Native religion = "spiritual darkness"?

Native American Youth Break Spiritual Barriers on 10 ReservationsA spiritual breakthrough is taking place on Native American reservations throughout the United States.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says nearly 600 Native American youth began a relationship with Christ last month.

"A wall has been broken; the Spirit of God has broken through," says Hutchcraft. "And isn't it awesome that He has done it through these very broken Native American young people?

"They were the drug-addicted; they were the drug dealers; they were the alcoholics," he continues. "They are the sexually abused; they are the rape victims. But they come with a story of hope about our Jesus. That is what has captured Native hearts on 10 reservations this summer.

"It has been almost like a book-of-Acts thing to behold."Helping people through religion...what could be wrong with that? Well, let's see:Many of the reservations OEW visited were not only places of death and destruction. They were also stomping grounds for spiritual darkness.

"Any time there is a major spiritual event on a reservation, there is a great deal of summoning of the spirit world through the drums and the ceremonies," Hutchcraft explains.

"Of course, what people don't realize is that if you don't go through Jesus, the spirits that are being summoned are from the other side of the spirit world. Consequently, their sense of ownership of people and lives and geography is enhanced at those times of the year."

For example, OEW teams arrived at Wind Canon Reservation right before their biggest powwow of the year. One of the young men who came to play basketball against the OEW team ended up accepting Christ as Savior during their stay.

"He's dead today," Hutchcraft says. "He was shot to death two days ago."Comment:  "Spiritual darkness"? "Spirits summoned are from the other side"?

In other words, Indians are naturally depraved and evil? Which is another way of saying savage and uncivilized.

So these Christians are bigoted against traditional Native culture and religion. As most Christians have been for the last 500 years.

And that bigotry, expressed through murder, theft, and oppression, caused many of the problems on reservations. But now it's the cure for the problems it's caused?

Well, isn't that special.

Hutchcraft's final example seems to argue against his religious proselytizing. A youth accepted Christ and was killed two days later. If Christianity didn't cause this death, it certainly didn't prevent it. How is this an argument for rather than against Christ?

For more on Christian bigotry, see The Capobiancos' Anti-Indian Agenda and Saint Peter the Aleut.

Below:  "Ron Hutchcraft says nearly 600 Native American youth began a relationship with Christ last month through the Summer of Hope program." (OEW)