stretching my self, embracing other ..

i don't usually use this blog for what i'm using it for in this post ..

some time ago i read this post and was reminded of what little i know 
and some of that 'little' is a result of purposeful intentional deception by those who hold the power to influence the masses ..
such that, for example, some of the history i was taught is a misconstrual of reality, a biased portrayal of what happened, designed to display the events in a favourable way for the historian's own group while the other actors are often villainized

i have Howard Zinn's ' A People's History of the United States ' on my bookshelf, yet to be read, but fully intend to
because it's high time for this privileged empire white boy to step out of the ignorance given me by my British history education

the american colonial experience isn't the caribbean colonial experience or the african or indian, australian.. but it serves to enlighten nevertheless



   and too the use of the christian scriptures, the appeal to ' God '
   to bolster the argument for the horrible abuses deserves to be
   understood by us as christians
      and sorrowed by us

i post this here with the conviction that Christfollowers are called to truth
and truth doesn't diss the past; it acknowledges and incorporates history in its present to better allow for a better future
a better future because allowing for the relationships we are called-to today involves understanding the context of those we relate to
   part of who you are is where you came from and who you came from
as jesus people we should respect that and look to understand that
   especially from our privileged point-of-view, their underprivileged point-of-view
and excusing it or relegating it to the past so that " i'm not responsible " won't work
   because this is my neighbour and i am following Jesus who was all about neighbour ..
   actually that was his thing ..

      it defined him ..
..

for me, i'm working to find every way i can to adjust every part of my life to the example of my master, Jesus
this is one

there are 2 excerpts below, followed by a link to the article itself ..

what better you got to do in your 'spare time' today anyway ..


quote 1
" Century – Doctrine of Discovery:

In 1452, Pope Nicholas V wrote the following words in a Papal Bull:
“…invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit”

This Bull was the first in a series of Papal Bulls written in the 15th century that became known as the Doctrine of Discovery "


quote 2
" American Exceptionalism:

In 1630, in the colony of Boston, John Winthrop preached a sermon in which he referred to the colony as a “City on a Hill” and reminded them that they must be obedient so God to that "the Lord our God may blesse us in the land whether wee goe to possesse it." This sermon was the Protestant church in America beginning to internalize and adopt the Doctrine of Discovery. It is the colonies, and later the nation, beginning to see their presence in North America as a God-blessed, even a God-ordained, event out of which comparisons to Old Testament Israel and their journey to a "Promised Land" could be drawn. Over the next hundred years or so this thinking matured into an understanding that not only was this new nation a "City on a Hill" but it also had a “Manifest Destiny” to discover, occupy and rule this continent from "sea to shining sea." "


http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2014/12/doctrine-of-discovery.html?m=1