Reconciliation or Reckoning?

I have been teaching a class at our church about the "Trail of Tears".  It is a study of what missionary Christianity did to Native Americans as Manifest Destiny conquered the North American Continent.

It is not a pretty story.  Aside from the outright genocide, a cultural war was waged against Native Americans,  destroying not only their society but their culture and religion as well.

Anthropologically speaking a "superior culture" engulfed an "inferior" one with disastrous results.  As it turns out the disaster was not only for the Native American culture, but to the invader's culture as well.  

For as it turns out, the story is not  over.   In fact is it has only just begun.   

Global warming and environmental damage threatens us all today; a by-product of Manifest Destiny's "conquer nature is a part of inevitable progress" approach.  The dominant culture is now in trouble:  for there is an inevitable consequence of disturbing divine balance.  

Native Americans  believed strongly in divine, natural balance, in leaving nature alone as much as possible, in not "conquering or exploiting" but in living in harmony with the environment.  Imbalance from this divine command will bring a reckoning according to Native American religion.  

Of course modern world technology might look a little different today if there was a balance.  Perhaps with more harmony in nature, the world would not be draining every last drop of oil, or filling the air with tons of CO2 and other pollutants.   Life might be a little slower, a little more like, as Native Americans often said, "life as human beings".  The wolves and the bison might once again roam the Great Plains.  Wintu might once again fish for salmon in the Sacramento River.  

The last part of the class is of   reconcilation.   That is, how do we attone for the horrors of the past, the Wounded Knees, the "Trail of Tears", the genocide?   The Methodist Church, where I am teaching the class, actually has an entire devotion to reconciliation with Native Americans, ranging from direct financial support to more cultural awareness.  

So reconcilation is part of our church mission.  

And then  there is the reckoning.    

We  actually have no choice.   Either we reconcile, with Native Americans and groups who have been victims of western culture prejudice and genocide, or there will be a disastrous reckoning.  

The reckoning  will not come from Native Americans or African Americans  (I am not predicting a racial war at all)  but from a reckoning with nature.  A reckoning with the Great Spirit.  Yes, a reckoning with God.  

Nature you see is part of the Great Mystery, according to Native People everywhere.  It is all connected, natural world and spiritual world. Again, there is no choice at all.  In fact the reckoning is already occurring.

In short  we must reconcile, else reckoning will continue with devastating consequences for the survival of the human race.

Global warming, climate change is a reckoning.  The horrors in Middle East is a reckoning.  The consequences to the global economy of the oil addiction for all of us is a reckoning.  The high percentage of breast cancer downstream from the Iron Mountain Mine is a reckoning.  The hanging of that Cherokee so many years ago brings a reckoning.  

The "Great Mystery" does not forget, because it is the harmony  of existence that has been disturbed.  Once that precious balance if gone, the consequences are dire and unfortunately irreversable.

Which means reconciliation is not  voluntary.  We must stop attacking Native Americans.  We must stop demeaning people of color, because they make up the majority of the human race.  We must stop demeaning and taking nature for granted.  

The stupidity of racism has consequences, a reckoning will occur unless we reconcile our differences through LOVE.  

Martin Luther King repeated this warning.   So did Jesus Christ.

Studies of ecological balance have shown us not only the moral imperative of reconcilation, but the imperative for survival itself of human beings on planet Earth.  

So, it is not just political correctness that is in play when stopping the Redskin mascot name from being used, or Braves, or Indians, it is the beginning to reconcile.  It is the beginning of love first.  It is a beginning to stop the reckoning.  

And the costs of waiting  are just too much.

Finally, how do we know this....the elders in the oral history tradition of Native American culture warn of it all the time.  So does the Bible.