The Religious Left likes to “repent” for other peoples’ sins, preferably the sins of dead white persons who left this world centuries ago while supposedly bequeathing only a shameful legacy of colonialist repression.  In Religious Left mythology, the earth is essentially a kind place, besmirched only by Western imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy.

Faithful to this myth, officials of the 12 million member United Methodist Church hosted an “Act of Repentance toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples” at the denomination’s quadrennial governing General Conference in late April in Tampa.   Although 35 percent of the denomination now lives in Africa, church elites decided a church-wide apology to native peoples in America for U.S./European sins ...