Native Americans and WCRC

The gathering in Grand Rapids this week has given Native American/First Nation issues real visibility. It has also sparked some useful and important discussion. The news release by Chris Meehan gives a flavor. While I wrote a lengthy comment, the other comments are also worth attending to, if for no other reason than articulating something of the tensions that arise from a desire to do ministry with Native communities. The core question, as in all mission, is how far one goes in cultural contextualization. Crossing the large cultural gaps naturally raise concerns about "syncretism", that blending of the unredeemed culture and the Gospel. Of course, in the context of Native American issues, it is a concern that flows from a North American/Northern European perspective, an assumption that ours is the normative cultural expression. In any case, allow me to put the doings at the WCRC and of the incorporation of traditional cultural practices as a subject worthy of discussion.