Our Father

Nohtāwīnān kihci-kīsikohk kā-yāyin,
pitanē miyo-wēyihcikātēk kiwīhowin,
pitanē ohcihcipayiw kitipēhcikīwin,
kā-isi-natohtākawiyan kīsikohk pitanē ēkosi isi wāskitaskamihk.

Anohc kā-kīsikak mīyinān ni pahkwēsikaniminān
mina tahtwāw kīsikāki,
kā-isi-kāsīnamawitwāw kā-kī-māyitōtākoyahkwāw,
ēkosi wī-isi kāsīnamawinān kā-kī-māyitōtamahk,
pisiskīminān ēkā kita maci-māmitonihtamahk,
iyēkatēnamawinān kā-māyātahk.
pitanē ēkosi īhkihk

What you see before you is the prayer Jesus taught to his followers, commonly known as the Lord’s prayer, in the Plains Cree language. I thought I would post it, since it is Father’s Day. The first word in the prayer “Nohtāwīnān” translated from Cree to English means “Our Father”.

Answering the Twelve: Question/Concern#3

For those of you that are new to the writings of “The Voice in the Wilderness”. You may find it helpful to read some of my earlier posts to gain some context as to the reason for the posts titled “Answering the Twelve”.

Their was a time when I was doing 4 presentations per year, at the church where I was the pastor, to talk about First Nations spirituality and its incorporation into the evangelical/pentecostal church. Needless to say, it created a lot of emotionally charged discussions. The 12, were the common questions or concerns that were consistenly raised in the sessions. I am trying to discuss and provide answers to those concerns in this forum.

Question/concern number 3. Doesn’t the Bible tell us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and thus we shouldn’t put harmful things into our body, like tobacco?

Before I answer the question, let me share something I noticed in the seminars. Generally the person that asked this question already had a very well defined personal belief concerning the use of tobacco and about First Nations spirituality. Also, the question was usually asked with an already preconceived idea about the scripture being quoted. (1 Corinthians 6:19) Therefore, a healthy debate, discussion, or teaching moment about the use of tobacco was usually very difficult as “lines in the sand” had already been drawn.

However there are two issues at hand; (A) The scripture; and (B) the use of tobacco.

(A) 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.  ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (NIV)

The scripture quoted in connection with the question is always verse 19 of the above passage. Anyone that knows me, knows that, I do not subscribe to the idea that their is one and only one interpretation for a passage of scripture. Scripture is open for debate and numerous possibilities. However, I do believe that it is always a healthy practice to begin with reading a passage of scripture within its original context. So, let me point out that this passage in its original context is addressing the issue of sexual immorality and not tobacco use.

Through the course of time the passage has endured some creative theology and has been removed from its original context. This has been done in an effort to make the argument that the passage is also addressing other body (temple) destroying behaviours such as smoking, drinking intoxicants, drug abuse, reckless acts, getting a tattoo, and diet. Is this a fair interpretation of the 1Cor6:19 passage and does it stay true to the spirit and intent of the passage? I guess you need to ask yourself that question and it is something I leave for you to decide.

Just as a side note, I always wonder why the use of 1Cor6:19 fails to take into account the fast food industry, glucose-fructose, white flour, white rice, white pasta, white sugar, and caffeine. Which are just as harmful on the body (temple) if not more so.

(B) Use of tobacco

I choose not to enter into a lot of detail on the use of tobacco within First Nations ceremonies, lest I reveal something that I was not supposed to reveal. However I will say this, tobacco use for ceremonial purpose is something different than the everyday use of tobacco and cannot be compared to the everyday use of tobacco.

Tobacco use in ceremonies is for sacred purposes and is not used to satisfy or appease an addiction. In fact, it would be very difficult to misuse or get addicted to tobacco if all you ever did was use it in ceremony.

Most people, First Nations people included, know of the dangers that tobacco misuse can cause. The question/concern assumes that the dangers of tobacco use are similar in both the social and the ceremonial setting, which they are not. The dangers of tobacco abuse, although quite acceptable to bring up in conversation if you lack understanding, should not be compared to or be imposed upon the ceremonial use of the plant. The plant was given to us for a reason, I believe it is best to discover that reason before passing judgment.

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Answering the Twelve: Question/Concern #2

Question/Concern #2. I am concerned about the pipe, the sweatlodge, tobacco, sweetgrass, cedar, and sage, or any other native tradition being brought into the church. Is it right to mix native traditions and Christianity?

I believe I need to address a couple of other issues being posed by this question. Is the question really asking ”can church and native traditions be mixed together?” as opposed to “should Christianity and native traditions be brought together?”

Anybody that knows me, would know that I am in favour of native traditons being practiced without any changes in structure or style to the tradition. I only advocate incorporating Jesus (Yeshua) into the ceremony/tradition because it is something I would need for my own peace of mind and because I believe it would be beneficial to the ceremony and traditional practice. I will try to expand on this concept in the days ahead, in these few and far between posts. 

But let me try to address the question “can church and native traditions be mixed together?” Although it would seem very simple to just say yes to the question, in reality it is not that simple. I believe it is perfectfully acceptable to bring native traditions and ceremonies into the church, however the current structure and format of church services would not allow for full expression of native traditions and in fact would limit the expression of the ceremony.

Smudging, smoking the pipe, talking circles, feathers, artwork, dances, and feasts could very easily be practiced and/or displayed inside the church building, but a typical Sunday morning service would limit these ceremonies and practices. Smudging could take place before the service and replace opening prayer or be incorporated as part of the opening prayer. Having feathers in the building or on people’s bodies is not a difficult thing either and would not change the Sunday morning structure too much either. A dance and art work is a nice expression of culture, but I think it would come across as a performance rather than as a spiritual act. It would be still nice to see although.

However the typical Sunday morning service structure would have to be totally scrapped to have a pipe ceremony. The Pipe ceremony would have to take place instead of the typical service and where I am from the ceremony is only for men. Feasts and talking circles would also require the typical church service to be dramatically altered, in fact totally done away with. Personally I would do it, but I don’t know if too many or any evangelical or mainline denominations would allow for such practice.

Without getting into too much detail, the ceremonial lodges could never be practiced inside a building and those have to be outside, so incorporating these into a church is an impossibility. I am referring to the sweat lodges and the sundances/raindances on this. 

Does that answer the question of mixing traditions and Christianity? I don’t really know, but it is something that I think about quite a lot. I don’t have too many examples of where a spirituality of combining Christianity and Native Traditions is being practiced and promoted. In Saskatchewan people who think like this are few and far between. All I really know is that, it is clear in my mind, and I am at peace with the thought, that it is perfectfully acceptable to follow Christ in a manner that allows for the total expression of native traditions and ceremonies.