My friend Pascale is a Christian who has over the years, became less conservative with her beliefs. However, in all of the years I’ve observed her reactions coinciding her own religion, there has never been once where she publicly denounced the wrongdoings of Christian atrocities. She always finds a way to deflect the blame.
It has been known for some time about Residential school abuse all over North America, but it was quite recent that further digging, have found that thousands of First Nations’ children have been murdered as well and buried in mass graves. Residential schools are run by Christian organizations supported by the government to try to brainwash indigenous children and ultimately assimilate them into common society. Government have known about the abuse, but did nothing to stop it, nor punish those that committed those horrors. So of course, the government is not innocent. However, neither are the Christians who ran those schools. The government may have turned a blind eye, but at the end of the day, it is those Christians who committed abuse, rape, torture, and murder. How can Pascale so whimsically say it is ultimately the government to blame, when it is blatant that those Christians did the abuse, rape, torture, and murder?
I brought it up with Pascale, and tested to see if she would say anything about those Christians in authority. While it’s true Pascale did denounce the abuse, rape, and murder, she did so very briefly. She solely finger pointed at the government and said nothing about the Christians that did those crimes. What is upsetting is that she is doing the same thing as the government, by turning a blind eye to the atrocities of Christians in authority, committing capital crimes against children. Where was her god, when tens of thousands of children were forced into submission, rape, and death? Did her god not command his followers to not do evil? Or is this all a part of ‘God’s Plan’? Perhaps, ‘God works in mysterious ways’? If a Christian can say the devil has many tools to tempt humanity, then isn’t it also true that their god is obviously powerless? So what exactly are Christians worshiping here? What is the point of prayer when capital crimes, atrocities, and constant turmoil exist in a world of immense grief? It is so fantastically easy for First World Christians to just brush things aside, because it doesn’t fit their rhetoric, because it challenges the goodness of their religion.
It has been a very long time, since I spoke openly about Christianity and my once-very obvious stance against organized mainstream religion. However, I am calling out injustice as I see it. As much as I like Pascale, ultimately, there are just some things about her that I wish it wasn’t so. Alas, individuals aren’t supposed to be perfectly attuned with each other. [sigh] I shall not make further excuses nor disclaimers.
Further reading:
- In their words: What residential school survivors told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Residential schools subjected students to disease, abuse, experiments: TRC report
- Generations of First Nations children were abducted to institutions to solve the country’s ‘Indian problem’. Thousands never returned
- Canada reveals names of 2,800 victims of residential schools
- Why Canada is mourning the deaths of hundreds of children
