The profound dissonance within abrahamic traditions—espousing peace while continuously perpetrating violence in the name of dogma—stems from a theological architecture fundamentally opposed to Native frameworks of ethics. To fully deconstruct this contradiction is to examine it against three core philosophical ideals: Reciprocity, Personhood, and the Moral Cosmos. When contrasted with the worldviews of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Lakota, & the Inca, the abrahamic paradigm reveals a hierarchical and exclusive structure that has repeatedly justified the subjugation of people and land, rationalizing barbarism as divine mandate.
Central to this is the concept of the Moral Cosmos. In abrahamic thought, the cosmos is typically structured as a hierarchy: a transcendent, singular god confers dominion upon a chosen humanity (imago Dei), which in turn exercises authority over a passive, non-sentient nature. This creates a chain of being where moral consideration flows downward from a divine source, legitimizing an instrumental relationship with the world. For the Lakota, the Inca, and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the cosmos is instead a holistic, sentient, and balanced network. The Lakota principle of Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (“all my relations”) & the Inca concept of Ayni (reciprocal exchange) define a universe where everything—animals, rivers, mountains—possesses spirit and personhood. The Moral Cosmos is not a hierarchy but a kinship circle, demanding balance rather than domination.
This directly informs the nature of Reciprocity. Within abrahamic covenant theology, reciprocity is primarily vertical—a closed loop of obligation and reward between the believer and god. Horizontal obligations to other beings, let alone the land, are often secondary, conditional upon their alignment with divine will. This fractures the holistic reciprocity found in Native thought. The Iroquois Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa) governs human relations through consensus and a profound duty to consider the impact of decisions on the seventh generation to come—a radical form of temporal reciprocity. For the Inca, Ayni governed everything from agriculture to community labor, a mandatory reciprocal exchange with both the human and the spiritual world (the Apus, or mountain spirits) to maintain cosmic order.
The definition of Personhood is the most consequential divergence. By restricting full personhood primarily to humans within the covenant—and even then, often only to male adherents—abrahamic theology creates a world of moral subjects and moral objects. Those outside the faith, alongside the natural world, are reduced to instruments for salvation or obstacles to it. This provided the justificatory architecture for terrorism. Genocide, as witnessed in the Canaanite narratives. The Time of Great Sorrow in America, was reframed as sanctification; slavery was rationalized through a theology of racial superiority; and the control of lineage through child marriage is sanctioned as covenant fidelity. Even practices like mutilation of infants (circumcision) physically inscribe this exclusive belonging upon the body, a permanent marker separating the sanctified from the profane within a salvific economy.
In conclusion, the cognitive dissonance of declaring peace while waging holy war is not a mere hypocrisy but a typical outcome of desert delusions. This worldview stands in stark opposition to Native philosophies that define spirit through kinship, balance, and mutual obligation. The abrahamic legacy of slavery, genocide, and subjugation is not an aberration but potentiality inherent in a system that glorifies dominion over reciprocity, and exclusion over kinship. The true mental gymnastics were performed by individual believers that spawned systems, which mastered the art of deception & framing oppression as charity; destruction as divine love.