Plus, what if my culture does not communicate by writing? Are we just s.o.l? Does that make us uncivilized savages in need of those who can write and read to hook us up and get us in God's grace?

It means that your culture is your culture.How does not having a written tradition mean you cannot know God?Or dont?

I dont have any doubt of what you are saying.
If youre talking religion or religious institutions or colonial powers then,yes,they have brought no real good to peoples via the bible/torah/Koran.If you read these books you can see that those weilding them were complete hippocrites anyway.If they had been true to the most basic of tenents of their books colonialism may not have even occured.
THOU SHHALT NOT KILL
THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOURS PROPERTY.
Simple.The rest is just politics and power structures finding or creating the bits in the text that are like the fine print (which are ambiguous anyway)and then putting the 'empires' malevolent twist to them to do what they want.