Is Christian Conversion a Poltical Act for the American Indian? :: Essays Papers

Is Christian Conversion a Poltical Act for the American Indian? In Southeastern Alaska, Indian conversion to Pentecostalism generally removes indigenous identity from a place of value, and with this exclusion, removes a native cultural context for politically addressing behaviors that have developed within the Indian community as a result of the political economy in Southeastern Alaska. In the "larger processes of political economy and identity in the late twentieth century,† the native community is marginal and impoverished (195), and necessitates the social framework for native â€Å"collective identity projects† (5) and â€Å"symbolic representations† of nativism (7). Economy and native identity are inextricably connected, as subsistence living comes under direct threat from the economic â€Å"opportunities† foisted upon Indians and destructive behaviors, including alcohol abuse, physical and sexual abuse, and suicide, are intrinsic to the native life experience of many people. As â€Å"virtually all† Indian c onverts to radical Christianity â€Å"root their own church experience in an escape from alcohol addiction,† religious conversion influences how society redresses socioeconomic realities, and thus political realties (164). â€Å"To many marginal people,† the collective nature of salvation creates a â€Å"sociality of hope† that offers them relief from the economic realities around them. Converting to another system of hope and faith presents a â€Å"special appeal among those made marginal by the history of colonial expansion and by the continuing ebb and flow of capital penetration† (181). By advocating â€Å"a strategy of collectivity over one rooted in difference†(182), church converts reflect a desire to convert into a new economic life of â€Å"the American middle class† and escape their own economic realities (178). In the practice of Pentecostal religion, overcoming addiction through dedication to the teachings of the church means â€Å"giving up on trying to do anything about [addiction] yourself†(142), and shaking loose of an â€Å"institutional focus†¦on social or political order† that addresses non-Christian means of rehabilitation or pol itical change (178). Indian conversions to radical Christianity in Southeastern Alaska are thus not only spiritual changes, but political as well, in two significant ways. First, Pentecostal conversion is political because it transforms the collective structure of human values and accepted sociopolitical thought, principally in one’s perception of â€Å"cultural relativism†. When â€Å"the entire possibility of comparison and equivalence† between groups of people is utterly rejected, culture-group members are unjustly denied any basis for defense or justification for their differences in values and practices (154). Moreover, the political participation of church groups in society invariably â€Å"react against† any â€Å"political situation in which resource development and cultural revival† take place over issues of salvation, and in this opposition, conversion becomes a political act of social separation (173).