CAN THE CHURCH IN KENYA SAY THE SAME THING TO THE AFRICANS WHO WERE DEHUMANIZED BY THE CHURCH AND THEIR FELLOW COLONIZERS

The United Methodist Church in the USA
confession to native americans


WHEREAS, the gospel calls us to celebrate and protect the worth and dignity of all peoples; and
WHEREAS, the Christian churches, including The United Methodist Church and its predecessors, have participated in the destruction of Native American people, culture, and religious practices; and
WHEREAS, the churches of this country have not sufficiently confessed their complicity in this evil; and
WHEREAS, the churches have been blessed by having members who are Native Americans as well as by engaging in dialogue with Native Americans who practice their traditional religions; and
WHEREAS, confession of our guilt is a first step toward the wholeness that the churches seek through the ecumenical movement;

Therefore, be it resolved, that the United Methodist General Conference confesses that The United Methodist Church (and its predecessor bodies) has sinned and continues to sin against its Native American brothers and sisters and offers this formal apology for its participation, intended and unintended, in the violent colonization of their land; and

Be it further resolved, that The United Methodist Church pledges its support and assistance in upholding the American Indian Religious Freedom Acts (P.L. 95-134, 1978) and within that legal precedent affirms the following:

1. the rights of the native peoples to practice and participate in traditional ceremonies and rituals with the same protection offered all religions under the Constitution of the United States of America;
2. access to and protection of sacred sites and public lands for ceremonial purposes; and
3. the use of religious symbols (feathers, tobacco, sweet grass, bones, and so forth) for use in traditional ceremonies and rituals.

Be it further resolved, that the General Conference recommends that local churches develop similar statements of confession as a way of fostering a deep sense of community with Native Americans and encourages the members of our Church to stand in solidarity on these important religious issues and to provide mediation when appropriate for ongoing negotiations with state and federal agencies regarding these matters.


Adopted 1992
See Social Principles, § 66; “American Indian Religious Freedom Act”; “Native American History and Contemporary Culture as Related to Effective Church Participation”; “Comity Agreements Affecting Development of Native American Ministries by The United Methodist Church”; “The United Methodist Church and America’s Native People.”


A Charter for Racial Justice Policies in an Interdependent Global Community
Racism is the belief that one race is innately superior to all other races. In the United States, this belief has justified the conquest, enslavement, and evangelizing of non-Europeans. During the early history of this country, Europeans assumed that their civilization and religion were innately superior to those of both the original inhabitants of the United States and the Africans who were forcibly brought to these shores to be slaves. The myth of European superiority persisted and persists. Other people who came and who are still coming to the United States, by choice or by force, encountered and encounter racism. Some of these people are the Chinese who built the railroads as indentured workers; the Mexicans whose lands were annexed; the Puerto Ricans, the Cubans, the Hawaiians, and the Eskimos who were colonized; and the Filipinos, the Jamaicans, and the Haitians who lived on starvation wages as farm workers.

In principle, the United States has outlawed racial discrimination; but in practice, little has changed. Social, economic, and political institutions still discriminate, although some institutions have amended their behavior by eliminating obvious discriminatory practices and choosing their language carefully. The institutional church, despite sporadic attempts to the contrary, also still discriminates.

The damage of years of exploitation has not been erased. A system designed to meet the needs of one segment of the population cannot be the means to the development of a just society for all. The racist system in the United States today perpetuates the power and control of those of European ancestry. It is often called “white racism.” The fruits of racism are prejudice, bigotry, discrimination, and dehumanization. Consistently, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders have been humiliated by being given inferior jobs, housing, education, medical services, transportation, and public accommodation. With hopes deferred and rights still denied, the deprived and oppressed fall prey to a colonial mentality that acquiesces to the inequities, occasionally with religious rationalization.

Racist presuppositions have been implicit in U.S. attitudes and policies toward Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. While proclaiming democracy, freedom, and independence, the U.S. has been an ally and an accomplice to perpetuating inequality of the races and colonialism throughout the world. The history of The United Methodist Church and the history of the United States are intertwined. The “mission enterprise” of the churches in the United States and “Westernization” went hand in hand, sustaining a belief in their superiority.

We are conscious that “we have sinned as our ancestors did;/we have been wicked and evil” (Psalm 106:6, Today’s English Version). We are called for a renewed commitment to the elimination of institutional racism. We affirm the 1976 General Conference Statement on The United Methodist Church and Race, which states unequivocally: “By biblical and theological precept, by the law of the Church, by General Conference pronouncement, and by Episcopal expression, the matter is clear. With respect to race, the aim of The United Methodist Church is nothing less than an inclusive church in an inclusive society. The United Methodist Church, therefore, calls upon all its people to perform those faithful deeds of love and justice in both the church and community that will bring this aim into reality.”
Because we believe:
1. that God is the Creator of all people and all are God’s children in one family;
2. that racism is a rejection of the teachings of Jesus Christ;
3. that racism denies the redemption and reconciliation of Jesus Christ;
4. that racism robs all human beings of their wholeness and is used as a justification for social, economic, and political exploitation;
5. that we must declare before God and before one another that we have sinned against our sisters and brothers of other races in thought, in word, and in deed;
6. that in our common humanity in creation all women and men are made in God’s image and all persons are equally valuable in the sight of God;
7. that our strength lies in our racial and cultural diversity and that we must work toward a world in which each person’s value is respected and nurtured; and
8. that our struggle for justice must be based on new attitudes, new understandings, and new relationships and must be reflected in the laws, policies, structures, and practices of both church and state.

We commit ourselves as individuals and as a community to follow Jesus Christ in word and in deed and to struggle for the rights and the self-determination of every person and group of persons. Therefore, as United Methodists in every place across the land, we will unite our efforts within The United Methodist Church:
1. To eliminate all forms of institutional racism in the total ministry of the Church, giving special attention to those institutions that we support, beginning with their employment policies, purchasing practices, and availability of services and facilities;
2. To create opportunities in local churches to deal honestly with the existing racist attitudes and social distance between members, deepening the Christian commitment to be the Church where all racial groups and economic classes come together;
3. To increase efforts to recruit people of all races into the membership of The United Methodist Church and provide leadership-development opportunities without discrimination;
4. To create workshops and seminars in local churches to study, understand, and appreciate the historical and cultural contributions of each race to the Church and community;
5. To increase local churches’ awareness of the continuing needs for equal education, housing, employment, and medical care for all members of the community and to create opportunities to work for these things across racial lines;
6. To work for the development and implementation of national and international policies to protect the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of all people such as through support for the ratification of United Nations covenants on human rights;
7. To support and participate in the worldwide struggle for liberation in church and community; and
8. To support nomination and election processes that include all racial groups employing a quota system until the time that our voluntary performance makes such practice unnecessary.

Adopted 1980
See Social Principles, § 66A; “Global Racism”; “Elimination of Racism in The United Methodist Church”; “Racial Harassment”; and a number of other resolutions in “The Social Community” dealing with aspects of racial justice.

The United Methodist Church and America’s Native People
Most white Americans are isolated from the issues of justice for the United States’ native people by the lapse of time, the remoteness of reservations or native territories and the comparative invisibility of natives in the urban setting, the distortions in historical accounts, and the accumulation of prejudices. Now is the time for a new beginning, and The United Methodist Church calls its members to pray and work for that new day in relationship between native peoples, other minorities, and white Americans.

The United States has been forced to become more sharply aware and keenly conscious of the destructive impact of the unjust acts and injurious policies of the United States government upon the lives and culture of U.S. American Indians, Alaskan natives, and Hawaiian natives. In the past, the white majority population was allowed to forget or excuse the wrongs that were done to the indigenous peoples of this land. Today, U.S. American Indian and Alaskan and Hawaiian natives are speaking with a new and more unified voice, causing both the government and the American people to reexamine the actions of the past and to assume responsibility for the conditions of the present.

A clear appeal is being made for a fresh and reliable expression of justice. The call is being made for a new recognition of the unique rights that were guaranteed in perpetuity of U.S. American Indians by the treaties and legal agreements that were solemnly signed by official representatives of the United States government. A plea is being raised regarding the disruption of Alaskan and Hawaiian natives who were not granted the legal agreements protecting their culture and land base.

The time has come for the American people to be delivered from beliefs that gave support to the false promises and faulty policies that prevailed in the relations of the United States government with the United States of America’s native peoples. These beliefs asserted that:
1. White Europeans who came to this continent were ordained by God to possess its land and utilize its resources;
2. Natives were not good stewards of the environment, permitting nature to lie in waste as they roamed from place to place, living off the land;
3. The growing white population tamed nature and subdued the natives and thus gave truth to the assumption that the white race is superior;
4. The forceful displacement of the natives was a necessary and justifiable step in the development of a free land and a new country;
5. The white explorers and pioneers brought civilization to the natives and generously bestowed upon them a higher and better way of life.
Rarely are these beliefs now so blatantly set forth, yet they are subtly assumed and furnish the continuing foundation upon which unjust and injurious policies of the government are based.
These beliefs, in former times, permitted the government, on the one hand, to seize lands, uproot families, break up tribal communities, and undermine the authority of traditional chiefs. On the other hand, the beliefs enabled the government to readily make and easily break treaties, give military protection to those who encroached on native lands, distribute as “free” land millions of acres of native holdings that the government designated as being “surplus,” and systematically slay those natives who resisted such policies and practices.

In our own time, these beliefs have encouraged the government to:
1. Generally assume the incompetence of natives in the management and investment of their own resources;
2. Give highly favorable leasing arrangements to white mining companies, grain farmers, and cattle ranchers for the use of native lands held in trust by the federal government or historically used as supportive land base;
3. Use job training and other government programs to encourage the relocation of natives from reservations or native territories to urban areas;
4. Utilize government funds in projects that are divisive to the tribal or native membership and through procedures that co-opt native leadership;
5. Extend the control of state government over native nations that are guaranteed federal protection;
6. Terminate federal services and protection to selected native nations and further deny federal recognition to others;
7. Engage in extensive and expensive litigation as a means of delaying and thus nullifying treaty rights and aboriginal land claims;
8. Pay minimal monetary claims for past illegal confiscation of land and other native resources;
9. Lump together United States natives with other racial minorities as a tactic for minimizing the unique rights of native peoples; and
10. Punitively prosecute the native leaders who vigorously challenge the policies of the federal government.
The Church is called to repentance, for it bears a heavy responsibility for spreading false beliefs and for unjust governmental policies and practices. The preaching of the gospel to America’s natives was often a preparation for assimilation into white culture. The evangelizing of the native nations often effected the policies of the government.

The Church has frequently benefited from the distribution of native lands and other resources. The Church often saw the injustices inflicted upon native peoples but gave assent or remained silent, believing that its task was to “convert” the heathen.

The Church is called through the mercy of almighty God to become a channel of the reconciling Spirit of Jesus Christ and an instrument of love and justice in the development of new relations between native nations, other minorities, and whites, in pursuit of the protection of their rights.

The United Methodist Church recognizes that a new national commitment is needed to respect and effect the rights of American Indians and Alaskan and Hawaiian natives to claim their own identities, maintain their cultures, live their lives, and use their resources.

The United Methodist Church expresses its desire and declares its intention to participate in the renewal of the national responsibility to the United States of America’s native people.

The United Methodist Church calls its congregations to study the issues concerning American Indian and Alaskan and Hawaiian native relations with the government of the United States; to develop an understanding of the distinctive cultures and the unique rights of the native people of the United States; to establish close contacts wherever possible with native persons, tribes, and nations; and to furnish support for:
1. The right of native people to live as native people in this country;
2. The right of native people to be self-determining and to make their own decisions related to the use of their lands and the natural resources found on and under them;
3. The right of native people to plan for a future in this nation and to expect a fulfillment of the commitments that have been made previously by the government, as well as equitable treatment of those who were not afforded legal protection for their culture and lands;
4. The right of American Indian nations to exercise the sovereignty of nationhood, consistent with treaty provisions;
5. The right of Alaskan natives to maintain a subsistence land base and aboriginal rights to its natural resources; and
6. The right of native Hawaiians to a just and amicable settlement with the United States through federal legislation related to aboriginal title to Hawaiian lands and their natural resources.

The United Methodist Church especially calls its congregations to support the needs and aspirations of America’s native peoples as they struggle for their survival and the maintenance of the integrity of their culture in a world intent upon their assimilation, Westernization, and absorption of their lands and the termination of their traditional ways of life.

Moreover, we call upon our nation, in recognition of the significant cultural attainments of the native peoples in ecology, conservation, human relations, and other areas of human endeavor, to receive their cultural gifts as part of the emerging new life and culture of our nation.

In directing specific attention to the problems of native peoples in the United States, we do not wish to ignore the plight of native people in many other countries of the world.

Adopted 1980
See Social Principles, § 66A; “Confession to Native Americans”; “Toward a New Beginning Beyond 1992”; “American Indian Religious Freedom Act”; “Native American Representation in The United Methodist Church”; “Rights of Native People of the Americas.”

W Mugambi Arimi

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