Classis Red Mesa was formed in 1956 in order to give Native churches in the Christian Reformed denomination a voice and to be able to address the specific needs of the Native community. The classis is made up of Navajo and Zuni churches in New Mexico and Arizona. Over 40 years ago, I was hired by CRC Home Missions and Calvin Seminary in a joint project to recruit and train Navajo and Zuni leaders in Classis Red Mesa. At that time, their leadership was aging and there were few new leaders in the pipeline to take their place. Since my understanding of Native Americans still included feathers and buckskin, I met with as many people as I could to fill my knowledge gap. Bud Ipema, the head of SCORR (Synodical Committee on Race Relations), more or less said, “Keep your mouth shut for five years, listen, and learn.” Things did not quite work out that way.
Shortly after arriving in New Mexico, my Native co-worker and mentor was injured. He asked me to step in to present a prayer proposal from the denomination to our Native pastors and Anglo missionaries. The stakes seemed low—who could argue with prayer? Eager to please, I owned the proposal as best I could and made the presentation. I had not met most of the pastors yet and all the big guns were there: Samson Yazzie, Charlie Gray, Paul Redhouse, and a host of others including Anglo missionaries who had dedicated their lives to this field. It was a disaster. Very little was mentioned concerning the prayer proposal (they all said their churches already knew how to pray), but rather everyone focused on me. The comments went something like this: “If this is the style of leadership you intend to bring to this field, you may as well pack your bags and head back to West Michigan.” I almost did.
Painful as that sort of feedback was, my eyes were opened. I had not kept my mouth shut and listened and learned. My first encounter instead began with me telling them what to do. That was a mistake. I wasn’t the first or last white person from the church to do this. It is still happening, and now, 40 years later, it’s clear the denomination never learned the lesson either. The latest development clouds the future of the congregations I have come to love in Classis Red Mesa.
The church my wife and I attend, Bethany CRC in Gallup, New Mexico, is in the process of disaffiliation. This is a church with a long history in the CRC, and includes many Navajo families with deep connections to the denomination. (Our membership is approximately one-third Native and the rest are Anglo with a smattering of other cultures.) For the past year and a half, we have diligently prepared ourselves for the possibility of disaffiliation. We’ve had study groups on the denomination’s Human Sexuality Report (HSR), presentations on both the science and biblical texts addressing human sexuality, and reports on what the process of disaffiliation will look like and where we might land. Our council has spent hours going over the issues and processing how we should respond. Most recently the congregation met after morning worship and was updated on where we are in the process of disaffiliation.
One of our oldest members, Ted Charles, gave a speech in response to the update. In typical Navajo fashion, Ted waited patiently, listening and weighing the conversation, and then finally stood to give a response. When Ted speaks, we all listen. He circled the topic—not in Western analytical linear thinking but, in characteristic Navajo fashion, by telling stories. Here is a summary of what Ted said:
In 1510, the Catholic Church in Spain drafted the Requerimiento (“requirement,” but in practice “demand”). It gave Spain the right of conquest in the New Land with the blessing of the church. It was to be read to Native Americans, regardless of how much Spanish they understood. It legitimized Spain’s colonization as a God-given right. The document more or less said, “agree or be killed,” and many Native leaders signed on without a full understanding of what they were signing.
This is still happening. It is happening now in the CRC with the HSR and has happened historically in the church as Native Americans have been told how to think and how to live. The underlying assumption is Navajos need to learn the superiority of the Western way. The members of our reservation churches have no direct link to the HSR, but are being told to sign on with a singular mind and conformity.
Ted then spoke about Code Talkers. There came a time during World War II when the Navajo way was useful for communication between the American troops. At the same time, Navajo kids were getting their mouths washed out with soap for speaking Navajo in our boarding schools. (The philosophy was kill the Indian, save the child.) The same students whose mouths had been washed out helped turn the tide in WWII.
Ted spoke with emotion about being tired of being appreciated only when Navajos have something the dominant culture wants, like land, coal, natural gas, uranium, and even language).
Ted said again that nothing has changed. With the HSR and the decisions of the past two synods, Navajos are still being dictated to and demanded to conform.
(I am not Navajo, and am not a specialist in traditional Navajo culture, or biblical interpretation, but I understand that traditional Navajo culture views differences in sexuality as gifts, and treats all individuals with honor and respect.)
The issue, as Ted so eloquently described, for Navajo and Zuni churches is not a matter of biblical interpretation (there’s a range of understanding among our church members). The issue is being told how to think with no room for disagreement or input.
All those years ago, I did my best, after my initial false step, to listen and learn. But my decade of recruiting and training leaders in classis Red Mesa was not particularly successful. Some of the Native pastors I deeply offended in my first encounter never got over it, and I can’t really blame them. Most, however, graciously gave me a chance and even patiently mentored me. After 10 years, the position I held was going to be combined with that of my Native coworker and a new Native leader was being recruited and assigned to fill the position. Meeting with denominational leaders, Paul Redhouse stood up to speak. Referring to me, he said something like: “I do not know why you are getting rid of this guy. He is one of us. Heis Navajo.” This is the same person who, 10 years earlier, suggested I pack my bags and head back to Michigan. Although having the position filled by a well-qualified and gifted Navajo was the absolute right decision, Paul was still reflecting his discontent that he was being told what to do with only the facade of input.
As Ted Charles said, nothing has changed. Native people are weary of requirements and demands that are inconsistent with who they are and how they do things. Their way is not to demand, but to dialogue, discuss, compromise, and hold room for other opinions. Native Americans are capable and gifted and there has to be room for them to disagree. Removing the option of disagreement insults them.
Because synod has left no space for other opinions, the end result is going to be disaffiliation. The fact that our congregation was even in the CRC stands a beautiful testimony to the wideness of the kingdom of God. The Native way of dialogue, discussion, compromise, and holding room for other opinions also testifies to the Kingdom of God. Sadly, there isn’t space for that approach in today’s Christian Reformed Church.
26 Responses
The Doctrine of Discovery is alive and all too well in the CRC. Thank you for those words of wise elders. Paul Redhouse visited 4th CRC in Roseland, Chicago, several times as I was growing up as one of “our” home missionaries. We never learned the right things from him and others. We never asked, “Whose HOME?”
So many good points here–thanks for articulating what we need to learn from our Native brothers and sisters. I too had that privilege, for 23 years. For me, none more important than a conversation with Stanley Jim, about “respect.” Stanley deepened my shallow use of that term. If our CRC folks/leaders on both/all sides had more respect for the other, we may not be in this mess. I’m one of those who still benefits from the discussion, a posture deemed unacceptable. Don, I too had one of those cherished moments, when Stuart Barton said upon our impending departure, “We’re gonna miss ‘ya (long pause), you think like an Indian.”
Thanks Ron! T
Reformed Christians need to learn from our Native American brothers and sisters. My faith journey has been and is a journey of struggle, doubt, discussion and learning. The older I get the more bandwidth I have for listening, learning and keeping an open heart and mind. If I ere I will ere on the side of live and affirmation. I think Jesus will forgive a sin of opening our arms too wide over making the gate too narrow.
Amen!
Thanks for identifying the way of listening respectfully as a way in which we might image the great Listener.
T – please add me to the list of people who deeply appreciate the perspective you create in this article. The tragedy of colonization continues, and the church backs it up. Our lament is important!
Thanks Ron!
Thanks Ron!! T
Thank you!
I appreciated your presentation of the Natice Amrrican perspective. Diverse cultures offer diverse wisdom. Our travels open our minds to other cultures and alternative ways to live and think. Thanks to you and our Native American siblings in Christ.
“The issue is being told how to think with no room for disagreement or input.”
That summarizes the feelings of many from all around the church.
Likewise I add my thanks for this lament. A huge impetus for some early work a group of us did on the need to rewrite the Form of Subscription came from a paper written by Ken Nydam on how ineffectual the FOS was in Classis Red Mesa. I understand now better than ever why that was and interestingly find there are some cogent parallels between Navajo Zuni reluctance to sign documents without input and the situation of far too many elders and deacons throughout the denomination. The terms of our engagement with our tradition are revealing themselves to be deadening rather than enlivening, and our endless use of the church order to solve problems via overtures extremely inadequate. I hope that any disaffiliating congregations will find a north star in something like the contemporary testimony which may invite the kind of transformative discussion of the reformed tradition that is natural to Navajo and Zuni culture and is oh so needed by all of us. Thank you classis red Mesa for giving us a brighter north star than what we ve set out sights on.
Don, thanks for articulating what I’ve been hearing from Red Mesa. I consider it one of the great gifts of my life to have served in Red Mesa with you and now to be able to serve again through the New Horizons Lilly grant. But as my fellow laborer and Anglo pastor pointed out, since 1897 little has changed, we are still sending two white guy to New Mexico.
I’ve been in contact lately with two ministers who serve in the RCA among the Navajo. When human sexuality came up, 90% of the congregations in that classis left the RCA. I highly doubt that the image of native Americans presented in this article could stand up to reasonable scrutiny.
Thanks Herb, sorry you kind off missed the point or maybe I was not perfectly clear. Its not where one comes out on the human sexuality report and issues but being told where you must come out. And that certainly is consistent with the history of at least the Native Americans I have been privileged to know. And that’s what Ted was getting at as well. T
A few more clarifications about Herb’s comment. The RCA churches that left the classis with Navajo and Apache congregations were white congregations. I’m not making any claim about the Navajo congregation’s views on human sexuality. Perhaps they stayed with the RCA simply out of loyalty. I believe it was the RCA’s General Secretary who observed that broadly speaking it was congregations with white, male consistories who left and congregations whose consistory included women and people of color who remained.
Herb, “The issue is being told how to think with no room for disagreement or input.” This article was NOT primarily about HSR.
The CRC has historically used our confessionals as Guideposts for a path on which we engage each other on a journey to know Christ. Recent Synod Actions, removing gravaman, have turned these guideposts into gates, muting valuable voices.
Adam and Eve took a bite out of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil because they wanted so badly to know what only God knows. As a result, God set us on a path of wandering the wilderness, where relationships became the currency of transformation.
Recent Synods appear to be encroaching on another bite from that forbidden fruit, claiming to know empirically the truth of confessionals. I think Jesus would prefer to reveal himself through relationships rather than confessionals. I pray that delegates to 2025 see the Jesus who reveals himself via the relational graces learned from the wilderness over theologic absolutes interpreted in culturally safe spaces.
Don, thank you for articulating this perspective so well. We were privileged to worship and call Bethany CRC, Gallup, our church home for 52 years–until we moved to Albuquerque 10 months ago. Our parting words were that without question, the most difficult part of our move was leaving all of the wonderful people at Bethany Church. Throughout all those years the worship services and fellowship that we experienced there nourished and refreshed our souls, provided much love and encouragement, and allowed us to develop and use our gifts in building God’s kingdom in the Gallup community. There truly is something special about that body of believers. We think that that has something to do with the diversity of backgrounds, differing views on life, and a wonderful variety of gifts. And yet, even with all of the differences, when we would come together in worship, there was a special sense of the unity of the body of Christ where we can share our greatest joys and deepest sorrows, and know that we are accepted for who we are. To us that makes Bethany unique and special, something that we have greatly missed.
Ted, your statement does bear scrutiny within our all-white suburban church, as we’ve been forced down this path as well. May God raise up a generation of reformers fully and promptly cognizant of our Saviour’s boundless love. Things do change in this denomination, but it usually takes 20-30 years of wandering in the wilderness.
Maybe we should have had Red Mesa teach us about a “Christian worldview” at Calvin, instead of us thinking we had to give it to them.
We would have done well to do a lot of learning before trying to do anything. God has given many beautiful understandings to many cultures.
Thanks for sharing. This is a personally poignant story for me. My grandfather, Floris VanderStoep, was pastor in Shiprock/Gallup (I believe at Gallup). I think Samson was his interpreter. I would hear wonderful stories about him when I would visit them after they retired to GR. My dad went to Rehoboth Christian, Class of 1958, with Ted. I have a scratchy photo of the Rehoboth Christian Lynx boys basketball team with my dad and Ted. My dad died in 1981 and didn’t talk much about his childhood. All of my aunts and uncles are passed. So Ted is my one link to that part of my history via Facebook. I hope to meet him soon.
In my wife’s DeBruyn clan (a matriarchal community, like the Navajo) we treasure a photo of Susan’s maternal grandfather Cornelius J DeBruyn standing with elders of a Navajo CRC church. His eyes are about on the level of their belt buckles. How I wish we had some audio or video recordings of their conversation!
The First Nations have offered so much to our churches.Once in a while we may even have taken time to listen.
My PC(USA) congregation in Tucson has long been a church home for members of the Tohono O’odham Nation. It began as a mission church in the barrio, south of the city limits which Native residents were not then permitted to cross. On most Sundays one of our members offers a prayer in O’odham, a potent reminder that we are one In Christ.
Don, I want to add my voice of deep appreciation for how you’ve articulated what we need to learn and relearn. And relearn. And relearn. Our journeys in life have followed somewhat parallel paths on opposite ends of the continent, and I been shaped by First Nations folk in ways beyond counting. Bless you.
Thanks Don and so good to hear from you. Hope you and Marty are well. So many memories flooding my brain and heart right now, from track to Chula Vista and your work in translation. Blessings to you both. T