there's no way of knowing how many people where "believers", or just went along out of fear.

That is the point of my last sentence. I definitely agree that Christianity has a highly imperialist legacy, but in areas ravished by capitalism instead of colonists, it provides some moral code against endless exploits. Should people be able to find morals and mutual aid without this crutch? Yes, but this provides quite some existing organization against chaos. Karl Marx has a few words on this as well. I agree it’s no good where it does not belong but this article is about California.

It’s additionally imperialistic to let imperialists generalize to our own religions. I believe I should have the right to make Zongzi and maybe fly a kite with my children on Duanwu.