Cultural Genocide for God and Country

As a small child in parochial school, Thursdays were collection days for the Missionaries. It wasn't made very clear to us exactly what Missionaries were, but we were informed that our nickels helped them to convert and save "pagan babies" far away. My nickels were dutifully turned over every Thursday, knowing that I was saving some poor baby an eternity of Purgatory, simply because she or he hadn't been baptized. As my early parochial school upbringing did not endorse free-thinking, it never dawned on me to question the logic of this. These unfortunate souls would be doomed eternally if not for the goodness of the Missionaries -- and my nickels.

That all changed however when I saw the film version of James Michener's "Hawaii" in fourth grade. This stunning film, based upon Michener's equally brave book, was my first awakening to the reality of racism and hatred in God's name. From that day on, my nickels were kept firmly in my Brady Bunch coin purse in an act of school-age rebellio...