June 29th, 2021: Let Us Cry...

The life of every child needs to be cherished and protected. I have heard many ideas about what happened to aboriginal children during the time of Residential Schools. I have also learned about what is happening to aboriginal children today. Whether the abuse towards these children being done by the church in the past or their tribal leaders today, we should not just stand by and do nothing. We need to confront the atrocity of the past as well as the abusive behaviors of the present towards children with the same vigor, regardless of who is the culprit. When we want to look at the history of the treatment of aboriginal children, we might consider Bishop Lesslie Newbegin's comment about the meaning of history. It is "an ongoing conversation between the past and the present regarding the future." There is no hopeful future without honesty about the past and the present.

As we grieve over the deaths of many children who were taken from their families to Residential Schools, we also need to pay attention to children who died from sickness and abuse in their reserves. My heart is sick when we are willing to focus on one and overlook the others. Yes, the Catholic church did not handle themselves properly. The whole society did not react to the situation very well either. 

We are dealing with these problems now is by either spending more money and asking for more money. Spending money to provide support for victims who were damaged by those who were supposed to love and care for them is the right thing as long as we have a clear accountability framework in place. Accountability was missing during the time of the Residential Schools, and it is still missing today in the way we spend money on various challenges concerning First Nations. We need to give our heads a shake when we spend more money than ever before, and things do not seem to get better. Some people are abusing other people when that happens.

I had a conversation with a Japanese friend a few weeks ago about Residential Schools. He is married to a Caucasian Canadian. They have one son, and they used to foster children, many of them from the Indian Reserve not far from their city. He ended up adopting one of them, and the young man is still in their life. He talked to me about how hard they had to fight for the right of this young fellow adoption. It was rather fun to see them together the first time when the young man (6'2" - 210 lbs)  proudly told me that my friend (5'6" -145 lbs) is his father. Compassion and Love are possible.

Let us not take advantage of the deaths of children to advance any political agenda. Let us cry for their deaths from either abuse or neglect. Let us commit prayerfully to care for children, both inside and outside the womb of their mother.

Psalm 139: 13-14

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."