native american spirituality vs christianity?

Question

do you think they have more in common with eachother or are more at odds with eachother? (ps) our church is an reservation and we have a native american pastor, so i already know what i know... im interested to know what other people think

(11 answers) seneca / iriquois... thankyou for your responses, keep em coming... praise God

ps... Christian... pentacostal

Answer 1

I have been to camp meetings on the res in Michigan and I also have attended penacostal churches and I think they are allot the same. My family lives on the res. I know the Indian ways. Mi gwetch!

Answer 2

I have always been intriqued by Native American spirituality. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin. There was a small percentage of Native Americans in that town (maybe 5%). I also took a couple of Native American classes in college there. I still don't know too much about their "faith" though.

From my limited knowledge, I think they believe in one, great spirit that rules and controls all things on earth. So in that respect, I think the two "religions" are similar. However, I also believe that there is no actual relationship between the two "religions" because that belief by Native Americans probably developed quite seperate from Christianity.

Again, I don't know how closely the two are related. These are just my speculations but I would find researching the subject to be fascinating.

Answer 3

I am only a fraction Native American (Seminole), however I believe that we all stem from the same belief, that there is a higher power; be it God, Yahweh, The Great Spirit, whatever we choose to call that power. I have always believed in that. Each church certainly has their own view but most of the people within the church, whatever that church may be (or Sinagogue or temple, etc) each individual person has a certain kind of faith... Some people need to see to believe and some just have a blind faith.

Answer 4

For 500 years Native American peoples had to hide their spirituality or risk death or the death of their families by forced starvation and horrendous atrocities. The easiest way to survive was to join the local church. Churches now own an insane amount of native lands and have gotten rich on the hardships of Native peoples. Don't kid yourself, this is as true today as it has ever been.

Answer 5

Your question is comparing spirituality with religion, which are two different things. One is man made (religion), the other comes from the inner spirit that is connected with Spirit. It is like comparing apples and oranges. A better question would be: what is the difference between Native American and Christian spirituality?
None. We are all connected to Spirit.
What is different is our varied levels of awareness.

Answer 6

I would think they would be at odds, seeing as native sprituality reveres concrete things like plants, animals and mountains while Christianity reveres an ephemeral concept of a supreme being.

Answer 7

ask Jesus into your life and be born again by the power of the Gospel (an actual real life event in your real life) if you do this in a prayer sincerely God will answer you! you have to truely seek then God will answer!

Answer 8

I THINK THEY BOTH SERVE THE SAME PURPOSE AS WITH ALL RELIGIONS,I THINK THE NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIONS ARE BASED MORE IN THE SPIRIT OF THINGS(WHICH BESTOW PURE RESPECT FOR THE EARTH) RATHER THAN ONE ALMIGHTY SPIRIT THAT DEMANDS RESPECT

Answer 9

it seems more in common as i have seen sweetgrass n sage used in churches in the reservations.

Answer 10

Why does everything hve to be, "vs." people are people so why should it be that we all act so awefully?

"We can work it out," puts no limit on who "We" are and what we all can be...