Christopher Columbus in America: A Model Debate

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The western world is locked in a death spiral of angst and uncertainty over its colonial past. In the process of working through its history, statues tumble, churches burn, streets get renamed, heroes are abandoned, histories get rewritten, and people are hurt.
 
In seems rare to find an example of a civil, responsible, and clear-thinking debate over issues surrounding the past. Of course, that is not new. The writing of any nation’s history is always fraught with dangers, especially since there is much to gain from winning the struggle to write the “official” narrative about the past – revenge, power, rehabilitation of reputation, and money to name some of the most common prizes available to the victor.
 
With those dynamics in mind, I came across an impressive debate in the 1990s over the impact of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America. The context was the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landing, and two academics were invited to give their opinion on whether Columbus’ arrival was a net good, or a net evil.

The paper was the Canadian Baptist, a bi-monthly periodical of the Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (BCOQ) and Baptist Union of Western Canada (BUWC).
 
The two authors were faculty members of McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON. Dr. Clark Pinnock argued for a net good and Dr. Paul Dekar for a net evil. My interest in this blog is not the content or even merit of their arguments. My interest is in the dynamics surrounding the debate.
 
First, it should be noted that the religious periodicals of Canadian churches up to the 1990s were impressive in the breadth and depth of their coverage of issues. I am hard pressed to find a single denominational periodical today that comes anywhere close to the coverage of that provided a few generations ago.
 
Second, I was impressed with the editor deciding to face the issue head on by allowing two very different views to be expressed side-by-side. Today’s media often stays away from controversial matters or just presents one side of an argument as if the answer to the issue is self-evident. But in this case the editor decided to take a more helpful and educational approach by presenting compelling arguments for different perspectives on the issue.
 
Third, it should be noted that there is nothing new about a debate on the merits of European expansion in what was coined the New World. In fact, soon after Columbus’ discoveries European scholars and religious leaders were asking the same questions and making similar arguments as Pinnock and Dekar. For instance, the Valladolid Debate (1550-1551) had Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda squaring off arguing the pros and cons of the events unfolding across the Atlantic. In other words, those today who think they are avant-garde on such issues are only raising questions asked 500 years ago.
 
Fourth, I was impressed that an open debate on such a pressing issue did not lead to one or the other faculty member being “cancelled.” Both faculty members remained employed, and their offices remained a few doors apart in the hall – a healthy model for current universities that often see faculty go ballistic and toxic over dissenting opinions on pressing issues.
 
Fifth, this is a good example of how complicated history can be, especially when weighing the relative merits of very complex events that occurred over centuries. Pinnock and Dekar, two well-meaning and intelligent scholars, both made reasonable points about the impact of the arrival of western empires to a continent already containing competing empires. Pinnock acknowledged the problematic aspects of European colonialism but argued that the net good outweighed the net bad. Dekar argued that the net evil outweighed any supposed good that arrived from the Old World. How does one decide who was right in such important and heated matters? What I will say here is that the debate modelled by Pinnock and Dekar is the way to start addressing such vexing questions.

For debate, see below - click on image to enlarge.