Christopher Columbus and the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

We celebrated Columbus Day this week and many businesses and government offices were closed for the holiday. Honoring Christopher Columbus takes me back to a jingle we learned in grade school:

“In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

The name Christopher means “Light-bearer” and Columbus paved the way for the light of Jesus Christ to spread to the Western Hemisphere. Only one of our presidential candidates shares that sentiment–Donald Trump.

My thoughts on Christopher Columbus and the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Christopher Columbus and the 2024 Presidential Election

As you probably know, the anti-faith elite in the USA have changed “Columbus Day” to “Indigenous Peoples Day.” They believe that most Europeans who came to the New World stole the land from Native Americans and should not be celebrated.

They fail to mention that for most of human history, the rise and fall of peoples and nations have been primarily achieved through conquest. Human beings are fallen, and they often default to force to benefit and enlarge their own tribes or civilizations. The indigenous peoples in every nation on earth did the same thing to the group before them.

I personally don’t use the term “First Nations” because none of us really know who was the “first” to settle the continents. The Middle East saw the Sumerians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes & Persians, (and numerous others up to the present time) take their lands by force.

Following the exodus of the nation of Israel, even God commanded the early Hebrews to fight for the land of Canaan. The Bible says Yahweh drove out the Canaanites “because of the wickedness of these nations” (Deuteronomy 9:4-5). The Canaanites were so evil that the land was said to have “vomited out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:25).

God is never unjust. So, killing evil people (corporate capital punishment?) is sometimes required in a depraved world.

I’m not opposed to an “Indigenous Peoples Day.” It’s honorable and good to remember those who’ve gone before. But we don’t need to usurp “Columbus Day” to do it.

For years, Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Columbus Day. Recently she reaffirmed her support for changing Columbus Day to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” through a social media post, referencing her work with Native American youth in Arizona. Harris previously expressed support for renaming Columbus Day, citing the historical devastation brought by European explorers. 

Her remarks about replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day have drawn both praise and outrage, highlighting divisions over the holiday’s significance. ABC News reported:

“Hard to comprehend how someone who hates her own nation’s history seeks to be its president,” said Nile Gardiner, former aide to U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Also reacting was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who said, “I’ll never understand why someone would want to lead a nation one believes is inherently evil…unless you truly want to destroy it because you believe it’s founded on ‘devastation, violence, stealing land, & widespread disease.'”

Not so her challenger, President Trump. When he was president, Trump praised the 15th century explorer in his Columbus Day proclamations. 

“Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist,” said Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for the Trump campaign, in a statement on Monday. “Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police—she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day. President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus’ great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation’s history like Kamala Harris.” 

What do the Democratic Party and its media allies really want to erase? Answer: the historical goodness of Western Civilization compared to other societies. In truth, Western Civilization has been the greatest influence in history to stop unnecessary violence and warfare and uplift basic human rights.

So what is Western Civilization?

Let’s start with a word that is faintly familiar and one you’ve probably never used. “Orient” is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern World. It is the opposite of the term “Occident,” which refers to the Western World.

Oriental and Occidental. East and West.  

Before the discovery of the Americas, people thought only Asia and Europe-Africa existed. The nations east of Jerusalem developed cultures and civilizations such as Hindu India, Buddhist Southeast Asia, Muslim Central Asia, and polytheistic/atheistic China. Some produced great achievements, but most were built by tyrants.

To the west of Jerusalem, the Athenians, Romans, Jews, and most importantly–believers in Jesus Christ–created over 2000 years the most just and compassionate civilization in history. Never perfect–but seeking truth and good. The foundations included reason, the Ten Commandments, individualism, democratic principles, and republican ideals.

But the greatest influence was faith in Jesus and how he changes individual hearts.

Building on the pillars of Greek thought and Roman practice, biblical faith spread throughout the Roman Empire–which became 50% Christian by the fourth century AD. As the Middle East was the continent of origins, Europe became the continent of development of biblical ideas in art, science, invention, free enterprise, and human rights (Magna Carta, British common law, the Renaissance, and Reformation). 

Europe had its barbaric moments–human beings are fallen–such as numerous wars, slavery, the Inquisition, etc. But gradually biblical thought and practice began to tame the human spirit producing the first hospitals, universities, humane working conditions, and promoting personal dignity in the image of God.

Columbus (and other European explorers) opened the door to an unknown hemisphere where Western Civilization exploded–primarily Catholic in the south and Protestant to the north. Though our ancestors also committed their share of sins and exploitation, they were tempered by a biblical conscience. Today, Europe and the Americas (and other nations they’ve influenced) possess the most peaceful and free societies in world history–thanks to Bible-based laws and born-again lives. 

The United States of America became the continent of propagation of the Good News of Jesus worldwide (Great Commission).

Gary Randall reminds us:

“A Christian worldview and values, Western civilization—and the outstanding progress, prosperity, freedom, and equality—not equity, it has produced—does not just emerge. The fullest expression of that civilization has been the United States of America— a nation founded by people rooted in biblical truth who crafted a constitutional republic unlike anything the world had ever seen.. [But today] the values that produced unprecedented order, opportunity, and prosperity are being mocked and discarded.”

Our American ancestors committed atrocities. So did the natives before them. We should be ashamed and repent–committed to learning from past mistakes. And we should thank God for Christopher Columbus who helped bring Western Civilization (biblical faith) to the New World.

Interesting fact: Recent research indicates that Columbus was not Italian, but most likely Jewish. 

Spanish scientists announced in a recent documentary, based on a 22-year investigation led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente, that DNA tests shows the 15th-century explorer was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. The DNA samples from Columbus and his son, Hernando Colon, are compatible with Jewish origins. It’s theorized that Columbus hid his ancestry due to the expulsion and persecution of Jews in Spain at that time.

Wow.

Columbus was a Messianic Jew who, according to his own journals, “set out to discover new lands for the glory of God and His Church, and to spread the Gospel of the Holy Savior to the ends of the earth.”

Let’s celebrate his legacy and vote wisely on November 5.