"You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."
- Frederick Douglass
In my post on Monday, I proposed that it would be a good idea for the Commission on Appraisal to examine our social justice work including our witnessing in the form of resolutions, etc. because it is a source of some controversy amongst us.
The Story: "When gold was discovered in Colorado in 1858, it resulted in a long stream of gold diggers with families going to the Rockies. This led to serious white encroachments on Cheyenne lands. To give protection to the white settlers, Fort Bent at Arkansa river got transferred into a military post, and was renamed to Fort Lyon. About 30 miles north to the fort in the inhospitable arias where the wide spread prairie meet the Rocky Mountains, a small southern Cheyenne band used to have their wintercamp on a place called "Sand Creek". Their chief was Black Kettle.
Black Kettle was promised that his people would be left in peace as long as they stayed out of trouble. Black Kettle assured them that his people didn´t want any wars, all they wanted was to live in peace. He also believed that the white man and the Indians could coexist with each other.
On November 28 1864 Col. John.M.Chivington led his troup of volunteers to Sand Creek, and on the dawn of November 29 the troups had reached the sleeping Indian camp. One of the Indian women had heard the horses and sound the alarm, but Black Kettle told his people not to worry since the white officers at Fort Lyon had promised them protection. So he put up the American flag on the top of his tent to announce that this was a peacful and friendly camp.
But when the cavalry started to ride down the ridge towards the camp Black kettle realized that this wasn´t a friendly visit. Then the shooting started, the Indians were in panic, the soldiers indiscriminately killed women and children. Black Kettle who belived his people were under peace protection was helpless as his people were massacred. Over 200 Cheyenne died in this slaughter, about 75 of them where warriors the rest were mostly elderly men, women and children.
After the massacre Chivington returned to Denver where he bragged about how he fought and won the battle with the Cheyenne, and in a theatre he put up about 100 scalps to proof his victory. Black Kettle survived the massacre but was killed four years later by the 7th U.S cavalry at the Washita River."
Source is a web site of Native American History, it seems to be an individual effort.
I was just in high school. The Presidential election was dominating the media attention, and attracting my attention. Who would win, Kennedy or Nixon? I asked my mother who she would vote for, she indicated that she might not vote at all! What? It seemed a contradiction to my Unitarian understanding. Well, she explained, my Father was a Democrat and she was a Republican, and if they voted they would just cancel each other out, and so they decided not to bother.
Later it occurred to me that my Mother was not excited about Nixon and my father was not excited about Kennedy, and their no vote pack would not last until November. They did vote, and the result indicated that the country was just as divided and nearly as uncommitted as my parents. I grew up in a Unitarian Universalism that was politically diverse, my congregation was made up of good religious liberals who expressed themselves as Republicans and Democrats. Several years later as a first time voter, I voted in the Republican primary against Goldwater, and ended up voting for LBJ. Then, I demonstrated against LBJ's on the day of his inauguration. My political orientation was becoming independent and critical to the politicians of both political parties. I am not now and never have I been a Democrat. I was a registered Republican for a few months. That was a long time ago.
Radical Hapa published Male Privilege Checklist this morning which announced itself as an unabashed imitation of Peggy McIntosh "Unpacking the Backpack of White Privilege." In that the link to Peggy McIntosh's article was broken, I decided to hunt it down. Below is a reprinting of this often cited paper, which is useful for individuals and groups that decide to confront white privilege. It addresses the misunderstanding that arises within Unitarian Universalist circles based on the notion that white privilege is simply a "bad attitude."
This is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the annual Day of Mourning on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas. I was there in 1970, and while I have returned on many occasions, I have been there in spirit and solidarity every year. It is hard to witness the fact of genocide in face of the national ritual of self congratulations and privilege. But there are signs that more and more dominant culture people are willing to look at there past to help them understand the violence and arrogance of the present regime. If one wants to understand Bush and Cheney one must look back to opening chapters of the European settlement of the Americas. What was the first act of those who arrived on the Mayflower? Upon arriving at what is now Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod, a boat of armed men was sent ashore who stole the entire winter food supply of the village of Native people. Then they proceeded to what is now Plymouth where the people of God founded their armed and aggressive Bible commonwealth. The children of the Mayflower (joined by those who aspire to that heritage) now use their power to steal the natural resources of the entire world.
Robert Jensen writes: "Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.
The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians' land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving "wild beasts" from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, "both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."
Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the "merciless Indian Savages" -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn't stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, "[W]e shall destroy all of them."
As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process "due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway." Roosevelt also once said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."
So let us celebrate and feast, with awareness of our history and a commitment to transformation.
Every hour, someone commits a hate crime. Every day, at least eight blacks, three whites, three gays, three Jews and one Latino become hate crime victims. Every week, a cross is burned.
What can you do to prevent hate crimes? Tolerance. org has resources for you. This site contains action plans for campus groups, community groups, public school students and teachers, parents. Churches working to become multi cultural and welcoming congregations especially need to look at these materials, let us make every community a hate free zone.
"And this day shall become a memorial for you, and you shall observe it as a festival for the LORD, for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you observe it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes ... you shall guard the unleavened bread, because on this very day I will take you out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. - Exodus 12:14-17
Religions mark rituals of reference. remembering events that define the identity of the people. Often these rituals of reference mark memories of suffering, enslavement, humiliation, and then liberation and renewal. Christianity has the Passion which is answered by the Resurrection marked by Good Friday and Easter. Judaism has an ancient memory of slavery and a subsequent passing over to freedom, ritually celebrated at Passover. Judaism returns to this theme again and again in other rituals of reference such as Purim and Chanukah.
Many Native American communities recall the long marches of forced removals with rituals of reference. It is a scandal among indigenous peoples that dominant culture spiritual seekers come to celebrate Native American spirituality, because they seem in such a rush to be one with nature, and one with the dance, but clueless about the suffering and brokenness that the rituals seek to address.
The spirituals of the African American people arose to address terror and degradation. Slavery and after emancipation Lynch Law are the context for these songs of freedom. When religious liberals sing these songs, what suffering are they addressing? When we sing that we will let our light shine, what long nights of terror are we defying. What horrors do we wish to overcome? If we sing these songs with out deep congregational reflection on the context of their origins, and recognition that for the community of origin they are rituals of reference are we not celebrating cheap grace?
When questions of cultural misappropriation are raised around the singing of African American spirituals, it is not simply a concern that "white people don't clap on the right beat" or "y'all don't sing with gusto and passion" - the concern is taking a song that has context in community memories and represents a ritual of reference in the African American community, and seems to be used for some other purpose in the liberal congregation. Much of the writing on this subject by dominant culture ministers and musicians appears to be defensive and more concerned with rights, than with responsibilities.
Appropriate use requires communicating the context under which the song arose and the meaning in depth for the community of origin. In that context that the singing of such music would contribute toward our common struggle for wholeness and right relations.
In 1822, the United States invited a delegation of the Osage people to visit Washington, D.C., the government sought to woo and wow these people from the where the Ozarks meet the Plains with the glitz and glory of white man's civilization. Akidatonka (which was mistranslated into English as "Big Soldier")* saw what there was to see and shared these perceptions with the Indian Agent who interviewed him when he returned to his homelands.
I see and admire your manner of living, your good warm houses, your extensive corn-fields, your gardens, your cows, oxen, work-horses, wagons, and a thousand machines that I know not the use of; I see that you are able to clothe yourselves, even from weeds and grass. In short, you can do almost what you choose. You whites possess the power of [subduing] almost every animal [to your] use. You are surrounded by slaves. Everything about you is in chains, and you are slaves yourselves. I fear if I should exchange my pursuits for yours, i too should become a slave. Talk to my sons; perhaps they may be persuaded to adopt your fashions, or at least recommend them to their sons; but for myself, I was born free, was raised free, and wish to die free. . . I am perfectly contented with my condition.
Story cited in Spirit and Resistence: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation
* there are no soldiers in Osage society, the whole male population was responsible for defense of the community, Akidatonka is better translated as "large man who watches over the community."
Willie Lynch, the expert of slave economics is visiting Virginia from the West Indies for the purpose of teaching the Virginians how to create submissive slaves. My purpose in printing these documents is show that the racist relation developed several hundred years ago continues as a social relation in our time. Racism isn't simply a bad attitude, something that the bigot does and the good person is unaffected by, rather it is a historically instituted social relation that affects both the whites and people of color. Lynch encourages his listeners to turn the African into an object for manipulation, to degrade their interpersonal relations, and humiliate them to better control them. Part 1 was posted on November 12.
Part 2 of Making a Slave by Willie Lynch
THE BREAKING PROCESS OF THE AFRICAN WOMAN
Take the female and run a series of tests on her to see if she will submit to your desires willingly. Test her in every way, because she is the most important factor for good economics. If she shows any sign of resistance in submitting completely to your will, do not hesitate to use the bullwhip on her to extract that last bit of [b----] out of her. Take care not to kill her, for in doing so, you spoil good economics. When in complete submission, she will train her offsprings in the early years to submit to labor when they become of age. Understanding is the best thing. Therefore, we shall go deeper into this area of the subject matter concerning what we have produced here in this breaking process of the female nigger. We have reversed the relationship; in her natural uncivilized state, she would have a strong dependency on the uncivilized nigger male, and she would have a limited protective tendency toward her independent male offspring and would raise male offsprings to be dependent like her. Nature had provided for this type of balance. We reversed nature by burning and pulling a civilized nigger apart and bullwhipping the other to the point of death, all in her presence. By her being left alone, unprotected, with the MALE IMAGE DESTROYED, the ordeal caused her to move from her psychologically dependent state to a frozen, independent state. In this frozen, psychological state of independence, she will raise her MALE and female offspring in reversed roles. For FEAR of the young male's life, she will psychologically train him to be MENTALLY WEAK and DEPENDENT, but PHYSICALLY STRONG. Because she has become psychologically independent, she will train her FEMALE offsprings to be psychologically independent. What have you got? You've got the nigger WOMAN OUT FRONT AND THE nigger MAN BEHIND AND SCARED. This is a perfect situation of sound sleep and economics. Before the breaking process, we had to be alertly on guard at all times. Now, we can sleep soundly, for out of frozen fear his woman stands guard for us. He cannot get past her early slave-molding process. He is a good tool, now ready to be tied to the horse at a tender age. By the time a nigger boy reaches the age of sixteen, he is soundly broken in and ready for a long life of sound and efficient work and the reproduction of a unit of good labor force. Continually through the breaking of uncivilized savage niggers, by throwing the nigger female savage into a frozen psychological state of independence, by killing the protective male image, and by creating a submissive dependent mind of the nigger male slave, we have created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever, unless a phenomenon occurs and re-shifts the position of the male and female slaves. We show what we mean by example. Take the case of the two economic slave units and examine them close.
THE NEGRO MARRIAGE
We breed two nigger males with two nigger females. Then, we take the nigger male away from them and keep them moving and working. Say one nigger female bears a nigger female and the other bears a nigger male; both nigger females-being without influence of the nigger male image, frozen with a independent psychology-will raise their offspring into reverse positions. The one with the female offspring will teach her to be like herself, independent and negotiable (we negotiate with her, through her, by her, negotiates her at will). The one with the nigger male offspring, she being frozen subconscious fear for his life, will raise him to be mentally dependent and weak, but physically strong; in other words, body over mind. Now, in a few years when these two offsprings become fertile for early reproduction, we will mate and breed them and continue the cycle. That is good, sound and long range comprehensive planning.
WARNING: POSSIBLE INTERLOPING NEGATIVES
Earlier, we talked about the non-economic good of the horse and the nigger in their wild or natural state; we talked out the principle of breaking and tying them together for orderly production. Furthermore, we talked about paying particular attention to the female savage and her offspring for orderly future planning, then more recently we stated that, by reversing the positions of the male and female savages, we created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever unless a phenomenon occurred and reshifts positions of the male and female savages. Our experts warned us about the possibility of this phenomenon occurring, for they say that the mind has a strong drive to correct and re-correct itself over a period of time if it can touch some substantial original historical base; and they advised us that the best way to deal with the phenomenon is to shave off the brute's mental history and create a multiplicity of phenomena of illusions, so that each illusion will twirl in its own orbit, something similar to floating balls in a vacuum. This creation of multiplicity of phenomena of illusions entails the principle of crossbreeding the nigger and the horse as we stated above, the purpose of which is to create a diversified division of labor; thereby creating different levels of labor and different values of illusion at each connecting level of labor. The results of which is the severance of the points of original beginnings for each sphere illusion. Since we feel that the subject matter may get more complicated as we proceed in laying down our economic plan concerning the purpose, reason and effect of crossbreeding horses and niggers, we shall lay down the following definition terms for future generations. Orbiting cycle means a thing turning in a given path. Axis means upon which or around which a body turns. Phenomenon means something beyond ordinary conception and inspires awe and wonder. Multiplicity means a great number. Means a globe. Crossbreeding a horse means taking a horse and breeding it with an ass and you get a dumb, backward, ass long-headed mule that is not reproductive nor productive by itself. Crossbreeding niggers mean taking so many drops of good white blood and putting them into as many nigger women as possible, varying the drops by the various tone that you want, and then letting them breed with each other until another circle of color appears as you desire. What this means is this: Put the niggers and the horse in a breeding pot, mix some asses and some good white blood and what do you get? You got a multiplicity of colors of ass backward, unusual niggers, running, tied to backward ass long-headed mules, the one productive of itself, the other sterile. (The one constant, the other dying, we keep the nigger constant for we may replace the mules for another tool) both mule and nigger tied to each other, neither knowing where the other came from and neither productive for itself, nor without each other.
CONTROLLED LANGUAGE
Crossbreeding completed, for further severance from their original beginning, WE MUST COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE THE MOTHER TONGUE of both the new nigger and the new mule, and institute a new language that involves the new life's work of both. You know language is a peculiar institution. It leads to the heart of a people. The more a foreigner knows about the language of another country the more he is able to move through all levels of that society. Therefore, if the foreigner is an enemy of the country, to the extent that he knows the body of the language, to that extent is the country vulnerable to attack or invasion of a foreign culture. For example, if you take a slave, if you teach him all about your language, he will know all your secrets, and he is then no more a slave, for you can't fool him any longer, and BEING A FOOL IS ONE OF THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF ANY INCIDENTS TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SLAVERY SYSTEM. For example, if you told a slave that he must perform in getting out "our crops" and he knows the language well, he would know that "our crops" didn't mean "our crops" and the slavery system would break down, for he would relate on the basis of what "our crops" really meant. So you have to be careful in setting up the new language; for the slaves would soon be in your house, talking to you as "man to man" and that is death to our economic system. In addition, the definitions of words or terms are only a minute part of the process. Values are created and transported by communication through the body of the language. A total society has many interconnected value systems. All the values in the society have bridges of language to connect them for orderly working in the society. But for these language bridges, these many value systems would sharply clash and cause internal strife or civil war, the degree of the conflict being determined by the magnitude of the issues or relative opposing strength in whatever form. For example, if you put a slave in a hog pen and train him to live there and incorporate in him to value it as a way of life completely, the biggest problem you would have out of him is that he would worry you about provisions to keep the hog pen clean, or the same hog pen and make a slip and incorporate something in his language whereby he comes to value a house more than he does his hog pen, you got a problem. He will soon be in your house.
This speech was delivered by Willie Lynch on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia in 1712. Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies. He was invited to the colony of Virginia in 1712 to teach his methods to slave owners there. (The term "lynching" is derived from his last name.)
I believe that part 1 and part 2 together will contribute to better understanding that institutional racism has its origins in a choice that the conquering Europeans made about how they would relate to Africans, Asians, and Native Americans. Racism is not simply the result of prejudice, but a justification of domination that creates a relationship between oppressor and oppressed. That relationship must be consciously deconstructed and a new relationship between people based on justice and equality be established.
[beginning of the Willie Lynch Letter]
Greetings,
Gentlemen. I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies, where I have experimented with some of the newest, and still the oldest, methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish, I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I HAVE A FULL PROOF METHOD FOR CONTROLLING YOUR BLACK SLAVES. I guarantee every one of you that, if installed correctly, IT WILL CONTROL THE SLAVES FOR AT LEAST 300 HUNDREDS YEARS. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I HAVE OUTLINED A NUMBER OF DIFFERENCES AMONG THE SLAVES; AND I TAKE THESE DIFFERENCES AND MAKE THEM BIGGER. I USE FEAR, DISTRUST AND ENVY FOR CONTROL PURPOSES. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is "AGE," but it's there only because it starts with an "a." The second is "COLOR" or shade. There is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZES OF PLANTATIONS, STATUS on plantations, ATTITUDE of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST AND ENVY STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for HUNDREDS of years, maybe THOUSANDS. Don't forget, you must pitch the OLD black male vs. the YOUNG black male, and the YOUNG black male against the OLD black male. You must use the DARK skin slaves vs. the LIGHT skin slaves, and the LIGHT skin slaves vs. the DARK skin slaves. You must use the FEMALE vs. the MALE, and the MALE vs. the FEMALE. You must also have white servants and overseers [who] distrust all Blacks. But it is NECESSARY THAT YOUR SLAVES TRUST AND DEPEND ON US. THEY MUST LOVE, RESPECT AND TRUST ONLY US. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. IF USED INTENSELY FOR ONE YEAR, THE SLAVES THEMSELVES WILL REMAIN PERPETUALLY DISTRUSTFUL. Thank you gentlemen."
LET'S MAKE A SLAVE
It was the interest and business of slave holders to study human nature, and the slave nature in particular, with a view to practical results. I and many of them attained astonishing proficiency in this direction. They had to deal not with earth, wood and stone, but with men and, by every regard, they had for their own safety and prosperity they needed to know the material on which they were to work, conscious of the injustice and wrong they were every hour perpetuating and knowing what they themselves would do. Were they the victims of such wrongs? They were constantly looking for the first signs of the dreaded retribution. They watched therefore with skilled and practiced eyes, and learned to read with great accuracy, the state of mind and heart of the slave, through his sable face. Unusual sobriety, apparent abstractions, sullenness and indifference indeed, any mood out of the common was afforded ground for suspicion and inquiry. Frederick Douglas LET'S MAKE A SLAVE is a study of the scientific process of man-breaking and slave-making. It describes the rationale and results of the Anglo Saxons' ideas and methods of insuring the master/slave relationship. LET'S MAKE A SLAVE "The Original and Development of a Social Being Called €˜The Negro.'" Let us make a slave. What do we need? First of all, we need a black nigger man, a pregnant nigger woman and her baby nigger boy. Second, we will use the same basic principle that we use in breaking a horse, combined with some more sustaining factors. What we do with horses is that we break them from one form of life to another; that is, we reduce them from their natural state in nature. Whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from them and thereby create a dependency status, so that we may be able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure.
CARDINAL PRINCIPLES FOR MAKING A NEGRO
For fear that our future generations may not understand the principles of breaking both of the beast together, the nigger and the horse. We understand that short range planning economics results in periodic economic chaos; so that to avoid turmoil in the economy, it requires us to have breadth and depth in long range comprehensive planning, articulating both skill sharp perceptions. We lay down the following principles for long range comprehensive economic planning. Both horse and niggers [are] no good to the economy in the wild or natural state. Both must be BROKEN and TIED together for orderly production. For orderly future, special and particular attention must be paid to the FEMALE and the YOUNGEST offspring. Both must be CROSSBRED to produce a variety and division of labor. Both must be taught to respond to a peculiar new LANGUAGE. Psychological and physical instruction of CONTAINMENT must be created for both. We hold the six cardinal principles as truth to be self-evident, based upon following the discourse concerning the economics of breaking and tying the horse and the nigger together, all inclusive of the six principles laid down above. NOTE: Neither principle alone will suffice for good economics. All principles must be employed for orderly good of the nation. Accordingly, both a wild horse and a wild or natur[al] nigger is dangerous even if captured, for they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom and, in doing so, might kill you in your sleep. You cannot rest. They sleep while you are awake, and are awake while you are asleep. They are DANGEROUS near the family house and it requires too much labor to watch them away from the house. Above all, you cannot get them to work in this natural state. Hence, both the horse and the nigger must be broken; that is breaking them from one form of mental life to another. KEEP THE BODY, TAKE THE MIND! In other words, break the will to resist. Now the breaking process is the same for both the horse and the nigger, only slightly varying in degrees. But, as we said before, there is an art in long range economic planning. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR EYE AND THOUGHTS ON THE FEMALE and the OFFSPRING of the horse and the nigger. A brief discourse in offspring development will shed light on the key to sound economic principles. Pay little attention to the generation of original breaking, but CONCENTRATE ON FUTURE GENERATION. Therefore, if you break the FEMALE mother, she will BREAK the offspring in its early years of development; and when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you, for her normal female protective tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process. For example, take the case of the wild stud horse, a female horse and an already infant horse and compare the breaking process with two captured nigger males in their natural state, a pregnant nigger woman with her infant offspring. Take the stud horse, break him for limited containment. Completely break the female horse until she becomes very gentle, whereas you or anybody can ride her in her comfort. Breed the mare and the stud until you have the desired offspring. Then, you can turn the stud to freedom until you need him again. Train the female horse whereby she will eat out of your hand, and she will in turn train the infant horse to eat out of your hand, also. When it comes to breaking the uncivilized nigger, use the same process, but vary the degree and step up the pressure, so as to do a complete reversal of the mind. Take the meanest and most restless nigger, strip him of his clothes in front of the remaining male niggers, the female, and the nigger infant, tar and feather him, tie each leg to a different horse faced in opposite directions, set him afire and beat both horses to pull him apart in front of the remaining niggers. The next step is to take a bullwhip and beat the remaining nigger males to the point of death, in front of the female and the infant. Don't kill him, but PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN HIM, for he can be useful for future breeding.
__________________
George Tinker begins his book Spirit and Resistence: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation with this observation:
"In 1803, the United States purchased the entirety of Osage land - from France. Osages yet today are trying figure that one out. It had to do with something called the Louisiana Purchase and something to do with with some obscure european legal doctrine called the "right to discovery." What it ever had to do with the Osage people, who were never privy to his doctine or included in the negotiation leading to the purchase, is still a mystery."
Theologians deal with mysteries, and to the indigenous people of this land, the presenting mystery by which they judge Christianity is their conquest and the lies and deceptions that the conquering people have told themselves about that conquest. For Native peoples being conquered by people with no respect for the truth and no respect for history is the stuff of theological reflection. Tinker is emerging as the theologian of liberation for indigenous peoples, "he probes American Indian culture, its vast religious and cultural legacy, and its ambiguous relationship to the tradition-historic Christianity-that colonized and converted it".
In a previous work, Missionary Conquest Tinker explored the history of Christianity relative to the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America.) Conversion was conceived as a way of turning native peoples into clones of Europeans culturally, spiritually, and economically. Now the books publishers ask "after five hundred years of conquest and social destruction, he says, any useful reflection must come to terms with the political state of Indian affairs and the political hopes and visions for recovering the health and well-being of Indian communities." Can dominant culture Christian theology provide any answers to the problems that the missionary conquest have wrought?
Not without a complete overhaul, and Tinker precedes to deconstruct some of the sacred cows of dominant culture Christian theology. Tinker is critical of recent liberal and New Age co-opting of Native spiritual practices, Tinker also offers a critical corrective to [South American] liberation theology. He shows how Native insights into the Sacred Other and sacred space helpfully reconfigure traditional ideas of God, Jesus' notion of the reign of God, and our relation to the earth. From this basis he offers novel proposals about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the endangered health of Native Americans."۬
Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Liberal Liberation by۬George E. "Tink" Tinker is Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado. He is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation. Among his many publications are Missionary Conquest (Fortress Press, 1993) and Native American Theology (co-authored, 2001).
Mark Twain retorted that he was still alive, contradicting learned commentators who were reporting his death. It has been reported that Unitarian Universalism is dying. Apparently based on the way congregations report their voting membership to the UUA we are averaging a growth rate of 1% per annum, and this is smaller than the national growth rate. Thus the argument goes that we are losing "market share," and therefore experiencing relative decline. While this an area of concern for those of us who cherish the future of liberal religion, quantitative measurements do not necessarily lend themselves to uncontroversial judgments.
First, what is the nature of the growth of population in the United States? If the composition of the United States relative to race, ethnicity, age distribution etc. was more or less the same as it was in 1970 (the high point of twentieth century dues payers to the UUA relative to the U.S. population) then the UUA statistical decline in market share would indicate decline relative to this static conception of population. It would tell us that we did not need a cultural change within Unitarian Universalism, but rather an organizational one. We would need to build more big suburban churches. Train more "boss" ministers. We would need to do what we have always done, but better.
But if the US population is growing among people that we have never attracted: among non white, non Protestant, and not "middle class" (in the mid twentieth century meaning of that term,) then perhaps Unitarian Universalist growth would require that we look at the limitations of our cultural and religious identity. By 2050 the population of the United States will be more than 50% non white. Diana Eck argues that we have become the most religiously pluralistic country in the world with growing numbers of Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, earth centered traditions, and other ways of being religious not normative in America of just a few decades ago. In the 1970s, our members were typically highly credentialled employees of corporations and governments. The better paying of these jobs are disappearing, and now our employed U.U. membership often comes to us highly stressed and overworked, and we have many who are among the increasingly underpaid and under appreciated service functionaries (teachers, librarians, social workers, and technical level scientific workers.) The former often can't afford to live in the communities that they serve. Meanwhile we gaining a larger percentage of self employed professionals, artisans, and creative entrepreneurs who don't have to live in suburbia, and set up shop in small towns in the Mountains, and in the pine woods of the Southeast. Who will we grow among? What is the future of the suburb?
Dan Harper makes an argument that Unitarian Universalist ministers are educated to lead pastoral sized congregations, and if their leadership style was better suited for a larger church, then our Unitarian Universalist churches would grow. Perhaps, but it still leaves open the question, among whom would we grow?
There is considerable interest among Unitarian Universalists in the growth of large independent churches that serve the perceived needs of a consumer orientated population. These "market driven" churches are directed by staff, and the core supporters and power brokers are smaller core of committed evangelicals. They use innovative technologies to enhance the worship experience. It would be an interesting discussion if we could talk about the pluses and minuses of such an approach, and whether it could be adapted Unitarian Universalism. But we still need to ask, who joins these "mega-churches?" There is considerable evidence that they are the once upon a time constituents of the declining conservative and mainstream evangelical churches. Thus they are recycled UCCs, Episcopalians, Baptists, Disciples, Presbyterians and Methodists. These denominations are losing members, it isn't simply liberal Protestantism that is in decline, it is the old forms of denominational Protestantism.
Where are these mega-churches? They are located on sprawling campuses in the new growth suburbs fueled by white flight. Forty years ago we took that road ourselves, undermining our public ministry and turning us into a religion that serves individual seekers rather than a wounded world.
There is a second problem with the declining "market share statistic," by counting voting members of congregations are we really counting those who identify with Unitarian Universalism? No. we are simply counting those who a congregation chooses to report to the UUA as "voting members" for purposes of paying the annual program fund. Those of my readers who has been on a church board know that the number that is reported is an understatement of the size of the congregation. Thus, we need to distinguish between 1) those who identify as Unitarian Universalists, 2) the total constituency of Unitarian Universalist congregations, organizations, affiliate groups, and ministries, and 3) total number of voting members of Unitarian Universalist congregations. Is it possible that the first two could rise significantly while the third category would grow slower? I think that is not only possible, but we are experiencing that institutional dislocation at the present time. It is a fact that we have experienced rapid increases in paid staff in our congregations, and increases in attendance, yet slower increases in those who get reported to Boston. Perhaps this fact has more to do with the slow death of the form of historical Protestantism, than it does to the eminent death of the religious movement known as Unitarian Universalism.
Third, the growth of voting membership in congregations is uneven. Some congregations have experienced double digit growth, and some congregations have experienced absolute decline in membership. The Districts of the UUA in the Northeast of the United States have lost members or showed small increases, while the Districts in the other parts of the country have seen significant growth in total voting member registrations in the last decade. Why? Some of growth in the "sunbelt" has been fueled by rapid population growth, and some of the fall off in the "frost belt" is the result of declining and aging populations. But our "sun belt" congregations lack the endowments and capital funds to respond to population growth, while the "frost belt" congregations are often living off funds assembled by the generousity of Unitarians and Universalists in the nineteenth century.
It would be a good thing if we could discuss with confidence a growth strategy for Unitarian Universalism based on firm knowledge of demographics and precise knowledge of who our members are, but I believe that such a project is much more complex than citing our favorite statistics to bolster our pet arguments. Nevertheless, I suggest my critique opens several new areas of discussion even if that discussion is somewhat speculative without more information: 1) Can we continue to be a religion of the declining (in relative size at least) privileged white anglo culture and not expect to experience decline relative to the population of the United States as a whole? 2) Does it make sense to mimic the mega-church if the mega-church is really a parasite on the declining Protestant form of organization? 3) Are we going to continue to accept the suburban captivity of our movement? 4) While we may need large churches in urban communities and large suburbs as bases for our public ministry, don't we also need small house churches to tap the energy of small group ministries as ways of reaching entirely new populations and generation life styles with new ways of being church. Perhaps some of our ministers should be trained to be enablers of other peoples lay ministries while others will be trained to be boss ministers in a large budget mega-church. Let God call ministers to ministries based on personal discernment that may or may not fit into the church growth current fad of choice.
If I haven't tested my readers patience with my radicalism let me advance one more critique. If we continue to think of ourselves as a "denomination" - a nineteenth century invention of middle class white Protestantism and if do not adopt to the demographic changes that our country is undergoing we will eventually die. But if we reframe our self conception and come to understand ourselves as a movement of religious liberals in which covenant communities are not necessarily housed in expensive campuses, and led by boss ministers, we might contribute to transformation of the American religious experience. Once again.
There are Kanjobal Indian refugees living in near me in Indiantown, Florida. They have fled from Guatemala to Florida seeking asylum. (See below for more information.) I have a previous entry on the Maya, as does Hafidha Sofia.
My poor, poor country
people trying to escape
not knowing what direction
all points look the same
the boom of the bombs
drives them
c
r
a
z
y
Planes flying over sad
towns throwing bombs
on innocent people
Poor, sad, sad people
destroyed by the arms
of rich countries
and though
gentle,
have served the killers
Oh sorrow, sorrow, sorrow
LAND OF THE QUETZAL
By Jose Lows Perez-Aguirre
16-year-old Mayan refugee boy in Florida
Guatemala,
land of corn
of wheat
which feeds your impoverished children.
Oh Guatemala beautiful land
land of the hormigo
musical tree
of which your children
have created
the marimba
marimba of the sweet notes
which resound in the Huehueteca
Mountains
where the quetzal cries bitterly
seeing your children
banished
by the stranger.
Your children set on the rocks
where, unfortunately
you cannot feed them
While the cruel strangers
exploit your children
and enjoy
your riches.
As Kanjobal Indians, direct descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization, "the struggle," as the elder chose to call it, has indeed been a long one. IN 1524 A.D., Spanish officials arrived in Guatemala and set in motion a 450-year era of exploitation. In the absence of rich gold and silver deposits, Indians bore the burden of Spain's colonizing efforts, working as virtual slaves on their buildings, cities and roads. Native states were dismembered and Indians concentrated into local communities tightly controlled by Crown officials and priests. Exhaustive labor incarceration and disease leveled the indigenous population to less than 40 percent of its preconquest total. The ensuing colonial period and even Guatemala's own independence in 1821 did little to change the plight of the Maya. Expropriation of communal lands, debt bondage, vagrancy laws and the absence of meaningful land reform in this century have left Guatemala's indigenous people impoverished.
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