Walking Out of "Sorry"Day - civilizing is the highest good

I got a job in Ottawa and we moved and wanted to find friends and supports so we looked for a church.  We were a little divided at this point, frankly the churches inability to just stop being horrible to gay people or deal with their role in the residential schools was untenable and the fact that most Sundays we can home angry and annoyed meant we were not totally committed and for me, I was done, but since I met Joel and church I felt like it would hurt our relationship to stop going.

So after about two years of trying things, we settled on a church with a woman pastor, one that seemed progressive and all.  Maybe six months we went, and they announced a day to say sorry to aboriginal peoples and recognize the churches role in the residential schools and since they might lose their building in the settlements, the service would be outside, to show that the church was more than the building.  Joel and I were very happy to hear this.  It was a small step, but movement at least (although no aboriginal peoples were there.)

We showed up that Sunday and there was a light drizzle, so they moved the whole service inside - no inconvenience could happen to church people - not like bad stuff happened to the kids in the residential schools.  Then the pastor started to tell us about how not only bad things had happened in the schools and that we should remember the good things too, the "civilizing" that went on and all the kids that weren't abused..... we walked out and have never gone back to church.

I didn't know much about being Métis at that point, but I am an economist and the numbers spoke pretty clearly -  just cause you did not abuse 100% of the kids and some people learned to read and write (in English) who might not have otherwise, don't make all the wrong that went down right.  Failing to abuse someone is not a good.  Just taking children out of their homes, there alone a huge damage was done to Indian people who lost their right to grow up with their parents. I didn't think this had much to do with me personally, but I was still pretty mad.