My last blog "Superior Whites???" was a satire; this blog is my interpretation of American history.
Was America founded on Christian principles? Yes and no. The Christian religion has provided some of our nation's highest ideals such as "All persons are created equal." But religion has legitimated Anglo-Saxon (English) ethnocentrism and oppression that over the years has been increasingly racialized producing WASP's (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants). See Race and Manifest Destiny.
Our founding fathers blended Christian principles, Enlightenment (human reason) principles, and the widely-held Anglo-Saxon idea of superior culture. So the best and worst of theism, deism, secular humanism and Anglo-Saxonism were blended into a syncretistic mix. Therefore, by selective proof texting, one can 'prove' your own favorite ideological point of view. What would a balanced analysis look like?
I am English (Anglo). The English shaped these United States more than any other people. The first and dominant colonists were English; colonists conquer and then permanently occupy to the detriment of the previous owners. Or to put it in modern day terms, English colonists were the first illegal aliens---the illegals who never went back home.
Today Americans speak the English language, not Indian languages. We draw heavily on English law as we shaped our own system of law. Like all peoples, the Anglos were a mixture of good and bad; I am both proud and deeply ashamed of my English heritage.
One of the good things that the English brought to America was Methodism. In my opinion, John and Charles Wesley led the greatest spiritual/social movement since New Testament times; Methodism was very strong on love but weak on justice, its worst weakness. The zeal and dedication of Methodists contributed significantly to both the spiritual and social climate of America.
One of the worst flaws of the English people was their arrogant ethnocentrism; they thought they were superior to all other peoples, a negative trait that Americans generously copied. The Anglos 'practiced' their ethnocentrism and oppression against the Irish before they brought it to these shores. Unfortunately, by the time they settled these shores, the English were experts at ethnocentrism. Since this side of British culture is not widely known, I shall document it in some detail.
But first more evidence on our Christian fiundations. In a Christianity Today article on James Dobson (March 1, 1999), an article by Michael Kazin, a self-described atheist (The Nation, "The Politics of Devotion," April 6, 1988) is quoted:
"The Book [Bible] has been an indispensable source of wisdom and rhetoric for many of the most effective and influential exponents of social change in American history. One cannot imagine the narrative of reform in the United States without the abolitionists, the temperance movement, the People's Party, the civil rights insurgency, the United Farm Workers or the movement against the Vietnam War. . . . America has from the beginning, been a nation bent on redemption. That, after all, is what John Winthrop was getting at in 1630 when he famously predicted "We shall be a city upon a hill." . . . And it continues today, in what Nobel laureate Robert Ford recently called our "Fourth Great Awakening . . . a new religious revival fueled by revulsion with the corruptions of a contemporary society."
Forrest Wood, raised in a conservative Protestant family, but now a devastating critic of the church because of its racism, also notes the pervasive impact of Christianity on American culture (from The Arrogance of Faith, 1990, p. xviii):
"What really surprised me was how far Christianity's influence had reached beyond the sanctuary. Biblical maxims, the Puritan work ethic, Pauline moral preachments, Old Testament conception of the Elect, and scriptural admonitions like the Ten Commandments . . . permeate every fiber of secular life. The exalted American commitments to individualism, free enterprise, and the diffusion of democratic principles are, I came to believe, nothing more than secular extensions of the Christian precepts of a personal relationship with Christ, man's dominion over the earth, and the bringing of the Good News to all peoples."
Both Kazin and Wood who are not friends of the current American Christian church have documented the extensive Christian influence in this nation.
Now, the rest of the story---the negative side of our history, including our Christian history. First, a brief look at the way the British treated the Irish is in order; From the pen of Ronald Takaki, an ethnic historian, from his 1993 book, A Different Mirror, chapter 6:
"During the 12th century the English conquered Ireland and confiscated their land. By 1700 English landlords owned 86 percent of Irish land [expert colonizers]. To generate more income, English landlords converted most of the tillable land to pasture so that beef cattle could be exported to England. Progress, meaning more income for the landlords, meant pauperization for the peasants because they were not allowed to share in the increased income. Instead, the peasants 'toiled and starved like slaves'.
"The Irish poor lived mostly on potatoes. Most of the grain and cattle were exported as required by the English landlords. When the potato blight struck, the landlords still required the peasants to export the grain and cattle. This meant many of the peasants starved; possibly a million died from hunger and disease. To escape oppression and starvation, millions of Irish moved to America.
"The Atlantic crossing was often traumatic---reminiscent of the Africa slave trade. One description: 'a noisome dungeon, airless and lightless, in which several hundred persons of both sexes and all ages are stowed away on shelves two feet one inch above the other, still reeking from the ineradicable stench left by the emigrants of the last voyage.' One year, 20 percent of the emigrants died during the passage or immediately after arrival.
"The Irish immigrants provided the labor for coal mines and for construction of roads, railroads and canals. They were often assigned the most dangerous jobs.
"The Irish were stereotyped as 'apelike,' 'a race of savages,' or 'at the same level of intelligence as blacks'. They were seen as an inferior people and classified with Negroes, Indians and Mexicans. In the South at times the Irish were assigned 'hazardous jobs that masters did not want to assign to their slaves'.
"This Irish stereotype began back in Ireland when the English colonizers treated the Irish as second-class citizens. As the occasion demanded, the English would burn Irish villages and slaughter men, women and children. Since the Irish were 'naturally lazy' and 'lived like beasts,' they could be treated like beasts. As the English colonized America and contacted Native Americans, they compared the Indians to the Irish. Both were seen as savages and savages did not deserve much respect.
"WHAT THE ENGLISH DID TO THE IRISH---STOLE THEIR LAND, DEHUMANIZED AND KILLED THEM---THEY REPEATED IN ALMOST IDENTICAL FASHION WITH THE AMERICAN INDIANS." Emphasis added.
The Puritans were English; along with their precious Bibles, they brought generous portions of Anglo ethnocentrism and oppression. At the same time they were attempting to purify the church by returning directly to the Bible for truth, one area of their lives escaped biblical scrutiny---their British ethnocentrism and oppression. Neither the Methodist revival nor the Puritan renewal dealt with the sin of ethnocentrism and the oppression it spawned.
At first, when their numbers were small, the Puritan's relationships with Native Americans were reasonably harmonious. But soon the Puritan numbers multiplied and they needed more land. Inevitably, serious conflicts over land developed. Soon the Puritans were labeling Native Americans 'Canaanites'; in the Old Testament, the Canaanites were destroyed because they were evil and they stood in the way of the development of the Hebrew nation.
When necessary, Puritans destroyed Indian villages, killing men, women and children. At times, they even paid money for the scalps of Indians. The Puritans---a supposedly biblical people. The Puritans---a profoundly ethnocentric and oppressive people. The Puritans---a doubleminded people who combined the American trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism with the Christian trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately, the Puritan pattern has been repeated again and again throughout American history and still exists in 2014.
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