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A review by kevinnorman
God Is Red: A Native View of Religion by Vine Deloria Jr.
5.0
Vine Deloria’s God Is Red has been a worldview changing book for me, helping me to see see my Christian faith through the eyes a people group that Europeans nearly wiped out in the the name of manifest destiny. Deloria presents a searing indictment and a structured takedown on Christendom as a flawed historical religion and worldview. While I disagree that the heart of Christianity is flawed, I agree to a large degree with Deloria that Christianity has lost its way and creates many problems for the world in its current state.
Chapter 5: Thinking in Time and Space
Contrasts the difference between the domestic ideology of time of Westerners, and the domestic ideology of space that Natives American Indians hold with their lands as having the highest possible meaning, and immigrants hold that their history of moving across that land over time is a story of progress, and this has been the destiny of the people of Europe. As a result of the clashing ideologies, once colonized the American Indian tribal religions were considered irrelevant because they didn’t fall into the categories of religion defined with time-based concepts and doctrines.
Chapter 6: The Problem of Creation
While both religions agree on the role and activity of a creator, Christians see creation as a linear event whereas tribal religions are more concerned with the interrelatedness of all things than with the beginning and end of time. One of the problematic views that many Christians hold is the idea that man receives domination over creation to “subdue the earth.” This view has used to justify treating earth as a mere object for economic exploitation.
The task of tribal religion is “to determine the proper relationship that the people of the tribe must have with other living things.” Deloria quotes Walking Buffalo, a Stoney Indian from Canada: “Did you know that trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if they listen. Trouble is, white people don’t listen. They never learned to listen to the Indians, so I don’t suppose they’ll listen to other voices in nature. But I have learned a lot from trees; sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit.” Tribal religions understand that we are dealing with “complexity of relationships in which no particular object is given primacy over any other object or entity.”
Chapter 7: The Concept of History
Recording history has never been a priority of tribal religions, whereas Christianity has always placed a major emphasis on history. “Where, if not from Christianity, did Western man get his ideas of divine right to conquest, of manifest destiny, of himself as the vanguard of true civilization, if not from Christianity? Having tied itself to history and maintained that its god controlled that history, Christianity must accept the consequences of its past. Secular history is now out of control and is becoming a rather demoniac, disruptive force among the nations of men, and that is part and parcel of the Christian religion."
Chapter 11: Human Personality
This chapter starts off by contrasting how Christians believe that becoming a Christian involves a radical change in the human being’s constitution, whereas Indian tribal religions do not necessarily involve a change in the person but “encompass within the tribal cultural context man of the behavioral patterns spoken about by Christians.” This chapter then moves into talking about what effect in practical terms Christian living has on individuals and societies. Deloria states “The response of many Christians to the reminder that their religion has failed to bring peace on earth, or even a semblance of it, has been that the people who committed the numerous sins filling the pages of Western and world history were not really Christians. If we eliminate those perpetrators of criminal activity from the Western world, we are left with a very small percentage of people who were really Christians. Why did these people remain silent while the various abuses were being committed in the name of their religion."
Chapter 15: The Aboriginal World and Christian History
In this chapter Deloria details the trauma resulting in some of the early Christian beliefs of mankind growing out of a literal Garden of Eden and populating the world. “What were devout thinkers to make of the existence of millions of people living on lands larger than Europe? What was their status with respect to Christianity — the one true religion? Did God have a purpose for these people? Could Jesus return until all of these nations had been preached the gospel? What was the responsibility of God’s chosen nations in the face of this revelation of the tremendous scope of mankind?” He goes on to say that for Christianity to survive we have to let go of our narrow interpretation of history and our binding of God to a particular mode of operation and sequence of appearance.
Chapter 16: Religion today
In the final chapter, Deloria explains that opposing tribal concepts to Christianity does not necessarily mean that tribal concepts are correct because Christianity is wrong. Instead, Christianity should consider ideas found in Native American tribal religions because in the current state Christianity has failed in many areas that still need alternative answers. Deloria’s call is that Christians should be open to learning from land based religions as the future of humankind depends on those who will understand the integrations of lands and people.
Reading God is Red as a Christian wasn’t easy, but I found a lot of value in the harsh criticism. It was a reminder and an education for me how the history of Christianity includes a lot of megalomania, bigotry, nationalism, and many other sins common to every man. Unless Christians can be honest about our history and our blind spots, we may be clumsy at best and harmful and destructive at worst in the message of love we try to share.
Chapter 5: Thinking in Time and Space
Contrasts the difference between the domestic ideology of time of Westerners, and the domestic ideology of space that Natives American Indians hold with their lands as having the highest possible meaning, and immigrants hold that their history of moving across that land over time is a story of progress, and this has been the destiny of the people of Europe. As a result of the clashing ideologies, once colonized the American Indian tribal religions were considered irrelevant because they didn’t fall into the categories of religion defined with time-based concepts and doctrines.
Chapter 6: The Problem of Creation
While both religions agree on the role and activity of a creator, Christians see creation as a linear event whereas tribal religions are more concerned with the interrelatedness of all things than with the beginning and end of time. One of the problematic views that many Christians hold is the idea that man receives domination over creation to “subdue the earth.” This view has used to justify treating earth as a mere object for economic exploitation.
The task of tribal religion is “to determine the proper relationship that the people of the tribe must have with other living things.” Deloria quotes Walking Buffalo, a Stoney Indian from Canada: “Did you know that trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if they listen. Trouble is, white people don’t listen. They never learned to listen to the Indians, so I don’t suppose they’ll listen to other voices in nature. But I have learned a lot from trees; sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit.” Tribal religions understand that we are dealing with “complexity of relationships in which no particular object is given primacy over any other object or entity.”
Chapter 7: The Concept of History
Recording history has never been a priority of tribal religions, whereas Christianity has always placed a major emphasis on history. “Where, if not from Christianity, did Western man get his ideas of divine right to conquest, of manifest destiny, of himself as the vanguard of true civilization, if not from Christianity? Having tied itself to history and maintained that its god controlled that history, Christianity must accept the consequences of its past. Secular history is now out of control and is becoming a rather demoniac, disruptive force among the nations of men, and that is part and parcel of the Christian religion."
Chapter 11: Human Personality
This chapter starts off by contrasting how Christians believe that becoming a Christian involves a radical change in the human being’s constitution, whereas Indian tribal religions do not necessarily involve a change in the person but “encompass within the tribal cultural context man of the behavioral patterns spoken about by Christians.” This chapter then moves into talking about what effect in practical terms Christian living has on individuals and societies. Deloria states “The response of many Christians to the reminder that their religion has failed to bring peace on earth, or even a semblance of it, has been that the people who committed the numerous sins filling the pages of Western and world history were not really Christians. If we eliminate those perpetrators of criminal activity from the Western world, we are left with a very small percentage of people who were really Christians. Why did these people remain silent while the various abuses were being committed in the name of their religion."
Chapter 15: The Aboriginal World and Christian History
In this chapter Deloria details the trauma resulting in some of the early Christian beliefs of mankind growing out of a literal Garden of Eden and populating the world. “What were devout thinkers to make of the existence of millions of people living on lands larger than Europe? What was their status with respect to Christianity — the one true religion? Did God have a purpose for these people? Could Jesus return until all of these nations had been preached the gospel? What was the responsibility of God’s chosen nations in the face of this revelation of the tremendous scope of mankind?” He goes on to say that for Christianity to survive we have to let go of our narrow interpretation of history and our binding of God to a particular mode of operation and sequence of appearance.
Chapter 16: Religion today
In the final chapter, Deloria explains that opposing tribal concepts to Christianity does not necessarily mean that tribal concepts are correct because Christianity is wrong. Instead, Christianity should consider ideas found in Native American tribal religions because in the current state Christianity has failed in many areas that still need alternative answers. Deloria’s call is that Christians should be open to learning from land based religions as the future of humankind depends on those who will understand the integrations of lands and people.
Reading God is Red as a Christian wasn’t easy, but I found a lot of value in the harsh criticism. It was a reminder and an education for me how the history of Christianity includes a lot of megalomania, bigotry, nationalism, and many other sins common to every man. Unless Christians can be honest about our history and our blind spots, we may be clumsy at best and harmful and destructive at worst in the message of love we try to share.