Respect

I talk about history a lot, but it is because a) I love it and b) because I assistant teach an 8th grade world history class. Today we were discussing the Age of Exploration. In Hispaniola in the early 1500s, people didn't know what to do about "the Indian problem," as it was called back then (some of these people still believed they were off the cost of India - Magellan had not circumnavigated the globe at this point). Naturally, they asked the pope for his advice. So the Laws of Burgos developed in 1512. These laws said that the natives had to voluntarily leave their own land and live on encomiendas, convert to Catholicism, be tested in the faith by the Encomenderos (people watching over the encomiendas) every two weeks. Yes, these laws also tried to protect the natives in some ways, but those sections were conviently ignored. So the natives were extrememly mistreated. They were forced to work in mines, slaving away, and then forced to attend a mass that they did not even understand every week. I am a Christian, but this is not the way to share Jesus. For the next three hundred years, at least, Catholicism was only used as a politcal means in South America. Yes, I'm sure there were some truly devout Christians, but across the board, just like with the Crusades, South Americans rejected Christianity. The fact that the Europeans not only forced the natives to become Christians but mistreated them horrifically...that makes me mad. I wish someone had taken the time to learn the culture of the natives, learn the language, and cared about them as people, not some sort of sub-human creature. It really makes me wonder, do we do this today? When we go into other countries, particularly those in places far less fortunate that America, do we consider ourselves better than them, expect them to bow to our every whim? I'm almost afraid to answer that question. I feel like if we took the time to really learn a culture, learn their values and expectations of peole and way of life, our world would be a much better place. I know things will never be perfect of completely peaceful - there are people on this planet - but they could definitely be a lot better. I pray we are not behaving like the Encomenderos, forcing people to think as we do and mistreating them when they don't want to. I know I keep writing about this, but I am passionate about it. I hate that this mistake keeps being made over and over again.