Tomorrow is Columbus Day. It is a day that marks a significant event in the history of the world as we know it. It is a complex day in the life of North American celebrations, regarded in many different ways across the land. Some choose to honor Columbus on this day as a symbol of discovery, opportunity and daring. He is an explorer who braved the unknown. Others choose to lift up voices of Indigenous peoples in sympathy and anger at the centuries of systematic silence about entire cultures of peoples. Columbus "discovered" a land that people already lived on. Others claim Columbus Day as a time to signify the conquering side of human nature and to defy the arrogant chronicles of a chosen people with historic destinies to build a new world order. A tendency we have yet to transcend.
All can agree that Columbus' repeated encounters with the Americas and that of the following explorers, traders and refugees changed the course of human history. Columbus' "discovery" introduced the beginning of a world wide paradigm shift into the period of European expansion.
And so, in a way, Columbus Day is a holiday which calls forth a focus on the soul of our nation. In fact, through the centuries, Columbus has been traditionally heralded as the symbol of the soul and spirit of the United States. There are more place names attributed to Columbus -- cities, counties, towns, rivers, colleges, parks and streets -- than any other figure of North American history except George Washington. And there more monuments and statues in honor of Columbus than any other secular historical figure in the world.
For the sake of this morning's worship service, I choose to approach the soul of our nation for Columbus Day with a religious sensibility, challenging myself in your witness to look at what binds us together as a people and to ask the most basic question: "where have we come from and where are we going." What have we discovered about ourselves, our lives, our destiny?
I begin with where we have come from....
The Americas are unique in the fact that a majority of the populations are not indigenous peoples. Most of us in the United States have duel heritages, either by historical choice or circumstance. The roots of the majority of us stem back either to Africa or the Asian land mass, including Europe. So most of us have duel identities: beholden to this so-called "new world" by birth or transport and to the so-called "old world" by our heritage.
There is the argument that we are all originally African. Indeed, the oldest known human fossil was found in Africa. But Vine DeLoria, a Sioux Indian lawyer and theologian, challenges the Western mind in the assumption that our entire species originated from a single human being. This concept may even contribute to disharmony and oppression; for the need to be the same leads those in power to compare all peoples according to their own identity. We all have that mysterious source of life in common as a species, but how we express life, how we come to an understanding of life includes many different, equally valuable ways of being. Ways that may have originated in completely different places...the "O.K. so where did Mrs. Cain come from" theory.
As a child, I remember learning of the man Christopher Columbus who "sailed the ocean blue in 14 hundred and 92". I was told he braved the popular belief that the earth was flat and he was the first to encounter the Indians, now referred to as Native Americans. Already the origin of the "new world" was given a mistaken identity, for astronomers and scientists already knew by Columbus' time that the earth was not flat and others had already encountered Native Americans. To the credit of my educators, I did learn that what he found was not what he was looking for, but the emphasis was on his adventure and the presentation that he 'opened the world' for explorers and traders.
I do not remember the opportunity now available to hear of other perspectives. George Tinker, a man who describes himself of mixed blood, part Osage tribe and part Lutheran, offered this observation in a quincentenary summit in 1992:
"You have to understand that from an American Indian perspective, celebrating the Columbus quincentenary is in fact celebrating Indian genocide. Indian people like to remind white Americans that the only thing Columbus discovered was that he was lost. About half a world lost."
One could argue that the soul and spirit of this nation is personified by one with a serious lack of direction. And with all the attention and money given to scandals while people are struggling to put food on their tables and yearning for a peaceful world I would say that argument could have a great deal of weight to it..that we suffer from birth with a serious lack of direction...
I would argue differently. I say that the legacy of Columbus is not based on lack of direction, but spirited by a very clear agenda, one grounded, I agree, on mistaken identity.
Identity is who we believe we are and who we believe others are in relation to ourselves. We identify each other from our own perspective, from the qualities we choose to consider. So, we identify ourselves in what we value. Identity is a point of reference from which our life decisions flow. What I see about myself depends on where I stand, and further, what I am willing to see about myself depends on where I am willing to stand.
And this is where faith can be enriched. The tough love of growth. Because if I can stand what I am willing to see and if I am open to what others see and have seen, then my perspective will broaden -- doors could open-- my understanding of the essential worth of another's experience will increase -- compassion might blossom -- and so my sense of life's richness and possibility can be renewed.
So, this is what I see today. Columbus was commissioned by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to obtain wealth and open a trading route with Asia through what they assumed were the Indies. Two years before, Spain had defeated the Moors. The central Islamic citadel was overthrown. A crucifix and Spanish royal standard were raised proclaiming Spain as a Catholic sovereignty. Moslems were permitted to practice their religion for a few more years. Two days before Columbus' sailing, however, the last of the Jews in Spain were expelled. Approximately 120-150,000 Jews were forced from their homes, sent into exile with only bags in hand. All of their items of wealth were handed over to the crown. It took only ten more years for all Moslems in Spain to be ordered to embrace Christianity or be expelled.
The level of corruption in Catholicism was rampant and increasingly intolerable. This would eventually lead to the Protestant Reformation in Europe 25 years later. It is within this climate that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 14 hundred and 92...
Although Columbus was commissioned to bring more wealth to Spain, he identified himself as a soldier of Christ, imaging the conversion of all peoples to Christianity. It was, after all, apparently, the way of things. In fact, a log on his fourth voyage, in 1502, gives a taste of his sense of identity, then, in his failing health, reaching heights of delusion. Here he is talking of himself:
"The Indies," he writes, "so rich a portion of the world, God gave thee for thine own, and thou hast divided them as it pleased thee, for God (He) gave thee the power to do so. Of these barriers the Ocean Sea which were closed with such mighty chains, God (He) gave thee the keys, and thou wast obeyed through many lands, and thou hast gained an honorable fame throughout Christendom."
Columbus set the motion of 'manifest destiny' in terms of wealth, and the underlying assumption of the creation of a Christian nation. Despite the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, there are still those who justify their actions from this very perspective. As a result of the need for wealth and power, and the self-made assumption of ownership, Columbus' four voyages to the Americas set in motion the displacement, murder, death by imported illness or exile of some 80 million indigenous peoples. The Prophetic Justice Unit of the National Council of Churches in the United States documented that the destruction of tribal cultures caused the estimated death of 1000 Indians per day for the next 200 years.
We must also remember that in 1518, a year after folk were claiming freedom from Catholic tyranny in Europe, that the first cargo of slaves were shipped from Africa to this financially promising "New World". This stemmed from a corrupted theology of abundance. What you see is what you get...and there was so much to see, so much the world could give....and many Europeans took it.
Religion and wealth are two variables which have historically dominated our sense of position in the world. Each taken to an extreme creates the mistaken identity of being the chosen few: "Those who own the most when they die, win" or "You will not go to heaven or be saved unless you are of 'X' religious persuasion". With this logic, it follows that if we meet the established criteria, we should feel justified in possession over and above others. Possession of land, priviledge and rights that essentially belong to no one.
Don't get me wrong -- established religion and wealth are not necessarily evil. Any organized religion can be corrupted by excess zeal and/or greed. None of us are immune to corruption, and no one's history is crystal clear. Our innate potential to praise life, to inspire our abilities and discover our resources is not inherently destructive. It is what we do with the discoveries, how we act out our sense of identity that counts. And life goes on, offering new possibilities, new discoveries, new ways to redefine ourselves, heal ourselves and rework our lives as we allow ourselves to be open to new knowledge.
Ironically, it is the religious yearning, the sharing of visions, the seeking of our essential self that helps us reach toward all that we can become. In Unitarian Universalism, that reaching is done in community -- it has to be -- for we can remind each other to seek our best selves, support and call each other to account when we need.
This is rarely easy. The search for truth is not always an affirmation of how things should be. The search for truth is also about how things are and should not be. Avoiding any part of that process, through denial, assumptions, over-eager self-righteousness
or a self-justifying world view, is counter productive to the progress of welcoming the power of truth to bring about justice and compassion for all peoples. And truth comes in bits and pieces, ever present in its development when our minds are open and our hearts receptive.
I am not of the school to completely trash Columbus and the European influence. Part of that is because it is part of my heritage and if I cut off part of who I am, how painful that discovery may be, I will never be a whole partner in authentic change. I will most probably repeat history. If I declare that I am not like "them", I will be avoiding a very real part of human nature and it is more likely that in denying my capability to harm as well as heal I would repeat the same mistake without realizing it.
For it is important to remember that our lives are not completely alien from those in 14 hundred and 92. In the late fifteenth century Europe there was a shocking amount of violence, both by humans and through natural phenomena. The Bubonic plague was slowing down, but had touched millions and was still effecting hundreds of thousands of lives. In Spain at that time 2% of the folk were nobility and they owned 95% of the land. You may be clueing in to the parallels. Today in this country approximately 1% of the population own 90% of the wealth. Violence, especially amongst the young, is shocking and AIDS, our modern plague touches millions in various ways. It would be easy to repeat history -- to seek hope through conquering, to assume that which is not like us needs conversion to quell the perceived evil of the times, to blame the other. And just like 1492, a millennium is approaching with the same fear for the end of the world. We must choose carefully how to keep hope alive and who we consider as part of the world we want to come into being.
I am also not of the school that Native American spirituality is the panacea, the ultimate wisdom to heal our confusion. I have indeed experienced moments of transformation from the gifts of wisdom amongst Native American perspectives. However, I have also heard the warnings of Native American spokespersons about putting their past and presence on pedestals. Idolizing the "other" helps no one. It continues to avoid personal responsibility. Surely it is important for the voice of indigenous peoples to be heard, to be known, to be admired and respected. But this can only happen form our own place of understanding, rising out of our own identity, so that we can engage in authentic dialogue and truly learn how to live in this pluralist world.
So, what have we discovered in all the years of Columbus' discovery? I believe we have learned a bit of how to live in diversity...at least enough to continue to work towards it and enough to recognize some of the barriers. I believe many of us value indigenous peoples more and want to protect their rights. Though if material gain and "way of life" phrases become part of the reasoning you can be sure indigenous peoples will not be the priority. When ever you do not understand why something has happened, look to the economic reason.
I believe there is a voice, growing stronger every day, claiming that we can not save the world by our "prowess". We can see, if we are willing to, that power over others is not life affirming. It does not bring about justice and compassion as a rule. I believe many have discovered the hard and necessary road ahead to bring about the strength of power with others. That, indeed, a healthy theology of abundance promotes the richness of our lives because of each other. A healthy theology of abundance celebrates that diversity is survival and honoring the earth essential.
Observing Columbus Day can be a gift, for it is an opportunity to take notice of the patterns of our lives together. It is an opportunity to challenge ourselves toward another paradigm shift away from the idea that to win is to conquer rather than embrace. It is a time when we can open our eyes to the complications of our heritage and forgive the mistakes we have made. To find retribution in our work toward peace and equity.
The Americas were bound to be found. Let us cherish lessons learned, keep our ears and eyes open and move on. Let us do this with gladness in our hearts and courage in our love. Let us do this together.
So may it be. Amen.
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