Church, survival hinges on lament, repentance, reconciliation

I was heartbroken to hear the story of the seven fallen feathers—a story of seven young indigenous Canadians whose lives were heinously cut short.  But this story is merely the tip of the iceberg.  The full interview can be heard here.

This is the story of Roman Catholic Indian Residential Schools across Canada and the stolen generations of social genocide that bears the scars of between 10,000 and 70,000 fallen feathers—children that were killed through a racist system propagated by the church.

Poignantly, at Saint Joseph’s Indian Residential School in Thunder Bay, Ontario, many children never came home, as the plaque reads:

“The memorial is placed here to Honour all the children that attended St Joseph’s Indian Residential School. As a Nation we must not forget the children who attended the school but never made it home. Let us honour the stories of the Survivors who are still with us and listen to their stories to be sure this does not happen again.”

Yes, this was a CHURCH school.

This is the problem with the historical church—at its worst, I mean—as it’s always fallen horizontal into bed with tyrannical colonial powers.  In the land grab, too often the church has enabled and even cavorted with the tyrannical colonisers.

The problem we have is not with an institution with the word “CHURCH” painted across it, but it’s anywhere there’s a system of tyrannical powers that seek to cavort with larceny and control with an iron will—where the church says, “Go right ahead, we’ll aid and abet you!”  Such a church is antichrist.

In too many instances, that’s the church—men actually, or a system of ‘powerful’ (power hungry) human beings, rather than a benevolent God, and people walking in that stead.

Think of the relevance of this wisdom from Wade Mullen:

“The abuser comes to steal, not usually by force, but by clever strategies of deception that trick you into voluntarily giving over what the abuser secretly wants to possess, not for your good, but for your destruction.”

The colonisers only interest at all costs is and was the land—possession was always the aim, and deception is always the way.

We live in a world that romanticises concepts of kindness, but it’s a world where far too often it’s the exact opposite that wins the romance of the heart in the powerful.

Then there’s the lazy dolour of a church that panders to governments of the day because governments insist on lording it over society and using the church as one of its prime vehicles to procure the tyranny it wants.

The Way of the Future

Here is the way of the future of the church. Before God, it must become the institution of God, and therefore execute God’s mandate.  This we might see, first and foremost, in its response to the sins it has itself committed. It doesn’t matter if one church sees itself as having not committed the sins—as if one individual body were free of blame.

Society everywhere is looking for the church to live as if it abhors the sins of the stories of historical abuses, and THEN to do something noteworthy about it.  But far too many churches and Christian bodies ignore these sins and instead point the finger at other moral issues—looking externally when it should be taking a hard look within.

It’s time for the church to go to confessional, but not just leave it there in a fake repentance.

There’s a role for lament that underpins the repentance, that also motivates an attitude of unstinting passion to reconcile with those it abused, broke, and even murdered, and with the rest of the anguished and enraged world, via a mode of ongoing repentance.  It’s time to lament forever what was done as impetus for ongoing and compelling action of restitution (make things right as much as they can be).

The fact is there’s a reason why Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) And indeed, all the Beatitudes (verses 3-12) refer to the heart that ought to reflect the church, at any given time, especially when it has procured reprehensible tragedies on societies that relied on it.

One thing as a church we must always reflect is humility—the capacity to value others (yes, even the rights of one harmed individual) above ourselves.

Where the church fails one life it fails Christ.