Columbus Day: Revisited

9:54:00 AM

I wonder what it must have been like on that day in 1492 as an indigenous person. You wake up, and all of a sudden on the horizon, is a massive strange looking boat. You rush to the shoreline and watch strange looking men with swords and strange outfits coming ashore.

We know from history that the Arawak men and women greeted these strange sailors with gifts, water and food. Christopher Columbus wrote this in his log:

They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other

things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They

willingly traded everything they owned... They were well built, with

good bodies and handsome features... They do not bear arms, and do not

know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut

themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of

cane... They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate

them all and make them do whatever we want.

The first thoughts about these people was - "They would be great slaves". I don't remember learning about that in grade school. In grade school, we learn about the hero, conqueror, and discoverer of the Americas. We even have silly songs about the event. The history we learn about this event are not true. As I began researching and reading about the truth about this event, it literally broke my heart. If you desire to read more into this and about the Native Americans, here are two great books to begin with:

A People's History of the United States

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

So what really happened?

Christopher Columbus was drunk on power and money. (Something we still crave and desire today and has been the lie we still hear the serpent whisper). He bargained with the King and Queen of Spain to make this expedition to Asia. Columbus sought Asia for gold and spices - because this would make him rich. He obviously miscalculated his expedition by thousands of miles because he imagined the world was much smaller than it is. Instead of Asia, Columbus landed in the Bahamas. In fact, a sailor named Rodrigo first saw the island. The reward for the first man to spot the land was a yearly pension of 10,000 maravedis for life. What a reward! Unfortunately, Rodrigo never got it. Columbus claimed to have seen the island the night before, so he got the reward. How convenient.

Columbus also wrote this, "the Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone...".

The way of the natives sounds a lot like the early church (see Acts 2:42). Instead, the hero we claim to celebrate and honor, came and conquered these people and sold them as slaves - all in the name of God. He also wrote this in his journal, "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." I imagine Jesus wept this day. It makes me tear up.

"In the church, we celebrate martyrs and saints, not warriors and conquistadors." - Shane Claiborne. This is a reminder of the counter-culture of the Kingdom Jesus spoke about. The American Empire may recognize and celebrate Christopher Columbus, but we should be recognizing and celebrating the forgotten men and women who looked like Jesus the most.

Columbus did not discover the United States. How can you discover something that is already inhabited? More on that in THIS ARTICLE

In the book, A People's History of the United States, it says this:

Columbus and his successors were not coming into an empty wilderness, but into a world which in some places was as densely populated as Europe itself, where the culture was complex, where human relations were more egalitarian than in Europe, and where the relations among men, women, children and nature were more beautifully worked out than anything Europe was experiencing. They were people without a written language, but with their own laws, their poetry, their history kept in memory and passed on in an oral vocabulary more complex than Europe's, accompanied by song, dance, and ceremonial drama. They paid careful attention to the development of personality, intensity of will, independence and flexibility, passion and potency, to their partnership with one another and with nature.

Join me today in prayer. We need to, as a nation and as Christ followers be reminded of the truth of this history and repent. This should break our hearts. Today we must battle against the principalities and powers that would have us believe that "holidays" like this should be celebrated. The Gospel is good news. But it can only be Good News if we recognize the Bad News of this present age. The Good News is for the Native Americans who were deceived and violently oppressed, murdered, raped and sold into slavery. Their entire history was almost completely wiped out of human history. The Good News is also for Christopher Columbus and others, who are also deceived to think that money and power are the marks of success. The whispers of the serpent are alluring - but they are lies. We have to wake up to this.

Hans Koning sums it up in his book Columbus: His Enterprise:

For all the gold and silver stolen and shipped to Spain did not make the Spanish people richer. It gave their kings an edge in the balance of power for a time, a chance to hire more mercenary soldiers for their wars. They ended up losing those wars anyway, and all that was left was a deadly inflation, a starving population, the rich richer, the poor poorer, and a ruined peasant class.

Being a follower of Jesus is to live for others, not against others. It's easier to follow the ways of the world. It's easy to believe and desire to have all the Kingdoms of this world in our grip. These are the temptations that have been around from the beginning. These are the temptations Satan used on Jesus.

Prayer:

Lord, help us not to shy away from our own transgressions, neither to hold the sins of others against them, but to name sin with confidence that your forgiveness has the power to effect a just reconciliation in our world. Amen (taken from Common Prayer, pg. 476).

(The artwork is Landing of Columbus by John Vanderlyn, 1909.)

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I am not really a Dave Matthews Band fan (my friends know this). But I'm going to post this video and lyrics that really captures the spirit of this event and history of the native people from the perspective of a white man.

DON'T DRINK THE WATER

Come out come out
No use in hiding
Come now come now
Can you not see?
There's no place here
What were you expecting
Not room for both
Just room for me

So you will lay your arms down
Yes I will call this home

Away away
You have been banished
Your land is gone
And given me

And here I will spread my wings
Yes I will call this home

What's this you say?
You feel a right to remain?
Then stay and I will bury you

What's that you say
Your father's spirit still lives in this place
I will silence you

Here's the hitch
Your horse is leaving
Don't miss your boat
It's leaving now

And as you go I will spread my wings
Yes I will call this home

I have no time to justify to you
Fool, you're blind, move aside for me
All I can say to you my new neighbor
Is you must move on or I will bury you

Now as I rest my feet by this fire
Those hands once warmed here
I have retired them
I can breathe my own air
I can sleep more soundly
Upon these poor souls
I'll build heaven and call it home
Cause you're all dead now

I live with my justice
I live with my greedy need
I live with no mercy
I live with my frenzied feeding
I live with my hatred
I live with my jealousy
I live with the notion
That I don't need anyone but me

Don't drink the water
Don't drink the water
There's blood in the water
Don't drink the water

1 comments

UnknownOctober 12, 2015 at 1:15 PM
Brian, thank you for revealing the truth! Also, even though you're not a DMB fan, great use of the song to tell the story!
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