Learning Through Sacred Storytelling with One TransVersal

How many times have you heard someone say:

“I didn’t know.”

“I didn’t know they were banning that.”

“I didn’t know my vote would hurt someone.”

“I didn’t know the story went like that.”

We live in a time where not knowing has become an excuse, a justification for using our ignorance or our vote as a weapon to target those we’re taught to judge and hate. Consider how many voters supported harsh immigration policies after hearing phrases like “Mexico is sending us criminals, murderers, and rapists.” In fact, evidence shows that immigrants, including those from Mexico, typically have lower crime rates than native-born Americans, but this fear-based rhetoric, fueled by ignorance, becomes a powerful political tool.

Not knowing has been weaponized. Instead of learning, people choose banning. Instead of curiosity, they choose censorship. Instead of asking "why does this make me uncomfortable, and how can I learn?" they ask, "how fast can I make it disappear?"

That discomfort is not something to fear, it’s an invitation. The truth is, there’s never enough space in a textbook, a sermon, or a school board meeting to tell all the stories. But that’s why I created One TransVersal, to hold sacred space for the stories that challenge us to grow.

It’s not just a curriculum. It’s a spiritual practice. It’s a call to learn the truths that were buried because they made someone uncomfortable, and that someone had power.

Here’s one of those stories. One you probably didn’t learn in school. One you probably didn’t know.

📖 In March 1782, near the end of the American Revolution, American militiamen attacked the peaceful village of Gnadenhutten in what is now Ohio. The people who lived there were all Lenape people who had declared themselves neutral in the war or multiracial people with European and Lenape ancestry. There were no weapons. No plans for attacking the colonial army. Only quiet living and prayers.

The militia accused them anyway. Ninety-six unarmed men, women, and children were locked in buildings overnight. They spent their last hours singing hymns and preparing for death as girls and women were taken outside and sexually assaulted by the militia members. In the morning, they were bludgeoned to death with mallets and their bodies were scalped, from the tiniest infant to the oldest elder.

These were not warriors. They were pacifists. They were Christians. And they were murdered by people who claimed they were fighting for freedom, who we have been taught are the "good guys" in fighting the British.

There’s a monument now. But no holiday. No apology. And almost no mention in most classrooms. Because the history we were taught made colonists the heroes and everyone else invisible. If you grew up on movies like The Patriot, you probably believed the American Revolution was good versus evil, liberty versus tyranny. In fact, in many places even mentioning this event is being banned as Critical Race Theory in efforts to ban the truth from public consciousness. But what if no one was the “good guy”? What if both sides caused harm? What if the story isn’t that simple?

The TV show The 100 said it best: when survival becomes the only value, when we live in a system of scarcity and fear, when we are at war, there are no good guys, only desperate people doing desperate things.

So what happens when we learn a story like Gnadenhutten and really consider it?

Something shifts. We begin to see that the version of history we inherited was designed to comfort some and erase others. And that discomfort we feel? That’s holy. That’s where healing begins. That is the space where we begin to see pathways open to new ways of being.

At One TransVersal, we don’t turn away from those stories. We move toward them. We gather in sacred spaces, online, in churches, in communities, to listen, to remember, and to re-imagine. We believe that learning deeply and truthfully is an act of love. We believe that when people hear the stories they were never told, something sacred unfolds.

This work isn’t about blame. It’s about transformation. It’s about choosing love over silence, truth over convenience, and community over our own comfort. It’s about unlearning what we thought we knew so we can build something better.

You didn’t know?

Now you do.

No need to get paralyzed by shame... What will you do now?

Here is one idea -

✨ Join us. Be part of a new sacred story. Find a new path.