Theology of Nuance; Struggling with God and Man and Overcoming

video- Walking In Your Footsteps by The Police

I am a Christian. I am a blogger. I am someone who grapples with life’s larger questions on a moment to moment basis. In cruising around the Internet and monitoring the ongoing debate between Christians of differing theological interpretations and Christians and scientists and/or Christians and atheists there is one persistent question that just keeps popping up. How old is the earth? some Christian literalists seem to believe that if they don’t do the math just a certain way and give in to the notion that the earth is only about 4-6 thousand years old that they are somehow being heretical… disrespecting God and rejecting his Holy Word, the Bible.

Well, I tell you right now that I am a Christian who believes the Bible and I find the notion that the earth is less than ten thousand years old… well… not very believable. To be fair, I don’t necessarily believe that the earth as we know it is hundreds of millions of years old either.

As for the Christian “literalists“, the literalism seems to be one of convenience… after all the Bible also says to love your enemies and those whom may not agree with you. I know very few Christians who pay much attention to that passage- let alone do intellectual gymnastics to realize and/or internalize it in their everyday lives. “Conservative” and liberal Christians do not even speak civilly to one another for the most part let alone to unbelievers and the lost. I digress.

I don’t think that the account of origins as it is given in Genesis is meant to be an encyclopedia like telling of exactly what, when and how things began. Neither is it a totally figurative allegory. The plain fact of the matter is that it only tells us about God as Creator and the original purposes and intentions for mankind. It also tells about the entry of evil into the world and sets the stage for the battle of evermore between the Spirit of Truth and the Father of Lies.
You can take those items to the bank. As far as the exact chronology or timeline… who knows?
Anyone that claims they do know is mightily conceited. The bible does NOT give us that information.

Science gives us a spotty, incomplete and often biased opinion on these matters as well. The academic system works a lot like the media, organized religion or any other institution… anomalous evidence and/or dissenting opinion is squelched as much as possible in the interests of the corporate survival of the institution. Objectivity and truth often take a back seat to the god of money and agenda.

Let me just say this by way of offering my own thoughts on how old the earth might be. I have been to a place where on a raggedy, rocky knoll in Utah, near the Dinosaur National Monument there is a giant fossilized squid. My rational mind tells me that this as well as the rest of the fossil record and all the fossil fuels under the ground did not form in 6,000 years or less. In fact, I find such an idea absurd. I could be wrong of course. Yet, I find this idea almost as absurd as the idea that all the harmony, complexity, order, life and intelligence in the cosmos just happened by sheer mathematical chance and accident… but not quite. If one then insists that life and such came from God- this of course leads to the question of where God came from if there be such a thing. Once again, no man can really answer questions like that. I suppose theorizing on it is a worthy enough enterprise.

But, a lot of people… indigenous people Like Native Americans and/or Christians un-indoctrinated or unaffected by the western mindset and the desire to categorize, master and explain everything surrender questions and desires concerning exactly when, where and why. Instead they worry themselves with another question… perhaps the only one that really matters after all…HOW or WHAT is the right way to live… or what is one’s proper relationship to all things? I stand with those who grapple mostly with that question. Now, as a Christian let me say this… those answers can be found in Christ and I believe nowhere else. That is the only reason I am still a Christian. Believe me I know what a monumental task it is to try and convince someone of this if they do not first accept the Bible as a reliable source of information. The truth is no person can ever talk somebody into something they do not want to be true. Real understanding of these matters comes by spiritual means… in fact they are considered as a gift.
Again… if one does not allow for spiritual reality, then there is no sense trying to speak spiritual language to one who does not or will not hear it.

Well… I started writing this with but one question to pose and then got into the stream of consciousness. Anyway…. how old do you think the earth is? Maybe the better question is… does it really matter to how you will live your life?

I recently attended the World Missions Workshop at Oklahoma Christian University as I mentioned in the previous post. There I met some good folks and heard many inspiring things. I have exchanged e-mail with a few of the presenters that spoke at the conference now. I expressed my desire to do missions work and plant Churches of Christ among Native American Indians to someone I met there who in turn asked me about my personal history, my family heritage and my desire to reach Indians for Christ. Here is the response I wrote to him, I want to share it with the world:

Well, This is a long story, but I will tell it and tell it as concisely as possible so that you’ll understand my motivations concerning Indians. I am from the suburbs of Oklahoma City, Del City to be specific. I grew up there and now live right next door in Midwest City. I am a life long member of the Del City Church of Christ. I did spend about 12 years in Texas, 3 in Waco and then 9 in Dallas.

I graduated High School way back in 1982 in Del City. I then spent two years at Oklahoma Christian and then moved on to Oklahoma State and OU. My field of study was in Media, Journalism and Radio Television and Film.
I never did get a four year degree. I ended up getting a two year technical degree at Texas State Technical College in Waco. I have many unused college credits and am working on getting into a degree completion program asap. From there I want to get further education in theology and ministry. I had run out of time and money in about 1987 and had entered the work force. In 1987 I lost my support system. My mother and father divorced in 1987 after 29 years of marriage and my maternal grandparents which had lived nearby and always been supportive fell into very poor health and died. All this had a devastating effect on me.

I will return to that, but first let me lay a little background. Before that turn of events my relationship to the lord had been touch and go for quite a while. In high school I was a football player and typical jock. I had discovered beer drinking and women. I carried this affliction with me to OC and with me everywhere for years.
One reason this happened was because I had never been comfortable with the conception of God that I had been raised on.

For starters, I am half Cherokee. Thus, the official version of American history I was presented with at school and even church did not match the political, cultural history of the American Indian as I knew it as a tribal member. At school I was told all about the glory of the U.S. and manifest destiny. At church I was told how God adored the US and had blessed its Christian forefathers and “gifted” them with this land. As a Cherokee I was taught about the other side of the story…The Trail of Tears and the treaty breaking mendacity and graft of these allegedly Christian forefathers. When I visited my Cherokee kin folks I saw the poverty, bitterness, heartbreak and ongoing oppression. It was very difficult for me to understand how God could allegedly condone this situation. I myself harbored confusion, bitterness and rebellion over this. I had also developed a taste for alcohol to fill in the void, so when life got tougher and more disappointing… I drank more. Substance eventually became a real problem.

As I was saying, the Christian God I had been raised on and learned about in school did not hold all that much attraction for me. As I am sure you know, the Church of Christ has in the past been known for its legalism, ultra conservatism and intolerance. In Del City where I grew up there was at the time one the largest Southern Baptist Churches in the country. If you’ll remember, the early eighties saw the rise of the Christian Right and the “reconstructionists” as a political movement with the Southern Baptists leading the charge. As a Cherokee, this reminded me a little bit too much of the politics and policies that led to the near genocide of my Native ancestors. Its also worth mentioning that there is a large Air Force base nearby Del City. As you know, the rise of the “reconstructionist” movement in the Church and American politics and the pro-military-industrial- complex mindset of the Christian-right political movement has gone hand in hand for quite some time now. Add to all that the constant tension between the Church of Christ I attended and the local Southern Baptist crowd and it was a recipe that I was simply not interested in imbibing in. Nowadays, in the toxic political environment that has grown out of all this, when I discuss these matters I am typically labeled as a liberal. I find this ridiculous. The truth is that I am so gospel oriented and biblically orthodox and conservative that people simply think I am liberal because I dare to challenge some of the notions of the so called “Conservatives” that have held sway for 25 plus years now. Enough about that. Simply put, the labels don’t fit.

It was my Cherokee grandfather that eventually pointed me back to Christ- believe it or not. I had always known him as a full blooded, traditional minded Indian. He was also an alcoholic that was abusive to his family and my father in the past. He had also been a “Medicine Man” since the 1940’s. Before, he would never set foot in a “White man’s Church”.

By 1989 my life was out of control and I was exceedingly unhappy. I was estranged from God because of the dynamics and events I wrote about above. Yet, my conscience kept pointing me back to God and telling me I was missing something about Christ and the Church. Then the paranormal activity began. For the sake of brevity I won’t go into all that- but let’s just say some things started happening around me that I did not understand. I eventually learned that it wasn’t just going on around me, but also other members of my family. It wasn’t my imagination. I finally decided to go and talk to my Cherokee grandfather that I had not seen in five years. I knew that he was a Medicine Man and supposedly a spiritual leader that was supposed to know about all this paranormal stuff. I told him stories and poured my heart out to him…looking for answers…looking perhaps for the back door to Christianity and the doorway to Native spirituality. When I was done talking I just looked him in the eye with one question burning on the tip of my tongue.

“What do you know about the spirit world?” was that question.

Before I even asked, he reached into a drawer beside him and pulled out a worn out copy of the Bible. He held it up and said, “The answer to every question and concern you have is in this book.”

That is NOT what I expected to hear. So began my journey back to Christ and my education in spiritual warfare. Reaching my present state of mind, spiritual understanding and relationship with the Triune God has been a long process fraught with many trials and personal weaknesses, but by now, I can keep it to myself no more.

My grandfather went on to tell me how this transformation had come about in him. Due to the years of hard drinking he had had an aneurysm in his esophagus. When it bursted, he had died.. or had one of those near death type experiences. He had been “dead” for several minutes. When he recovered and was aware after a time he asked to see my dad and his half brother, my uncle. Both of them have their own stories and had become Christians many years before. Grandfather told his sons that he wanted to hear more about this Jesus because he had just met him. He said Jesus had told him that he was very sorry about the plight of the Cherokee and all the other Native races… that this had NOT been the will of the Father. He went on to tell him about how Indian people had always known the Father and been loved by him but that now they must “Come through me” to the father.
Grandfather was basically given the same message as in John 14:6-7

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Grandfather was further told to return to his life and begin to teach other Indians about Him. He was given some tasks to perform and told to instruct his people that they did not have to stop being Indians to follow him and to pray in the name of Christ from now on. I know this is a bit of a fantastic story, but, I have to acknowledge the profound transformation in my grandfather and the results it produced.

And so it began. When my grandfather began to carry out what he had been told, so began the spiritual warfare. This explained the “paranormal” activity that had been going on. Simply put, the forces of darkness seen and unseen did not want this change to occur. As I now understand it, the reasons are clear for this dynamic. When everyday, pew sitting, material thinking Christians begin to see the world again through spiritual eyes like the typical Indian does… like Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 6, in the context of Christian discipleship, they’ll be stomping all over the works of darkness and reaching the unreached like never before. The forces of darkness of course do NOT want this to happen. Unfortunately, the Church of Christ does not have much of a body of teaching about spiritual warfare. It should. My desire to evangelize Indians is wound up in these things and this is why I have the motivation, love and concern to reach out to them.

I find the message of incarnational ministry and its implications very attractive.

I know how far fetched some of this sounds. I have never been entirely comfortable sharing these things in a Church of Christ context because of the heritage of legalism in that group. After all, where I was raised we were so “conservative” it was essentially taught that even the Southern Baptists were Hellbound for their doctrinal liberalism. Can you imagine the amount of prayer and study I have had to engage in to reconcile all these things without falling into syncretism or extra biblical doctrine? By now I have my own body of experiences and insights on spiritual reality and the nature of God and Christ. I have to be able to share these things and talk about them comfortably and have mentors to carry out the calling I have.

I would be glad to hear your thoughts and/or advice.

Native Leaders Half-Heartedly Embrace ‘Historic’ Declaration
By Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Sep 14 (IPS) - While governments and the representatives of international agencies celebrated the approval of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples after more than two decades of negotiations, some native leaders and experts in Latin America were less enthusiastic.

In their criticism of the document, indigenous leaders Manuel Castro of Ecuador and Luis Andrade of Colombia, as well as the former director of the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, José del Val, pointed out to IPS that it is non-binding, and that parts of it were negotiated with little participation by the representatives of its presumptive beneficiaries.

A slightly different stance was taken by the spokesman for the Rigoberto Menchú Foundation, Elmer Erazo, who said the Declaration could be considered a stride forward “to the extent that indigenous people make use of it.”

But, he told IPS, “it’s nothing to jump up and down about.”

The Declaration was adopted Thursday by majority vote in the United Nations General Assembly. Only four countries — the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — voted against it, while Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Samoa and Ukraine abstained.

The 12-page Declaration states that indigenous peoples have the right “to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs”.

It also says native peoples have the right to maintain their cultures and to not be displaced from their land, and urges states to indemnify them when their land or resources are used or damaged without their consent.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is himself an Aymara Indian, said he was pleased with the approval of the Declaration, and added that “These standards will help ensure that everyone has the same rights and that we will stop being marginalised.”

Morales called on his indigenous sisters and brothers to take part in a world summit on Oct. 10-11 to celebrate and analyse the implications and repercussions of the Declaration.

Others, however, see less reason to celebrate.

“Twenty years of debate to produce this document, and we end up with a non-binding declaration that does not force governments to do anything; this is a disgrace,” said Castro, spokesman for the influential Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).

For his part, Andrade, president of the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC), said the new instrument “is like saying yes, but no,” since it is non-binding. In his view, many governments signed the document “just for the sake of image.”

With respect to the fact that Colombia abstained from voting — the only Latin American country to do so — Andrade said “it showed that the administration (of right-wing President Álvaro Uribe) threatens the right of indigenous people and is their enemy.”

Del Val, the former director of the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, said the Declaration should be taken “as an ethical and moral reference point for indigenous peoples, but nothing more than that.”

“It is a non-binding, very general declaration full of vague terms and tricky wording,” said del Val, who is the head of the Mexico Multicultural Nation University Programme (PUMC) at the Autonomous National University of Mexico.

“Many governments signed it as a formality, just to get it out of the way,” he said.

Erazo, of the Menchú Foundation, which is headed by Guatemalan indigenous leader and Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchú, agrees that the Declaration has no teeth.

He recommended, however, seeing it “as a weapon to be used by the people.”

According to signatory governments and U.N. authorities, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Declaration is a triumph for the world’s 270 million aboriginal people. “This marks a historic moment when member states and indigenous peoples reconciled with their painful histories,” said Ban.

But CONAIE’s Castro saw such reactions as overblown. “In our view, there is no significant gain, if we also take into account that we were not well-represented in the negotiations and that very few indigenous people are even aware of the existence of this document.”

“There are a number of laws and agreements that talk about our rights; this is just one more that is on its way to becoming dead letter,” he said.

Native leaders from the region, some of whom were not widely accepted or considered highly representative, took part in the negotiations at different points.

“We participated in some debates, but we have to say truthfully that the level of representation of most indigenous peoples was extremely low,” said Andrade.

According to government statistics, there are 38.5 million indigenous people in the Americas. However, that figure is seen by many experts as too low.

What there is no discrepancy over is the fact that indigenous people are the most vulnerable social group in the region, suffering the highest levels of poverty, and the most limited access to health care, education, decent housing and an adequate diet.

But in recent years, some indigenous groups in Latin America have become more organised and gained influence and political power, especially in countries like Ecuador and Bolivia.

Indigenous movements played a key role, for example, in toppling presidents Jamil Mahuad, in January 2000 in Ecuador, and Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, in October 2003 in Bolivia. In addition, Bolivia now has its first-ever indigenous president, who took office in early 2006. (END/2007)

1 Corinthians 2:14-15

14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment.

That means we are supposed to discern of all things- hold to that which is good and true and beautiful and helpful and throw out the rest. On that note… here is useful information:

Native American Religious and Cultural Freedom: an Introductory Essay (2005)
© Michael D. McNally

Full article found HERE.

Excerpt:

In all their diversity, people from different Native nations hasten to point out that their respective languages include no word for “religion”, and maintain an emphatic distinction between ways of life in which economy, politics, medicine, art, agriculture, etc., are ideally integrated into a spiritually-informed whole. As Native communities try to continue their traditions in the context of a modern American society that conceives of these as discrete segments of human thought and activity, it has not been easy for Native communities to accomplish this kind of integration. Nor has it been easy to to persuade others of, for example, the spiritual importance of what could be construed as an economic activity, such as fishing or whaling.

I believe that Christianity is supposed to be a holistic spiritual relationship rather than a religion per se.

Linked HERE is a page and program that is running a spiritual warfare boot camp that I am very interested in attending.

The curriculum is as listed below:

An Issue of War-The Nature of Spiritual Dynamics on Earth
Overcoming the Greek Mindset/Greek and Hebrew Biblical Word Search
God’s Order in Our Life-Healing Our Personal Wounds
Spiritual Mapping-God’s Geography
Dominion-Spiritual Implications of Weather/Wind
Water Spirits and the Realm of the Deep
Incarnational Intercession
Kingdom-Bringing Through the Exercise of Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Prayer and Fasting.
Cherokee History-Woodland Tribal Culture, Tribal Government
Treaties Present and Past
Tribal Casinos-How To Pray Over Tribal Land
Cherokee Prophecies

Needless to say these topics are right in line with some of the experience, knowledge and wisdom that I already have some understanding of. Note that I am not claiming to be anything but exposed to some of these concepts- the dynamics and understanding of the reality that goes with them. These are topics that I have been working towards opening up about every since I began writing about my testimony in the early nineties. This is where I have been subtly coaxing them that know me towards for many moons. These are topics that are ponderous, deep and carry a heavy responsibility and an inherent admonition to caution. Still, I am willing to engage on these things at a certain level with those who have questions or comments. In Indian communities these things are simply not discussed publicly. That is why I inserted the caveat “to a certain level”. My willingness to engage on this to ANY degree is dictated by the security of life in Christ as well as the desire to develop right relationship with the right people.

This is a door that I have been reluctant to open for a long time. The time has come.

1 Corinthians 2:14-15

14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment.

That means we are supposed to discern of all things- hold to that which is good and true and beautiful and helpful and throw out the rest. On that note… here is useful information:

Traditional [Native American] Indian Medicine
Treatment of Chronic Illness:

Development of an integrated program with conventional medicine and evaluation of effectiveness

Lewis E. Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.

1990 North Kolb Road
Tucson, AZ 85715
Phone: 520-304-6898
Fax: 520-621-3249
Email: mehlmadrona@aol.com

Summary :

Increasingly, traditional Native American healing practices are being requested by Native Americans and non-Natives alike. A series of meetings among traditional Native American healers and the author resulted in a dialogue between the Native American world view and that of biomedicine. Recommendations arose for how treatment should proceed in the modern world and how best to introduce interested non-Natives to Native American healing practices. An approach was developed for bridging cultures to facilitate the interaction of non-Natives with traditional healers.

One hundred sixteen patients were treated in this manner by the author in conjunction with traditional Native American healers. More than 80% of patients showed significant, persisting benefits of a time-intensive treatment program. A comparison group of patients derived from the author’s emergency room patients showed significantly lower rates of improvement. The author suggests that an intensive treatment experience (inspired by Native American practices) over 7-10 days for treating chronic physical illness achieves both health benefits and improved cost utility.

The treatment philosophy underlying this approach and communicated by the traditional healers is best described as general systems theory, or that of dynamic energy systems. Within this theoretical framework, physical illness can be treated by counseling and ceremony, since illness is viewed as simultaneously spiritual, mental, and physical. Because of the interaction and hierarchical embeddedness of these levels, intervention at any one level should affect any other.

Reults excerpts:

2. Healing takes place within the context of a relationship. The healers recognized that the quality of their relationship with the sick person was important in helping that person to find wellness. The better the relationship, the more likely was success. They recognized the relationship as a kind of container or vessel for the baking of the cake. “You wouldn’t put cake mix in the oven by just pouring it over the bottom,” one said. “You have to put it in something. Some kind of a bowl.” The relationship was the bowl in which the cake baked.

3. Acheiving an energy of activation is necessary. While the traditionals believed that healing takes time, they also believed that the time should be intensive. Water doesn’t boil until it’s very hot, they said. The medical practitioners likened this concept to catalysis and the energy of activation.

In both organic and biological chemistry, an energy of activation is required to initiate a reaction. Once inititated that reaction may proceed irreversibly to completion. Without sufficient energy of activation, the reaction never occurs. A minimal level of energy (usually heat) is needed to transform the internal arrangements of molecules. Traditional healers said that weekly or even daily hour-long sessions with a patient would not be sufficient to inititate healing (change on a physical level or, in the biochemical metaphor, to “rearrange the molecules”). The question of “how many hours over what period of time are necesary to produce change?” is rarely addressed in psychotherapy practice. The weekly visit has become normative. Even in intensive psychotherapy when patients are seen once daily, the question of “what would happen if we ‘raised the heat?’” is rarely addressed.

The Native American healers told us that they typically worked with the client until the job was done. They typically treated one client at a time, and some clients traveled great distances to see them. Sometimes they traveled far to see a patient, and needed to put in maximum effort over a short period of time. Partly because of long distances travelled, they would concentrate their work over a number of days with multiple hours being spent each day. When they felt progress had been made, the client would be sent home with instructions to return at a later date for further treatment, and often with specific instructions for tasks to complete during the interval between treatment.

4. Biological systems behave similarly across hierarchical levels. There is isomorphism of principles. The traditional medicine people told us that nature is the same at every level. The same principles that guides the movement of the stars and the sun work within the body. As a group we returned to the biochemical metaphor. The traditional healers quickly agreed that psychotherapeutic or psychophysiological change should behave just like change biochemical systems. We found ourselves discussing reaction kinetics, which asks basic questions about the amount of materials that must be present for a reaction to occur, the amount of energy that is required to start and to maintain a reaction (and sometimes to reverse it), what catalysts are required to facilitate the reaction, what enzymes are necessary, etc. For example, outside the human body considerable heat (thousands of degrees) is necessary to melt iron. Inside the body the process takes place at 37 degrees. Because of catalysts within the body, a minimum level of energy is needed to begin the change process which is then maintained with less energy. They idea emerged for the biomedical practitioners to try an intensive week of 6 contact hours per day to start a change process.

5. The distractions of modern life “inactivate” catalysts for change. Most traditional therapies stress the need for self-contemplation. With adequate time, skills, and emphasis upon self-exploration and discovery much of modern psychophysiological therapy might be unnecessary. The traditionals believed that the modern world complicated and vitiated our ability to heal ourselves by distracting us from our study of ourselves. Television wastes vital hours which can be used for healing. Reading can both enlighten and deaden. (The great novel brings us face to face with the human condition and our own similarities with the protagonists about which we must reflect; popular novels may repeat trite plots with minimum character development.) Newspapers fill the mind with only slightly relevant information. The more tabloid, the more useless. Running to friends, relatives, or movies can fill waking hours with activity as avoidance. The quest to avoid boredom provides the raw material for many advertising campaigns. This quest also avoids self-discovery. Without external distractions, consciousness turns inward for it must direct itself somewhere. Therapy is harder in proportion to the number of competing distractions. Weekly outpatient therapy is particular difficult since the therapist must compete with so many more pleasurable or obsessional distractions to the process of self-discovery. Our traditionals believed in removing their patients from the distractions of modern life and working with them in an environment of peace and quiet. This was usually done within the client’s home or within the medicine person’s home. Nevertheless, they advocated an intentional avoidance of newspapers, radios, televisions, magazines, telephones, computer games, and the myriad of other distractions available to modern people.

Our traditionals believed that catalysts on the organismic level corresponding to biochemical catalysts on the molecular level arose from self-exploration and developing an awareness of emotional states. Knowledge of personal misery fosters an inclination to do something about it. Excessive business or exhaustion can prevent reaching a level of emotional awareness from which change can occur.

___________________________________________________

S. Starr says,

Native American healing methodologies have a long history of effectiveness. I do not find the Native understanding of holistic, quantum healing to be much different than the spiritual Christian approach. Right off, critics and skeptics will be quick to point out the lack of evidence of miraculous healings. I would submit that this dilemma actually comes down to understanding what constitutes a miracle. The problem with the reductionist approach of the Western mindset, which has come to define what science is, is that it assumes that all levels of reality function like a logical, preditctable, reproducable mechanism or machine. Something then , is only considered valid by this mindset when it falls within the parameters of consistent reproduction in a lab or lab like setting. This sort of mindset is not apparent with true spiritual people whether they are Christains, American Indians or any other grouping. Most Western minded Christians consider themselves to be spiritual people- but rather they are not.
Western minded Christains seemingly have no problem accepting the creation story from the Bible or many other grand tales of the Bible as literal. Yet, they seem a bit shy and stop short of contemplating what these tales might actually imply about the spiritual reality that their everyday physical lives exists within. The Church, such as it is called, has made certain compromises with what they collectively agree upon as science. These compromises impinge upon eternal, supernatural thinking.
As to the point of lack of evidence of miraculous healing- I would humbly submit that often what is considered supernatural is often only natural. What is natural is “supernatural”. It is a miracle afterall that anything exists at all. That atoms are formed and cling together one upon the other to make matter is a miracle . Needless to say, matter being organized into living consciousness is miraculous even if- and especially if- you believe that sub-atomic particles organized themselves into consciousness by sheer, mathematical, random chance over a long enough period of time.

Simply put, the common definition of a miracle is the breakage of the laws of nature or physics. I am simply suggesting that often what we think the “laws” of the universe are and what they actually are - do not match. Also, there are limitations to spiritual healing in the physical realm just as there are limits to physical medicine, limits to time and space and comprehension.
Spirtual people operate on spiritual discernment combined with logic and reason as opposed to logic and/or reason alone. The Western reductionist cosmological view and the spiritual view of reality seem to be out of two entirely different conceptions of reality. Ultimately I believe this dichotomy is a false dichotomy. The Western mind believes it can define the ultimate reality as it would explain the workings of a machine. Perhaps that could be so- but first that mindset will have to get outside the self imposed box of “emprical rationality only” and reconsider what a machine actually is and what this reality actually is. Wkipedia has this defintion of EMPIRICAL:

“A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. Empirical data is data that is produced by experiment or observation.^[1] It is usually differentiated from the philosophic usage of empiricism by the use of the adjective “empirical” or the adverb “empirically.” “Empirical” as an adjective or adverb is used in conjunction with both the natural and social sciences, and refers to the use of working hypotheses that are testable using observation or experiment. In this sense of the word, scientific statements are subject to and derived from our experiences or observations.

Spirtual people should avoid compromising and allowing a Western/scientific mindset to influence their definitons of ultimate reality. They should get out of that self imposed box of perception inasmuch as they are able. Spiritual people should consider their holistic- spiritual experience and observation as part of the “empirical” process. You ask how to ascertain of the spiritual? Its simple really… start by starting. Try. Open up and try. Be honest and patient with the results and keep trying. The rest will take care of itself. Just remember its all predicated on developing right relationship with all things. Developing right relationship may take some longer than others. It comes down to proper discernment and the proper combination and application of freewill , willpower, intention and unselfishness. You will quickly realize that you can not do this on your own and so your realitonship or lack thereof with God will commence. There is no formula- either “magic” or “scientific”. Just try. Then keep trying. Then try some more. Whaddya have to lose really outside of that box you live in now?

This offering is the gold standard on the subject. Click the arrow to read.

Source: http://www.reconcile.org/

Excerpt:

“Why Me?
If the people of your nation have broken covenants with God and other nations and violated relationships with one another, the path to reconciliation could begin with your act of confession. The greatest wounds in human history, the greatest injustices, have not happened through the acts of some individual perpetrator. Rather they have happened through the institutions, systems, philosophies, cultures, religions and governments of humankind. Because of this, we are tempted to absolve ourselves of all individual responsibility. However, God looks for individuals to “stand in the gap” just as He spoke through Ezekiel:
“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”(Ezekiel 22:30) This is a most amazing statement made by the Lord after the land of Israel had been destroyed by the Chaldeans. Could this great tragedy have been avoided by a single man who would build the wall and stand in the gap before the Lord for the land? That is certainly the implication. This gap is the breach between God and people that is created by transgression. The Lord Himself looked for a person who would stand in that breach for the land, but He could not find anyone.”

Excerpt:
Four Healing Steps

We believe in Confession, Repentance, Reconciliation and Restitution.

CONFESSION:
Stating the truth; acknowledgement of the unjust or hurtful actions of myself or my people group toward other persons or categories of persons. (This is often seen as our main theme but this is simply because it is the place to begin and contemporary Christians have neglected it…)

REPENTANCE:
Turning from unloving to loving actions.

RECONCILIATION:
Expressing and receiving forgiveness, and pursuing intimate fellowship with previous enemies.

RESTITUTION:
Attempting to restore that which has been damaged or destroyed, and seeking justice wherever we have power to act or to influence those in authority to act.

Click on Articles under resources and then “What is God Requiring” for an excellent treatise on the subject.

NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY

Robert Staffanson Executive Director, American Indian Institute

Note a dictionary’s definition of spirituality: “devotion to spiritual (i.e. metaphysical) things instead of worldly things.” This definition does not apply to Native Americans because they do not recognize a dichotomy between “spiritual” and material things.

A simplistic definition of Native American spirituality would be that it is the opposite of pragmatism (i.e. short-term concern with “practical” results). While Native American spirituality is not easily defined, it has several defining characteristics:

a) Recognition of the interconnectedness of all Creation, and the responsibility of human beings to use their intelligence in protecting that inter- connectedness. That applies particularly to the lifegiving elements: water, air and soil.

b) A belief that all life is equal, and that the presence of the life spark implies a degree of spirituality whether in humans, animals or plants. In their view the species of animals and birds, as well as forests and other plant life, have as much “right” to existence as human beings, and should not be damaged or destroyed. That does not mean that they cannot be used but that use has limitations.

c) Their primary concern is with the long-term welfare of life rather than with short-term expediency or comfort. They consider all issues and actions in relationship to their long-term effect on all life, not just human life.

d) Their spirituality is undergirded by thankfulness to the Creator. Prayer, ceremonies, meditation and fasting are an important part of their lives. But they ask for nothing. They give thanks: for all forms of life and for all the elements that make life possible, and they are concerned with the continuation of that life and the ingredients upon which it depends.

Traditional Native Americans believe that any of their people who lack spirituality are no longer Indian. Traditional Native Americans do not see any spirituality in our “western” world. They believe that we have a kind of mindless materialism that is destroying both us and the world we live in.

cut and paste this link for more info:

http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/faculty/treaty/FTLcontents.html

On The Case of The American Indian In World History from: “For This Land” by Vine DeLoria Jr. The essay was written some time in the sixties the Book itself is a year or two old. A reviewer of this book wrote,
“This is a book that every American should read, especially Christians, educators and students of religion.”
Vine DeLoria is one of the great interpreters of religion in America. If one can remain a Christian after reading this book, s/he might be a pretty good one.” I agree with this assessment completely as a Christtian and an American Indian. Real truths, especially religious or political truths, are only arrived at when the mind and the beliefs it stores are challenged and contemplated.
This essay definitely brings some very relevant points that bring the breadth and depth of the case into a clearer and more accurate focus.

American Indians are in the situation they are in to this day because of a total inability of the non-Indian Christian world to understand itself. Educational, economic, social and legal problems of Indian peoples stem almost directly from protestant theology and a misapplication of basic
biblical ideas in the arena of political thought. Until the non-Indian peoples understand themselves and the religion they profess to confess, the
situation will grow continually worse. The time may yet come within our lifetime of a genocidal war against American Indians being waged by these same churchgoing Christians who are now obliterating other parts of Southeast Asia. With such a prospect in the offing, is it any wonder that from a variety of sources from within the American Indian community have come voices attempting to raise a variety of issues? For many Indian people understand all too well the inability of the Christian peoples to realize their religion here on Earth as a viable social force. Too many times Indian peoples have seen the humanity of Christianity give way to more abstract forms of oppression by people firmly convinced they are following God’s will. And fanatically determined to carry out God’s will as they are able to understand it, they have perpetuated massacres and theft unparalleled in the history of mankind.
The most drastic error of Protestant theology as applied to the American Indian peoples has been the total inability of the Christians to understandtheir own idea of “covenant”.
Initially, a covenant was a pact between the peoples of two nations whereby the integrity of each nation was pledged to uphold the agreement. A covenant did not give people the right to intrudeon the other partner of the agreement. Indeed, it meant that the spiritual faith of the two peoples was pledged so that the agreement called for the best efforts of the two groups to fulfill the terms of the agreement.
With the development of Christian theology after the death of Jesus the whole idea of The New Covenant permeated explanations of the meaning of life and death of the founder of the religion. Declaring that everyone who accepted the teachings of Jesus, later Paul and still later Luther, the various Christian denominations found in the idea of a New Covenant a community transcending time and space and bound together by a faith in the uniqueness of history as exemplified in the Christian story.
Where the New covenant meant new community, a gathering of saints, a
communion of the saved, to that degree the individuals composing the heavenly city were required to act positively in response to the message they proclaimed to the world and by which they were encouraged to judge the secular world. Thus Christians were told that they had been freed to live in a state of near-grace. By transcending the law and dwelling permanently within covenantal relationship, Christians bound themselves to living a life of creative , a life in which they were not judged solely by their transgressions of law, but by the vision of life in it’s totality toward which they marched.
But, there was no corresponding understanding by Christians taken as a corporate group that they had a duty to incarnate the covenantal life in their relationships with peoples different than themselves. Law quickly replaced covenant and Christianity bogged down to the concept of a god who laboriously recorded each and every transgression of individuals for use in the afterlife when He would exact vengeance. It was this lower conception of divinity and hence society that Christians believed in when the “New World” was “Discovered”. And the early colonial governments reflected ascales-and-balances concept of both law and covenant in their dealings with each other and with their own settlers. Combined with the perversion of covenant was a misapplication of the conceptof Genesis to go forth and multiply and the placement of man as havingdominion over all other species of creation. According to the Genesis legend, when man was given the right to name the animals, he was given dominion over them since by creating their names he had in effect participated in their creation also. As Co-Creator, one might have argued, man had a corresponding responsibility to care for the non-human elements of creation. In tending the garden of Eden, man had a corresponding responsibility to the earth itself to maintain it’s fruitfulness. All of this, particularly the edict of man’s responsibility, was perverted by Christian theologians.
Early in the history of North American exploration, the fundamental responsibilities of Genesis became interpreted as man’s right, and basically
the White Man’s right, to use whatever he wanted and however he wanted to use it. Thus, slavery was justified as God’s rightful contribution to the
economic well being of the Americans, God’s chosen people. Wholesale destruction of forests, the game, the original peoples of the continent were justified as part of god’s plan to subdue and dominate an untamed wilderness. Nowhere was there any sense of stewardship between diverse elements of the new Christian settlers, either collectively or individually, and the continent as they found it.
Within THIS context one can trace the tragic story of the American Indian peoples. The United States and the individual colonies signed treaties with the various tribes at which the faith and good will of the United states and it’s component states was pledged. Missionaries representing the respective denominations attended these treaty signing sessions, each assuring the tribal leaders that if the government of the United States did not uphold the treaty, his church and his God would guarantee them. Indeed, missionaries promised that God himself wanted the tribes to sign the treaties because of his foreordained plan to create cities, suburbs and shopping centers on the North American Continent.
Within the treaty context, then, total faith and good will of the two parties, the Indian tribe and the United states, were pledged. Treaties were covenants of the new lands insofar as they affected the relationships of individuals of the two disparate treaty groups. But, as soon as the treaties were signed, and often before the signing was even official, large groups of settlers following God’s divine command to subjugate the Earth went forth into the reserved Indian lands. The tribes were thus pushed further and further backwards into the interior. At no point was there an acknowledgement by the allegedly religious people of the new nation that once having pledged the faith and validity of their religion, there was a corresponding responsibility to actually uphold the treaty.
The settlement of the continent, therefore, was one in which people, claiming to be divinely inspired members of a New Covenant, refused for a moment to keep their covenantal commitments to people whom they had given them.
Article by article, treaty by treaty, the spiritual faith given by the white Christians was violated in favor of God’s other commandment, also misinterpreted, to subjugate the earth. It is therefore ridiculous to view Indian tribes as a people who do not and probably cannot understand the requirements of either religion or civilization. Both religion and civilization require, for their fundamental integrity, the premise that one can be taken at his word for what that word spiritually represents. Instead history has shown a marvelous ability of the white Christian to quibble on the meanings of specific words contained in treaties and statutes, finding in tortured interpretations of those words the loophole required when one is breaking faith.
In a corresponding development, responsibility to the Earth and it’s creatures has been studiously avoided. Instead, exploitation for the sake of exploitation has been the rule. Property rights have taken precedent over any sense of affinity for living creatures and their rights. The buffalo were exterminated to provide grazing lands for cattle, and misuse of these grazing lands resulted in the creation of the Great Dust Bowl followed by farm programs in which land is kept unproductive in order to maintain a false economy for selected land owners while millions throughout the world starve.
The justification for taking American Indian lands has always been: they are not doing anything with them. Underlying this complaint has been the idea
that the earth itself can have no rest. it also must be exploited and used. There is no responsibility of man not to destroy the world. On the contrary, the more the world can be changed, the theology has run, the more concrete poured, the more freeways, apartment buildings, slums, football stadiums, in short, the more confused edifices created, the better God is pleased. God, then, created the Earth most ineptly. It was fortunate for God that man was available to recreate the world as it should be.
Now, the chickens have come home to roost. The entire Viet Nam fiasco revolves around the question of covenant. To what extent are we bound by our promise to protect the south Viet Nam republic? And the answer has been that we are bound to the point where it becomes our duty, our God given duty, to massacre old men, women and children and babies- for their own good - and for our good, to defend them. When 83% of the citizens of this country, this Christian Country, think that Lt. Calley did right in executing the people at My Lai, then one can see how far from the reality of
what they proclaim, the Christians have drifted in four centuries.
Instead of creating the world in a better way than the Deity- Christian peoples have only succeeded in creating a situation in which mankind may well extinguish itself within a generation unless pollution is controlled. And even that statement is not really correct. Unless the white Christians control pollution, all of mankind, Christian and non-Christian, may become extinct. This obvious fact, rather than the theological fancies of the past, tells us of the relative truth of the genesis legend. For if man was given the right to totally subjugate, then no harm would come to him. such, according to to our best scientific minds, is not and has not been the case. Outside of a massive repentance and a society turned completely around, there appears to be no solution to modern problems. Unless mankind takes it’s responsibilities to the world, and unless Christians take their
responsibilities to non-Christians, as serious and critical calls to action, we really have no future. we will have created our own judgment day far in advance of any divine plans for the event.
In the field of human rights there must be a radical change in the
attitudes. If it has been stated that Indian treaties will be upheld, then it is the responsibility to uphold them. No amount of quibbling over phraseology can change that basic response. If all men are created in God’s image, there should be no question, at least among those alleging to be Christians, to carrying out those programs and projects that will most nearly approximate that condition. The continual bickering over legal sophistries with respect to treaty rights, integration and race relations, welfare, the aged, orphans and burial rights, speaks of a society in which
law and not covenant dominates. That society and it’s members who so loudly proclaim to be members of the covenant, the New Covenant, should either put up or shut up.
Most of us really know what is right. We rarely do it. But, there is a corresponding responsibility on Christians today that faces no other group. For Christians have not only proclaimed that they are right, they have proclaimed that they ALONE are right and that everyone else is wrong. And then they have backed away from their responsibilities to uphold the right. When minority groups have tried to get them to respond in a manner of spiritual commitment to the principles which they proclaim and not the legalistic footnotes behind which they have always hidden, then the
Christians have fought back thinking all efforts to make them live up to their responsibilities are subversive to the great society that they, allegedly with God’s help, have created.
The case of the American Indian is clear and uncomplicated. American Indians suffer because the non-Indians have devised ways and means and rationalized arguments for not keeping their word. Non Indians have violated their covenants with Indian tribes. let them fulfill these treaties and covenants and then come talk to us about problems. for it is then we will be able to discern which problems are our problems and which problems created by non-Indians for us.- END
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Thus these issues at hand are not part of some ancient or revisionist
history but part of the legacy of HERE and NOW. look at statistics on
social problems within the remnants of Indian communities…it’s sickening, the highest ratios of poverty, mental illness, addiction, disease, suicide…look it up yourself instead of getting your news of the world from cable TV or talk show hosts who tell you all that all this multiculturalist crap is just an angle at raiding your tax dollars. These are the problems that beset a people when they are dehumanized by a white washed version of history and constantly reminded that their ancestors were not really people at all, the continent being empty of real people until 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue and they are not really people now, who deserve to have their treaties and rights upheld and deserve nothing more than a status as cartoonish mascots. Note that the council on race relations that convened under the Clinton administration and did a national tour composed itself of Whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Where is the voice of the American Indian today? Nearly wiped out…nearly forgotten…
Do not insult our intelligence by telling us we are all on some theoretical equal playing field nowadays…after the hypocritical dominating culture has
decided how when, where and why the “game” is played. I dare say the
“playing field” would be very different if any philosophical or ideological input had been allowed by minority cultures…What year was it anyway when Blacks or Indians or women respectively were finally allowed to cast a vote?
Land ownership is the basis for all socio political power. Where the
lands of the American Indians have gone so too has gone most of their power, their voice and possible contribution to the betterment of the human race….
However, my father taught me this…The Indian Nations are not a defeated people, but rather, a people still under siege by a force that does not have our spiritual, cultural or ecological best interests at heart. The choice is yours…let it go and have yourself a drink…assimilate and participate in it…or fight it to the very bitter end…Is my choice too obvious? As too the religious aspects of the argument I would simply say that I wonder sometimes how God’s will could be such as to produce this situation…the answer is that it has more to do with man’s will than God’s. It is not the fault of faulty data or religious insight from God, but the twisting of it by prideful man…his freewill that has made things the way they are. It’s
not God’s fault…it’s man’s fault…and I choose to remind people of that and hope they will reassess what they believe and why. So what does modern day America owe the remnants of the American Indians? That is the question it all comes down to every time isn’t it? It is understood that either justice or the honoring of old promises and treaties is still too expensive or at least more than the culture at large is willing to give…How about some truth is history lessons then? Or perhaps a little bit of respect…a little dignity? How about changing the name of the professional football team in the Nation’s capital to something other than “Redskins”? That in itself would be a start. I also encourage the Indian nations such as they
are to move away from the mentality of smoke shops, tourist traps, bingo parlors and casinos. My message to them is that before people will much listen to these kind of rants about the loss and disrespect of our culture- we need to raise the next generation to be something more than drunks, convenience store clerks, bingo callers, cocktail waitresses, blackjack dealers and bickering tribal politicians. It has all the earmarks of a lost cause eh? So what…I’m still going down swinging all the way. I think this is what a man is for in this world…to fight the good fight no matter what the odds….besides I figure my time is better spent doing this than watching TV and filling my head with crap that a person would have to be crazy to give a rip about in the larger context of the meaning of life as a human being in God’s image on this Earth.)
S. Starr

native american