Our Arrogant Hubris

On tomorrow, June 2, we will celebrate the 90th Anniversary (1924) of Native Americans being granted citizenship in the U.S..  Yes, you read that correctly.  After generations of displacement and genocide, we were KIND ENOUGH to grant the original inhabitants of this land with citizenship in it.

For over 300 years, we bought as "sub-human" property, people who were kidnapped from their lands, and used them for free labor in our economy.  We took away their language, names, families and heritage, justifying it with MANY bogus arguments.  Eventually granting them "some" civil rights, we continue to systematically, intentionally and ruthlessly hold as many of them down as we can.

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo annexed California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and parts of Wyoming and Colorado from Mexico.  We stole it by sending our citizens to populate it illegally, and then starting a war so we could "legally" take it away from them, ending the violence with peace negotiations.
For generations, we BROUGHT Braceros across the border from those stolen lands to work for CHEAP, un-substantial labor in our fields (up North in the Summer and down South in the Winter), so that we can enjoy relatively inexpensive produce.  Now, private prisons will be "farming out" their inmates to the fields and factories, charging the farmers and owners for the profit of the executives and stock holders, transforming convicted criminals (some of whom have suffered GROSS injustice with long sentences) into slaves for these plantation owners.  Because of that, we are actively DEPORTING those who have worked and lived here for generations.  We are done with them.

American companies continue to colonize the world with gated communities for their executives, who hire local laborers on "their" property, but who are locked out of the walled, guarded communities after dark.  We plant the flag of not only America, but also the logos of those American companies in foreign nations so that we can benefit from the cheap labor, exploitable national resources and lack of regulations regarding the destruction and pollution of their land, water and air.

Our arrogant sense of hubris is lived out in nationalism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia - all out of a false sense of superiority.

We hate these people as a nation because we OWE these people.  We are STILL without penance for the deeds we have done to them.  In fact, we now do the same things by more subtle means, through our economic and military power.

We claim that any who hate us, hate us because they hate "freedom" or are just jealous of us.  We label any who strike out against us as being villains and "terrorists".  We have earned all of it, as a nation.

We hate them because we have WRONGED THEM and we know it, but our arrogant hubris (redundancy intentional) continues to shape our values.

Unconscionable.  IMMORAL.
It is time that we truly REPENT (change our thinking so that our behaviors and actions will change).

Pastor Jamie