Mennonite Weekly Review

Usually I take pride in being a Christian.

Janet Plenert witnessed this baptism while on an Indigenous Peoples Tour, an adjunct event of the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Paraguay. — Photo by Janet Plenert/MC Canada

But occasionally I hang my head in shame and even horror at what the church has done.

I plead with God to never again allow us to make some of the world-changing mistakes Christians have made.

An aboriginal learning tour after the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Paraguay in July was such an experience. Métis, Ojibway, Cheyenne, Cree, Shawnee and Lakota from North America joined tribal groups from Guatemala, Panama and Peru.

This group, communicating bilingually in English and Spanish, was hosted by the Enlhet, Nivacle and Guarani indigenous Mennonites in Paraguay, and Toba Qom and Mocoví Christians from Argentina.

I found myself impressed by the gracious spirit of all the groups and sickened by the role of the church in committing what some have come to call cultural genocide.

The church has had a huge role, both as accomplice and as perpetrator, of the systematic degradation, devaluation and near obliteration of indigenous cultures, traditions and sense of peoplehood of aboriginal peoples in all of the Americas.

It was clear that every group represented, from each of the seven countries, continues to experience the effects of this attempted obliteration of their cultures.

While not every group has experienced a residential school type policy, each actively struggles with their sense of peoplehood, of being the victims of repression, overt oppression and specific laws that marginalize them, as well as resulting current effects of all forms of abuse at the hands of colonizers, governments and the church.

In Canada, 150,000 aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their homes, families and communities and required to attend residential schools in order to educate them in English, instill “Christian” values and systematically remove their culture, values, traditions and languages from them. Significant, sustained effort was made to force aboriginal people to be less than they are as children created in the image of God.