The Religious Connection to "Columbus Day."

[MineralMan]

It is, indeed a religious holiday. A "Christian" holiday. Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) represents all of the "explorers" who came to the shores of the Western Hemisphere. All had a religious connection to bring to these "new" lands.

Columbus, like many of the "explorers" of his day, brought Roman Catholic priests and soldiers with them. As they encountered indigenous peoples and cultures, they gave them Christianity. If their gift was not accepted, or even when it was, they also gave them European diseases, rape, slavery and death. All in the name of Jesus Christ.

That happened centuries ago, and was very, very successful. In many places, no trace whatever remains of the genetic lines of those indigenous peoples or their cultures. The genocide was complete in many areas.

Wherever the Europeans landed, death and misery spread out inexorably from their landing places. So did Christianity. Along the Central Coast of California, the Chumash culture was enslaved, converted, and died. That, thanks to Fr. Junipero Serra and the soldiers he brought with him. The Roman Catholic Church brought Jesus to the the Chumash, and then killed them all off, one way or another.

There is no separation between those events and the religious beliefs of those European invaders. None. The two are inextricably linked.

We are beginning to recognize that. Minnesota changed "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples Day." It should be a day of mourning and penance, it seems to me.

It is not a happy day. It has never been a happy day. Thanks to religion, it is a day commemorating genocide.

[SHRED]

1. Patriarchal beliefs and religions are a curse on this world

Toxic masculinity is abusive and deadly on many levels.

[MineralMan]

2. You're right. More's the pity.

[Cartoonist]

3. That's St. Junipero Serra

When you commit genocide in Jesus' name, they make you a saint.

[MineralMan]

4. I refuse to refer to that man as a saint.

His canonization was a vicious blow to all Native Americans.

[Iggo]

6. When the catholics make a dead guy a saint...

...it's no more real than when mormons make a dead guy a mormon.

It is rude, though.

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. No more real to you, perhaps.

No one is suggesting you should aspire to be more like post-mortem Mormon Hitler. But saints are revered. Men and women to be admired and emulated.

It is a case of further enshrining bad behavior in an organization that, at it's best point in human history, sided with hundreds of pedophiles over thousands of kids.

[pretzel4gore]

5. what about the animals?

just the norway rat alone did untold horror around the world (countless places where flightless birds etc had evolved pre 'conquest'!) See the book 'Rat Island, Aleutians'
I recall as a kid reading about a man named "Grey Owl' who in the 20's befriended a old Indian guy who told him about seeing countless thousands of dead buffalo rotting in the sun as far as the eye could see, and thousands of little calfs crying helpless by the mothers....omg. To focus on the 'god, guns and steel' aspect of what happened justifies the horror, and NOTHING can do that. Grey Owl's friend was an old man, but the memmory of what white men did destroyed him..
This trump ass** character is nothing!

[guillaumeb]

8. Thanks to imperialism, it is a day commemorating genocide.

That would be a more accurate summary. But the narrative must be served.

[MineralMan]

9. The most all-inclusive genocide off all time

Was perpetrated by an Old Testament deity. All people, save one family, were eliminated. Or so it is written, anyhow. Religion and genocide go hand in hand.

[guillaumeb]

10. Another literalist?

When it serves the narrative?

[MineralMan]

11. It's not my scripture.

It is the scripture of Christians and Jews. I am not the literalist here.

[guillaumeb]

12. Your many comments indicate otherwise.

Including in this thread.

Perhaps you misunderstand the term.

[MineralMan]

13. No. I understand you full well.