Un-Settling our Faith

Indigenous People’s Day – which will be observed in more than 30 states next Monday, October 10 – is an attempt to shift the narrative and focus of what was once celebrated as “Columbus Day”.  While it is still not a federal holiday, more and more people are deciding to recognize the importance of Indigenous People’s Day.

I know that when I was growing up, stories about the early days of this country were always told from the settler point of view and left out a great deal of detail.  I was offered a sentimental view of indigenous people that relied on stereotypes and distortions.  Indigenous people were often referenced as people of the past, and especially in faith circles, histories of conquest were often minimized or left out the Christian role entirely. We were taught to read the gospels as if Jesus was refering to “us” when he spoke of the in crowd.

Friends of Spiritus Christi, Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, offer contemporary people of faith a lot to reflect upon in their book Haunted Histories – A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization (Cascade Books, 2021). 

They remind us that the history of colonization is a violent and bloody history and that non-natives cannot accurately tell the story of how it happened without specifically referencing the genocide, dispossession, massacres and incarceration carried out by our ancestors.  They go on to name the “primal sin” of settler colonialism as something that should rightly haunt us and demand reckoning.  They say that we settlers must face this history if we have any hope of being healthy and just people.

Enns and Myers encourage us to see the interconnection between the “personal, communal and political” in decolonizing work and invite us to “rescue the gospel from Christendom, colonization and white supremacy, even as we are being rescued by that gospel.”[1]

In the preface to their book, they state clearly that “You do not have to be a person of faith to do decolonization work…But persons of faith have to do this work.”

Persons of faith have to do this work.

While the histories that we have inherited from our settler ancestors were not our fault, they are on us to address.

The observance of Indigenous People’s does not “decolonize” settlers in any way.  It is really just a long overdue first step towards addressing centuries of harm. And unless it moves us towards the restoration of Native land and communal life, then it probably means very little.

But observing Indigenous People’s Day does offer us a chance to reflect more deeply on this history and choose a different course – individually and collectively.

In so many of the healing stories of the gospels, Jesus asks the people he encounters, “What do you want me to do for you?” In Mark’s gospel, one of the people he encounters responds, “I want to see!” During this Indigenous People’s Day, may all of us who have settler status ask Jesus for the same.

For a listing of what’s going on in the Rochester area for Indigenous People’s Day, check out https://www.facebook.com/indigenouspeoplesdayrocny

And if you would like to join us for the Spiritus outing to Ganondagon (Seneca) State Historic Site on Saturday, October 22 from 10 – noon, please sign up at https://spirituschristi.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/171/responses/new

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[1] To this end, I cannot urge you enough to go and read something from www.radicaldiscipleship.net that highlights Enns and Myers’ re-interpretation of a familiar gospel passage from the vantage point of decolonization.  Check it out at https://radicaldiscipleship.net/2021/10/06/reading-jesus-and-the-rich-man-on-indigenous-peoples-day-redistributive-justice-and-a-discipleship-of-decolonization/