Friday, January 22, 2010
Apess and the Pilgrims, Christianity, in the "Eulogy on King Philip"
Throughout the "Eulogy on King Philip" Apess, refers to Whites who have oppressed the natives as being hypocritical Christians because of their conduct and outward attitudes towards the natives. And in fact he's correct in my view because Christianity is opposed to oppression and hatred of any individual who has not wronged you in any way. But why were the pilgrims( as he refers to them in the eulogy) so negative towards the natives? Why were they keen on achieving misery and discontent for the lives of the natives even though the natives showed them how to survive in the "new world?" Well, I believe that the pilgrims had every intention to use the natives to their benefit while still causing harm to them in order to facilitate a future goal. It's evident to me that the pilgrims were conspiring a plan to overtake the natives and move them out of their land. So what does Christianity have to do with their actions. Absolutely nothing, for they themselves while professing to be Christians, were as far removed from Christianity as can humanely be possible. However, Apess refers to them by their faith because the pilgrims themselves refer to their eradication of the natives as "God's work" according to Apess. But surely God would not order another human being to kill another just for nothing. That's not justice and God and justice go hand in hand in all of the Judeo-Christian faiths. Therefore yes, the pilgrims were hypocritical people but Christians they were not for they did not follow at least one of the commandments(thou shall not kill) as Apess professes in the Eulogy. In fact if anything the natives were more Christian in their actions than the pilgrims were, and that shows the irony that the pilgrims and the whites(at that time) in general portrayed towards the natives. Professing religious teachings while not following them, that's hypocrisy at its best. I guess the pilgrims forget the quote from the Holy Bible: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."[ Matthew 7:12 ]
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i totally agree with all of your points about christianity, about how the indians were more christian than the whites. however, when you say that the pilgrims were not christian, i didn't understand if you meant that they were literally not christian or if they were not christian because of their actions? disregard this next part if it's the latter, because i think the pilgrims came to america only to exercise their religious freedom. so they were highly religious, but i agree, because of their actions there is no way that they could be classified as christians.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, I wouldn’t have known how to write it any better.you hit all the point that i was thinking about when i was reading this story. I agree with the fact that the Indians were more Christian then the whites, because a true Christian stays true to his morals and dose not causes so much harm to another human being.
ReplyDeletepoopambassador, what I meant was the Pilgrims while outwardly proffessing being Christian, their actions were far removed from Christianity. While they did come to the "new world" to escape religous persecution, they themselves began oppressing others with essentialy the same oppression they faced back home.
ReplyDeleteDionysis,the amazing paradox is that the Indians acted more Christian than the Pilgrims. That to me is amazing how the Pilgrims could act in such a hypocritical way while thinking they were doing God's work. They must have been brainwashed by their greed and hunger for land and money that they could not see that killing the innocent and God's work are far apart from each other.
ReplyDeleteYou should watch the link on King Philip's war that I posted on the main class blog. It gives a lot of insight into the historical situation of the early New England settlers. Many of the settlers thought they WERE God's chosen people, so other people -- especially people who did not worship the same Christian God -- weren't even people to begin with. Dehumanizing a group of people has frequently served as a precursor to genocide.
ReplyDeleteGina, Throughout history dehumanization has been used to label a group "the enemy" in order to justify violence. In the case of the native Americans it was no different, in fact it was one of the most atrocious in that, a group of people whom had only shown friendly gestures and peaceful offerings could be labeled as inhuman, that is the most sickening part to me.
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