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A review by oldaq_001
Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Soong-Chan Rah, Mark Charles
4.0
Interesting reading...
This is a good reading. It analyses the birth of the Doctrine of Discovery, based on the Papal Bulls of the late 1400s, how the others moved from the Saracens to everyone but White Christian Europeans, and how it came to the USA. Looks at its base on Christian Imperialism - Christiandom - starting the IV Century.
it.
The book used two terms, one is diseased social imagination and the other is heresy of empire. Former is how the construction of society (externalization -> institutionalization -> internalization) builds Supremacy as status quo impossible to challenge; the later is religion as the justification for imperial aspirations, American Exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, Just war (regardless of what it truly what it is), etc.
Both authors are Evangelical Native Americans, which on one hand gives them a unique perspective; it also means the book is spread with biblical references, particularly chapter three, and literal interpretation.
A very useful part is a counterpoint to the narrative used by Christian White Supremacists who use Biblical references to justify themselves. They do a really good job going almost point by point.
They indicate that in a reconciliation process the Christian Church can participate, cannot lead. Its involvement in the establishment of the American Christiandom, White Christian Supremacy, forbids it.
I find some of their conclusions, on perpetrator PTSD or the way they apply White Fragility, not very convincing; I believe I understand their argument and value on how they frame them.
As a UU (Secular) Humanist same goes for some of the religious based arguments. As said, I believe it is a good read and I recommend it; it gives new information, perspective and some tools to address the issue.
From the final chapters:
"The United States of America has a white majority that remembers a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and exceptionalism. Meanwhile our communities of color have the lived experiences of stolen lands, broken treaties, slavery, Jim Crow laws, Indian removal, ethnic cleansing, lynchings, boarding schools, segregation, internment camps, mass incarceration, and families separated at our borders. Our country does not have a common memory. "
[A discussion on gender, race, systemic discrimination, etc. and reparations is long overdue]
This is a good reading. It analyses the birth of the Doctrine of Discovery, based on the Papal Bulls of the late 1400s, how the others moved from the Saracens to everyone but White Christian Europeans, and how it came to the USA. Looks at its base on Christian Imperialism - Christiandom - starting the IV Century.
it.
The book used two terms, one is diseased social imagination and the other is heresy of empire. Former is how the construction of society (externalization -> institutionalization -> internalization) builds Supremacy as status quo impossible to challenge; the later is religion as the justification for imperial aspirations, American Exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, Just war (regardless of what it truly what it is), etc.
Both authors are Evangelical Native Americans, which on one hand gives them a unique perspective; it also means the book is spread with biblical references, particularly chapter three, and literal interpretation.
A very useful part is a counterpoint to the narrative used by Christian White Supremacists who use Biblical references to justify themselves. They do a really good job going almost point by point.
They indicate that in a reconciliation process the Christian Church can participate, cannot lead. Its involvement in the establishment of the American Christiandom, White Christian Supremacy, forbids it.
I find some of their conclusions, on perpetrator PTSD or the way they apply White Fragility, not very convincing; I believe I understand their argument and value on how they frame them.
As a UU (Secular) Humanist same goes for some of the religious based arguments. As said, I believe it is a good read and I recommend it; it gives new information, perspective and some tools to address the issue.
From the final chapters:
"The United States of America has a white majority that remembers a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and exceptionalism. Meanwhile our communities of color have the lived experiences of stolen lands, broken treaties, slavery, Jim Crow laws, Indian removal, ethnic cleansing, lynchings, boarding schools, segregation, internment camps, mass incarceration, and families separated at our borders. Our country does not have a common memory. "
[A discussion on gender, race, systemic discrimination, etc. and reparations is long overdue]