Is one religion really superior to another?

Notes from Indian Country

Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) 11/14/2005

I sometimes wonder if this Nation is moving forward or stumbling backward. The actions of the Kansas Board of Education would suggest the latter.

By a vote of 6 to 4 the board chose to adopt new science standards that are the most far-reaching in this country challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution in the classroom.

According to an article in the New York Times, “The standards move beyond the broad mandate for critical analysis of evolution that four other states have established in recent years, by recommending that schools teach specific points that doubters of evolution use to undermine its primacy in science education.” Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself, so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations.

Conversely, all eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board, a board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class, were kicked out of office by a slate of challengers opposed to the ID policy.

The verdict on the Pennsylvania school board should be handed down in early January. If the ID policy is defeated in court the new school board could refuse to pursue an appeal. Many believe the challengers will simply withdraw the policy.

Suppose the decision of the Kansas Board of Education becomes a reality? I would think that this would open the door on both ends of the spectrum. For instance, if creationism is to be taken literally there should be many questions asked of this theory also. As an example, when God created Adam and Eve were they created white, black, red, brown or yellow? If they were created white then how did they evolve into the different colors? Isn’t that evolution?

Several months ago I wrote on this same subject. I asked at that time to identify which creation theory would be accepted. There are many major religions in the world, some with much larger numbers than those calling themselves Christians, and they also have their theories of creation. Which theory of creationism should be accepted or should students study all of the different points of view?

News commentator Bill O’Reilly says that 85 percent of Americans are Christians and therefore majority rules. There was a time not so long ago when the American Indian was in the majority. The difference was that the Indian people did not try to force their religious beliefs upon the new comers. The immigrants from Europe believed that since the Indians were not Christians, they were therefore heathens to be converted to Christianity.

As the new settlers grew in numbers that soon overwhelmed the indigenous population, they not only forced their religion upon the Indians, they outlawed the religious practices of the indigenous people. Shaman and holy men were oftentimes imprisoned and more often than not, executed.

I attended a Catholic Indian mission on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. We did not have a choice of whether we could study Darwin’s theory of evolution or the creationism theory of the Holy Bible. We were indoctrinated into the creationism theory without question.

For me at least, it killed any interest I would have had in studying science. Not because I was totally converted to Catholicism, but because I was never given the opportunity to seek out a different perspective from a scientific point of view.

As the color of America changes and the different hues become predominant, this growth will also bring about a new face to the religious beliefs of those other than Christians. If things change so drastically that the races of color then become the majority and their religious beliefs are not those of the Christians, would the Christian minority allow them to push their religious theories into their classrooms?

Frankly, in the old days when saying Merry Christmas to someone went unnoticed, I never really thought of it as a religious expression. In fact, excuse my ignorance, but I never really thought of “Christ” in Christmas. To me it was just an expression of the season.

It wasn’t until several years ago when I heard a clamor to “put Christ back into Christmas” that I ever gave it any serious thought. To me, if a Muslim greeted me in a manner traditional to them, or a Buddhist or Hindu or Jew, I would not take offense. If the greetings were in keeping with one of their religious holidays I would accept that greeting without question or offense.

America is evolving into a nation of many races and many religions. There are indigenous religions dating back tens of thousands of years that are still alive and practiced amongst the indigenous people. The people of the Muslim faith are rapidly growing in numbers, as are those who practice a faith other than Christianity. So if we, as Americans, are to be held to a strict code of do’s and don’t by a faith that is now in the majority, what happens when it is in the minority? And you should not doubt for a single minute that this is not a possibility.

Americans cannot continue to force institutions of public education to promote any single faith because if and when that situation is reversed they certainly would not want to become the victims of a more powerful and numerically superior religion.

Now is the time to start looking 50 years down the road not when it is too late to do otherwise. In order to move forward America must go back to the beginning and look at what it says in the U. S. Constitution about separation of Church and State. But it must also confess and admit its suppression of the religious beliefs of those who did not practice Christianity.

In other words, America must become all-inclusive and knock down this ideology of superiority that seems once more to be rearing its ugly head.

(Tim Giago is the president of the Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc., and the publisher of Indian Education Today Magazine. He can be reached at Tim Giago or by writing him at 2050 W. Main St., Suite 5, Rapid City, SD)