Quotes from “One Church Many Tribes” by Richard Twiss

I had the opportunity to hear Richard Twiss speak at the Justice Conference in Portland in March (www.thejusticeconference.com). He started with a story that he includes in this book, which is an interesting followup from some of the quotations that I shared in my last post on James Michener’s book Chesapeake. I have learned so much from reading this book and am reflecting on how to integrate what I have learned in my life.

“Let’s imagine for a moment that First Nations people had won the war for the North American continent. Our historian, Sees Far, writes that on a warm windless morning, Carribbean tribes discovered and rescued a strange chief and his crew. The tribes had never seen such a canoe or men who looked like these. Intrigued by what and whom htey had discovered on their shore, the tribes showed customary protocol and cared for their uninvited guests. They fed and nursed the men back to health. They helped supply them with food, fresh water and other goods and then wished them well on their journey back to their country far away..”.

“Sees Far might have recorded a First Nations perspective of this event as the arrival of a lost chief or tribe who turned out not be new friends but marauding invaders. His record of history might have witnessed these guests returning after many moons with many more canoes filled with enemy warriors, greedily lusting after the First Nations people’s gold metal and bringing great destruction and death to the First Nations’ way of life.”

“So which of the two historical perspectives is the most accurate? In today’s political stewpot of conservative politics, Sees Far may be accused of presenting a revisionist, non-Christian spin on US history. Yet, as a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, please allow me to challenge your asumptions about nationalism, patriotism and Christian love.”

Richard Twiss goes on to encourage a path of healing.

“In the providence of the almighty God, I believe that it was His plan that the White man from across the great water would deliver the sacred message of Jesus to the First Nations of this continent. Our gracious heavenly Father redeems our worst blunders and causes all things to work together for good. Had the roles been reversed, I doubt that we Native people would have performed any better than the Europeans.”

“there is no biblical basis that would allow us to disengage from one another or disregard our need for one another….Unless all of the various parts that God designed to make up the whole are intact and functioning, there is dysfunction. Each and every part must be connected and engaged, or there is no possible way for the whole to function fully and according to God’s design and best plan. Whithout our Native brethren, the Church only makes do – we limp along, less than we are meant to be.”

“From the very beginning, misunderstanding, lack of respect and eventualy hatred toward Native Americans were evident among the immigrants; and these attitudes were passed down to each progressive generation of European settlers in the colonies. When Native Americans welcomed and helped the White Man, the Natives were viewed as simple pagans who obviously did not deserve this great land, as adolescents who could easily be manipulated and cheated at will”

“Contrary to common belief, the European colonial practice of importing slaves to North America under the guise of serving the advancement of God and country did not begin with the importation of African tribal people, but in fact began with the enslavement of the host people of this land”

“The Puritans of New England punished the Pequot tribespeople for their opposition to European settlement by killing hundreds of Pequot men, women and children and selling hundreds of others into slavery. The captive male Pequots were sold and shipped to the West Indies, while the Puritans made domestic slaves of the tribe’s women and children. This enslavement of Native Americans by colonists of Massachusetts Bay occurred at the very same time that the Puritans were attempting to organize a “holy” colony based on the dictates of the Bible”

RIchard quotes the late President John F. Kennedy who said in 1963,

“It seems a basic requirement to study the history of our Indian people. America has much to lean about the heritage of our American Indians. Only throught this study can we as a nation do what must be done if our treatment of the American Indian is not to be marked down for all time as a national disgrace”

“Native people have a rich spiritual and cultural heritage. It is into this reality that the Creator sent His Son. This was done in order to make a way for all people to once again travel the path of beauty and harmony that God the Father intended al of HIs children to live in and walk in through Jesus Christ, the Waymaker. Jesus is our chanku – the way to God and to successful living. This is the Jesus Way.”

“Our value as a people is determined by God’s sovereign will and design, and HIs kingdom finds its value in its people – all of them”

“I believe that the greatest challenge facing Native peoples is the unresolved anger, distrust, hatred and bitterness in our hearts toward Euro-Americans, based on centuries of injustice and oppression….I am hoping that there will be heard in the land, in our generation, a corporate crying out to God the Father in confession and repentence for our sins, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation…those who have suffered the most are the nonbelieving Native men and women who have been deprived, not only of economic well being, but also of every vestige of true self worth, because they do not know the love of Jesus who alone gives all worth and dignity.”

Richard spends some time discussing how the Native American culture has an integrated view of life and spirituality and that it is much different from the traditional white worldview that somehow religion is somehow separate from the rest of life.

“This conflict between the integrated worldviews of the Indian and the compartmentalized worldviews of most Western Evangelicals has been among the greatest hindrances to effective communication between the White man and Native people. It has also proven a tremendous obstacle to the growth of Native people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, for to them it means they must abandon their entire approach to community and spirit to accept a way that feels foreign and unnatural to them.”

“I now want to show, as clearly as I can, how many Native cultural viewpoints are in fact quite biblical, valuable and even necessary for the life and growth of the Church in North America today….most North American tribes were monotheistic, believing in one universal, absolute being who furnished moral guidelines for their conduct and who motivated every living thing…..Native Americans see themselves as a part of the whole creation. They have long perceived and pursued a balanced relationship between man and the environment – a partnership of equality and respect….traditional Native culture has always emphasized the submission of individuality to corporate identity – seeing ourselves as one of the people…that togetherness is more important than our individuality, that we are members one with another…

Hopefully I can grow as I integrate this into my life. As Richard Twiss says in this book

“the peoples of this world are deeply wounded and tormented by unresolved offenses and guilt…Human beings created in the image of God are designed for the purpose of walking in harmony with their creator….this is a reconciled life”.