Posted on 01/15/2011 10:49:06 AM PST by RnMomof7
Dr. Carlos Gonzales delivering a Native American blessing at Wednesday's memorial service at the University of Arizona. (CNSNews.com) -
Wednesday night’s memorial service for the shooting victims in Tucson did not open with a prayer from a Jewish rabbi, a Protestant minister or a Catholic priest--it began with a Native American “blessing” that left many puzzled about what it meant and why it was performed.
The prayer, which did not use the word "God" and did not make the traditional request for God’s comfort for the bereaved that many might have expected, did mention the Creator and called for "honoring" the Seven Directions, including “Father Sky” and "Mother Earth”--and remembering our "fellow creatures" who "crawl on the earth” and “slither on the earth.”
The blessing was presented by Dr. Carlos Gonzales, an associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “I was asked by the university to give a traditional Native American blessing,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com late Thursday. “This is the type of blessing that we give at memorial services to open up a ceremony. A medicine man will do a variation of it to open up a pow-wow. It’s basically a recognition of the powers of the seven directions and how they influence human beings--and how each direction has a certain characteristic; that when you pray to that direction, you ask for the inspiration that comes from that direction.”
The eight-minute oration Gonzales prayed Wednesday night before a crowd of more than 14,000 at the University of Arizona’s McKale Memorial Center may have sounded strange to many Americans. Holding an eagle feather, the physician and professor began by introducing himself--at length.
“On my mother’s side I am Mexican, a child of the descendents of a pioneer family from Mejico, that came in the 1800s. On my father’s side, I’m Yaqui, refugees from Mexico that escaped the genocide of the Pascua Yaqui in the 1800s. For myself, I am fifth generation in the valley of Tucson.”
Gonzales then gave honor to the various directions of the compass: “Let’s begin by honoring the eastern door, from where we get visions and guidance. May each of us get the vision and guidance to proceed in a good way,” Gonzales prayed. He also asked for strength from “Father Sky,” which he called the “masculine energy,” and “Mother Earth,” the “feminine energy.” “O Creator, may the two energies, the masculine energy and the feminine energy, come together in our center where the Creator exists. For each of us has a piece of the Creator. Please, you have given each of us a gift. May we use these gifts to help our fellow human beings,” he prayed.
Gonzales' prayer also mentioned ancestors and said "let us not forget our fellow creatures," including “those that stand,” “those that blow in the wind,” “those that are tall and stately,” “those that crawl on the earth,” and “those that slither on the earth” and “those that live under the Earth,” as well as two those who swim in water and fly in the sky.
In an interview Thursday with CNSNews.com, Gonzales explained the meaning behind what he was doing in the blessing. “The seven directions are basically the cardinal directions, Father Sky, which is up above us, and Mother Earth, which is down below us, and the seventh direction, which is the center, where the Creator exists,” he told CNSNews.com.
“It’s basically a way of acknowledging God’s Creation, and it’s a way of acknowledging by honoring those cardinal directions and what they have to say to us,” he added. “For example, the east is where the sun comes up in the morning, and as the sun comes up, it lights the path of the world, therefore the East is seen as having the power to guide us and to give us vision and to help us through as we walk on this earth.”
It would be a mistake, however, to call the Native American beliefs he was expressing a religion, Gonzales said.
“It’s not truly a religion, it’s more of a way of appreciating spirituality,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com. “I’m Yaqui and Yaquis have been Roman Catholics since 1650. We were one of the first tribes in Mexico to actually peacefully absorb Catholicism; however we have always practiced Catholicism in our own unique manner, incorporating traditional beliefs, and so I grew up as a Roman Catholic with a Yaqui variation.”
“In reality, I’m Catholic, but the spirituality I’ve come across with traditional healers is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, and it’s a way of approaching people and it’s an additional way of healing that has actually helped me to be a better family doc.”
None of the victims of the Tucson massacre were known to be Yaqui. Moreover, no rabbi, Catholic priest or Protestant minister, the known religions of the victims, was included in the memorial program.
Gonzales said the idea for a Native American blessing came from University of Arizona President Robert Shelton. “President Shelton has a Native American advisor here at the university to deal with American Indian health policies in Arizona, and he asked her if someone could come and do a traditional blessing,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com. “She’s heard me do these blessings before in other places, and so she recommended my name.”
The invitation to pray came late Tuesday, and he accepted. “The way we believe, and the traditional way, is that if somebody asks, you cannot refuse, so I accepted.”
Gonzales repeated that he is not a shaman or medicine man, and had to obtain permission from tribal elders to do what he did “I’m just a regular MD. I teach family medicine here at the College of Medicine, but what’s happened is that in my path towards getting a better appreciation of healing and healing knowledge, I’ve actually interacted with medicine men to see how they approach people who are ill and unwell. So I’ve learned a lot of their philosophy of healing and their philosophy of life,” he said. Gonzales, meanwhile, said the “Creator” he mentioned in the prayer is “whoever your particular denomination deems to be the important entity.”
“For Native Americans, it’s the Creator of the Universe,” Gonzales said. “In Christian denominations, it would be God.” A Different Reality
Dr. Angela Tarango, a religious studies scholar at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, explained that Gonzales’ prayer may have sounded strange to the uninitiated, but was actually very much in keeping with traditional Indian blessings.
“In traditional native religion, there is a sense that the world needs to be balanced,” she told CNSNews.com. “It needs to be in sync with everything. And when something terrible happens, it needs to be rebalanced properly.”
Tarango also defended Gonzales' lengthy autobiographical introduction by saying that traditional Native American culture demanded it.
“You have to do that in native culture. When you come in, you don’t just come in, not saying who you are. You have to say where you come from. Outsiders who work with native people understand this. They have to say, ‘I am so and so, and I am from so and so people.’ It’s a sense of what peoples you are from. There is no question, she said, that Native American spirituality is different. In it, one opens spiritual “doors” to go through to different “realities” in the natural world.
“In the native view of the world there is no heaven and no hell. So when you die, you go on to be with your ancestors in the next world, which is a lot like the world that you leave, but it’s a lot nicer, and you’re there with the spirits of your ancestors. That’s what he’s saying, that in some sense that the ancestors greeted the spirits of these people that passed away and have taken them into the spirit world,” she added.
Gonzales, meanwhile, said his invocation was simply a way “to bring positive energy into a gathering of that type.” “I wasn’t trying to give a lecture to anybody,” he said. “It was a prayer. It was simply a prayer.”
Yeah, pretty much.
There's your "trendy" problem. Robert Shelton. Deep down,.... he's shallow.
You guys must all have incredibly fragile faiths, to need to constantly do this. Yeah, people who leave a religion usually like to assert that they are still faithful to it. Protestants call themselves Christian, but not Catholic; now Yaquis call themselves Catholic but not Christian. At least I’ll acknowledge that Protestants kept the more crucial part of the notion of Catholic Christianity, but the notion you can separate them is simply fictitious.
The fact that syncretism exists among people who call themselves Catholic, but defy the Catholic Church shouldn’t be surprising. In the U.S., there are plenty of syncretic, Protestant sects, like Mormons, Branch Davidians, Unitarians, etc. Being a well-educated and wealthy country, they are few in number. Head down to Brazil, and you can encounter all sort of bizarre syncretic cults which regard themselves as Evangelical, Baptist, Protestant, “World Christian,” Reformed, Charismatic, Fundamentalist, you name it. Baptists will, of course, be the first to declare that such “Baptists” aren’t really Baptist, but who’s to say who’s right? The Brazilian Baptists will swear up and down that the American Baptists are the ones misinterpreting scripture. However, because of the concept of catholicity, we can objectively state which Catholics are upholding the basic tenets of Catholicism and which are not.
So the Yaquis are somewhat more Christian than the Aztecs, and less Christian than Pope Benedict. Are they saved? This article sure doesn’t make it sound like this guy is, but I really have little idea. But even he might get to Heaven long before Martin Luther or Cardinal Mahony.
Catholics go straight off the cliff worshiping everybody under the sun except God. Then they go to other cultures and teach them to do the same. Thus you get a “Catholic” believing it’s ok to pray to the winds, the four corners of the earth, the spirits, whatever. They cant tell the difference because no one has taught them properly. The Catholic church is just into numbers for whatever nefarious reasons it has in the Vatican. Like I said earlier, read 1 Kings and see how confused and wrong the people of God can become in 40 years.
‘In that day there was no King in Israel, so every man did what was right in his own eyes.’
Oh, I didn’t realize this was a “make stupid arguments against Catholics” thread.
RnMom was Catholic and now renounces it. This buffoon of a doctor commits some kind of apostasy. One is the fault of Catholicism, but the other isn’t?
The Tea Party caused the shootings, though thousands have heard the party and committed no murder. Prayers for the intercession of the saints caused this man’s vapid paganism, though millions have prayed to the saints and not become pagans.
Unreasoning anger leads to the dulling of the faculties of reason. Si indicium requires, circumspice.
Carry on. Far be it from me to come between an anti-Catholic and hatred.
It is not truth-telling that leads to this enmity. It is lies, anger, and thoughtless accusation
As an American Indian and a Christian, I have to tell you that not even half way through that idiots “prayer” I changed channels. That was the most esoteric blabber I have ever “almost” seen. Made me somewhat ashamed to be Indian. Now I will read this thread. I had to say this first.
Not sure where you got YOUR education, but if you had learned reading comprehension, you’d have noticed that the article states very clearly that Gonzales is an M.D., a Medical Doctor, not a clergyman. No seminary involved. His familiarity with Indian culture and Medicine Men is a byproduct of his medical education and practicing in AZ, where the Indian culture is rather dominant.
Unbelievable. Who better to lead the gathering in paganism than another pagan?
Bump.
RnMomof7: A prayer by an unsaved /lost man to a false god.
DUTCHBOY88: I cannot get enough distance between these two statements to reflect their real separation. The first displays the inevitable lunacy to which the Roman Cult leads. The second, the true biblical assessment of the paganism which captures Rome. Thank you, RnMomof7, for your wise words.
Amen!
Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion." -- Isaiah 41:28-29 "For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
Your tag is a riot. lol
It is interesting how much pandering is done by the papists to attempt to be “ecumencial”. Your people did not put this doofus up to it, so you have nothing to be ashamed about. His eyes are just darkened to the truth of Christ.
Blessings to you, my FRiend.
"For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion." -- Isaiah 41:28-29
And then our FRiend the good Dr. provides us those penetrating words of Isaiah. Their world is truly, "...wind and confusion." Thank you for the reminder that this is not the first time the God of Israel has seen such darkness and error. Grace to you.
Rome appears to be "ecumenical" towards everyone but Protestants whom they still anathematize.
Blessings to you, my FRiend.
Amen, fish hawk. God is glorified by your righteous witness.
They have rock the vote, I have glock the vote.
LOL!
/roll eyes.......
We do not bolster our faith by *attacking* others.
What do you expect us to do? Not tell the truth about this kind of paganism and where it leads?
With members like this, the Catholic church is in bigger trouble than it realizes.
But since he still claims to be Catholic, I'll bet he's *properly* catechized. After all, he still identifies as Catholic.
Yep. Never ceases to amaze: Romanists keep elevating the fantasy-number of Christian (non-Roman) denominations... what about all of the litte Roman Catholicities within the one behemoth?
That is a typical action on the part of a person who is hopelessly lost.
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