Darwin and Racism

The Inuit of North America

We now move in this series of blogs from the heat of Africa to the snow of Alaska to the tip southern tip of South America. However the application of the truth remains the same. God retains gifts within people groups that prepare them for the coming of the Gospel. “When the Anglicans began to work among the Eskimos in 1820, they found them more than ready for Christianity.” Like any people group when indigenous leaders are raised up, as a general rule more people come to Christ. The tragedy of this story is that the first Anglican deacon was not ordained until 1959. Almost 140 years removed from the initial contact with the people. The Inuit deacon wrote to his church leaders. "Eskimos are come more to our services now after I ordained, even those who not used to come I do not know why” It is not the writers broken English that should cause us to lament but are unwillingness to raise up indigenous leaders as Christ himself did among the fishermen of Galilee. The absence of native leadership among the Inuit’s is especially troubling when the communities’ redemptive gifts and evangelistic zeal are clearly present.

“The missionaries also found that the Eskimo easily identified themselves with Biblical situations…Eskimo themselves do the main job of spreading Christianity. "The Eskimos has a fantastic memory," says Bishop Marsh. "He memorizes everything—most of them have memorized at least one book of the Bible. When a missionary comes in contact with a family, the Eskimo remembers what the missionary tells him and carefully repeats it word for word when he meets up with another family in his travels.''

I believe that the reason that Inuit leaders were so slow to being integrated into church leadership is because of inherent racism that has affected the church that is directly attributed the Darwinian thinking. This was especially true among missionaries that worked in the 1800’s. Darwin own positive observations of Fuegian’s people, for example their skill in language acquisition, is largely ignored by him when he draws his conclusions about the people group in his writing of the Descent of Man. His prejudices become normative within much of western thought because of our predisposition toward prejudicial thinking. When they become institutionalized thinking, their sinfulness leads to policies and law that bring forth death.

The Fuegians

It is impossible to overstate the pervasiveness of Darwinian thought on the world and even the church. Its influence pervades even in this work. When we use terms such as primal religions, primitive people we are embracing a Darwinian concept, and not a Biblical one, any term that makes distinctions intrinsic to the biological differences in men that has a hierarchy attached to it is embracing a Darwinian concept of man. It is a move away from biological truth found in; “Acts 17.26 From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” When we do this we are devaluing both man and the scriptures and in so doing we are devaluing God. What is terribly troubling about institutionalization of Darwinian thought is how little scrutiny it receives in regards to its overt racism. The implication of this racism on 20th history includes the well documented eugenics of Nazism. It also has its equivalents in the United States. The wages of sin truly are death. There is no root of the popular pluralism of today in the following words excerpted from the Descent of Man. There is only disdain for a people group made in the Image of God.

“In chapter 21 of his Descent of Man, “General Summary and Conclusion”, Darwin wrote, “We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped probably arboreal in its habits and an inhabitant of the Old World.” He continued, “The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret to say, be highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians.”
In support of this Darwin then reiterated his assessment of the Fuegians. He wrote, “The astonishment which I felt on first seeing a party of Feugians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mind—such were our ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, and their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch; they had no government, and were merciless to everyone not of their own small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey … or from that old baboon … as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.”

Captain Robert FitzRoy of the HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin to The HMS Beagle was not a Darwinian but an Evangelist.
“On 27th December 1831, FitzRoy again left England aboard the Beagle on a research journey around the world. Another purpose was to return the three surviving Fuegians to their own country, where FitzRoy hoped they would be missionaries to their own people. With them was “their minder”, Richard Matthews, a trainee missionary himself”.”

The success of evangelist among the tribal groups of the Southern tip of South America would not take effect for another 35 years, “In 1862 Waite Hockin Stirling established contact with the Yahgan and other Fuegian tribes. By 1869 “over four hundred Indians had been baptized into the Church of our Lord and Saviour”. Darwin failure to see the Image of God in the Fuegian people is the same as many today. It is the consequence of rejecting the Genesis version of creation and the acknowledgement of Adam as the first man. It must be said that if Christians reject the notion of a literal Adam they must reject the need for a savior. Adam is the reason for our fall, Christ is the reason for our redemption. There were many redemptive gifts among the Fuegian people, language and social engagement seems to be among them.

“Incredible though it may appear, the language of one of the poorest tribes of men, without any literature, without poetry, song, history or science, may yet through the nature of its structure and its necessities have a list of words and a style of structure surpassing that of other tribes far above them in the arts and comforts of life.” And on another occasion he wrote, “Owing to the eminently social life of the people who spend so large a part of their lives in talking and, both men and women, in giving lengthy harangues … they perfectly keep up the knowledge of their language and early learn to speak it well.”

They will be named among the tribes and tongues that will be listed in heaven. For those that have eyes to see the glory of God in a people group, the glory can be seen. “Darwin’s fellow countryman, English explorer William Parker Snow, visited Tierra del Fuego in 1855 and, without Darwin’s racist and evolutionary presuppositions, came to some very different conclusions about the Fuegians. While noting their unkempt physical appearance and primitive habits, he wrote … many of the Fuegians on the Eastern Islands were fine and some of them even handsome fellows. This I know to be rather different to what Mr. Darwin says of them: but I can only speak as I found, and thus mention what I myself saw.” He further observed that they “reside in families”, and said, “I saw many instances of warm love and affection for their children and for each other”. Snow wrote,

“that the modest conduct of the women was very remarkable, and all of the Fuegian mothers were much attached to their babies. He continued, “I believe they have a sort of property right amongst them, and I have seen one of the oldest women exercising authority over the rest of her people.…
Snow concluded, “The actual difference between a savage and a civilized man is simply the degree of cultivation given to the mind. In all other respects the savage at home is identical with the savage abroad.” And, “In speaking of these savages, I cannot help saying that I do not consider them so degraded as many persons do. I look from effect to cause, and thus trace their present condition to the nature of circumstances.”
The Fuegian people have passed from the face of the Earth. This does not appear related to the Judgment of God but to the exposure to European diseases, “their lack of immunity to epidemics of smallpox, measles, influenza and other diseases brought by European whalers, sealers, gold miners, farmers and others, coupled with the effects of colonization, the Yahgan (another name for Fuegian) have become virtually extinguished as a people.” Henry Morse would state that the time and boundaries of the nation had been fulfilled. I would be more inclined based on the premises that I am setting forth to say that their redemptive gifts and absorbed into the people groups of their local geography and expressed differently in a new generation. The Amorites are also a people group that is no longer listed in the table of nations. They were a nation of influence and power. There contribution in the area of law continues to be discussed to this present date. They will be discussed later in this series. Next I discussion the role of festival keeping as a means of cultural memory and its role in reinforcing faith in the God seen in of creation and experienced in conscience.

“Eskimo Deacon” Time Magazine, May 25, 1959 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865911-2,00.html#ixzz0zh4u1XCl
“Eskimo Deacon” Time Magazine, May 25, 1959 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865911-2,00.html#ixzz0zh4u1XCl
“Eskimo Deacon” Time Magazine, May 25, 1959 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865911-2,00.html#ixzz0zh4u1XCl
“The Truth About Margaret Sanger” First Published in Citizens Magazine, January 20, 1992 http://www.blackgenocide.org/sanger.html
Grigg, Russell “Dawrwin and the Fuegians” Creation Ministries International, published 19 May, 2009 http://creation.com/darwin-and-the-fuegians
Grigg, Russell “Dawrwin and the Fuegians” Creation Ministries International, published 19 May, 2009 http://creation.com/darwin-and-the-fuegians
Grigg, Russell “Dawrwin and the Fuegians” Creation Ministries International, published 19 May, 2009 http://creation.com/darwin-and-the-fuegians
http://creation.com/darwin-and-the-fuegians
http://creation.com/darwin-and-the-fuegians
Morris, Henry M. God of the Nations, (Master Books, 2002) pg 59