The discovery of a mass grave at one Kamloops residential school raises an important question.
When the discovery of a mass grave containing 215 First Nations children was unearthed at a Kamloops residential school this week, it sent tremors throughout Canada and reminded everyone of the horrific abuse our government, and many churches, took part in. It reminded Christians of our duty to love and stand by our First Nations neighbors, to lament the horrors that took place, and how the Church has so often fallen short throughout history.
Church history is not pretty. When the “new world” was “discovered,” many clergy were complicit in the genocide that ensued. Many also defended indigenous people to the death, but those stories are few and far between the mass of bloodshed we can learn about in history class. And Indigenous groups aren’t the only one’s who’ve suffered at the hands of Church institutions. Professing Christians have been cannibalizing each other for centuries. There were times in Europe when Protestants had to hide in the forests to have Church, and if they were caught, they were killed and their children were sent off as wards of the state. Times when reading the Bible in a non-Latin language was enough to get you burned at the stake, and even when Protestants, the ones who “protested” the abuses of the Catholic Church started assassinating Catholics to gain power. The bottom line is that much evil has been done by people in positions of church leadership, much evil. We can’t excuse or minimize it, we have to realize that it’s there, in plain sight.
But the real question is, when abuses like the ones that dug the graves of these children are highlighted, does that mean Jesus and those who claim to be His followers are the inspiration behind them? Simply put, the answer is no. If by Jesus we are referring to the Jesus of the Bible, then the answer is clear, He mourns all evil and holds the guilty responsible, regardless of what identity they claim to have. The Bible not only reveals a God who stands in extreme contrast to the atrocities we see throughout history, but explicitly warns against people who would claim to be Christian but are in fact “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Yes, that’s a phrase from the Bible that Jesus first used when discussing the difference between true and false disciples.
LOOKING AT JESUS’ LIFE
Looking at the life of Jesus is a good way to understand the character of God. His story turns our human ways of thinking upside down and reveals how the power of the Creator resides in love and humility rather than force or control. He was born in the lowest of conditions, essentially a barn that someone had loaned to His parents because there was no living space available to them at the time. He was then warned of an insidious plot against His life and the family fled the country as refugees to Egypt. Finally, after returning to Israel, which was occupied by Roman forces at the time, He grew up and lived as a carpenter for the beginning of His adult years. Far from a mercenary, His life exemplified simple and vulnerable conditions that revealed how God is pleased to dwell among the poor and lowly. Money and political power are not to God what they so often are to us.
LOOKING AT JESUS’ WORDS
Let’s look at Jesus’ teachings. When He began His preaching and miracle ministry, He advocated a way of life that colonial power would not have been able to use. Instead of taking, He said that we were to give. “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you,” (Matt. 5: 40-42). Instead of violence He commanded sacrifice, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also,” … “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me” … “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matt. 5: 38-39; Matt. 24:9; Matt 24: 9; Matt. 26:52).
These are only a handful of verses, and there’s many more that make my point, but from these alone we see how difficult it would be to harm others if people were truly listening to Christ’s teachings. Some theologians argue for a ‘just war’ theory, which says Christians can defend themselves in war for the greater good of their people, but even that is a far cry from the many colonial abuses that occurred.
Contrary to what many perceive Christian faith to be, it is built on the foundation of love and self-sacrifice that Jesus demonstrated. Jesus Himself said that the most important commandments were to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22: 34-40). His love was not a warm, fuzzy, feel-good kind of emotion, it was unconditional sacrifice on behalf of others. He demonstrated this Himself when He died for our sins, telling His disciples that “greater love has no man than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friend” (John 15:13). His purpose was not to come and be crowned emperor of a great empire and receive wealth from the poorer populations, instead He said He “came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45, Jesus is speaking of Himself in the third person).
WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING?
Jesus warned us that not everyone who claimed to be a Christian would be. He said that many who claimed to be His followers would be judged on the last day and given God’s eternal wrath, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven … Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21,23). Jesus also said that just as trees are distinguished by the fruit they produce, so people would be able to recognize His followers by their “fruit,” or their actions (Matt. 7:16-20). Jesus obviously foresaw that some people would misrepresent His character and encouraged His followers to be aware of those who might be “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15).
The various evils that took place at the hands, or under the supervision, of various church movements, was not the work of God who was living in His people and fulfilling His commands. It was the work of compromisers who lacked the courage to stand for Jesus’ Word. It was the work of institutional organizations who forgot the central message of Jesus and developed a satanic lust for abuse. If a hockey player decides to play badminton on the ice, it doesn’t mean that hockey changed its rules, it just means that something wrong is happening. In the same way, when someone, or some institution, that professes to be a Christian, endorses genocide, murder, or exploitation, that is an anti-christ movement that the Jesus of the Bi
Some might say the clergy managed to convince themselves they were somehow doing good, or perhaps they were duped by government propaganda that convinced them of their civil duty. In any case it doesn’t matter, Jesus calls us to share His gospel in love and to die in the process if necessary. This is the difference between Christianity that makes ungodly ties with conquering empires, and the kind that allows itself to be conquered for the sake of others.