America

The history of American religions is dominated by the presence of Christianity brought to the New World by European settlers. Columbus's discovery in 1492 marked the beginning of a massive "white" invasion that would consume the entire continent of North America over the next four centuries. Although Christianity manifested itself in countless denominations, it was, nevertheless, the umbrella under which most Europeans in America gathered. It served as common ground on which white settlers could stand together in the struggle for survival in the wilderness of the New World. Whatever differences there were between denominations were insignificant when compared to the differences between the white European Christianity and their counterparts on the continent, the resident Native Americans. This fact, along with the desire and need for land, turned Native Americans into a convenient enemy for most groups of European settlers.

In essence, time had run out for the indigenous race that populated the continent of North America. Like the Israelites of the sixth century B.C.E., Native Americans were faced with an enemy that was more advanced. Ironically, the invading whites are the religious descendants of those same Israelites who were conquered by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.. Armed with technologically advanced weapons, diseases which were foreign to the continent, and a concept known as Manifest Destiny, European settlers began an assault on the North American Continent the result of which was nothing short of genocide. Within four hundred years of their first contact, the white man had succeeded in stripping Native American civilizations of virtually all of their land and had nearly wiped their cultures from the face of the earth.

Popular American history has traditionally