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What if?

In 1862 the Dakota tribes had a crop failure, and the US federal government delayed in paying them for their land as agreed by treaty. As the people began to face starvation, they began angry and took it out on those who had settled the area in southern Minnesota.

What if the Minnesota settlers had decided to give part of their food crop to the Dakota tribes as a neighborly gesture? What if they had understood that Washington can always be counted on to function at the speed of government, and the people themselves had taken steps to rectify the situation?

What if the white settlers had treated the Dakota as friends instead of as enemies? What if they had met at a central location with food donations, and then formed a wagon caravan filled with food for the tribal people?

What if they had promised to come back in November with a second load of food if the government was still in gridlock? What if they had planned for a great Thanksgiving Feast with the Dakota?

Remember the first Thanksgiving in 1621?

“Our national holiday really stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony’s first successful harvest.”

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/feast/

Do you suppose a war might have been averted? How many lives would have been spared? How much heartache, followed by anger and bitterness, might have been avoided? How would this have changed not only our history, but also the present way of life for the Dakota and the white settlers?

Is it possible that such an act of kindness might have fulfilled the law of Christ? What would Jesus have done? Should we be asking ourselves: “When government fails us, is there anything that we can do to make up for government failure?” For example, the state of Minnesota has repealed the law banning Dakota people from entering the state; however, the federal government has so far refused to repeal this Act of Congress. Washington, for all its pretended liberalism, is still pursuing its genocidal policy and refuses to repent of its sin of breaking about 400 treaties. We are now standing in the gap to make up for the deficiencies of the federal government.

Earlier today I wrote a weblog about the difference between Old and New Covenant thinking. The Old Covenant mindset is based upon the occupation of Canaan and treating the Canaanites as God’s enemies, a policy of extermination by means of a physical sword. The New Covenant mindset is based treating all men as God’s beloved, and this mindset uses the Sword of the Spirit to crucify the old man of flesh so that all men may be saved.

David Smith, who leads the Mankato Seven in organizing this time of intercession, has a blog site that you may want to follow, especially during this 40-day campaign.

http://upsettingbroca.blogspot.com/

On the right of the screen, you will see that he is posting certain Scriptures for each day. If you read the posting for the second day, you will notice that the Scripture reading for the day is 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. It is about the ministry of reconciliation.