(Now, disclaimer - I have never been to Bethel and don’t know the ins and outs of their ministry. And ya’ll I used to LOVE Bethel. Not saying I hate them now but I used to listen to every worship song of theirs, heard their sermons, and read their leaders books. I thought they were it. So nothing I say is to disrespect them or encourage you to do so but this is a reflection that includes them as an example.)
When Columbus and his band of bandits decided to “explore” the new world - they ended up in what we now call The United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
He was searching for India (to continue his colonization) and ended up somewhere else but still went through with his colonization plan. Want to talk about someone determined to accomplish their goal? He ain’t let a thing change his plans or his trajectory toward genocide, rape, oppression, and colonization. Not one bit.
And the thing about his decision to do all this is that he really believed he was doing something good. And according to a journal article written by Star Smith where he researched Christopher Columbus’s faith, he wrote…
“Columbus undertook the voyage so that he could meet with the Grand Khan and fulfill his wishes. The Grand Khan, Prince of Cathay hoped that he and his people could be converted to the holy faith of Christianity. Christopher Columbus penned in his journal, "[H]e and his ancestors had sent to Rome many times to ask for learned men of our Holy Faith to teach him."
The word to highlight here is ‘OUR’. This means he claimed to believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Especially in knowing the history of Italians (which is where he is from), most in that time were Catholic and a few protestants.
So, we are left with someone who believes they loved God and is set to go on an exploration where he will commit devastating, dehumanizing, and destructive sins for the “good” of the “savages” and his own people (being White people).
The thing about Jesus is that He already came to save us. This season of advent we just left reminds us of just that. That God sent His Son and His Son was born to us and would one day grow up to save us. And He did just that a little over 2000 years ago. So praise God that Columbus is not the only one out here setting to do something and accomplishing it. Jesus did it for good.
Yet, there are people out there still thinking they can ‘save’ people but in “The Columbus Way.”
Now, what I’m not saying is that Bethel will do the same thing as Columbus but bethel communicated that New York City is something that I wouldn’t think is far-reaching to what Columbus thought when he got to the New World.
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