Sorry for the many posts this morning, but I've been thinking a lot about the movement among college students that describe themselves as being "against settler-colonialism". Theres a ton to say about this and I'm in the process of writing a response against it, but I think the root of this idealism that has gripped the younger generation is the unconscious desire within the human frame that mourns the loss of our true ancestral homeland - which is the Garden of Eden. I think much of the idealized view of indigenous peoples comes from the dream of a world where sin didn't exist. Now, it's important to say that while its absolutely true that the native americans were people made in God's image just as much as the settlers were and that the wars between the two were tragic (just as all wars are); that the view that they were somehow unstained from original sin is ahistorical. Native americans committed their fair share of injustice and oppression. Sin, which is the root of injustice and oppression, is something which has spoiled all peoples from all time (Romans 3:19). But if we put aside the critique we would have with the assumption of native innocence we can see in the Ivy League protestor a kind of longing for a better world. My prayer is that we would figure out a way to reach such individuals who feel this sense of alienation and show them that the solution isn't utopian politics but rather a city who's Builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).

Posted by Clifford Paul Engels at 2025-02-15 14:07:35 UTC