One of my
favorite books as a teenager was Zane Grey’s The Spirit of the Border. I was thrilled by this tale of quiet courage
in Moravian Christian missionaries to the Native Americans of the Ohio River
Valley set against the earthquake valor of the famous Indian fighter, Lewis
Wetzel, at the close of the American Revolution. Nearly all the characters are historical
realities excepting the twin brothers, Jim and Joe Downs, the sisters they
love, and some of the Indian leaders. A
key element is the destruction of the missionaries’ Village of Peace – they
called it Gnaddenhutten – by Indian warriors incited by American renegades
while an equally real band of American militia looks on because they are not
large enough to interfere without bringing certain destruction on themselves.
As an adult with
leadership responsibilities in the Christian community – the American Christian
community – I recently re-discovered this book and did a little research into its
historicity. I discovered the truth that
the Christian Indians were massacred by that very body of American militia led
by David Williamson whom Grey depicts as helpless to intervene. The band – actually twice the size reported
by Grey – gave the Indians a night to pray and prepare themselves for death
before bludgeoning and scalping them into eternity. The missionary leaders, David Zeisberger and
John Heckewelder, were not present. They
were later captured by the British and tried and acquitted of treason against
Great Britain.
The historical
incident should be as shameful to our people as it was thrilling to the heart
of the fourteen-year-old boy reading the fictionalized account. It becomes more horrific by the very attempt
to sanitize it. Yet in either version it
seems to spotlight the struggle for us Americans – since the beginning –
between the God-breathed opportunity to build a shining city on a hill and the
human demand to build a city in the image of our warrior and entrepreneurial
tradition. Reality is both sides of the
American character are exceptional and have been used by God to temper and
activate each other. Reality is that the
city on a hill metaphor – whether spoken by Isaiah or Ronald Reagan – reflects
our God-given nature and needs to be in command when we strike out into the
wilderness on the shoulders of the other side, the Wetzel side.
Our God is a God of quiet courage in the
middle of sacrifice, forgiveness, and mercy.
He revealed His plan for every social and political institution we hold
dear in words uttered in His Name from New England pulpits that gave rise to
our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. He shaped our character and identity as a
nation in the first three Great Awakenings. He also gave us the spirit of aggressive
courage that invents the plow that breaks the Great Plains and feeds the world
– but also breaks people and fights tooth and nail to preserve an institution
as foul as slavery until other people – fueled by that same spirit of
courageous aggression – put an end to it.
Both spirits are of God, but the latter must be the servant of the
former if we would be the people we have always been called to be, just as we
Christians say the flesh must become the servant of soul and spirit. And we need to remember that God’s
unimaginable power is released only in submission to His known will, however
counter-intuitive it may seem. At that
point we become people of redemption, restoration, and resurrection. We become the only nation in history to
re-build nations like Germany and Japan after having defeated them in war. We become uniquely transparent in
acknowledging the areas in which we fall short – such as our treatment of Black
and Native peoples – and in seeking to fully right those wrongs. And we become the first to come to the rescue
of even those nations that despise us when they are in distress.
The American
track record in caring and generosity – not to mention mercy and forgiveness –
is unmatched among the nations. We are
not perfect. But we do not need to paper
over events like the Gnaddenhutten Massacre.
We need to address them in repentance and humility. And we need to remember the words of the only
King we will ever need. “Remain in me
and I will remain in you. No branch can
bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
in me.” This is not a call to the nation
first; it is first a call to the people of faith on whom the nation rests.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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