast, those groups that aligned themselves with the Puritans appeared to suffer the most damage. One example of this phenomenon was the elimination of the Pequot nation.

In the face of increasing Puritan encroachment upon their lands, the Pequot determined that they needed to sign a treaty with the MBC and did so in 1634. However, the Pequot soon realized that a treaty with the English "resulted in complete subjugation and humiliation."

By 1636, the Pequot had determined that the situation was intolerable, and initiated hostile action against the Puritans. The Pequot were so desperate that they attempted to form an alliance with the Narragansett, their traditional enemies. However, the Narragansett sided with the English because of the Puritan's greater economic and political force.

The hostilities escalated into war when the Pequot supported Native Americans that killed Puritans that took their land in opposition to the 1634 treaty.

While the war was devastating to the Pequot, it revitalized the Puritan community. The MBC had become disillusioned because of the lack of individual rights, especially in terms of individual experiences of grace.

In fact, some of the settlers had begun to move against Winthrop's leadership. The war provided Winthrop with the opportunity to demonstrate his capabilities as a leader and to reaffirm his claims that the MBC had a covenant with God and were on a "divine mission."

Their Puritan's mission may have been divine, but their actions in the Pequot war were far from what modern Christians would consider holy. One example of this is the massacre at Mystic village. The Puritans surrounded the Pequot village, Mystic, set fire to all of the dwellings, and killed anyone that attempted to escape. The massacre resulted in the deaths of between 400 and 700 elderly men, women, and children. The Puritans justified this massacre by claiming that God wanted His enemies to be sent into a "fiery oven."

In addition, the Puritans had associated Native Americans with the devil since the early days of the Puritan occupation. Unfamiliar with Native American religious practices, and intolerant of anyone not practicing their version of Christianity, the Puritans considered Native American religious practices "diabolical and uncouth."

Eventually, the Puritans allowed their views of Native American religious practices to color their views of Native Americans. The Puritans came to believe that the Native Americans "personified the Devil and everything the Puritans feared- the body, sexuality, laziness, sin, and the loss of self-control."

Eventually, this equation of Native Americans with the Devil permitted the Puritans to commit a military genocide of the Pequot.

The Puritans were successful in their attempts to eradicate the Devil, and, by 1638, the Pequot nation ceased to exist.

The Pequot war and the subsequent eradication of the Pequots were beneficial to the MBC in a number of ways. The first and most obvious way is that it freed up more land for the settlers. The second way that it benefited the MBC is that it provided them a sense of unity. To the Puritans, the war proved that God did have a purpose for them and that their presence in America was the result of divine providence. The third purpose was that it solidified the Puritan belief of the role of the English in America; Puritans began to believe it was manifest destiny for the English to conquer America. Finally, the war equalized the Puritan community. Prior to the Pequot war, the Puritans had believed that their saints were special because of a heightened understanding of the scripture. After the Pequot war, the settlers all believed themselves to be superior to the natives. As a result, they believed that they had the right to enforce their will, by any means necessary.

By dehumanizing the Native Americans, the Puritans took away their own moral obligations to treat the Native Americans decently. Instead, as exemplified by the mystic massacre, the Puritans relied on the concept of a divine mission to justify whatever actions they took against the Native Americans. As a result, the Puritans committed genocide of the native populations that they considered detrimental to their divine mission. Other settlers took the same position as the Puritans. As these settlers moved further into America, they carried their beliefs with them, resulting in the long-term cultural genocide of Native North Americans.

Essay Two

The history of the colonization of America contains two epic stories of subjugation and mistreatment; the first is the settler's treatment of the Native American population, and the second is the imposition of slavery on the African-American population. Although the white colonists treated both groups similarly, the groups have fared differently in history. In fact, while African-Americans have been able to overcome much of their oppression and obtained something close to equality with American whites, Native Americans still live in oppression. One of the reasons for this difference is that African-Americans were able to unite around Christianity, while Native Americans do not have a common religious system or set of beliefs.

Both the Native Americans and Africans were colonized by the Europeans. In his book, The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi describes the relationship between a dominant colonial power and the people being colonized. According the Memmi, there are three attributes common to all colonizers: a desire for profit, which once attained, leads to privilege and usurpation. The effects of these attributes can be seen on both the Native American and African-American populations. The desire for profit led the colonists to deprive the Native Americans of their lives and land. That same desire for profit led the colonists to deprive African-Americans of their freedom and their lives.

While many colonists had come to America in search of riches, it was only after the colony of Virginia discovered the value of tobacco as a cash crop that the profit-making capabilities of the colonies were fully realized. As a result, the colonists needed both land and cheap labor. The colonists need for land was easily satisfied; the Powhatan Indians had cleared large expanses of land for agricultural purposes and the colonists believed that taking Native American land was not robbery because the Native Americans were savages who did not actually use the soil.

While Virginia was the first colony to realize the potential for wealth offered by America, it was not the last. In fact, while people associate the Pilgrims on the Mayflower with people seeking religious freedom, the reality is that many of them came to America in order to make money.

Like the colonists in Virginia, the colonists from the Mayflower believed that they were entitled to take the Indian lands, and did so by whatever means necessary, including murder and genocide.

In fact, whenever white settlers were unable to easily acquire the land they desired, they killed for it. While the Native Americans may have been willing to yield small portions of land to early colonists, the population explosion in the American colonies increased not only the colonists' need for land, but also their sense of entitlement. As a result, the colonists were determined to use force to acquire Native American lands. Entire Native American nations were decimated during these land wars, leaving their land "vacant" for continuing expansion.

The colonists' constant need for expansion placed the Native Americans in a vulnerable position, as did the superior weaponry possessed by the colonists. The Native Americans were simply unable to match the warfare technology of the colonists, and were forced into the role of victim in their interactions with the colonists.

However, the colonists would not have described the Native Americans as their victims. Instead, they would have defended their actions by stating that they attempting to civilize the Native Americans, by converting them to Christianity and educating them on the ways of the white man. However, a key element of being colonization is that the colonized can never attain equal status with the colonizer.

For example, because the colonists characterized the Native Americans as hunters and fisherman, not farmers, they defined the road to civilization as farming. However, even when Native Americans demonstrated proficiency at farming, they were not recognized as equals. In fact, the colonists took that opportunity to further oppress the Native Americans, by taking their cleared lands.

One well-known and prominent colonist, Thomas Jefferson, desired to transform Native Americans into farmers. Jefferson believed that if the Native Americans would abandon hunting and devote their energy to farming, they would find that they needed less land to make a better living.

One group of Native Americans, the Choctaw, was extremely successful in making the transition from hunter to farmer. In fact, the Choctaw began to raise stock, cultivate cotton, and even own slaves. A government Indian Agent even made the comment that that, "Choctaws are becoming civilized."

Becoming "civilized" did not help the Choctaw nation. The state of Mississippi decided that it wanted the Choctaw's land. As a result it forced the Choctaw Nation to sign a treaty giving their land to the Mississippi. This treaty nullified an earlier treaty, which had given the Choctaw possession of their tribal lands. As a result, the Choctaw realized that neither acting like white people nor signing treaties would preserve their land.

The treatment of the Choctaws was not an isolated event. In fact, in an effort to convert Native Americans to farmers, the United States Government passed the Dawes Act of 1887. The Dawes Act broke up the Indian reservations, and gave the head of each Indian family 160 acres. One of the stated goals of the Dawes Act was that property ownership would accelerate the movement of Native Americans to full citizenship. However, once each family received their 160 acres of land, a substantial amount of reservation land remained. That land was then sold, at a reduced price, to white capitalist ventures. In this method, in 1891 alone, Native Americans lost more than 17 million acres of land, despite the fact that their land had previously been given to them when the United States Government established its system of Indian reservations.

In fact, one of elements of oppression in a colonization environment is that the oppressors continuously revise laws in order to increase their dominance over the subordinate group. Initially, when they had little presence and needed the assistance of Native Americans in order to survive, the colonists agreed to treaties that were favorable to the Native Americans. However, as the colonizers became wealthier and more powerful they were able to more fully oppress the colonized. This oppression led to even greater increases in wealth and power, which, in turn, led to even greater oppression of the Native Americans. As a result, the colonizers rarely fulfilled their obligations under treaties or laws, instead, changing, ignoring, or abandoning them as their needs changed.

For example, when the colonizer grants himself the privilege of free or cheap land, he does so to the detriment of the colonized, which are rightfully entitled to the land. The colonizer's creation of himself as a privileged person is non-legitimate, which defines the colonizer as a usurper.

In order to legitimate his activities, the colonizer may rewrite history and/or laws as a way to extinguish what was and to further his own goals.

These attempts to rewrite history are not limited to individual colonists. In fact, in 1903 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the power to abrogate any provisions of previous Indian treaties.

Colonizers carry out oppression in a variety of manners. As has been demonstrated, the American colonists oppressed the Native American population by depriving them of their land. In contrast, the American colonists oppressed African-Americans through the institution of slavery. In this way, the colonizers used both Native Americans and African-Americans to satisfy their desire for wealth; the Native Americans satisfied their need for cheap land, and the African-Americans satisfied their need for cheap labor.

It is important to understand that when the colonies began, there was no actual slavery in the colonies. Instead, the colonists initially used white, indentured servants to work their land. In fact, early land owners recognized that their "principle wealth consisteth in servants."

Indentured servitude differed substantially from slavery in that indentured servants worked for a period of time, then attained their freedom. In addition, people sold themselves as indentured servants, trading a certain number of years of service in exchange for their patron paying for their passage to America. While the first American indentured servants were white, African-Americans were first brought to America in 1619 and sold into servitude.

Initially, indentured servants were treated the same, without regard to race. Both groups were exploited and abused, and treated with those vestiges that would later be associated with slavery. For example, indentured servants were often required to wear iron collars around their necks while working. However, it was not long before the races were treated differently. Initially, African-Americans were required to work longer than whites if they were caught running away. In 1640, when one African-American who attempted to escape was given to his master for life, the institution of slavery in America had begun.

Soon African-Americans were being sold as property. In fact, by 1650, 70% of African-Americans were considered slaves. In 1661, Virginia made the exploitation of African-Americans legal when it passed a law that provided that punishment for a black indentured servant would be service for life. Furthermore, by 1668 the Virginia legislature had defined a slave as property.

In this way, the legislature legitimized its usurpation of the freedom of the African-Americans.

The cheap labor provided by the slaves increased the profit of the plantation owners, which increased their power in the legislature. As the slaveowners' power increased, they were able to pass laws to advance and protect their interests. These laws resulted in increasing rights for slaveowners and diminished rights for slaves. The laws also affected the rights of free African-Americans and legitimated the use of force against them. For example, there were laws passed that allowed the militia to enter into any Black home in order to investigate. Furthermore, black gatherings were outlawed.

Even those that spoke out in favor of the abolition of slavery were unwilling to end slavery in their own lives. Thomas Jefferson was a famous example of a slave owner that spoke in favor of abolition. Jefferson was not only the largest slave owner in Virginia, but he also used extreme cruelty in disciplining wayward slaves.

However, Jefferson also acknowledged that each generation that witnessed the institution of slavery made it less likely that slavery would ever be abolished. In this way, Jefferson acknowledged that the colonizer used their own traditions to legitimize their treatment of others. In this way, the oppressor learns that it is acceptable to oppress. More importantly, by growing up in an oppressive society, the oppressed learn that it is acceptable to be oppressed. By encapsulating the idea of oppression into the definition of what is normal, the oppressor creates a self-perpetuating system of oppression. In this way, the "Colonized society is a diseased society."

Eventually, the society is so sick that it is unable to cure its own disease.

In fact, according to Memmi, for a group to be able to break free of oppression, they have to make a collective effort. The individual is powerless to challenge a system of oppression. Furthermore, the oppressed could not compromise with their oppressors. Instead, the only available solution was revolt; "Like an iron collar, it can only be broken."

This type of collective revolt requires a unifying factor to tie together the individuals involved. Religion could provide this type of nationalism to the oppressed group, by providing a sense of community and solidarity.

For African-Americans, the religion that unified them was Christianity.

Ironically, it was the oppressors who brought Christianity to the slaves. Like Native Americans, African-Americans were an amorphous group. Although they shared a skin color, black slaves derived from different parts of Africa, spoke different languages, and had different cultural and religious practices. Prior to being brought to America, Africans were not a unified community, but a collective of nations and tribes. Therefore, there was no sense of nationalism among African-American slaves. However, by introducing slaves to Christianity, the oppressors provided the oppressed with the element that would eventually unite them.

Whites differed in their beliefs about Christianity and slavery. For example, English law provided that no baptized person was to be enslaved. Therefore, slave owners were hesitant to convert their slaves, because they worried that their slaves would demand emancipation upon being baptized. However, in traditional colonizer fashion, the slave owners caused a change in the law. Legislation was passed that provided that baptism had no effect on slave status. Even when the legal barriers were removed some white slave owners were cautious about bringing Christianity to slaves, because they believed that a common religion would blur the distinctions between Black and white, thereby threatening the superiority of the oppressor.