Christian Heroes

 

Perhaps the worst aspect of the Christian influence on American culture is the glorification and acceptance of violence and murder.  Even the smallest Christian children are bombarded with stories of murder and genocide:  David slaying Goliath, Samson butchering thousands with the jaw bone of an ass,  Noah, Moses, Joshua,  the list of deviants and murderers goes on and on ... these are the Christian heros! 

 ... and we wonder why there is so much violence in American society ..
Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus introduced two concepts under the name of Christianity that have transformed our modern world: "the taking of lands, wealth and labor from indigenous peoples, leading to their near extinction, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass" (Loewen, 1995).
	When first describing the native Americans, Columbus wrote that they were "well built", of "quick intelligence" and "have very good customs"; however, later, when he was trying to justify his wars and enslavement of the Indians, they became "lazy", "stupid" heathens.  Columbus then gives us the first example of cognitive dissonance in the "new world",  for although the natives did turn inhospitable after they were mistreated, they did not evolve from intelligent to stupid in a matter of a few months.  It was Columbus and his men who had changed (Loewen, 1995).
	It is always useful to dehumanize those people one has exploited or plans to exploit.  Modifying one's opinions to bring them into line with one's actions or planned actions is a process known as "cognitive dissonance" according to social psychologists.  No one likes to think of themselves as a bad person. To treat badly another person whom we consider a reasonable human being creates great tension between the act and the attitude that demands resolution.  Since what is already done cannot be changed and to alter our future behavior may not be for the best, we simply change our attitude (Loewen, 1995).  
	The "discovery" of the Americas was directly responsible for the rise in European self-consciousness.  Before 1492 the people in Europe were simply French, Spanish and the like, but now they began to see similarities between themselves in contrast with native Americans (Keen, 1991).  

	With the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, first Indian, then African, the Europeans increasingly began to perceive "white" as the chosen race and all other colors as inferior.  Also many of the new rebellious Protestants cults were claiming the Americas as the fabled "promised land".
      	On his first voyage, Columbus had kidnapped some ten to twenty Indians and taken  them back to Spain.  Even though less than half of them survived the trip, they, along with parrots, gold trinkets, and other treasures, caused quite a commotion, for these  Europeans believed in a proselytizing religion that rationalized conquest.  In fact, for his second voyage Columbus was provided with seventeen ships, 1200 to 1500 men, cannons, crossbows, guns, calvary and attack dogs.  When Columbus and his armies sailed to the "new world" it was with an attitude of self - righteous cultural imperialism.  Upon their return Columbus read (in Spanish) to every new Indian tribe encountered a document that came to be called " the Requirement".

	I implore you to recognize the Church as a lady and in the name 
	of the Pope take the King as lord of this land and obey his mandates. 
	If you do not do it, I tell you that with the help of God I will enter powerfully 	against you all.  I will make war everywhere and every way that I can.
	 I will subject you all to the yoke and obedience to the Church and to 
	his majesty.  I will kill you all and take your women and children and 
	make them slaves.  The deaths or injuries that you receive from here on 
	will be your own fault and not that of his majesty nor these gentlemen that 	accompany me. 
Having thus pacified their consciences by offering the Indians a chance to convert to Christianity, they then felt free to do whatever they wanted to the inferiors that they had just discovered (Keen, 1991). 
	They immediately began oppressing  the natives and forcing them to believe their native religions were wrong and that Christianity was right.  They demanded food, gold, spun cotton and anything else the Indians had, including sex with their women, and enslaved over 300 natives to mine gold.   To ensure cooperation, Columbus used punishment by example.  Even the smallest offenses were punishable by the loss of an ear or nose.  The person, now disfigured, was sent back the their village to be a living testament the Spanish brutality.  When the Indians finally showed resistance Columbus declared war and set out to conquer the Arawak nation.  In 1496 he wrote to Isabella and Ferdinand, "In the name of the Holy Trinity, we can send from here all the slaves and brazil-wood which could be sold."   He viewed the initial high death rate of the American natives in transport optimistically: "Although they die now, they will not always die. The Negroes and the Canary Islanders also died at first".  Next began a reign of terror where the inferior pagans were hunted for sport, murdered for dog food and sold into slavery by the thousands(Keen, 1991).  
 	This was the beginning of the still continuing American ideological theory which contends that amassing wealth and dominating other people has a positive value.  It is the main key to winning esteem on earth and salvation in the hereafter.   As Columbus wrote in one of his letters to the Queen and King of Spain:  " Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world and it can even lift souls up to Paradise" (Loewen, 1995).
	 In 1496 it was estimated that approximately 300,000 native Americans were living in what is now called Haiti. By 1516,  thanks to the sinister Indian slave trade and the ruthless labor policies intuited by Columbus in the name the King and God, only some 12,000 remained. By 1542 less than 200 Indians were still alive and by 1555, they were all gone (Loewen, 1995).  

	This was one of the worst cases of genocide in all of human history, and yet while the Nazi holocaust is remembered and condemned, the total annihilation of 300,000 Arawak Indians on Haiti has been effectively written out of our history books, and Columbus, with a bible in one hand, slave chains and a musket in the other, has been made a national hero by the white Protestant majority (Loewen, 1995).

Each month a new hero will be added to christians heroes ... next .... Samson and his ass bone ..

boy, those old testament heroes could  kill like no others!!! 

Mindpoison - the bible 
Burning Art

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