Anne Harrington ARCWP- Church Doctrine’s Role I’m Discriminating against People of Color and Native Americans

 LTE 8/28/21

Star Parker’s column printed in the Daily Reflector on 8/27/21 encourages our nation to do some soul-searching.  I couldn’t agree with her more but the soul searching I hope we do, goes much deeper than Star talks about.  

To go deeper watch this lecture given by Mark Charles, Native American activist, author and public speaker.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYZ2rj2Jooc&t=1s.

You will learn new things, among them a description of something called the “Doctrine of Discovery”.  It essentially says that the church in Europe gives European nations free reign to subdue and conquer lands not ruled by Christian rulers.  This from the Papal Bull of 1452, “…invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever…”   In the name of Christ, permission was granted to treat native people as less than human.

This perspective is embedded in our nation.  If you have any doubts, read the Declaration of Independence, after the line, “All men are created equal”, the document refers to the native people as “merciless Indian savages”. When the Constitution was written it never mentions women, excludes the native people and counts Black people as three-fifths of a person.  The purpose of the Constitution was to protect white land-owning men.  

Mr. Charles connects the dots on why women are paid significantly less than men, why the prisons are filled with people of color, and why the Supreme Court sided with Citizens United which ruled that corporations now have the same rights of free speech as individuals, which created an open door for Super PACs to make unlimited donations to political campaigns.  Mr. Charles says this should not shock us, the Constitution is doing exactly what it was designed to do.

There is much more in this lecture including suggestions on how we heal as a nation.