What the White Race May Learn from the IndianJames, George Wharton
Religion
What the White Race May Learn from the Indian
James, George Wharton
Indians of North America
Another thing that the civilized of this age may well learn from
the Indian is intense earnestness and sincerity in all matters of
religion. It is a painful thing for me to go into many of our city
churches. Well-dressed women and girls and young men will sit and
whisper through even the most sacred parts of the service. Indeed, it
is the exception, not the rule, that I ever go to a service without
being outraged by some such exhibition of rudeness, ill manners, and
irreverence. This kind of thing is unknown with the Indian. Religion
is a serious thing. Fun is fun, and when he goes in for fun he does it
with thoroughness and completeness; but when his religious instincts
are called upon, he puts aside all fun, and enters into the spirit of
the occasion with becoming reverence and solemnity. It is civilized
people who go into churches of other faiths than their own and gape
and “gawp” around, whispering the while to one another at the strange
things they see. Protestants are particularly guilty of this serious
vice. Roman Catholics are so trained to attend to their own devotions,
and _to be devout_ in the house of God, that they pay no attention to
one another, but Protestants will go to a Catholic church, or one of
some other denomination than their own, and behave in a manner that I
would never insult the Indians by calling “savage” or “uncivilized.”
An Indian will not even set foot on the top of one of the underground
kivas where religious ceremonies of one clan are going on to which he
does not belong. I do not ignore the fact that this reserve comes from
superstitious fear lest some harm befall him, and this fear, perhaps,
is not good. But whether from fear or not, the reverence for the
sacred place and the ceremonies going on is refreshing and gratifying.
Especially so is it to me after seeing, week after week, a crowd of
so-called civilized young men (and old) lounging around a church door,
sometimes smoking, making comments upon the people entering the church.
I have as little toleration for the acts of these young men who thus
selfishly rob people of their comfort and destroy their religious
feeling as I would have for any one who would laugh at sorrow, or make
a mock of the grief of the bereaved. And my feeling extends also to
the officials of the church who will permit such outrageous conduct.
Churches are for the education of all the people in religious and
higher things. How can youth be educated in higher things when the
very precincts of the church are allowed to be used by them for acts
of discourtesy, rudeness, and selfish disregard for the thoughts and
rights of others? With the Indians these things never occur. In looking
at ceremonies in which they have no part, their manner betokens the
profoundest respect and reverence. If not for the worship itself, it is
yet shown to the feelings of those who do worship. I have photographs
in my collection of Indian youths standing at the door of a Christian
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account