Rebels with a cause

While the world waits with bated breath to see how millionaire athlete Kaepernick’s brave standoff will end, up in the wilds of North Dakota we have another little standoff that, if you think about it, is far more unsettling.

Count me as one who thinks Native Americans are about the most shafted group in American history.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am more conservative than not.  That means I don’t see America as some uniquely evil, racist nation that only has hope for redemption by dissolving its traditional foundations and embracing some new, neo-Marxist inspired, secular and progressive dreamland.  Likewise, I don’t follow the modern textbook trail of blood that focuses exclusively on the failings of our country, with only select heroes in the sidebars pointing the way to redemption through the awesomeness of now.

I believe, in the overall scope of human history, America was far greater than it was bad.  At its worst, you have a country that was as bad as most other countries or civilizations at various times in the past.  At its best, you had the hope and promise – and ability – for far more than the world had ever seen.  If it is guilty of anything, it’s failing to live up to the unprecedented standards it set for itself as a beacon for the rest of the world.

Nonetheless, it is a very un-Christian thing to deny the sins of America’s past. That’s especially true if those sins are still causing injustice or harm to people in the present day.  Thank goodness I have met very few in my life, even among the most ardent conservatives, who deny our past sins.  Nor are our sins something that haven’t been brought up once or twice over the generations.  While there is certainly a very un-Christian and un-American approach to criticizing America’s past, that doesn’t mean we should shrink from doing so when criticisms are just.  And in this case, unless there is a huge part of the story I haven’t heard,  I can’t think of a more just criticism than what is happening in North Dakota.