Becoming Anglican is a Form of Spiritual Abuse

At its current synod, the Anglican Church of Canada has issues an apology for the “spiritual harm” it has done to the Canadian indigenous community.

“I confess our sin in demonizing Indigenous spiritualities,” primate Fred Hiltz writes. “I confess the sin of our arrogance in dismissing Indigenous spiritualities and disciplines as incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus, and insisting that there is no place for them in Christian Worship.” “I confess our sin in declaring the teachings of the medicine wheel to be pagan and primitive.”

Possibly Archbishop Hiltz and his church have some theological justification for this. If so, it is strange that they do not give any. Because there are obvious theological problems here.

To begin, from a Christian theological perspective, Christian missionaries would not have been “demonizing” Indigenous spiritualities. The polytheistic spirits the Indians grudgingly payed homage to before conversion to Christianity were in fact demons. How do you demonize a demon?

Think about it: if these beings were not demons, what else would they have been? Angels? Aliens? Psychotic delusions?

Given that they were demons, any rites in their honour would indeed be incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus. Not to mention the first commandment. It is right there in the New Testament, as well as the Old, that you must not make sacrifices to or call upon demons or idols.

Any pre-Christian Indigenous spiritual practices were “pagan” by definition. Oxford English Dictionary: “religious beliefs and practices that are not part of any of the world's main religions, especially from a time before Christianity.” Webster’s: “a follower of a polytheistic religion.” To call them “primitive” is, further, simply the same as calling them “indigenous” or “aboriginal.” To say “indigenous spiritual practices were primitive” is only saying the same thing twice.

Nor is there any question of “spiritual abuse” or “robbing Indians of their spirituality” in converting them to Christianity. Any such conversions were voluntary: are Indians incapable of thinking for themselves? Non-sentient forest creatures? Come now.

I dare not say it is impossible somehow to theologically justify all this. But it is prima facie heretical, and demands an explanation. And we are given none.

The simplest explanation for the Anglican Church making such theologically absurd claims without attempting any theological justification is that they have ceased to be either a Christian or a religious body. Their existence and their interests are purely political.