Undaunted Courage

I have been reading Stephen E. Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage, his account of the Lewis & Clark expedition. I had been thinking that he did not spend enough time on the wrongness of the notion that Christianity could “elevate” the Native Americans, but on p. 254 I came across the following passage that cheered me considerably:

“His [Lewis's] lack of interest in it [gold] was one of the things that distinguished his exploration from that of his Spanish predecessors (another was his lack of interest in converting Indians to Christianity.”

While this is not exactly asserted as a positive aspect of Lewis’s character it is certainly implied, I think. Obviously, the Spanish explorations were nothing but plundering raids and it is no secret that the conversion of the aboriginal population of the Spanish-held territories was a disturbing aspect of Spanish colonialism from Columbus on down.

Of course, to a Heathen like me, the fact that Lewis cared so little about any need to spread the “gospel” demonstrates that though Christian he might have been, he was a true child of the Enlightenment which the so-called Religious Right today loves so much to denigrate. I’m sure they would see this as a character defect on his part while to me it demonstrates strength of character. A person can be confident of his own beliefs without feeling the need to push it onto everyone they meet. It is those types who betray a true character defect, and an abyss-deep level of insecurity and doubt in the rightness of their beliefs.

Sadly, the idea that only Christianity can “elevate” remains strong today. Perhaps one day these Evangelicals will really convince themselves that their God exists and then they will quit being so pushy about it. We can only hope. Meanwhile, we should not be stinting in our praise of men like Merriweather Lewis.

Though not a full book review, since I haven’t finished the book yet, I wanted to say that I would highly recommend it to anyone who has not so far read it. Ambrose, if you haven’t read any of his work, is an incredible author, one who can make history come alive.