(From “Where do the Children Play” by Cat Stevens)
 

The recent discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves in Canada is an embarrassing shock. The graves are those of children who died during their time in special schools run by the church. I say the church, because it offers me no consolation to point to a particular denomination or religious order, thereby absolving all other church groups of responsibility. This is a dark day for the church and a dark day for my country. We have been so quick to point our fingers at the abuse and neglect of human life by other nations, while ignoring and hiding our own unjust and inhumane treatment of the indigenous people on whose ancestral lands we live.

We took children from their indigenous families to remake them in our image. As if we could eradicate their culture, language, and ways; to shape them into “civilized” people just like us! It sounds so awful when I say it like this, but that is what we did in the name of God and country. In our unholy focus on the culture and language of indigenous people and their children, we insulted the Creator in whose image they were made. Of course, it was not my decision, but I heard about the “residential schools” and did not think it relevant. It seemed justified, it was for their own good – and ours. So, like most of my fellow citizens I turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the evil being done. I was far too busy traveling around the world promoting the just and humane treatment of offenders, and far more concerned with the acts and implications of my personal morality than my silent complicity in the moral failure of my church and country.

Amid speculations and explanations, the cause of death for so many young children remains unclear, as does the depth of heartache for unknowing families who were left ‘in the dark’ without a word, without closure.

Who are we to treat families without consideration when their children die and are buried?

Who are we to think that their grief, their need for respect and consolation is any less than ours?

Who are we to attribute lower value to those children and their parents and communities than to those of our own?

Who are we to worship our Creator as if that same Creator is not theirs? Oh God, what have we done to the children and the people of this land?

During these past few weeks, I have seen the face of my own cultural and spiritual arrogance. I confess that my speaking up for justice and mercy for the oppressed and disadvantaged of the world, has been completely disconnected from the reality of oppression and disadvantage being perpetrated on people in the country I call home.
Lord have mercy upon us!
 

The people were bringing their little children to Creator Sets Free (Jesus)
so he would lay his hands on them and bless them,
but his followers spoke harsh words to the ones bringing them.
When the Creator Sets Free (Jesus) saw what his followers were doing
it made him angry, so he said to them,
“Let the little children come to me! Do not turn them away.
Creator’s Good Road belongs to the ones who are like these children.
I speak from my heart,
the only way onto the Good Road is to become as trusting as a little child.”
He then took the children into his arms,
Laid hands on them and blessed them.”

(Mark 10:13-16 in “Walking the Good Road”)
See:  First Nations Version of the Gospels

 
Your comments and concerns are always welcome
Write to me at RonWNikkel@gmail.com