Humility or Humiliation?

I plan to occasionally repost this message again and again, to remember what this blog is about and not about: it's not about giving an endless listing of church crimes and sins, but the hope that this list will result in humility and repentance from the church. Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. Proverbs 22:4 The result of humility is fear of the Lord, along with wealth, honor, and life. Understandably, church leaders like to make much of those they consider to have been "heroes of the faith", those who have suffered persecution and martyrdom because of what they believed. Also understandably, church leaders do not like to consider that the church itself has far too often been the persecutor, that the church has been the one who kill the martyrs or who committed other gross sins. Church leaders like to portray the church as the victim, but there is another and much more unpleasant truth; the church has often been the victi...

 

 

 

Despite missionary progress, by the late 1660s many ministers were convinced that the colonies were straying from their covenant with God and losing their way. The evidence of God’s displeasure seemed manifold. Severe droughts were followed by destructive floods. Caterpillars and mildew devastated wheat crops. Fire and smallpox claimed property and lives. Conflict consumed communities, and prominent churches suffered schism, including the first churches of Boston and Hartford. In 1664 a comet blazed across the sky, and three years later a “zodiacal” light appeared, shaped like a spear and pointed at New England. It troubled many that the esteemed ministers of the founding generation were dying. “Is not the Lord packing up the chief goods he hath and removing them away?” asked Northampton pastor Eleazer Mather. “When God dismisseth his righteous ones, it is a sign that he himself will be gone ere long.”  Ministers concluded that God had a “controversy” with New England. They used sp...

Plymouth’s war council met on August 4 to decide the fate of 112 Wampanoags taken at Dartmouth, most of them women and children. Plymouth officer Benjamin Church later claimed that most had surrendered after they were promised good terms thanks to the efforts of a friendly Indian, but Plymouth governor Josiah Winslow was informed they came in “without any assurance or invitation from us.” After questioning them, the council concluded that several had participated in raids and that the rest had either supported them or violated their covenant by failing to report Philip’s conspiracy. After “serious and deliberate consideration,” it sentenced most to be sold abroad. A dozen or so were “otherwise disposed of” on “special consideration.” A few weeks later, fifty-seven more Wampanoags who had surrendered were condemned to slavery by Plymouth. Another eighty brought in by Captain Samuel Mosely were sold in Boston. John Eliot, the missionary, was horrified. He could hardly imagine a policy mo...