Human Sacrifice Part 2
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| The Bringers of Christianity to Aztec country. - a display in Guadalajara |
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My last post was probably more off-putting than
up-lifting, having to
do with human sacrifice and, more importantly, with reference to a core
Christian understanding that Jesus’ crucifixion was the sacrifice of a human
life, an offering that would reconcile people to a sin-hating God. We could
argue that Jesus’ being the Son of God took the crucifixion out of the realm of
human sacrifice, but his agony in Gethsemane and his “Why have you forsaken
me?” on the cross argue human pain, not immortal immunity.
These differences may, in the
end, be mere quibbles, distinctions without differences, but to me there is a deep,
historical lesson in events involving human sacrifice. The Spanish conquest of
the Aztecs was, among other things, a clash of two religions, the pantheistic
faith of the Aztecs vs. the monotheistic religion of the Spanish colonialists.
Under the cross, Cortez murdered his way from the coast toward Tenochtitlan
(Where Mexico City now lies). His capture of this stronghold city would
establish his credentials before the King of Spain and the church. The wooden
spears and bows and arrows of the indigenous people were no match for the
horses, muskets, swords and steel armours of the invaders. History tells us
that in all the Americas, conquest and conversion to Christianity were
bedfellows during the colonizing madness of the 15th, 16th
and 17th centuries.
But, of course wealth (gold and
silver—furs in Canada) to be shipped back to Europe was arguably a more
important objective for the conquerors than was the conversion of the
indigenous population via the priests. Some would say that the pillaging of the
Americas’ wealth was the goal, and that priests swept the pathway to that
objective by taming the population. However we see that, it can logically be
argued that millions of human lives were sacrificed by “Christians” on the road
to the subjugation of the people of the Americas.
Best evidence of Christian
collaboration with conquest is in the Doctrine of Discovery, supported by successive popes in
Rome and monarchs in Spain and Portugal in the late 15th to 16th
Centuries. It authorized the seizure—in the name of the sending monarchs and
the national flag—of any “discovered” lands whose inhabitants were not ruled by
a Christian king. It also sanctioned the enslavement of the people conquered
under this mandate. (The spirit of the doctrine plays—at least
subconsciously—into indigenous land claims in Canada today. Do disputed lands not covered by treaty belong to the crown or to the
traditional inhabitants?)
But the foundations for a Doctrine
of Discovery can be found in a document of cobbled-together, traditional
Mosaic mythology called Deuteronomy, or New Law. In Chapter 7, the writers
attribute to God’s command the brutal destruction of peoples who are not Hebrew
and the confiscation of their territories. Beginning in Deuteronomy 7:2, “… when
the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have
defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no
treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do
not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take
their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn
your children away from following me to serve other gods, and
the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly
destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to
them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their
Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For
you are a people holy to the Lord your
God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the
peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”
Tenochtitlan
was subdued quickly; in a matter of months the invading Spaniards had
transmitted several zoonotic diseases—for which the Aztecs had no immunity—to
the population, had rebuffed Moctezuma’s attempts at a peaceful treaty with the
invaders and before the conquerors were done, one of the most beautiful cities ever
known lay in disease-ridden ruins. After the 1521 fall of Tenochtitlan, the
inland march continued and only 20 years later, the first Catholic cathedral
went up in Guadalajara (1541) and the settlements around Lake Chapala had
handed over governance of their area to Spain. Today, the local population is
mainly Mestizo (indigenous/Spanish), the language spoken is primarily Spanish
and the names of towns along the lake are combinations of Aztec (Nahautl),
bastardized Nahuatl and Spanish: Ajijic, Jocotepec, Ixlaquatan de los
Membrillos, etc. The adoption of indigenous place names even as colonization of
a territory is complete, is typical (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Kinistino, Assiniboia,
etc.)
The
argument is often made that although ceding of land by indigenous people was a
debit for them, their advancement as a result of the practices and inventions
of European settlers is a credit that more than makes up for the loss of land. So
if a foreign power were to come to Canada, conquer it militarily and establish
government that was a puppet of a foreign realm, and if the extinguishing of
Christian, Jewish and Muslim religion were being enforced by destroying all
churches, synagogues, mosques, would we feel our loss would be worth it if our
conquerors gave each of us a bucket of beads and a bottle of Aspirin? I think
(hope, actually) not.
There’ve
been many ways in which colonial powers have enriched themselves on conquered
land. All of them, though, have required human sacrifice that always fell—and
continues to fall—on the defeated, whether in Mexico, Guatemala, Australia or
Canada. Canadians—and particularly Christian Canadians—must learn their history
well enough to know what a debt is owed to the indigenous nations on whose homelands
our fortune has been made. Seems it would be through the good works and
graces of Christians who abhor the Discovery Doctrine and colonialism
that the face of Christ would shine through at its best.
There’s
a saying that great advances often require great sacrifice; hopefully a time
will come where the sacrifices don’t include human lives. No advances benefit
the fallen, the murdered, those dying of preventable illness.
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