Bringing Indigenous ideas into Christian theology

The announcement that Pope Francis is coming to Canada July 24-29 to formally apologize to Indigenous folks has excited Roman Catholics and lots of different Canadians.

For Terry LeBlanc, a Mi’kmaq-Acadian from Prince Edward Island, that apology is welcome.

“The papal apology was a very long time in coming,” he mentioned. “Many individuals are glad for it, not simply Catholics. It’s a chance to as soon as once more inform the story of the faculties, to ensure it doesn’t simply fade into the background.”

In late April, LeBlanc obtained a Pax Award from Canadian Mennonite College. The award, given to acknowledge and honour individuals who lead exemplary lives of service, management, and reconciliation in church and society, was given to LeBlanc for his work to indigenize Christian theology by the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Research, also referred to as NAIITS.

By way of NAIITS, LeBlanc and his spouse, Bev, have devoted vitality and energy to introduce Indigenous concepts into the way in which Christians view mission and theology.

Their specific focus has been on evangelicals, a gaggle which may not really feel a must apologize to Indigenous folks since they weren’t concerned in working residential colleges.

That will be a faulty view, mentioned LeBlanc, noting some Methodists, Baptists and Mennonites have been concerned with a couple of Indigenous colleges in Manitoba, the Yukon and Ontario.

Even when they have been solely concerned in a small variety of colleges, they “can’t divest themselves from them as Canadians and Christians,” he mentioned, including that tragic historical past is everybody’s situation in Canada as we speak.

And even when they didn’t run the faculties, “there is no such thing as a file of evangelicals talking up in opposition to the faculties and their abuses on the time,” LeBlanc mentioned. “I can’t discover any evangelical voices who spoke up in opposition to them.”

Evangelicals must also concentrate, LeBlanc suggests, due to the methods by which their mission work additionally harmed folks in Indigenous communities.

This began with what number of missionaries considered them solely as individuals who wanted to be transformed to the missionary’s mind-set.

“There was no concept they’d something optimistic to contribute,” LeBlanc mentioned, including Indigenous folks have been typically satisfied to drop their conventional methods and observe western methods of practising the Christian religion.

One other tragic consequence of that evangelistic work was how Indigenous communities and households have been fractured into completely different church buildings and denominations.

“Indigenous persons are about neighborhood and household, however this divided them,” he mentioned, noting a neighborhood of 200-300 folks may have 5 or 6 completely different church buildings.

“This induced important spiritual and social division, isolating folks from one another,” he mentioned.

By way of NAIITS LeBlanc is actively attempting to assist non-Indigenous Christians consider new methods to narrate to Indigenous folks by decolonizing their theology — not seeing the western manner of being a Christian as the one manner.

When missionaries and evangelists got here to Indigenous folks, LeBlanc mentioned, they introduced a prescribed set of behaviours rooted in western Christianity that urged they needed to “appear to be, stroll like, discuss like, act like, assume like, pray like, sing like us” with the intention to be genuine Christians, he mentioned.

However LeBlanc doesn’t solely wish to assist Indigenous Christians see the religion from their very own perspective; he additionally needs to assist non-Indigenous Christians study what the religion may appear to be from an Indigenous viewpoint.

For him meaning shifting away from a “dualistic” view of Christianity that sees every part as black or white or both/or.

Life for Indigenous folks is just not so simply “captured in easy binaries and both/or arguments nonetheless so comfortably located inside western thought,” he mentioned, however is extra a “each/and” manner of viewing the world.

The both/or view of life has resulted in divisions between the sacred and secular and the pure and supernatural for Christians, he mentioned.

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“For many of us within the Indigenous world, every part expresses the sacred, for all of it proceeds from the sacred, from God,” he mentioned.

This carries over into how Christians learn the Bible, he mentioned, noting some view it by a western binary lens of issues being seen as both true or false.

“One thing doesn’t must be actual to be true,” he mentioned, noting the Bible is a set of narratives which can be much like the tales Indigenous folks inform about their origins and the Creator’s exercise amongst them.

At a minimal, non-Indigenous Christians “want to simply accept they don’t have all of the solutions,” he mentioned, and that they will study one thing from how Indigenous folks practise the religion or learn the Bible.

This, he added, may also help all Christians to “dwell life in a great way of their context, to not need to import another person’s way of life the Christian religion,” a manner “that may assist us all be higher human beings.”

religion@freepress.mb.ca

John Longhurst
Religion reporter

John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg’s religion pages since 2003. He additionally writes for Faith Information Service within the U.S., and blogs concerning the media, advertising and communications at Making the Information.

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