The Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley is a Cherokee descendent, ordained pastor, activist, college professor, author, and farmer. For decades, he has been active in ongoing concerns that include Indigenous peoples, racism, eco-justice, social justice, sustainable and regenerative agriculture and earth practices, and inter-faith dialogue.
In a lecture entitled “Decolonizing Western Christian Theology” presented at Acadia Divinity College in Canada, Woodley makes an astute observation. He says that people of color in the United States want to change the system. However, the people in charge (generally white) claim they want to improve the system so that, ostensibly, it will be better for people of color. Woodley’s observation is “The system, even if you improve it, is still not made for us.” Of course, Woodley is primarily referring to the Indigenous people of whom he is a part. The treatment of these oppressed people has been abominable. They have suffered genocide, racism, displacement, poverty, children taken from their parents and forbidden to speak their language or engage in their traditions, placement on reservations which often contained land nobody else wanted and could scarcely (if at all) support life, denial of the right to practice their religion until the Carter administration, and alcohol and drug addiction. Because of such treatment, Indigenous people were (and still are) robbed of their identities and beloved homelands as well as being bombarded by all the noise, shallowness, and greed of an alien Western culture.
When I was a college professor, one of my colleagues claimed to be descended on one side of his family from “Indians.” However, he said he had no sympathy for the native population of his day. Every other people that has come to the United States has had to adapt and become a part of the melting pot. I commented one day that that the Indigenous Nations came to the Western Hemisphere thousands of years before white Europeans invaded and stole whole continents. His response was that they had to adapt to their new situation. The problem, of course, was that the “new situation” held no attraction to them. Western culture would require them to deny who they are and what they value. And they see no reason to exchange their way of life and deep spirituality for the inane, competitive, violent, and greedy way of life which characterizes most of the white descendants of Europeans who robbed them of their homelands. Why should Indigenous people embrace an insanity which destroys any sense of community as well as the productivity, beauty, and sanctity of Mother Earth?
Woodley has spent decades trying to help Indigenous people, especially young people, deal with the stress and trauma of having their identities assaulted, degraded, and denied by white power. As they struggle with who they are, they have an innate sense that they cannot become who the dominant culture demands they become without destroying any hope of regaining a sense of belonging which corresponds to who they are deep in their hearts and souls. The treatment of Indigenous people and Blacks in this country constitutes America’s Original Sin of which we refuse to repent. Millions upon millions of people of color have suffered and continue to suffer from this intentional and insidious evil. We will never become a healed and whole nation until we repent and make appropriate restitution. Without such a confession and dedication to act in just and compassionate ways toward those we have oppressed, the pain and suffering of centuries will continue into our children’s and grandchildren’s future.
Woodley’s observation also has a direct relevance for increasing numbers of white people in our society. In a nation where the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is being squeezed out of existence—where more and more people are becoming rats in a rat race which allows few to win—where what is left of our democracy is rapidly being degraded into plutocracy and oligarchy—where we are broken spiritually, communally, intellectually, educationally, politically, and economically—where lies are preferred to truth and ignorance to intelligence–where the American dream has become a national nightmare for many millions of citizens—where racism, fascism, white supremacy, idiocy, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and insurrection are becoming accepted openly and with impunity—where politicians are more concerned with being reelected, lining their pockets, and rewarding billionaires and ridiculously greedy corporations instead of fulfilling their constitutional duty to work for the common good—where quarterly profits are valued more than nurturing the creation which sustains all life–in such a nation, should it be a surprise that many people are beginning to comprehend that the system is demanding they become something they inherently know is alien to their better natures? I suggest that too many of us are having our souls ripped from our bodies in a culture addicted to greed, arrogance, and violence.
It would be the height of presumption and just damn bad manners for us to ask Indigenous people to help us work through a dilemma we have brought upon ourselves. But I believe they have answers which could help us change a system which is broken beyond repair. Frankly, it’s too late for reformation. We need radical transformation. Randy Woodley, a member of an Indigenous people, says that all of us must face up to the truth that our Western value system is spiritually, physically, communally, ecologically, and economically broken. We must repent not only for the sake of people of color whom we have betrayed and oppressed. We must repent for the sake of ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and this scarred and abused land—a land stolen from people who managed to live here for at least 15,000 years without destroying its beauty and productivity. In 500 years, mostly since the 1950s, we have created an environmental crisis which will take much dedication, sacrifice, and work to reverse if reversal is even possible. We need the wisdom of a people who still have a soul and a way of life that provide hope, peace, reconciliation, and harmony in every area of life. Let those who have ears, eyes, minds, and hearts heed such life-giving wisdom.
