Wired Word Lesson of the Week

The Wired Word

Topic for Sunday, December 14, 2025:

Church Laments Deadly Attack Led by One of Its Own: We will look at the news of how a Christian denomination is coming to terms with its role in a dark chapter in American history to consider themes of the roots of violence, truth-telling, accountability, and peace-making.

In the News

Individuals are encouraged to read the news below related to this topic before the December 14th bible study to be prepared for an engaging conversation:

Last month, three Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes joined History Colorado and United Methodists at the United Methodist Building in Washington, D.C., to launch an exhibition called The Sand Creek Massacre Exhibition: The Betrayal that Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever. The event marked the church's acknowledgement of its role in one of the darkest chapters in American history: the November 29, 1864, attack by 675 members of the Third Colorado Cavalry, led by Col. John Chivington, a Methodist minister, on an unsuspecting Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment at Big Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory.

Catching the sleepy nomads off guard, the soldiers engaged in wanton violence for eight hours, slaughtering and mutilating approximately 230 noncombatants, most of whom were women, children and elders. One Arapaho Chief and 13 Cheyenne Council Chiefs were killed.

Two officers, Capt. Silas Soule and Lt. Joe Cramer, and their companies of soldiers, refused to participate in the carnage. Two months earlier, they had seen Chief Black Kettle and other tribal leaders seek peace with Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans, Col. Chivington and Maj. Edward Wynkoop. Evans had assured "friendly Indians" that if they followed his instructions, government agents would direct them to "places of safety." At the same time, he authorized "Citizens of Colorado" to "kill and destroy, as enemies of the

country, wherever they may be found ... hostile Indians," who were characterized as an "infestation."

After the massacre, Soule and Cramer documented the brutality in scathing letters to military and civilian authorities. Soule had vehemently protested when he learned of Chivington's intentions, only to receive death threats. Less than three months after he testified in the military inquiry, he was murdered on the streets of Denver. Almost four years to the day after the Sand Creek Massacre, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry attacked a Cheyenne camp, killing peace advocate Chief Black Kettle, his wife Medicine Woman, and more than 50 Cheyenne natives.

Although the investigation into the Sand Creek Massacre ended Rev. Chivington's political aspirations and military career, some Coloradans still viewed him as a hero, and named a new town, located only 10 miles from the site of the atrocities, after him in 1887. Upon his death in 1894, Trinity United Methodist Church in Denver honored him with a large funeral.

In his remarks at The Sand Creek Massacre Exhibition last month, Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church (UMC), stated, "We say clearly: the Church has not always lived its calling to love our neighbors as ourselves. We recognize that our statements of regret must be matched with sustained action, relationship, and humility."

Rev. Dr. Giovanni Arroyo, General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race of the UMC, added, "This gathering is not only a time to remember the horror of that day, but a time to renew our commitment to truth telling, accountability, and healing." Kristin Stoneking, the presiding bishop of the United Methodist Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force, asserted, "We are the spiritual descendants of Methodists that perpetuated atrocities that created layers of generational trauma that remain with us today. In this truth telling, is deep repentance and also responsibility taking."

Dawn DiPrince, President and CEO of History Colorado, remarked, "This exhibit offers universal, timely lessons that fear, racism, greed and stereotyping can, and do, lead to catastrophic consequences. ... historic truth can change us. Historic truth can heal us. And it is only through historic truth that we can truly build a just and liberated world."

More on this story can be found at this link:

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