The World Council of Churches has endorsed a resolution that began with the Episcopal Diocese of Maine.
The resolution calls for the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, which was used to justify the subjugation of American Indians in the Americas and the dispossession of their lands by European sovereigns.
The executive committee of the council issued a statement following its February meeting in Bossey, Switzerland, that said the nature of the doctrine “fundamentally opposed the Gospel of Jesus.”
John Dieffenbacher-Krall, a member of St. James’ Episcopal Church and the executive director of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, originated the effort in 2006. The following year, a resolution similar to the one passed by the WCC was approved by the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. The Episcopal Church of the United States approved a similar measure in 2009.
“I am hard pressed to imagine a greater perversion of Jesus’ message, to love God and our neighbor, than the Doctrine of Discovery that asserts we can take from indigenous peoples what is theirs, including their property, land, freedom, and their very lives, solely based on the fact that certain European people professed to be Christians and others were not,” Dieffenbacher-Krall said in a February statement.
“The Doctrine of Discovery at its core is a racist, evil worldview that must be expunged from the world,” he continued. “Christian churches perverted the word of God to justify conquest and domination. As a Christian living in the 21st century, I feel a duty to act on the knowledge I have about the Doctrine of Discovery to educate others and urge them to join in the effort to undo all the evil that the Doctrine of Discovery has caused in the world.”
The Doctrine of Discovery, set forth by King Henry VII in 1496, held that Christian sovereigns and their representative explorers could assert dominion and title over non-Christian lands with the full blessing and sanction of the church, Dieffenbacher-Krall said in 2007.
It has been cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions to justify “treating indigenous nations and Native Americans as second-rate citizens,” he said when the Maine Episcopal diocese became the first in the nation to speak to the issue.
“I am gratified that the World Council of Churches, a worldwide fellowship of 349 churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service, opened their minds and hearts to issue its powerful statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery,” Dieffenbacher-Krall said last month. “I believe it is the most powerful of the rapidly increasing number of statements people of faith are issuing concerning the evil of the Doctrine and the need to expunge it from the world. I hope those Christian churches in Maine, the U.S., and the world that have not yet acted will speak out against the Doctrine of Discovery.”
Wish the WCC would come out with a strong statement about US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.
With respect sir, the invasions of those countries had nothing to do with religon. Today’s government does not hide behind the Bible as the governments of by gone days did, to have an excuse to invade distant lands. Today it is pure politics. God nor His word, is not consulted in today’s governements.
It is about time!
I’m part “Native American.” I don’t like what took place in regard to my ancestors either. But, you know what? It happened. Should it have happened? Of course not. Did it happen? Yes. It happened because people and governments were of a different mind set than they are now. This doctrine is over 500 years old. What was done then can not be undone today. The dead are still dead, the history is still there, and we live today, not 500 years ago. We need to look forward and consider that people of all races are all Gods children, and treat each other as brothers in Christ. History is a tool that should be used as a guide to keep from repeating the same mistakes over again. We need not keep looking over our shoulders, and damning the living for what the dead did during their time. Even the Lord said that we are here today and gone tomorrow. We can not change what happened yesterday, and we can do nothing about what is going to happen tomorrow. We are to live today. So, learn from the past, live for today, and look forward to the return of our Lord. Being thankful for the life that we are given, and knowing that Christ, is our strength and redeemer. There is an old saying that goes something like: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift called “present.”