I saw a post recently that suggested we need to return to the "Christian values" on which our nation was founded. It got me to thinking about just what those values were.
Were theses the values that allowed people to take and enslave men and women who had been ripped from their homes and family in Africa and brought to America against their will?
Were these the values that allowed people from Europe to take forcibly the lands of the people already here, to purposefully infect them with European diseases, to forcibly relocate them to inhospitable lands far away, to take children from their families and deny them their language and culture
Were these the values that allowed "God fearing Christians" to murder 20 of their neighbors (including two of my ancestors) in Salem Massachusetts in 1692?
I could go on but I am sure you get the picture. Unfortunately these "Christian values" are doing just fine here in our Nation, no need to return to them. We still oppress people of color, rob Native Americans of the royalties from minerals taken from their lands.
Most concerning is that many still believe in the same type of conspiracy theories that contributed to mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. I don't mean this statement to trivialize the concerns of people of color and Native Americans but to emphasize that this mind set to believe unproven allegations contributes to the oppression of those seen as "other". Other being anyone not of white European heritage.
Rather than continue to espouse these toxic values perhaps we should consider not the so called "Christian" values but rather the values of Jesus of Nazareth. One could start with Mathew 25:31-46. The Sermon on the mount can be instructive of the values Jesus held as is the parable of the good Samaritan.
We can take pride in the courage and tenacity of the founders but their moral values? Not so much.
