Christianity and the damage done??
By angemac23
@angemac23 (2003)
Canada
March 11, 2011 2:47pm CST
This is for all of you who think Christianity is about caring for people and loving one another. I am not bashing religion, I am simply asking all of you who are religious what you think of this historic event that occurred to native people here in Canada. When the white man landed on the shores of North America, he took it upon himself to take the native children from their parents and force them into residential schools so that their culture, their religion and their language could be taken from them. They were forced to convert to Christianity and to live like white man. To me, this is cruel and unacceptable but yet, people are still praising the church and talking about how great Christianity is. There are still atrocities going on in the world today and religion as at their roots. I'm not sure I understand....
4 people like this
2 responses
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
11 Mar 11
That happened here in America, too. And in Africa and other countries.
That was in the past, however. You can't hold today's Christians responsible for the actions of their ancestors. Yes, it was horrible and cruel and wrong but as far as I know it doesn't happen anymore. Other religions have done the same thing--when Muslims conquered a country way back when, they forced people to convert to their religion. But we don't hold them responsible for that now so why hold Christians responsible for past wrongdoing?
@vjohnson08 (71)
• United States
11 Mar 11
I totally agree with dragon54u. It is not historically just christians who have a history of cruelty. There is no reason to hold anyone responsible today for atrocities committed hundreds of years ago. Without living in that period, we have no way to truly understand their intent and thought processes.
@angemac23 (2003)
• Canada
12 Mar 11
Very well said and I agree that no one should be held responsible for actions done by others in the past. It may be true that we have come a long way but my point is there are still atrocities being perpetrated on people in various areas on the world every day in the name of religion or god or allah....and I see no need for it, it is unacceptable and downright disgusting. Any "god" or religion that calls out to its disciples to kill, main or damage others simply for not believing in the same as them does not sound loving and peaceful at all to me and I thought that was what it was supposed to be about....
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
12 Mar 11
Angemac, the people that commit those atrocities do so because they are ill or evil. The Bible does not condone forcible submission to God and in fact, Jesus said to spread the good news and if a person will not listen you should move on and leave him (or her). People see what they want to see in religion and just look at those whackos who blow up abortion clinics or kill "in the name of God". They are crazy and they understand very little about love or God. Same with the people who blew up the Twin Towers and bombed Mumbai--they see what they want in order to satisfy a need they have and they ignore the real message.
We'll always have people like that, especially now when the Western world is so materialistic and hedonistic. People feel the need to judge others to make themselves feel superior or righteous and religion is just a handy weapon to use--if it wasn't religion it would be something else.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
12 Mar 11
When you consider that at that time, children in England of the higher classes were put into 'public' schools or rather boarding schools, and the parents thought it made men of them, etc. and before that children at seven went to live in castles and work as pages, and the poor children were put into apprenticeship with strangers to learn the business, you can see that the ones who thought up the residential schools thought they were doing it for the best interest of the children. Now the apprenticeship programs and teaching boys to become knights worked quite well, but the same abuse happened in the boarding schools in England as what happened in the residential schools. So was it all right for school masters and elder boys to torment English boys, but not for anyone to torment native Indian children? Now for Christianity being blamed, there are such things as hypocrites - those who say they are, but they are not. By the way, other religions are worse and if there were no Christianity, we would still have slavery considered normal, gladitorial contests, abuse of the weak, etc.
I do believe there are traditions and customs that the natives can keep and will not harm, consequently there are our traditions tthey can adopt from us. I think it would have been better for the schools be like regular schools in the community and also that those that would see that the ones that work or will work at the school are not perverts, etc. As for forcing to convert to Christianity, I would rather someone choose to be a Christian. And I do not think that natives should not be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God.
But God has to convince them.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
12 Mar 11
Sorry I meant to say "I think that natives should be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God and that God will open up their hearts to His truth. and by that they will be converted. Christianity is not just a white person's belief.
