Greenland, the U.S. Annexation of Hawai’i, and Naboth’s Vineyard: A Warning Tale for this Moment
Friends: Much of our attention has rightly been focused on ICE assaults in Minneapolis, as well as the amazing popular resistance there (including faith communities and many of our friends there, such as folks at Calvary Baptist Church, right). Please continue to pray and protest, that we might keep building momentum into a turning point in the long first year of the Trumpian assault on the people and land of this nation. And of course so many other crises are looming, and must be kept in view. Greenland is one that is dear to our hearts, and it is the focus of this blog.
Colleagues in front of Calvary Baptist offering food and drink to protestors a block from where Alex Pretti was murdered the day before (Facebook photo by Alanna Elder).
The struggle for sovereignty in Greenland is about Indigenous rights and decolonization. To help you clear your head and focus, please take three minutes to view Wilbur Sargunara’s song “Nunarput Tuniniagaanngilaq (Greenland Is Not For Sale)” (left) to feel the spirit of resistances among our neighbors.
This latest expression of colonial presumption has a long history in this hemisphere. Indeed, people of color have been very outspoken in reminding white activists that what we’re seeing in Minneapolis is a reiteration of racist policies and violence of past administrations (see for example last week’s 6 minute reflection by Otis Moss III here).
So on this 5th anniversary of the publication of Healing Haunted Histories, we offer our analysis in that book’s Theological Interlude to put current U.S. attempts to annex Greenland in historical and biblical context. We wrote HHH during, and in response to, the first Trump administration, and it is more relevant than ever in this disastrous second go-around.
We invite you to watch this video (right) about the archetypal sin of colonial violence, taking the shameful U.S. annexation of the sovereign nation of Hawai’i in the 1890s as a revealing example. This “haunted history” illumines the “strategic and economic” imperial rationales and entitlement animating Trump’s threats today.
Thanks to the scriptural literacy of the Republic of Hawaii’s Indigenous Queen Liliu’okalani (right), her story is backlit by a deep strand of anti-colonial conviction found in I Kings 21. She cites it at the close of her memoir of protest:
Oh, honest Americans, as Christians hear me for my downtrodden people! Their form of government is as dear to them as yours is as precious to you. Quite warmly as you love your country, so they love theirs… The people to whom your fathers told of the living God, and taught to call “Father,” and now whom the sons now seek to despoil and destroy, are crying aloud to Him in their time of trouble; and He will keep His promise, and will listen to the voices of His Hawaiian children lamenting for their homes… Do not covet the little vineyard of Naboth’s, so far from your shores, lest the punishment of Ahab fall upon you, if not in your day, in that of your children, for “be not deceived, God is not mocked.
That same warning echoes forward to the current attempt by a corrupt plutocrat to take the Indigenous lands of Greenland by currency or crook.
This presentation is an excerpt from one of the nine “Key Concept Videos” narrated by Elaine that are part of Throughlines: Resources for Facilitation and Group Study of Healing Haunted Histories. It thus also serves to offer you a preview of this new packet, which we’ll launch in a couple of weeks and hope you’ll help us promote. Because only a critically honest look at our past can reveal the true meaning of the present—which is why we settlers need to probe deep into our personal and political formations so that we may be fully awake and prepared for the crises of right now.
More Resources
This month is also the first anniversary of Healing Affluenza, Resisting Plutocracy’s release. Circle Monday, Feb 9th for two opportunities to hear Ched talk about the book:
- Activist priest John Dear will post his interview with Ched earlier this month at his Nonviolent Jesus podcast; and
- Ched will do an online presentation with two Catholic Workers (one in Portland, one in Vermont) at 4:30 PST; register here. Ched has long enjoyed facilitating scriptural conversation with Catholic Workers (photo right: Bible study at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community, ca 2007).
And here’s another chance to hear Chuck Collins overview his new book, which we consider a companion to HARP, Burned by Billionaires. He’ll be interviewed on an online church forum on Sat, Feb 7 at 7pm PST: details here.
Still having withdrawals this time of year without our BKI? If you’re looking for awesome weekend faith and justice programming in the warmer climes of SoCal, we recommend “Hidden LA: AAPI Migration, Memory, and Movement Building,” curated by our friends at ReconciliAsian. It will be from noon Friday, Feb 27 to 3 pm Sunday, March 1; details here.
Note: This blog inaugurates a new rhythm for our BCM Partner’s Circle Enews. Starting now we’ll be sending the Enews every other month; it will be replaced on the off-month with a longer blog such as this one. We welcome your feedback.
