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In God We Don't Trust  /  Chapter 30: The Biggest Losers: The American Indians  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 6
Before being murdered, the Moravian Indians ask for an hour of prayer and reconciliation, and an elder urges them to die “without hatred…in imitation of Jesus”; what picture of God’s strength and wisdom is implied by that choice, and what parts of us instinctively resist calling that kind of death “victory”?
Another way to ask: Before they died, they prayed, forgave, and tried to die without hate like Jesus. What does that say about what real strength and wisdom look like, and why do we struggle to call that kind of death a “victory”?

Direct Answer Their choice implies confidence that God’s way is strong and wise even when it looks like loss: prayer, reconciliation, and dying without hatred imitates Jesus and treats faithfulness as the true victory, not survival.

Support from Transcript:

  • When told they would die, they asked “for an hour to spend in prayer and in seeking reconciliation with one another,” suggesting they believed spiritual readiness mattered more than escape.
  • An elder urged them “to die without hatred in their hearts, in imitation of Jesus when he died on the cross,” directly linking their response to Christ’s model.
  • Bercot stresses they were “non-resistant” and that “Not one of the Indians offered resistance,” underlining deliberate refusal to fight back.
  • The militia witnessed their worship (“praying and singing hymns”), showing the victims’ focus on God rather than retaliation.
  • The chapter concludes the Indians were betrayed by “professing Christians who did not trust in God and his methods,” implying the Moravians’ non-hatred reflects the methods those Christians rejected.
Discussion Follow-ups What in us equates “victory” with force, courtroom wins, or survival? Why do we fear that nonresistance makes God look weak when the story presents it as imitation of Christ?

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