Doctrine of Discovery and Racism

 Hi!

Check out our newest podcast on the Doctrine of Discovery. Have you ever heard of it?  It is the result of three papal bulls issued in 1400s. These three papal bulls make a great impact on the lives of Native Americans to this day. It allowed slavery and perpetual ownership of non Europeans across the globe. Not until the 2010s and 2023 did about two dozen protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic church denounce it's teachings and the racists ideology behind it. 

Racism is often considered the US's original sin. It is necessary for denominations and churches to recognize how much White People have benefited from laws and beliefs that have been turned into systems keeping groups in poverty, denying jobs to qualified individuals and creating an attitude of entitlement among White People. In this episode we talk a bit about how the Eisenhower Highway system targeted black communities and left those communities divided, cut off, and suffering health problems from pollution. 

Learning about racism and systemic racism is necessary to understand our present and to make our future more just. Repenting of the generational trauma Christianity has inflicted on Native Americans, African Americans, and colonized countries is a necessary action to help bring peace and end needless suffering. It is the least we can do. Religious trauma comes in many forms, and when it becomes part of the legal system has consequences that last 100s of years. 

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