October
2006
On Indigenous People’s Day
What does it mean to be a progressive Christian? The adjective is an obscure description of how a growing number of Christians are choosing to identify. Personally, I have not yet fully embraced the word. Whenever I write an email to a friend I use the long-winded description of “I am a progressive-prophetic-emergent-radical-liberal-Christian activist-Jesus follower.” Who can argue with that?
Identifying labels, whether “progressive” or not, sometimes fail to capture the essence of what a person believes and how that person’s life is changed because of it. Why do I need an adjective to identify myself? Why isn’t being a Christian enough?
When I think of someone I would like to identify with, apart from a one-word adjective that could be misconstrued or politicized, I think of Bartolomé de las Casas, a 16th century Spanish priest who settled in the Americas during the time of Christopher Columbus. Las Casas witnessed the exploitation, brutal torture and the genocide committed by the Spanish conquistadors against the indigenous population.
At one time Las Casas participated in the unjust system and received an encomienda, a piece of land to help the conquistadors achieve affluence and accrue credit in heaven. They were given to them in gratitude for services rendered. On them, they had Native Americans as forced labor to dig for gold, and in return promised to teach the heathen population the gospel, so they could die in grace and escape damnation.
For over 12 years Las Casas lived in this system. Over this period he felt no major shift in his conscience, until he examined a passage of scripture that exposed his sins in its entirety. After multiple experiences, he gave up his encomienda and dedicated his life to advocating for the rights of the native peoples. He documented the atrocities against them in a book and gave it to King Charles V. He asserted that the Native Americans were human beings — something not generally accepted by his European companions — and deserved the same treatment as everyone else. He was ridiculed, marginalized and called a traitor by his compatriots.
On this Monday, Indigenous People’s Day, I would like to honor the life and work of Bartolomé de las Casas who showed solidarity with the oppressed peoples and stood up to the injustice on their behalf.
This is just one way I would define what it means to be a progressive-prophetic-emergent…(well, you know what I mean) Christian.
As a progressive mystical contemplative prophetic Christian I have fully embraced the word but I too had to struggle to define what that meant for me.
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