For the study of new historicism, I chose to study the short story “Bad Men Who Love Jesus” in Thomas King’s A Short History of Indians in Canada. The story is taking the figures from the Bible (Jesus and his disciples) and placing them in modern Canada. In the story the disciples are meant to be Indigenous members of a band council on a reserve and Jesus is looking for refuge from those who are trying to kill him (the Roman Jews, though it is not specified who they are in this text). This short story works to re-evaluate the relationship between Indigenous people and Christianity.

              It is very clear to us now that the Catholic church played a strong role in oppressing and assimilating the Indigenous people of Canada. This story is trying to make readers reconsider that historical relationship. The story shows Jesus running from his own oppressors and ending up on a reserve, where he is allowed refuge as long as he lends a hand for their council meeting. From our understandings as readers of the relationship between Indigenous people and the Catholic church, the readers would assume that the Indigenous people (in the case of this story, the disciples) would turn Jesus away and offer no help. However, it seems as though the Indigenous people are able to relate to Jesus because of the oppression they faced. The text is causing readers to re-think the relationship between Christianity, the church, and Indigenous people. What the author is suggesting is it was not the religion itself that oppressed the Indigenous people, but rather corrupt people within the church. As the story is titled, it was the work of “bad men who love Jesus”.

In the short story, Jesus asks if they are going to help him as he has “always been a friend to the Indians” (pg. 91). The disciples refer back to the “civilizing the savage” ideology that came from the Catholic church, and Jesus states “That wasn’t my fault…I didn’t tell them to do that…Everybody uses my name” (pg. 92). What King is doing is influencing the reconsideration of the harm of Christianity. He is suggesting that bad people took the Bible and Christianity and twisted it and used it as an excuse to keep their power. I believe King was trying to make readers think differently about the history between Indigenous people and Christianity. His story is trying to show readers that religion is not the problem, it is the people who abuse religion to get their way that are the problem.