Friday, July 14, 2023

It is the 14th of July, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Well, I don’t love telling today’s story the way I’m going to tell it- hear me out. The story of Samson Occom (1723—1792), a Mohegan in Connecticut- the first Native American to be ordained into the Presbyterian ministry could be a story of the gospel transcending cultures. And it is partly that.

It could be a story about the Great Awakening and its movement amongst the Natives and the desire to see all Christians treated as brothers and sisters. It is partly that.

But it is also a story about what happens in the church, perhaps too often, and can serve as a reminder that we need to recognize our own shortcomings and recognize patterns. So, with that- let me tell you an otherwise fascinating story.

Samson Occom was born in 1723 to the Mohegan tribe in modern Connecticut. He would become familiar with Christianity as a young boy with English missionaries, but he wasn’t baptized until he grasped the English language and began studying under Eleazar Wheelock. Occam showed immense promise in foreign languages and would be sent to Montauk (Long Island) in 1749 to work as a missionary amongst them. Here he would meet Mary Fowles and marry her. The two would have ten children.

In 1759 he became the first Native American to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister. In 1763 he moved his family back amongst the Mohegan and developed a plan with Whitlock to open a school in the midst of the Mohegan’s and train native missionaries.

In 1765 Wheelock arranged for Occom and another minister to travel to England and Scotland to raise money for the school. Occam was welcomed in England in 1766 and was warmly received by George Whitefield and preached from his pulpit.  He also preached from John Newton’s parish in Olney. He was personally welcomed and given an audience with King George III. Overall he was able to raise some 1200 British Pounds for the project- one source puts that at about 2 million dollars in today’s currency.

When Occom returns, he finds his family virtually ignored by Wheelock. The family relied on Occom’s other work to bring in sustenance- he was vastly underpaid compared to the white missionaries. In his own writings, he claimed that the white minister would be paid one hundred pounds a year and would have a translator at 50 pounds and an introducer at 30 pounds. This would cost the church 180 pounds a year. He claimed he made 180 pounds over 12 years of service. He would have to make and sell wooden housewares, bind books, and do other assorted works outside of his ministry to make ends meet.

The school for which the 1200 pounds was raised never materialized. The money was used for a different school- an all-white one in New Hampshire that would become Dartmouth. In its early years, it did not admit Natives.  

Despite his anger with the Presbyterian church in which he was ordained, he would continue to preach amongst the Oneida tribe and his native Mohegan. Because of his calling out of the church, he was maligned with rumors that he was a drunkard, violent, bitter, and angry. I think I understand the bitterness and anger (if that’s, in fact, how he died), and he probably had vices that would then be exploited by the people attempting to silence him. The writing of his history, even to this day, retains some of the rumors and slurs.  In 2006 Joanna Brooks published “Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan: Leadership and Literature in Eighteenth-Century Native America” This, combined with new research spawned from Brooks’ scholarship, led to quite an event in the Spring of last year: Dartmouth College confirmed the story of Occom's mistreatment and returned the property of Occom back to the Mohegans. Samson died on this the 14th of July in 1792.  X HIs story is now being recognized for the tragedy that it was and the promise it could have been. Born in 1723, he was 68 or 69 years old.

 

The last word for today comes from Occom- a hymn he wrote, “Now the Shades of Night are Gone,” which hits a little harder knowing his bio.

Now the shades of night are gone,

Now the morning light is come.

Lord, may we be Thine today;

Drive the shades of sin away.

 

Fill our souls with heav’nly light,

Banish doubt and cleanse our sight.

In Thy service, Lord, today

Help us labor, help us pray.

 

Keep our haughty passions bound,

Save us from our foes around;

Going out and coming in,

Keep us safe from ev'ry sin.

 

When our work of life is past,

Oh, receive us safe at last!

Night of sin will be no more

When we reach the heav’nly shore.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 14th of July 2023 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders what it must be like to be a preacher and have multiple side gigs- he is the multitalented Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who knows that Dartmouth was the real college behind the fictional school in Animal House- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.