Columbus

Today is the official/legal Columbus Day vacation or pause or celebration based on the 1492 event when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America or the Western Hemisphere.  A brief review here of that story, which needs to be known and studied.

Spain had been in the thralls of division for many, many years when a he and a she from the opposing sides fell in love and got married.  During the decades of distrust and division, the government had heavily used the Jews in administrative roles for they could be trusted to not take sides.  After all, they were Jews not given to any other group!  Once the two sides came together in the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Jews were no longer needed and the true loathing of their race surfaced.  A decree was issued on March 31, 1492, telling the Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave the country taking what they could carry on their backs but not taking any precious metals (gold or silver) or money.  The Jews had until July 31 to comply.  The ports were packed with people leaving the last week of July.

For a few years an Italian explorer named Columbus had petitioned the royal court for financing for his wild idea of going west in order to go east.  In April 1492, Ferdinand gave his full consent to the explorer, after all, he was about to step into a massive amount of money when the Jews left and he was always desiring to expand his empire.

Columbus left of August 3 aboard the Santa Maria, Pinta (almost Pinto!) and the Nina.  After a brief stop in the Canary Islands, it was westward.  On October 12 an island in the Bahamas was sighted and thus the discovery of the New World.

Today, Columbus is more and more cast as an evil man for he exposed the Indians of this hemisphere to diseases and to fortune hunters who killed many in order to take their wealth.  There is no question that evil was perpetrated on many of this new world’s native peoples.  But those acts should not diminish the truth that Columbus understood trade winds and currents and believed the globe was round and thus going west had a good chance of getting to the spice havens in the east.  Columbus had a faith in God and believed that the world was created by his God so there was order and laws governing the planet that could be trusted and used.

Columbus also desired that others embrace his faith in God, Jesus, and the Bible.  His motivations might not be clear and his means not the best, but he did desire that people be “saved.”  We can fault his methods, but we should not cast aside his vision.

Lastly, God told Adam to subdue and exercise dominion over His creation.  Adam (and mankind) was also told to fill.  Once something was “filled”, more land was to be subdued and dominion was to be exercised.  So, peoples moving into areas unsubdued and not governed was not outside of God’s will.  To take land from peoples with the sword is wrong, but large tracts of land in the western hemisphere were unruled and thus open for others.  To lay claim to land not subdued is not evil.  Yes, much was done wrong by the early discoverers, but not all that was done was wrong.

Let’s appreciate the good around Columbus while not giving him and those who followed him a pass on their sins.

(In today’s World-Herald is a front page article about Columbus which cites atrocities by Columbus largely based on a “history” book written in 1980 by Howard Zinn which has been widely criticized by historians across the board.  Zinn’s motive was to start a “quiet revolution” with workers taking over institutions and taking control of their lives.  His mission was to expose and condemn authority structures which included Columbus.)