Last Monday, Sept. 14, my post on “Native Spirituality” (coming at the end of my brief series on Manitoulin Island) started a long series of comments—comments that continued the following day regarding “Learning From the Ojibway.” You can click over to those posts and read the comment thread, which will provide some examples of mutual understanding and some talking past each other.

I feel bad that there was no real resolution on how much Native North American Christians and Christians of European descent can really communicate with and understand each other.  The miss-communication compelled me to search for materials from three Native North American men whose words and writing have impressed me in the past: Adrian Jacobs, Terry LeBlanc, and Richard Twiss. Fortunately, I was able to find an excellent article co-authored by all three that first appeared in the Journal of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies in 2003.

The article was titled “Culture, Christian Faith, and Error,” and it was reprinted for the sample journal that appeared after the 7th World Christian Gathering of Indigenous People (WCGIP) in Jerusalem in September of 2008.  I attended the 2nd WCGIP in Rapid City, SD, eleven years ago.  I found the article to be enlightening, and I recommend it to anyone who wishes to understand more about the sticky issues of missions, outreach, and syncretism.  Here is the “first word” offered by these co-authors:

The subject of this paper is a contentious issue for many people
in the Native Christian world today. It has been made very
complex because of the personal and social “baggage” attached
to it. Many people feel it is an area best left alone. It is our
feeling however, that to “leave it alone” is to consign countless
more Aboriginal people to an eternity separated from their
Creator—one whose love for them is so great that He sent his
son to die that they might have life. It is for this reason that we
pursue anew this need in the Native work in Canada and the
U.S.

Below are a couple more clips from the article that I found significant:

A proper way to view mission [to Native North Americans] would have been (and would be today):

“We are Christian because we have embraced the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ; you are not because you have not embraced this message. But, we see the hand of God at work in you. Let us tell you about the one who can fulfill that work. His name is Jesus and He is the Creator’s son.”

Properly presented, this is what the Jerusalem Council advocated in Acts 15 and what Paul practiced in Acts 17 on Mars Hill. This represents a Fulfillment oriented theology of mission.

For people of a western world view, [the]cultural locus is rooted
in the pursuit of success, financial growth, progress (defined as
increasing technological and material advancement), “getting
ahead” or, climbing the social/intellectual ladder in pursuit of
an end state defined by “security and stability.” In contrast,
indigenous people’s locus is in earth systems and creation,
harmony with other elements of natural creation, stewardship
of the land, restoration of brokenness, preservation and
maintenance of created order —in pursuit of a state similar to
the Hebrew concept of “shalom”.

I firmly believe that this difference in cultural locus is the critical issue.  And I have to confess that the indigenous worldview seems to be far more biblical to me than the Western one.

Surf on over to the NAIITS journal and spend some time with it.  I think you will find that it provides a great deal more light than the brief discussion that took place on this forum over the past week.

See you outdoors!

Dean