Damned Christians

[Fake Messiah]

Christian church vows to fight tribal order to leave Wind River Reservation

As the Northern Arapaho Sundance ceremony was in its final day on July 5, Foundations For Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas stood before her congregation on the Wind River Reservation and suggested Native people should turn away from their traditional ways, calling them a false “idol.”

As Lucas ushered a handful of Native people up to the podium to tell their stories about how they rejected their traditional faith in favor of Christianity, she offered prayers that others do the same, that they “not be in any demonic activity.”

“The pipe cannot hear your prayers. It’s just a piece of material, right? And this is a cycle that they’re caught up in, and this is all they’ve ever known,” she said. “And the Lord is saying ‘Tear down the idols, tear down the altars, the idol worship.’”

As the video began circulating on social media, several hundred Native community members moved swiftly to protest, to demand that Foundations For Nations leave the reservation.

On Friday, church officials met with the Northern Arapaho Business Council and were told to leave the reservation.

But instead, Sunday services were held, and today, the Foundations For Nations Church had doubled down.

“We are standing firmly on the truth of the Word of God concerning idol worship. As many of you know, traditional practices here include the worship of the ‘old man pipe’ and prayers directed to ancestors,” the church wrote in a statement to its members, describing threats received since the July 5 sermon and saying the FBI and local law enforcement have become involved in the conflict.

“This brings us to a critical question: Should we compromise the Word of God for the sake of safety or to maintain peace with a people group? Our answer is clear — no.”

Backlash against the church has continued, and some have called on the tribes to invoke the “bad man” clause in their treaty with the U.S. government, which empowers the tribes to ban people from reservation land.

“As Natives we have been persecuted by these types of people since their immigrant grandparents came here. They forced that religion on us,” Chris Friday wrote on Facebook. “Talk to your grandparents who were beat, spit on, SA’d, tied up and locked in dog cages as kids. The nuns would wash their mouths out with soap and hold food from them. Starving them for days. Locking them in pitch black basements. These are some of the things I’ve heard from my late grandma. How [the] radicals would treat Native kids at the boarding schools. Their mindset isn’t far from this same mindset of beating the Indian out of the man.”

“For many Indigenous people, churches have been intertwined with colonization, cultural erasure,” wrote Lynette Grey Bull, who has been a central figure in the preservation of the Shoshone language. “If Creator made Indigenous peoples with our languages, cultures, ceremonies and identities, why should we be shamed for them? Why should an outside interpretation of Christianity require us to reject the very gifts Creator entrusted to our nations? … Sarah Lucas is repeating a traumatic history of the boarding school era, where our hair was cut, language removed and our babies were beaten if they did anything to identify themselves as their Native way of life!”

For some, the statements made by Lucas about the sacred Arapaho pipes were doubly offensive; the Arapaho creation story includes a great flood, with a man holding a pipe fasting and praying for land to remake the earth. The land returned under the pipe, which is today sometimes called “grandfather” or “grandfather pipe” and one of the tribe’s most sacred objects.

"Religion for us carries complex, heavy, and negative connotations, wrought by suffering, abuse, murder, rape, and the destruction of our traditional practices and way of life. This incident has the potential to further damage that already tumultuous relationship. The ability to further trust perceived outsiders with sacred knowledge and wisdom will never be approached the same again,” Jennifer Fienhold wrote of Lucas’ statements. “There is no coming back from what she said. If she truly values her relationship with the community, she will do the respectful thing and take her leave. I don’t mean from social media or from any future ceremonies, I mean quite literally pack her things and leave … Backflip, square dance, and yodel your apology all you want, the people already see you. And you aren’t sorry. What you are is the wrong fit.”

Many called for the church and Lucas to leave the reservation. While the protests were peaceful and featured speeches, drumming and singing, and circle dances, some commentary online included veiled or outright threats against the church and its leadership.

Those protesting Tuesday said they wanted a public apology over the controversial sermon and statements against the tribe’s traditional ways. “We want a public apology from them,” said Northern Arapaho Business Council Chair Keenan Groesbeck. “They still have the same ideology of their forefathers, you know: Kill the Indian, and save the man. We’re not putting up with that anymore. They need to remember they’re visitors on our reservation.”

https://wyofile.com/christian-church-vow...servation/