Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out today to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, for the second meeting of our online adult faith formation book study on “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” by Jemar Tisby. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets over Zoom Sunday evenings. Details including the Zoom link have been redacted, and we have appended a handout I wrote on the Doctrine of Discovery, a series of 15th-century papal bulls that set the tone for white Christian relations with “all Saracens [Muslims] and pagans whatsoever” (the popes’ words, not ours) in the lands “discovered” by European colonists.
Hi everybody!
[…] This week we’re reading Chapter 2 of “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” by Jemar Tisby. This chapter outlines the early days of European contact with indigenous peoples, beginning with Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492, and the first days of African slavery in North America. He then discusses the origins and development of chattel slavery and racist thought in the British colonies during the colonial era, along with the role of Christians in protecting rather than challenging the status quo.
We’ve attached a handout outlining key concepts in Chapter 2 and containing our discussion questions.
We’ve also included some supplemental materials on the Doctrine of Discovery. Understanding the Doctrine’s role in justifying the seizing and exploitation of people and land enables us to connect two histories that are often treated separately — that of Native Americans and that of enslaved Africans. The white supremacy, entitlement and sense of superiority — often tacitly supported by Christians — were used to justify both the enslavement of Africans and the genocide and forced removal of Native Americans.
The Wikipedia article “Discovery Doctrine” has a complete, and excellent, summary of the 1493 papal doctrine, its legacy and recent church action to repudiate it. We’ve included a link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_doctrine.
We’ve also attached a handout, “Doctrine of Discovery and its legacy: Summary and highlights.” The handout, created by Pete, gives a brief thumbnail sketch of the doctrine and answers this question: But what does a 1493 papal bull have to do with Lutherans in present-day Illinois or the Upper Midwest? [It’s copied below in the text of this post.]
Finally, we’ve linked to an excellent short video explaining the Doctrine of Discovery and its legacy through the eyes of members of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3gF7ULVrl4&t=14s
Throughout “The Color of Compromise,” Tisby focuses primarily on the African American experience with evangelical churches and mainline Protestant churches that have their roots in the British isles. As we move through the book, we will continue to include some supplemental materials focusing on Christianity’s compromise with racism, including Christian relationships with Native Americans and the role of Lutherans in all of this. We hope this expanded emphasis will allow us to broaden our focus on what we can do, as individuals and as Lutherans, to overcome the legacy of systemic racism.
We look forward to seeing you on February 11 for a great discussion!
[Here’s the text of Pete’s handout:]
Doctrine of Discovery and its legacy: Summary and highlights
The Doctrine of Discovery grew out of a series of papal bulls in the 1400s that allowed European Christians to “subdue all Saracens [Muslims] and pagans whatsoever” and “any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ” and to “reduce their persons to perpetual servitude,” in the words of the first bull, issued in 1452 by Pope Nicholas V.
That bull authorized the Portuguese to establish colonies in Africa and Asia; the final bull, issued in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, authorized Spain similarly to colonize the Americas and “bring under your sway the said mainland and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic faith.” Taken together, these are known as the Doctrine of Discovery.
But what does a 1493 papal bull have to do with Lutherans in present-day Illinois or the Upper Midwest? The Wikipedia article “Discovery Doctrine” picks up the story:
France and England also made claims to territories inhabited by non-Christians based on first discovery, but disputed the notion that papal bulls, or discovery by itself, could provide title over lands. In 1541, French plans to establish colonies in Canada drew protests from Spain. In response, France effectively repudiated the papal bulls and claims based on discovery without possession, the French king stating that “Popes hold spiritual jurisdiction, and it does not lie with them to distribute land amongst kings” and that “passing by and discovering with the eye was not taking possession.”
Similarly, when in 1580 Spain protested to Elizabeth I about Francis Drake’s violation of the Spanish sphere, the English queen replied that popes had no right to grant the world to princes, that she owed no allegiance to the Pope, and that mere symbolic gestures (such as erecting monuments or naming rivers) did not give property rights.
From the sixteenth century, France and England asserted a right to explore and colonize any non-Christian territory not under the actual possession of a Christian sovereign. The stated justifications for this included the spread of Christianity, the duty to bring civilization to “barbarian” peoples, the natural right to explore and trade freely with other peoples, and the right to settle and cultivate “uninhabited” or uncultivated land.
We don’t always remember this, but Illinois was French before it was British (then American after the revolution). And it was home to the Illiniwek and Potawatomi people, among others, from the beginning of time.
What’s important to us today about these property claims by popes and long-ago kings and queens is the assumption that Christians had special rights and privileges denied to others on account of religion. This attitude would persist right up to very recent times. It was less than a year ago that Pope Francis formally repudiated the doctrine of his predecessors. (See linked article below.) His action follows the United Nations’ adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 and subsequent repudiation of the doctrine by the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the United Church of Christ, the Christian Reformed Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and ELCA.
In 2016 ELCA’s churchwide assembly adopted a resolution repudiating the doctrine, which it described as “an example of the ‘improper mixing of the power of the church and the power of the sword’.” In 2021, ELCA followed up with a declaration to American Indian and Alaska Native communities, both in the church and in Indian Country nationwide. ELCA’s PR office announced:
The declaration concludes with a pledge to three groups — Indigenous ELCA communities, Indigenous communities in the U.S., and non-Indigenous ELCA communities. The pledge focuses on doing more to understand the doctrine, the church’s role in perpetuating it and how to partner with Native organizations to end the harmful effects of the doctrine and become stronger advocates for Indigenous communities throughout the U.S. The declaration ends with an understanding that accomplishing its goal to actively and fully repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery will take more than words; it will take tangible action to undo the damage created since the late-15th century.
The news release is linked below, along with the Wikipedia article, which outlines church action repudiating the doctrine.
As we will see in coming weeks, most Lutherans settled in areas where slavery was not economically feasible (although available evidence suggests that those who settled in slave states happily endorsed slavery); and they came in greatest numbers after emancipation. But we all have to deal with the aftereffects of the Doctrine of Discovery and the caste system to which it gave rise.
Links and Citations
“ELCA issues declaration to American Indian and Alaska Native people” [press release], ELCA News, Chicago, Oct. 11, 2021 https://elca.org/News-and-Events/8120
Clay Jenkinson, “What the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery Means for Indian Country,” Governing, April 9, 2023 https://www.governing.com/context/what-the-repudiation-of-the-doctrine-of-discovery-means-for-indian-country
Wikipedia article: “Discovery doctrine” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_doctrine
[Uplinked Feb. 8, 2024]
Ordinary Time 