The way culture and religion overlap and inform each other has always been something iconic throughout human history. When Europe became Christian Europe, the Middle East and North Africa became the lands of Islam and the Far East the realm of Buddha, it was engraved in the human imagination: culture is religion as religion is culture. The Christian West. The Buddhist Orient. All providing rather neat little stereotypes for the many who couldn't be bothered with the huge effort of having to think and reckon with nuance.
This happens, of course, to this very day. We have two of the monotheistic faiths that are being particularly misunderstood and pilloried: Christianity and Islam. The rise of violent Jihadism, of course, has particularly denigrated Islam, also called the Religion of Peace. The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City, September 11, 2001 was the watershed event that burned into the popular imagination the association between Islam and violent terrorism. This has occupied several successive and very ugly incarnations: the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Isis, to name a few. The following Islamophobia naturally has hijacked the critical thinking capabilities of many people in Europe and North America, turning the likes of former US president, George W. Bush, and US president-elect Donald Trump (the Dump) into laughable parodies channeling the most irrational and inaccurate nonsense about the Muslim religion. If it wasn't for the deplorable fallout of hundreds of thousands killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention random bombings and terrorist attacks from both sides, this would be a farce worthy of Doctor Strangelove or Monty Python. There is also likely no need to mention the rise of the Muslim-hating right in both much of Europe and in the US as huge swathes of western populations opt for the easy way out of hating what they do not know, rather than make the effort to learn about Islam, Muslims, and swallow some of their irrational fear.
This has also been an unfortunate occurrence around Christianity and Christians and how we are viewed by the media. I just read in today's Globe and Mail an article about an aboriginal Canadian artist, Kent Monkman, and some of his controversial paintings around the themes of colonization and the rape and destruction of indigenous cultures by white Europeans. I don't have time to provide a link but I'm sure he can be googled if you want to see some of his work which is very interesting and thought-provoking. The writer of the article, Robert Everett- Green, three times in his article, blames Christianity for destroying aboriginal culture. A splendid example, this, of a journalist who doesn't know how to think. This is also the logical outcome of those who are the least qualified to comment on religion- atheists- still commenting on what they know diddly-squat about, broadly displaying their ignorance and contempt in the even broader brushstrokes of their nonsensical generalizations.
The homicidal idiots in ISIS chopping off heads and the suicidal morons flying the planes that knocked out the World Trade Centre had every bit as much in common with Islam as did the ministers, priests and nuns had with Christianity while they abused aboriginal children and wantonly promoted the destruction of their culture. Islam and Christianity are religious faiths that are not confined to region, culture or ethnicity. They subscribe to certain set beliefs, many of them mutually compatible, and like it or not they are going to be very broadly interpreted. This is the occupational hazard of being a very old and very major religious faith. When you focus on the core teachings of these faiths, factoring out the gross abuses by some of their ostensible representatives, it will be found that anyone using these faiths as a pretext for harming others is really a heretic or apostate who has nothing at all to do with them.
I cannot really speak on behalf of Islam for the simple reason that I do not know enough about this religion in order to do it justice. However, if we are to confine our knowledge of Christianity to the words allegedly spoken by Jesus, here are some sample quotations, and I will leave it for you, Gentle Reader, to judge if the horrible clergy and nuns of the residential schools could be fairly thought of as authentic representatives of the Christian faith which Mr. Green, in his article, has so ignorantly disparaged:
Come to me, all who labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,
blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,
blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
I could write more...
By the way, a number of First Nations people happen to be Christians. They have not rejected their culture. In some cases they no longer follow aboriginal spiritual beliefs, but they are still First Nations people, just as they would be should they convert to Islam, Judaism or Buddhism.
Robert Everett-Green has it backwards. Christianity is not to blame for the destruction of aboriginal cultures. The real culprit is Eurocentric colonialism and their racist ideologies, not to mention the shameless way in which they hijacked the Christian faith and employed some of its most disgraceful representatives to carry out their dirty work.
If Mr. Everett-Green were to make a reasonable and compassionate investigation into the Christian faith he might find himself pleasantly surprised. He might even find Jesus so attractive and irresistible that he could even convert, himself. Though I imagine that is exactly why he would not think of doing this. Too risky?
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