Through most of their history, Christian churches deÂmanded that converts forsake traditional religious ideas and “pagan practices,” and modern-day Pentecostals are especially strict in these matters. In recent times, though, Christian thinkers have struggled to rethink the relationship between the new faith and its ancient counterpart, seeking to root Christianity in the land and the Dreaming. The most quoted such work is Rainbow Spirit Theology, produced in 1997 by a multidenominational group of Aboriginal Christians from Queensland. The whole text is a heroic attempt to reconcile the Euro-American North with the Aboriginal South.
Aboriginal thinkers present their traditional faiths as a kind of Old Testament precursor to the Christian message, one of the many and various ways in which God spoke to our ancestors. The name “Rainbow Spirit” refers to the common myth of the serpent that acted as a creative force in the Dreamtime. Christians generally dismissed this story as a crude Creator myth, with uncomfortably satanic connotations. Actually, these traditional peoples respond, the RainÂbow Serpent is a critical symbol of life and fertility, more comparable to the Holy Spirit, whose actions transcend time. Moreover, indigenous peoples acknowledge Christ as one who takes their own form.
In 2020 Australia will celebrate a quarter millennium of European contact. That commemoration provides a wonderful opportunity for churches to proclaim a wholly transformed attitude toÂward indiÂgenous traditions. Call it a dream.
Phillip Jenkins fairly recognises that missionaries tried to and frequently did help Aboriginal Australians to deal with the depredations of secular western society.
But he has a rose coloured view of recent history:
[blockquote] “Not until the 1970s did governments radically change their approach, enforcing treaty rights and curbing the worst abuses. More favorable laws and social attitudes have meant that Australia’s indigenous population has almost doubled in the last 25 years to about half a million, or 2.5 percent of the national total.” [/blockquote]
Many aboriginal leaders say that things didn’t get any better in the 1970s, and that whilst some abuses were curbed, many other grew in their place. In particular, the scourge of alchoholism grew because the prevailing left-wing view was that it was oppressive and paternalistic to restrict access to alcohol – after all, freedom to indulge was a prime tenet of the white liberalist movement in Australia.
These left-wing attitudes were confronted in subsequent years as it became apparent that in many cases it was the Aboriginal leaders and councils who wanted to impose alcohol restrictions on their communities.
Also re the “doubling” of numbers of Aboriginal people, this has more to do with how people are classified and with how they are encouraged to self-identify, than with a change to mortality rates – it is doubtful that Aboriginal mortality rates saw any significant improvement as a result of the left-wing policies of the 1970s.
[blockquote] “At least according to official statistics, Christians have had a major success in evangelizing the Aboriginal world. Three-quarters of indigenous people declare themselves ChrisÂtian, a high figure for secular Australia.” [/blockquote]
A typically liberal paternalistic view – if Aboriginal people have embraced Christianity, then it MUST be because white missionaries suborned their will and converted them – God forbid that we should ever believe that they can think for themselves!
Similar attitudes can be seen among liberal commentators about Christianity in Africa and Asia – attitudes which entirely miss the point that not only have these people embraced Christianity of their own free choice, but that they now tend to be more enthusiastic and knowledgeable about it than we white westerners are.