Why did Christian settlers force Native Americans to convert, rather than leaving them alone?

Question

Yes, some settlers were just missionaries. However, many were violent and cruel to the Native Americans. This is a historical fact.

Answer 1

That is a good question. My people have been asking it for a very long time.
There are many answers and a lot of them are filled with double talk and half truths.
These are the answers that are usually given.
-They didn't want them to go to hell. (They did however want to steal from them, murder them, and desicrate everything held sacred.)
- They were doing what their bible told them to do. (I have yet to find in any bible where it says to destroy any race of people.)
-They were trying to make their lives better by civilizing them. (look at the world today and tell me who was civilized)
-They didn't. The Natives chose to convert. (Yes we chose to abandon a belief that had lasted for thousands of years without a second thought. We loved the idea of hell and damnation, changing our entire way of life just because a book that we couldn't read said so.)
I could go on, but I won't.
The reality is that they settled here to get away from religious persecution and chose to persecute another religion as was done to them.

Answer 2

Basically, he who has the biggest guns, calls the shots (no pun intended). The Europeans that came viewed many of the natives as savages and thought it was their duty to correct and purify them. Some natives converted peacefully, but the majority converted by fear of force. It sucks, but humans tend to be this way. I'm sure if the Native Americans had a powerful military and invaded a primitive Europe, Europe would be very different today....with much Native American influence and heritage no doubt.

Answer 3

Because like today there were people who are absolutely convinced they THEY are right and that EVERYONE is supposed to follow what THEY believe, even if they have to force them to. They were so convinced that their high and mighty selves were better and dismissed their own behavior as bad while looking down on others.

People trying to force others to believe what they did was a form of control and eradication of the Native cultures and ways of life. If they could take all their children away and force them into religion based schools, where they were punished if they tried to speak their own language or practice their own beliefs, they thought they could try to turn these children 'white'...in an attempt to get rid of their original way of life and try to get these people out of their way.

Answer 4

The torturing of community people began with the Spanish Conquistador's. The clergymen examine an prolonged dissertation to the community peoples-in Spanish no much less- that mentioned in effect convert or die. because of the fact the community peoples had yet to take an SSL type they died and those that did no longer have been made slaves the parable of the Pilgrims coming to the Americas to flee religious persecution comes with one frequently missed caveat: The Pilgrims have been searching for religious freedom in user-friendly terms for themselves, no longer for others What the English and the Spanish had in consumer-friendly replaced into the perception that community peoples have been inferior in all techniques and as "civilized Christian people" they have been obligated via the two circulate and Crown to tutor them the sunshine. it remains occurring at present - there are missionary's accessible who certainly have faith that the international desires to be switched over ,because of the fact the inspite of ways a community person would be residing, being Christian will finally improve their lives. smug isn't it?

Answer 5

Because they believed they were supposed to do that, and that it was so important that the end justified the means.

(Who knows ? Maybe Ferdinand and Isabella told Columbus if he didn't make converts, they wouldn't fund his expedition. I don't know, but it's possible...) What's interesting is that I don't *think* the English Protestants in Massachusetts or Virginia did that kind of thing -- I seem to remember only reading of that with the Spaniards... if I'm wrong, let me know (with references, pls).

Whoever did it, this is completely wrong and un-Scriptural. It's a sin. Jesus did tell His followers to make disciples in all nations, teaching them, etc. NOWHERE does it say to do this by main force...people are to come to the Lord on their own and by their own will.

Answer 6

How many Christian native americans do you know? How can you force someone to convert to a religion? If they do not adhere to the teachings of said religion are they really converted?

Answer 7

If they forced anyone into conversion they were doing it as a religion and not as what Jesus said to do. That's a difference between religion and spirituality.

Answer 8

Throughout history, people have used religion to do dastardly things. To justify stealing peoples lands they said they were civilizing them. Thats why?

Answer 9

I guess they wanted to be like missionaries today. If they thought they would go to hell, they'd want to convert them.

Answer 10

Nobody can "force" anyone to convert, and even if someone were to attempt it they would never succeed.

Salvation is a personal thing between God and an individual which cannot be forced. It is a willingness to see sinfulness in
our hearts, repent of it and trust God for salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ shed for all who would believe in their heart and trust Him for salvation.

Sharing what a person believes is not forcing. I think people who think this way choose to believe it because it gives them an out in dealing with their own sin and accountability to God.


EDIT: I SEE THAT SOME PEOPLE WOULD RATHER BELIEVE A LIE JUST AS MY LAST SENTENCE IMPLIED.
I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU.