July 11, 2011
Doctrine of Discovery continued—see last entry of July 8:
Normalized by the 1500’s, the Alexander/Rubios Christian construct supporting the subjugation of non-European land and peoples is driving the colonization of the America’s. In 1557, Pedro de Santander an official of the Catholic Church, places a new spin on an old paradigm. He writes concerning the indigenous people of Florida,
This is the Land of Promise, possessed by idolators, the Amorite, Amulekite, Moabite, Canaanite. This is the land promised by the Eternal Father to the Faithful, since we are commanded by God in the Holy Scriptures to take it from them, being idolators, and, by reason of their idolatry and sin, to put them all to the knife, leaving no living thing save maidens and children, their cities robbed and sacked, their walls and houses leveled to the earth.
By imaging the Americas as the “Land of Promise” and the indigenous of the land as “idolaters” and “Canaanites” Santander endorses Spain’s colonization and genocidal policies. Such imaging permits Europeans to believe themselves Israelite, the Atlantic Ocean as the Jordan River, and the America’s as Canaan. Reworking of the Christian text allows the chosen people (Europeans) to cross the Jordan River (Atlantic Ocean) and enter into the land of Canaan (the America’s) as “promised by the Eternal Father to the Faithful.” Thus, Santander creates a hierarchal chosen people mindset where Europeans are “chosen people” of a “higher” and more “advance” class who have dominion over indigenous peoples who are “idolaters” of a “lower” and more “backward” class.
© David B. Bell 2011
Chewing the Cud 