2000 Years of Christianity, Episode 9: God the Burdened  (2002)

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2000 Years of Christianity, Episode 9: God the Burdened

Werner Herzog helms God the Burdened, episode nine of the 2000 Years of Christianity documentary series, which investigates and explores the archaeology of Christianity and how its landscape evolved and shifted over the course of several centuries. This episode begins in the infamous year 1492, with Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas. It then segues into the conquering and enslavement of those same continents by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, explains how vast tribes of Native Americans perceived Christianity as a dominator and oppressor because of the diseases toted by the white Europeans, and demonstrates how missionaries acknowledged the horror of this scenario, attempting to save the Indians by protecting them on reservations. It subsequently moves ahead in time to 1620, when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and brought the attitudes and ideas of Calvinism to the new land, and shows how Christians branched out, both geographically and doctrinally, into various denominational sects, learning to cohabitate peaceably. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide