How Many People Have Christians Murdered in the U.S.

The book I'm reading about fires in California reviewed the extensive use of fire by Native Americans to enhance the soil and control the damage from lightening fires. Natives set fires regularly to help control weeds and enhance the soil for their food growing. Along with fire they had a lot of knowledge about horticulture and bred plants to increase productivity.

California was taken from native populations by Spain. The first white people to move into the area were Jesuit priests. According to historical accounts, these Jesuits set about converting natives by moving into areas, learned the local language and worked Christianity into the indigenous religions. The Spanish government, however, did not see the riches coming to it they expected from the armies they had sent there. The Jesuits were making things worse by helping the enemy, native people. Word came down that all Jesuits must leave the area or be imprisoned by the Spanish government.

In place of the Jesuits, government approved priests from the Catholic hierarchy were sent. A determined priest organized natives into parishes and ordered conversions. The productive use of fire and native agricultural practices were banned. People began staving. It was estimated half of the adult population died and 90% of children died. The idea was to stamp out all native culture and change to European Christianity. Death was everywhere. All the death was for a good cause, the white Spanish church and government officials believed. God would vanquish Satan-influenced natives. If only white people, first the Spanish and later the U.S., had managed the environment the way natives did we may well be better off today.

We all know Christians used their religion to justify making slaves out of African people and killing them often by lynching. All of this makes me cynical about the anti-abortion branch of the faith that crows about what they call "life." If only they were really interested in the life of the mother and lives of all people they would have something positive to contribute.