# Examples of Forced Christianity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110 "2009-01-13T17:04:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/61 "2009-01-18T05:33:30Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > For that matter, Native Americans were in many instances “forced” to convert by American colonists - children snatched from tribes and put in Christian orphanages or boarding houses, punished when they didn’t use English to communicate or mentionned their previous culture, that sort of thing. The Australians did the same with their Aboriginals. > > One could possibly argue it was a matter of grabbing land by eliminating opposition down the line, and less an issue of religion than general culture, but isn’t it most often the case ? It is true that some Native American children were removed from their homes on reservations and placed in schools. This was primarily in the late 19th century, lasting into the early 20th century. It should be noted that conditions on reservations were pretty horrible at the time, for a number of reasons. Reservations were established on the worst pieces of land, where farming and other types of production were all but impossible. The government tried to give aid to the Indian tribes, but corrupt officials often grabbed most of the money. By the late 19th century, extreme poverty, crime, and alcoholism were running rampant on most reservations. I’m not trying to make a blanket justification for government policies here, just saying that the situation is more complex than what your post suggests. In all modern countries the government has the authority to remove children from homes under certain conditions. > [@tomndebb](#): > > That must have been an interesting period with Pizzarro attempting to compel all those people in the Andean highlands to speak English. The effort doesn’t seem to have succeeded, does it? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/62 "2009-01-18T07:21:11Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > It’s a lot of info, but [this](http://www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm) should help. You should probably put that website next to Stormfront on the list of online hate sites that aren’t trustworthy sources of information. The inaccuracies are quite obvious. Just starting from the bottom of the list, the claim that Catholic clergy took part in the Rwanda massacres is backed up by a supposed transcript of a foreign broadcast from years after the fact, entire dependent on those good old unnamed witnesses, which lodges charges against “a Catholic priest” and “two nuns” but can’t even name them, etc… Before that the article on Vietnam provides no evidence for most of its assertions. It even praises the Ho Chi Minh government as “freedom fighters” (!) who supported religious freedom (!!) when they were really the same as any other Marxist tyrants. Censorship, religious oppression, torture, and "re-education were the norm in North Vietnam just as in Mao’s China and Stalin’s Russia. Also note that there the reference is “MW”, but nothing is listed in the references for “MW”, so there really isn’t a source. And the same is true for many of their other claims. And so forth. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/63 "2009-01-18T07:22:34Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Many examples have already been given, but here’s a story about an [autistic boy killed by faith healers.](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/08/24/autistic.boy.death/) Actually that is not a story about an autistic boy killed by faith healers. If you don’t believe me, read the story. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/64 "2009-01-18T10:05:08Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Well, I can think of the Native Americans in our country. Back in the day Pizzarro and other conquistadors from Spain along with, basically, any european explorers and settlers kicked the shit out of the indigenous peoples and forced them to speak english and get Jesus. They were forced to work in the mines all day long and then go to English lessons in the evening. It was terrible. > [@](#): > > You load sixteen tons, so what do you get, > English lessons in the evening and church on Sundays > So, St. Peter don’t you call me 'cause I can’t go, > I owe my soul to Pizarro and I haven’t done my homework. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110.md?page=3)