I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been consumed with learning. I’m in a season of having more questions than answers. Even still, I know I need to push beyond my introvert boundaries and invite others into the questions in my mind.

Here’s an excerpt from a book I’m reading and some questions that I have wrestled with. I would benefit from hearing your (respectful) thoughts.

“Ministers led the way in justifying the English violence and atrocities aimed at the original inhabitants. Warfare against the Indians, Reverend Cotton Mather explained, was a conflict between the Devil and God…”

1. Why do ministers now refrain from leading the way in justice if we were the ones who led the way toward injustice?
2. If the “Indians” were savages–filled with the devil, then how do we spiritually define the brutality Europeans imposed on various people groups over the next 400 years? Were these Europeans filled with the devil or with God?
3. How do these mindsets still influence our relationships today? Especially in the Church
4. How do we address these significant issues?

*Excerpt is taken from: A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki