Christianity has an incredibly violent past. No one is more aware of this than its victims and descendants of its victims. As a Christian, traveler, historian (with a degree, not just a hobby), and descendant of Christianities violence, my time in Peru helped me connect dots to similarities in Christian experiences and raised questions.

As we explored ancient Inca ruins in Peru, several tour guides discussed the violence of my faith.  By contrast, history tour guides in America (the Boston area specifically) never mention the destruction that Christianity supported. On my road trip across America, I had the opportunity to talk to three separate groups of Native Americans — Wampanoag American Natives (Plymouth, Massachusetts), Taos Pueblo Indians (New Mexico), and the Dakotah/Lakotah Tribes (more commonly known as the Sioux, in North Dakota)— and learned the American history that my undergraduate degree in the subject seemed to forget. Unless you ask the Natives, you’d be unlikely to connect the dots to how similar the stories of Christianity in the United States stories are to the stories of South America and Africa. Sure, we all know the generalities of Native ethnic cleansing. However, for the first time in my history education, no one sanitized the story.

Christianity Comes to Peru

Our guide, an Inca descendant, is a Christian but he still practices the same spirituality that his ancestors practiced thousands of years ago. He kept it real when he told the Christian history of Peru. He mentioned the brutality of Christianity multiple times. According to him, the Spaniards were not interested in learning agricultural techniques from the natives. They only wanted their silver and gold. Instead, Spaniards forced the Incas to build opulent, gold-adorned cathedrals in Cusco and along the trail to Machu Pichu. The Spanish used this method, “Just to convert us to being a Christian,” explained our guide. Thinking about it, there are no colonial cathedrals where there isn’t any gold.

When the Spaniards tried to force their God onto the Incas in 1528, the Incas/Quechuas determined they would not be worshiping someone with skin like their oppressors. So they covered a statue of the European idol with llama leather to make him look more like the people. Over time, the leather got darker due to centuries of contact with candle smoke in the Cathedral. Thus, creating the Black Jesus attraction — or at least that’s what I was told.

At the time, the people of Peru wore Sudarios, a knee-length skirt. It was a unisex clothing item as they found no purpose in wearing gender-specific clothing to publicly annotate what a person’s genitals look like—that was a European practice. The statue has a whole wardrobe of Sudarios that gets changed based on the occasion.

After conquest, the Spaniards forced the Quechua artist to learn renaissance-style paintings to paint scenes of European and Catholic values. The Spanish didn’t let the artists sign their names to their artwork. The local artists found ways to incorporate their heritage right under the nose of the colonizers without them noticing. The Incas were able to conceal symbols of their faith within the catholic tradition as well. This was best done through art. Several “Last Supper” paintings feature Jesus eating cuy (guinea pig) and drinking a local drink with potatoes on the table. Peru highlights so many intriguing Last Supper paintings. It is a wonder why Da Vinci’s is the only one that is discussed in art history, humanities, and world civ classes. The Cathedral in Cusco basically serves as a gallery of European domination and a testament to Quechua resistance.

Christianity and The Wampanoag American Native Tribe

The story of resistance amongst the Native Peruvians reminded me of the Wampanoag American Native tribe history I got to hear from a descendant of pilgrim massacre survivors. At Plymouth, Massachusettes, just a short drive from south Boston, you can visit the Pilgrim Plantation. There you’ll hear the happy fairy tales you read in sanitized history books. While touring, I listened from the sidelines to a Wampanoag woman tell a class of elementary-aged students the story. I waited on the sidelines while they asked their elementary questions. Once they moved along I started asking mine.  The Wampanoags kept the faith of their ancestors. They only pretended to convert to Christianity in order to survive. Like the Native Peruvians, they still practice the faith of their ancestors from 600 years ago.

The Cathedral had a no photo rule, but how could I just pass up my first time seeing a Black Jesus prominently displayed in a cathedral without a photo!?

Christianity reaches the Taos Indians

In Taos, New Mexico, it’s the same tale. The Taos Indians are not a nomadic tribe. They do not have a history of reservations, the Trail of Tears, or the Long Walk. They have lived in the same Pueblo buildings as their ancestors for the past 1000 years (with modern upgrades as well, like wifi). Theirs is the longest, continuously inhabited community in America. I remember when I lived in Europe and saw all the centuries-old structures, thinking America had nothing like it. Our earliest buildings had to be in Massachusetts from the 1600s which was almost modern day in comparison to Germany’s Medieval castles. Even majoring (temporarily) in architecture and history, I never knew anything about this ancient civilization, with its impressive architecture in my homeland that rivals the historical architecture of Europe.

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

But the Spanish came. Enslaved them. Forced them to build a Church right beside their pueblo (remember, there are no Colonial Catholic Cathedrals where there aren’t resources). Then the Brits showed up to unleash all kinds of hell in the area. Spaniards and English folks ran around chopping each other’s heads off, blaming it on the natives, and trying to force people to speak their language and believe in their God.  The Brits tried to force their Protestantism while the Spanish forced their Catholicism. The locals just wanted to be left in peace. Both European ethnicities arrived and forbid the locals’ traditional practice & language (kinda like the Japanese in Korea). The locals pretended in order to survive but, like David in the Old Testament, strengthen their own faith during all the adversity. Today, the Taos Native Americans observe both faiths. But they lost nothing of their own.

Christianity in North America

Afro-Caribbeans also were able to maintain their African faith by intertwining Orishas with saints. Oshun easily resembles the Virgin Mary.

This brings me to the conversion of Africans in the United States. Africans in America did not pretend to accept Christ. They did so wholeheartedly and lost the spiritual traditions of their ancestors. How did this happen? My theory is, unlike the Incas, Wampanoags, and Taos, Africans in America were mixed up with other tribes who had different faiths and languages.  Oppressors separated Africans from their families and cultures. Thus, ancient traditions and practices could not be taught.  Protestantism practiced in America gave fewer opportunities to intertwine religious symbols with saints and imagery.

If history is the best indicator of future performance, then today’s Christians have a lot of overcoming. John tells us we will be able to identify Christians by their love; Matthew by their fruit. Constantly, for centuries the fruit claiming to be Christian has not been love.

Cusco

While I’ve always been aware of Christianity’s less-than-Christ-like history, it seemed emphasized more on this Peruvian trip.  The way the guides presented history —  without sugar-coating, justification, or glossing over stood out. This was the first time I’d heard colonialism described this way. Not ironically, this trip offered the first time the history of colonialism was formally taught by a descendant of a survivor — rather than a direct beneficiary.

The same history passed down from generation to generation of the treatment of natives from Plymouth to Peru never make it into history books and uncovered an interest in the subject that I never knew. I was just going on vacation to Peru for cool photos. I wasn’t expecting the history lesson and unique, new perspectives this trip provided.