Re: The Divided Loyalties
Sacha Weakland
DIVIDED loyalties. I guess that's a fancy way of saying we're feeling pulled in two directions--sometimes more! When, for example, you want to do what your friends are doing, but you also know you should obey your parents' wishes. It can be pretty confusing. So, what do you do?
Here's what I did. When I was in high school I dated a guy I knew my parents wouldn't have approved of if they'd heard what people said about him at school. Rumor had it that he took drugs, was very wild at parties--I'm sure you can imagine the rest.
Each time I went out with him I felt pulled. If my folks knew about him, I'd never see him again. But how could I explain why I couldn't see him? Because you see, while he was with me he never took drugs, was never wild at parties, and never tried to talk me into having sex with him! He was a perfect gentleman the whole time.
I had been studying the teachings of Christian Science more deeply that year. So it was natural for me to pray about this relationship, as I would pray about any problem confronting me. I prayed--not to do my will, or my friend's or my parents' will--but to know what God's will was for me. I didn't want my decision about dating him to be based on anyone's opinions, even my own. I did, simply and sincerely, want to follow God's direction.
I thought a lot about the Fifth Commandment, found in Exodus, ''Honour thy father and thy mother'' (20:12). I didn't want to be deceiving either my parents or my friend. I wanted to wholeheartedly turn to God for guidance. Because I knew that my--and everyone's--real Father and Mother was God. In fact, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, writes in her Miscellaneous Writings, ''Honor thy Father and Mother, God'' (p. 154). I knew that I needed first of all to obey God's commands, and t hat any other loyalty was second to that.
I understood, however, that this didn't mean that I could do whatever I wanted without my parents' permission. But it did mean that I could learn how to turn to God myself for guidance. I also found that obeying the good guidance of our parents helps us obey the commands of God. It helps us because we learn to turn to man's source of protection and guidance, our Father-Mother, God.
As I continued praying, the divided loyalty that had disturbed me so much was resolved. The relationship faded naturally away as we gradually went our separate ways. I knew that I had done the right thing in this case, because right before my friend and I stopped dating he told me why he enjoyed our relationship. He said he enjoyed going out with me because he wasn't expected to drink, do drugs, and have sex. He said he had learned from this that he could exclude these activities from his dating experience.
What my friend sensed when we dated was his real selfhood, which is spiritual, made in God's image and likeness. And, you know what? He liked that selfhood--so did I. He liked what he was beginning to think and express for the first time in years. For, you see, my friend, too, had a divided loyalty. He had been pulled in two different directions for a long time. The belief that he was a mortal dominated by a mortal body (and had to act like it) was trying to pull him away from learning more of the
We can all have divided loyalties to resolve. But perhaps the biggest decision we come across in our experience is whether to give our loyalty to matter or Spirit. It sure seems like we are made of matter. In reality, though, as Christ Jesus showed us, our selfhood is entirely spiritual. We are made in the image of God, who is Spirit. As we understand our genuine, spiritual identity, we see that we are always governed by our eternal Father-Mother God.
Divided loyalties are a much bigger issue than one individual against another, or parents against children. They show us that we need to choose between matter and Spirit. But when we learn that it is God who demands our loyalty, we see that we can always turn to Him in prayer. We don't need to struggle with divided loyalties, since man is already spiritual, loyal to God, good, above all.
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It may seem surprising that one of our most well-known founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, had a Loyalist son. In fact many families were divided during the Revolution, with some members choosing to rebel against British rule and others remaining loyal to the King. Benjamin Franklin and his son, William Franklin, prominently exemplified these divided loyalties. How did this rift occur, and were they ever reconciled?
Imagine you had to choose sides in a fight between your oldest friend and his children who live next door. Remaining neutral is not an option. How would you decide which one to support? That is what the Six Nations Confederacy faced during the War of 1812.
The Battle of Chippawa found Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga warriors from the Buffalo Creek Reservation, near present-day Buffalo, N.Y., and other Seneca communities fighting their relatives from the Grand River Reserve in Ontario. The Tree of Peace was nearly toppled again.
What was the powerful force that impelled the Haudenosaunee to set aside their tradition of peace and attack each other, despite the dire warning from the Great Peacemaker who had created their Confederacy many generations before? Simply put, different treaties, different wampum belts and divided loyalties tore apart the famed unity of the Great Law of Peace.
Since 1677 the Haudenosaunee had held a Covenant Chain Wampum belt that obligated them to protect their alliance with Great Britain and its colonies. Many times the British King shook that chain and asked the Haudenosaunee warriors to defend his interests, often leading to war against other Native nations. As France and Great Britain fought for dominance in North America, the Haudenosaunee were often caught in the middle. When Major-General Isaac Brock called for the Grand River warriors to defend the Crown in 1812, many felt obligated to act. They were still stinging from the losses of the Revolutionary War, and most of the people at Grand River had relocated there after the war because of their loyalty to the Crown, and the animosities their loyalty had created.
On the other hand, those who remained in their aboriginal homelands in New York made peace with the United States in 1784 and created a new Covenant Chain, manifested in the famous George Washington Covenant Belt. The new U.S. President pledged to protect Haudenosaunee land interests. As the Senecas explained prior to hostilities, they felt that they had no choice but to defend their land and ally with the Americans, who were so powerful they could crush the Seneca at will.
With the war clouds growing on the horizon, Seneca leaders from Buffalo Creek visited with their relatives at Grand River and pleaded for neutrality in the upcoming fight. Red Jacket, also known as Sagoyewatha (He keeps them awake), had sent a special wampum belt to recall how the British had betrayed the Haudenosaunee in the last war, how the Americans were very powerful, and how war would only bring misery to the women, children and old people. These pleas fell on deaf ears.
John Norton, a Scots-Cherokee, had been adopted by Joseph Brant and had assumed a primary role as war leader. He was also known as Teyoninhokarawen. He was a devout Loyalist and told the Buffalo Creek leaders that the Grand River people had no choice and that their sense of honor and pride required them to fight on behalf of their great father, the King of England. He warned the Senecas to stay out of the way.
Once the war broke out, a second peace delegation met with the Grand River Chiefs, but the flames of war were too strong. Grand River declared that they now had a separate destiny from that of the Buffalo Creek people.
To make matters worse, both Great Britain and the Americans had uneasy feelings about involving the Native Nations as allies. They did not trust nor like the Haudenosaunee very much, but both the British and the Americans realised that Native allies were an absolute necessity. Better to have them by your side, than face them in the woods. However, the vision of Major-General Brock was to mobilize as many such allies as he could, because with the small number of British soldiers in Canada he could not fight a winnable war. He also did not trust the untrained militia or local citizens, many who were Americans recently arrived in Canada.
The Americans, on the other hand, pleaded with the Buffalo Creek leaders to have their warriors sit still, boasting that the U.S. would win this war quickly. They outnumbered the British by 10 to one. Yet, in the first few battles of the war, the British, due in large part to their Native allies, won decisive victories. In October of 1812, a small force of Grand River warriors, serving under John Norton and John Brant, were instrumental in holding off thousands of Americans at Queenston Heights until British reinforcements arrived and defeated the Americans. Dread of the Natives was so strong that Americans ran in fear, some jumping to their own death rather than face the wrath of the warriors.
In 1813, the war came to the Tuscarora and Seneca whether they wanted it or not. A British invasion of Seneca-held Grand Island in the Niagara River between Canada and the United States resulted in declaration of war by the Buffalo Creek leaders in June 1813. The British then invaded Black Rock, north of the Buffalo Creek Reservation. Seneca warriors helped to drive the British back across the water, fatally wounding a British officer. This seemed to incense the Grand River warriors and they declared that whatever neutrality that may have existed between them and the Seneca was over.
In December 1813, Mohawks from Grand River, along with Native warriors from the western allies (Anishinabec, Potowatamie and others) crossed the lower Niagara River and raided the town of Lewiston, capturing Fort Niagara and destroying the entire settlement of the Tuscarora Nation. Although Tuscarora warriors fought valiantly and held off a British advance, allowing many local whites to escape, yet they had to leave their homes to the torches of the British allies, many of whom were their Confederacy relatives from Grand River.
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