Posted on 10/10/2014 8:29:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Political correctness infects virtually every aspect of our culture, our thinking, our heritage.
When I grew up (and I’m only 58), Christopher Columbus was a great hero. Now, to some, he has become a villain. He is blamed for many unjustifiable things, most of which followed in the wake of his voyage. Meanwhile, the Christian side of Columbus has been lost to most of us.
Just days ago, the Seattle School Board voted unanimously to replace Columbus Day, a federal holiday, with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” to be celebrated on the same day in support of the people allegedly plundered and wiped out by Columbus and his heirs.
Contrast this view of Columbus, which has gained currency recently, with a statement by one of nation’s first great historians, George Bancroft (1800-1891). His six-volume series (final version, 1888) on the history of the United States was a standard for a couple generations.
When I began to study America’s roots in earnest years ago, I invested in getting those six volumes. What a treasure trove. Although Bancroft was a 19th century Unitarian, at least he didn’t edit out the G-word (God), the C-word (Christian), or the B-word (Bible) in his quotes.
Bancroft said that Columbus’ voyage was certainly “the most memorable maritime enterprise in the history of the world.” Modern authors George Grant (The Last Crusader) and John Eidsmoe (Columbus & Cortez) provide excellent information on the explorer and his Christian faith.
In 1892, Columbus was elaborately honored in Chicago for the 400th anniversary of his voyage. I understand that the genesis of the Museum of Science and Industry (a phenomenal place) was that anniversary celebration.
But jump forward a hundred years to 1992. By then, Columbus was already being reviled by the politically correct elites in our culture. Columnist Gary Wills captured that sentiment well, saying: “A funny thing happened on the way to the quincentennial observation of America’s discovery: Columbus got mugged.”
It is true that Spanish and Portuguese explorers who followed Columbus’ voyage greedily sought gold, not God, in the New World. They significantly mistreated the indigenous peoples here, especially in South America. But should all the blame be laid at the feet of the Genoan sailor?
Listen to what Columbus himself wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle of Spain on
February 15, 1493, during his return voyage: “I forbade that they [the Indians] should be given things so worthless as pieces of broken crockery and broken glass, and lace points…I gave them a thousand good, pleasing things which I had bought, in order that they might be fond of us, and furthermore might become Christians and be inclined to the love and service of Their Highnesses and of the whole Castilian nation [Spain], and try to help us and to give us of the things which they have in abundance and which are necessary to us.”
In 1505, he finished writing his Book of Prophecies, where he laid out the Christian motivation of his enterprise. He viewed his voyage as helping to hasten the Second Coming. He took to heart these words of Jesus Christ: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).
Although a sinful man like all of us, he was still a hero. Why did he persevere for at least seven years requesting funding for his voyage? Why did he suffer repeated rejections of his proposal and even ridicule? Why did he defy death and risk mutiny to sail west into unknown waters?
He tells us in his own words: “It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) to sail to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures.”
Under Columbus’ leadership, the sailors on the three ships began each day of the voyage with a prayer: “Blessed be the light of day, / And the Holy Cross, we say; / And the Lord of Verity / And the Holy Trinity. / Blessed be th’ immortal soul / And the Lord who keeps it whole / Blessed be the light of day / And He who sends the night away.”
Columbus named the places he landed in a way reflective of his Christian faith. These include the first island (in the Bahamas) “San Salvador,” i.e., “Holy Savior.” Other lands he named are “Trinidad,” i.e., “Trinity;” “Vera Cruz,” i.e., “True Cross;” “Navidad,” i.e., Christmas.
He was a study in endurance. I’ve heard that he repeatedly wrote in his journal, “And this day we sailed on.” Of course, even the missionary enterprise itself is suspect in our day, when each of us is expected to invent and live by “our own truth.” But Columbus was a man, like all great men, who believed in real truth---and worked hard as he could to spread it far and wide.
Although politically incorrect today, Christopher Columbus is still a hero in my book.
Yep, we’ve got to be politically correct. We have to say that Columbus was a barbarian and all that. We know the liberal line.
How about the “We Kicked The Indigenous People’s Ass Day”. Please remember, Indians had no horses or firearms until Europeans brought them to the New World. The indigenous people hadn’t even invented the wheel and spent a lot of their time engaging in infanticide, ritual human sacrifice, torture, rape and occasional cannibalism. This was “the noble savage”.
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day? How about neither?
regardless, space shuttle indigenous people would be a horrible name.
PC only works if you accede to it. It was Columbus Day when I was born, it’s been Columbus Day ever since, and it will remain Columbus Day in my vocabulary until the day I die.
Other people are free to call it whatever they want.
The liberal progressive democrat communists, have been quite successful in demonizing Columbus, and are increasing successful at demonizing the founding fathers, they disguise it as moving forward.
LOL. How about...
Redskin Day
So then you want to do away with Columbus Day altogether? Why?
Some liberal activists have tried to change Thanksgiving Day to something else. As Thanksgiving is a religious term, it offends their sensibilities. Such people call it “Turkey Day”, or just don’t call it anything.
I don't care if people celebrate it. I've got bigger fish to fry. That said, it just makes no sense. Columbus did not discover anything. Heck, he wasn't even the first European to land here.
“Kennewick Man” Day!
He was hear before the Indians!
Those wonderful indigenous peoples!
Cannibalism!
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000907&slug=4041058
Torture!
http://www.dickshovel.com/scalp.html
General slaughter(Mound 72)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia
http://www.salon.com/2009/08/06/cahokia/
Sacrificial Skull racks
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-experts/what-was-the-point-of-the-skull-rack
More sacrifices
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090714-peru-chotuna-video-ap.html
I remember reading on FR about some Inca fishermen who were tied and had their throats cut as a sacrifice several hundred years ago. They were left exposed till winds and sand covered the bodies. Wish I could find the article.
Ain’t Diversity grand!
Indians had garbage dumps too.
If Columbus had not found, and reported the NEW WORLD, it would have been found several years later by the Portuguese captain Pedro Álvares Cabral when he landed in Brazil on a trip to India.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral
SO GET OVER IT, Libs!
Them injuns done killed Captain Picard!!!
I think Columbus was the dude who first suggested slavery was the way to go in these Americas.
How about “Purple Penguins Day?”
Well, it is a federal holiday, for what it’s worth.
That’s right: The American Indians hadn’t even invented the WHEEL!
Few people comment on how primitive and unsophisticated American Indians were by this measure.
I once asked a university anthropologist why he thought American Indians hadn’t invented the wheel and he pondered for a bit (because nobody boldly asks him that question) and said, “...Because they didn’t need the wheel.”
I was stunned at this Luddite mentality coming from a professor who is supposed to “enlighten” the minds of students.
Just imagine how far the Plains Indians could travel if they attached a wheel to the teepee poles that they DRAGGED on the ground behind a horse!
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