An honest reckoning

Christianity and Colonialism

European colonial empires often marched with the blessing of the church, and Christian mission was at times bound up with conquest, forced conversion, and the destruction of indigenous cultures, including the residential schools that took children from their families. That harm was real and its wounds are still open. It is also true that some Christians fought colonial cruelty, defended indigenous peoples, and that the faith took genuine root and became the peoples' own. Coerced faith is precisely what Jesus never asked for.

What happened

As Europe colonised the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, the church was often part of the machinery. Fifteenth-century papal decrees, later called the Doctrine of Discovery, gave religious cover to seizing lands from non-Christian peoples. Conversions were sometimes made at the point of a sword or the threat of enslavement. Indigenous languages, religions, and ways of life were suppressed. In Canada, the United States, and Australia, church-run residential and boarding schools took indigenous children from their parents; Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented widespread abuse and many deaths. None of this should be softened.

The complexity, honestly

Within the same church, voices rose against the cruelty. The Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas spent his life defending the indigenous peoples of the Americas and denouncing the atrocities of the conquest, arguing their full humanity in the famous Valladolid debate. Missionaries learned local languages, wrote down oral tongues, and at times stood between colonists and the people they exploited. And over time the faith ceased to be a foreign import: today the majority of the world's Christians live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, practising a faith that is fully their own. Christians were among both the perpetrators and the defenders.

What Jesus taught

Jesus told his followers to make disciples by teaching and baptising, an appeal to the heart, never conquest. His kingdom, he said, does not advance by force, and what God requires is justice, mercy, and humility.

Faith compelled by power is not the faith Jesus asked for. Where the church traded persuasion for domination, it left him behind.

Frequently asked questions

Was Christianity just a tool of colonialism?

At times the church was deeply entangled with conquest, forced conversion, and cultural destruction, and that harm was real. But it is not the whole story: other Christians fought colonial cruelty, and the faith became genuinely indigenous, with most Christians today living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

What were the residential schools?

Church-run and government-backed schools in Canada, the United States, and Australia that removed indigenous children from their families to assimilate them. Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented widespread abuse and many deaths. It is one of the gravest failures on this record.

Did any Christians oppose colonial abuses?

Yes. Bartolome de las Casas spent his life defending indigenous peoples of the Americas and denouncing the conquest's atrocities, and many missionaries protected local peoples and preserved their languages. Christians stood on both sides.