[mbarker12474]

Virginia's native american tribal leaders are curiosly seeking "recognition" by the state. The Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church devoted their 2007 annual conference session to this political cause, and now our Bishop Charlene Kammerer is hosting a "convocation on religion and race" to further this pursuit of special victim class rights.

Every school child in Virginia studies the Virginia native Indian culture, and passing down the state highways on the middle peninsula, one sees state road signs pointing the way to their modern reservations. It is therefore hard to be sympathetic with their claimed desire for "recognition," unless "recognition" actually means "special victim class status leading to government preferences for individuals who have only the most tenuous connections to people in another era who had some claim to oppressed status."

[Gopher Broke]

Yet another reason I left the United Methodist Church...after my family were lifelong members.

Political correctness trumps the Bible......the Methodist church is more of a social club than a church.

[PeterNJones]

I don't know if "recognition" means special victim class. My understanding is that sure, they get some government benefits, but it is more about being honored as a cultural group. Check out A Cultural History of the Native Peoples of Southern New England: Voices from Past and Present for an idea of how these people still hold their cultural values - unique values - even though they may drive cars and appear "modern."