Pounding the Past

For John, BLUF:  What is the lesson for today?  Leave Daesh alone?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I was over at Renee Aste's blog, Cappadocian in Lowell, when I saw a link to The Scratching Post and this post, "Beating Father Junipero Serra With His Own Stick".  Here is the nugget of the post:

A while back, I snarked about a PBS hatchet job on Father Junipero Serra which found him guilty of all manner of crimes against the Indians.  The central theme of the criticism is that he forced Spanish Catholicism on the Indians.  Their culture was swept away and their lives were dictated by the Spanish.

The Blogger went on to note that Father Serra was a piker compared to Joe Stalin or Adolph Hitler, to Rome or the Aztecs, or the Apache or the Sioux.  He brought in Pol Pot, but didn't mention Mao.

I think the blogger is correct to note that Father Junipero Serra was trying to help the people of California and doing his best within his lights.  We need to be careful in how to pass out the guilt.  For example, was he as bad as the Moors sailing out of Algeria and kidnapping sailor around the Mediterranean or out into the North Atlantic.♠  And putting them into slavery.

We need to be careful in our comparisons.  Not everything is equal.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Actually, pretty plucky of the Moors to head out into the North Atlantic in the Seventeenth Century, but still, they were about slavery and the selling of humans.