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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-27/ethics-christianity-colonisation-land-theft-australia/104601466>
'All the major religions say stealing is wrong, but in a messy world of
disadvantage and exploitation, is the morality of theft always clear cut?
In certain instances, theft can be an act of desperation or poverty or the
by-product of intergenerational trauma.
And many colonised nations, such as Australia, are arguably built on theft: of
land, language, artefacts and people.
According to Anne Pattel-Gray, a Bidjara/Kari Kari woman, theologian and
author, Christianity has been used as justification for theft, even though it
contradicts the biblical commandment "Thou shalt not steal".
She draws a connection between colonial ideology and the Book of Joshua.
It defines Yahweh [the name for the God of the Israelites] "as the colonial God
giving the chosen people, the Israelites, the right to take possession, to
steal the Canaanites' land and to commit genocide, to wipe them off the
planet," Dr Pattel-Gray explains.
"That interpretation of that biblical text was applied and embraced by the West
as them being the chosen people to be able to take other people's land, because
God had blessed them to do so.
"This is the context that we have in Australia."
She points to the Stolen Generations as an example.
"Consider the theft of generations of Aboriginal children that [the Australian]
government committed, and institutionalisation of those children, most of them
given to churches to train up to be indentured labour in this country," Dr
Pattel-Gray says.
"We don't want to [say] that we had slavery in this country. We don't want to
acknowledge that we treated children as property to benefit those that were of
the dominant society and wealth."'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
