[F]ederal schools were rarely built on reservations in the early 20th century. With the distribution of rations and other goods also sometimes dependent on Native children attending school, Native Americans were often effectively coerced into paying for their own assimilation ... the schools promised by the federal government were not built on every reservation. Meanwhile, the government gave Christian churches, including the Catholic Church, land for mission schools. Federal schools were also known to be particularly cruel to Native students, often forbidding contact between students and families. This led some parents to opt for religious boarding schools in the hope that their children would be treated marginally better ... For many parents, some of whom were barely literate, the approval to send their children to these religious boarding schools took the form of thumbprints. Pressed on government forms, signed and witnessed by church and government officials, these thumbprints authorized the mission schools to take portions of treaty and trust funds—owed to Native families by the federal government in
exchange for their land—to pay tuition.
The state and the church working together to screw over Native Americans reminds me of what Caitlin Johnstone wrote about the Democrats and Republicans: "In practice, Democratic inertia toward making large pro-human progressive leaps combined with the GOP’s enthusiasm for massive rollbacks in corporatist deregulation allows for the exact sort of two-steps-forward, one-step-back march toward corporate totalitarianism". It's a boxer's one-two punch!
The Catholic Church has always been a money making scheme and way to control people and the government. It’s why having all these GOP appointed Catholic extremists on the Supreme Court is so terrifying.
Also conflating Democrats failure to act with republicans concerted efforts to turn this country into The Handmaid’s Tale only plays into the power grab narrative.
Posted by CliffordCookChristian Nationalists want public schools to teach the Christian Bible.
Posted by KilltheskyfairyAnd this is the behavior that followers of Abrahamic religions have emulated for centuries.
Posted by KilltheskyfairyAnd this is the behavior that followers of Abrahamic religions have emulated for centuries.
Posted by CliffordCookChristian Nationalists like to insist that the United States of America is a Christian nation. What do the facts show?
Posted by KilltheskyfairyI know where we can get some really big rocks…
Posted by CliffordCookIf the Christian Bible is such a great book, how come most Christians can’t bring themselves to read it all the way through even once?
Posted by CliffordCookIf Christians really believe in a god that is all powerful and will provide for all their needs, why do they keep on demanding taxpayer support for their struggling religious schools?
Posted by CliffordCookI groaned when I saw this Christian Nationalist Christmas meme posted by one of Donald Trump's supporters in Iowa. Then, I smiled when I saw how many of his Facebook friends had reposted it.
Posted by CliffordCook The Fascism of Faith Month in the US Congress U.
Posted by of-the-mountainReality!!!
Posted by of-the-mountainReality!!!
Posted by of-the-mountainReality!!!
Posted by CliffordCookChristian Nationalism isn't just something that's spreading in the United States.
Posted by KilltheskyfairyReligion is ridiculous!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyReligion is ridiculous!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyReligion is ridiculous!