# Catholic vs. Protestant Evangelism in the Americas



## Scott (Jan 4, 2006)

Listening to a lecture series on the Conquest of the Americas. The professor makes an interesting comparison between the way that Spanish Catholics treated natives and the way English Protestants treated natives. He suggests that the Spanish as least formally attempt to evangelize while the protestants are largely unconcrned with evangelizing them. 

He notes countless abuses by Spanish Catholics and the various Catholic voices who protested (including one Spanish priest who wrote a work on Spanish atrocitities that was published and widely distributed by protestants in an anti-Catholic effort). 

Still, he maintains a fundamental distinction - the Spanish extensively tried to evangelize the natives. The English mostly ignored them (from an evangelism perspective). 

Thoughts?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 4, 2006)

There was an extensive effort by Jesuits to proselytize Indians, I believe. However, the Spanish in general were known for their barbaric treatment and enslavement of Indians. 

Cross-cultural interaction between Protestants and Indians, from what I have learned in my historical studies, was in general much more civilized and evangelical than what the Indians experienced from Roman Catholics. The Pilgrims got along well with the Indians and established a peace which lasted from 1620 to 1675. 

The works (preaching and translating the Scriptures for the Indians) and compassion of John Eliot, David Brainerd and Jonathan Edwards come to mind.

These excerpts from a Christian missions history timeline help to tell the story of Protestant evangelical efforts towards the Indians.



> 1643 - John Campanius, Lutheran missionary to the Indians, arrives in America on the Delaware River; Reformed pastor Johannes Megapolensis begins outreach to American Indians while pastoring at Albany
> 1644 - John Eliot begins ministry to Algonquin Indians in North America
> 1649 - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel In New England formed to reach the Indians of New England -- John Eliot was named its first missionary
> 1701 - John Jackson, the first missionary to Newfoundland to be supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, arrives at St. John's.
> ...



To give other specific examples, I would suggest reading Jean de Lery's _History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil_ about the efforts of French Huguenots to evangelize Indians near Rio de Janeiro. It is the first anthropological work dealing with New World Indians. 

The 1562-1565 French Huguenot colonial efforts in Florida had a huge impact for good wrt Indian relations. Laudonniere's dipolomatic efforts at dealing with two Indian tribes that were at war with one another did backfire and caused some temporary troubles for the Huguenot colony. But overall relations were good and the Indians treated the French Protestants with a respect that was mutual. However, when Pedro Menendez massacred the Huguenot colony and established St. Augustine, he took Indian slaves and his Spanish forces virtually exterminated the Timucua Indians within a few generations. Yet, while the Indians of Florida in general came to despise the Spanish... 



> Even though the colony had been destroyed, the memory of the French, especially their songs, lingered for a long time. "Europeans, cruising along the coast or landing upon the shore, would be saluted (by the Indians) with some snatch of French Psalm uncouthly rendered by Indian voices."
> 
> Nicholas Le Challeux (1579) writes that the Indians "yet retain such happy memories that when someone lands on their shore the most endearing greeting that they know how to offer is 'Du fond de ma pensÃ©e' (Ps. 130), or 'Bienheureux est qui conquÃ©s' (Ps. 138), which they say as if to ask the watchword, 'Are you French or not?' "


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## Scott (Jan 4, 2006)

Thanks for the thoughts


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## Plimoth Thom (Jan 4, 2006)

The New England Puritans did not view Indians as racially inferior, but rather just like Englishmen, and expected to conform to the same standards. If an Indian committed a crime he was brought into court, usually with some Indian jurors and expected to face prosecution the same as an Englishman. The puritan missionaries stressed true conversion with the Indians, as well as conforming to the English way of life. So they did not get as many converts as the Jesuits in New France claim to have. But then the Catholic and Puritan definitions of conversion were completely different. Often a Jesuit would baptize a group of Indians, call them Christians, and the Indians themselves didn't know what happened. That didn't happen with the Puritans.


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## Scott (Jan 5, 2006)

Thom: A point the professor made is that there was very little concern among the English about the evangelization of the Indians. I think we see the scattered and sort of hodge-podge nature of protestant evangelism from Andrew's timeline. The main goal of the English was simple dispossession of the Indians' land. The English were largely content to leave the Indians to themselves, in terms of evangelism. The Jesuits had a very active and systemic program for evangelizing. They were very concerned about evangelizing the Indians.


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