The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 11

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

The Indian Population of Latin America.

Religious Background.

The religious background of the great Indian
population of Latin America is most important for
its proper evaluation as a field for missionary en-
deavor. The early tribes of South America, Central
America, and Mexico were pagans, who worshipped
the sun and the moon and many minor gods -which

- they found in nature. Yet there is a striking
resemblance between many of their known beliefs
and those of God’s chosen people of the Old Testa-
ment; and these beliefs, just because of their resem-
blance to the Bible narrative, show that these Latin
American Indians, when found by the Europeans,
were the remnant and ruin of better and nobler
forebears. Their traditions, even as the traditions
of other heathen people, indicate that they have
gone the downward way; they indicate that when
man is left to his own devices, his spiritual path is

Central American Indian.

one of devolution, instead of one of evolution, losing
one noble thought after another, one spiritual idea
after another, because of his continuous sinning
against conscience. 2

The stories of the Garden of Eden, the Flood,
the Tower of Babel, and others are to be found

11

among the traditions of the Mexican Indians. Wor-
ship was directed toward the east, and incense was
burned toward the four corners of the earth. The
need of confession of sin and atonement by some

Mexican Indian Dwelling.

sacrifice were generally accepted among the Indians
of Latin America. They punished adultery by
stoning to death, held that the rainbow was set in
the heavens as a promise that the earth should never
again be destroyed by a flood, had a high priest who
alone dared enter their “Holy of Holies,” had an ark
which was supposed to be the abiding-place of an
invisible god, believed in demoniacal possession,
taught original sin, held that it was a brother’s duty
to raise up seed to his deceased brother by marrying
his widow, solemnly consecrated marriage, which
they held could not be dissolved except under cer-
tain conditions, observed the custom of foot-washing,
anointed with oil, and practised a form of baptism
and circumcision. Among certain tribes of Central
America the early explorers found the cross to be
a symbol of worship and also found it used to
decorate temples and palaces.

Religion of To-day.

In view of this background it is most distressing
to find the Latin American Indian’s religious con-
dition to-day such as it is. The great mass of Latin
American Indians are to-day as thoroughly pagan
as were the tribes first visited by the white man and,
socially, on a lower level. Many of them have, in-
deed, been received into the Roman Catholic Church,
haye been baptized, and are numbered among the
faithful. But their Christianity, alas! is in most
cases only skin-deep, a very thin varnish of baptized
heathenism. When in great distress, the heart of
these Indians generally turns to the gods of their
fathers. Under the very shadow of great cathedrals
he has never lost his trust in the ancient idols, and