Yesterday was the first Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada. The establishment of the day was one of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2007-2015). The day is a commemoration of the wrong done to Indigenous people by Canada, by the policy of government, and the practice of many churches. Particular focus is directed towards remembering the long history of residential schools in Canada.
Before it was Truth and Reconciliation Day, September 30 was called Orange Shirt Day. You have likely heard the story of Phyllis Webstad who, at 6 years old, upon entering a residential school, now away from her family, had her prized orange shirt taken away from her by those in charge at the school. She never saw that shirt again.
Reconciliation is a word that should have central play in proper and hopeful Christian theology. The photo below shows how much Karl Barth wrote about it in his multi-volume theological work.
What Barth lays out in those thousands of pages is that the message to which Christians bear witness in the world is a message of reconciliation. What happened to Phyllis Webstad when she was young child shows, not a theology of reconciliation, but a theology of fear, terror and a belief in a tyrant God rather than a reconciling God.
Jesus dealt with people who thought that children had to have their wills broken as well. You might recall. Mark 10:13-16 recounts an occasion when little kids were coming to Jesus. His disciples found the kids to be annoying and a disturbance. They “rebuked” the children (bad religion always congratulates itself for rebuking children) and Jesus became “indignant” at the disciples. He said to them “Do not hinder them. God’s kingdom belongs to such as these.”
How opposite this scene to that of a church leader taking away the orange shirt of a 6 year old girl?
For Karl Barth, the message of reconciliation is the hope of the world. The theology of residential schools was one that told children (and everyone else) that God was not pleased, that God was angry, that God hated who the children were and where they came from. They must be made into something else. The church, often willingly, took up this task because the church had a sick and evil theology that conveyed, not that God was reconciler, but that God was a tyrant deity, angry at the world and particularly angry at small children. Any love that God had for the kids was entirely conditional. They must be made into something other than they were. This was the lie. Such a lie leads to darkness for those perpetrating it and for those suffering under it.
The message of reconciliation, true reconciliation, will produce the opposite result. We ought to “rejoice unreservedly about eternal reconciliation for all. It is the task of the Christian community to attest with the Christian word and Christian existence, Jesus Christ not only as the Lord, but also as the Saviour of the world and therefore its future. Christians will never find that they are called to anything other than hope - hope for themselves and for the world.” (Church Dogmatics IV.1, The Doctrine of Reconciliation). The message that we carry in Christian faith is a message of hope, not fear. This is what could occasion the indignance of Jesus at the action of his disciples. Residential schools carried instead the message that God was against the children. The shadows of this evil message still impact many lives in Canada. Reconciliation calls us to so much better.
Barth again,
The love of God in Jesus Christ brings together Himself with all people and all people with Himself. But at the same time it is obviously the coming together of all people with one another. (CD IV.1, The Doctrine of Reconciliation)
I am an indigenous Christian. My grandmother went to residential school. They actually took land from my great-grandfather to build the residential school and my great-grandfather was known as the chief of the church in his town. Ironic and a lot to unpack there isn't there?
I do believe people on all sides need transformation, I also believe that people on all sides will reject God in spite of the hope of reconciliation for some. That is the reality of life. God wants people to love, but God desires real love. It's a choice everyone has got to make.