"Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery" w/Mark Charles

Our guest this week is Mark Charles, Native American Activist, Author and Pastor. He has a lot to say about the state of our union and the Doctrine of Discovery. So what is the Doctrine of Discovery? I think Mark explains this clearly in an article he wrote in 2019 for the Faith and Leadership online magazine:

"The Doctrine of Discovery is a series of papal bulls, or edicts, of the Catholic Church. The first one, from 1452, is titled Dum Diversas, written by Pope Nicholas V. It authorized the Portuguese to “invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans, … reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and … convert them to … their use and profit” [as detailed in the follow-up Romanus Pontifex of 1455].

It’s the church in Europe saying to the nations of Europe, “Wherever you go, whatever land you find not ruled by white European Christian rulers, those people are subhuman, and their land is yours to take.”

So this was adopted by European nations both [in efforts] in Africa to colonize and enslave people and by Columbus to land in this “New World,” which is already inhabited by millions, and claim to discover it. You cannot discover lands already inhabited. That’s called stealing. The fact that we refer to what Columbus did as “discovery” reveals the implicit racial bias, which is that native people, people of color, aren’t fully human."

This episode does a deep dive into this dangerous doctrine and using his heavily researched book ("Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery") Mark gives us on a wild history lesson on its impact. We also discuss how the false deification of some of America's most prominent icons (ie: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Abraham Lincoln, etc) may not necessarily deserve the praise they've received. There's enough in this episode to offend everyone!

If you'd like to purchase his book, which we highly recommend, you can purchase it here

Guest Bio:

Mark Charles is a speaker, writer, and consultant. The son of an American woman (of Dutch heritage) and a Navajo man, Mark teaches the complexities of American history regarding race, culture, and Christendom in order to help forge a path of healing and conciliation for the nation. In 2012, Mark hosted a public reading at the US Capitol of the buried apology to Native peoples in the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill given by the 111th Congress. He is the co-author of the book, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, and he authors the blog Reflections from the Hogan. He is a co-founder of the Would Jesus Eat Frybread? college-conference series and has served on the boards of the Christian Reformed Church of North America and the Christian Community Development Association. In 2020 Mark ran as an independent candidate for the presidency of the United States, advocating for a Truth and Conciliation Commission – a formal and national dialogue on issues of race, gender, and class.

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