Peacechild: What do missionaries do for these people?

Entry 3

Let me tell you a joke:A teacher said, "I'll give $2 to the child who can tell me who was the most famous man who ever lived."An Irish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St. Patrick." The teacher said, "Sorry Sean, that's not correct."Then a French boy put his hand up and said, "It was Napoleon." The teacher replied, "I'm sorry, Pierre, that's not right either."Finally, a Jewish boy raised his hand and said, "It was Jesus Christ." The teacher said, "That's absolutely right, Maurice, come up here and I'll give you the $2."As the teacher was giving Maurice his money, she said, "You know Maurice, you being Jewish, I was very surprised you said Jesus Christ."Maurice replied, "Yeah. In my heart I knew it was Moses, but business is business.”

This is what I believe happens to missionaries. They divulge into the world, preach, convert, and return, satisfied. But is conversion that simply completed from the eyes of the non-believer? Perhaps, it is just “business” for non-believers as Maurice puts it. It isn’t that difficult, after all, to do “business” with people whose mission is simply to ‘place the nail and hammer it in.’

I have always felt that missionaries are like men on missions in life or death situations. Or at least, that was what the almost maniacal urgency in their acts showed me. Yet in this increasingly global society, I have found these methods quite ineffective as people of all culture and religion have to learn to become progressively more tolerant as a part of a universal etiquette. I admire these acts of converting as examples of human perseverance and courage as I watch these organizations ignore cultural taboos to spread their values, but at the same time, I am baffled. When evangelists are martyred spreading their faith, is that not a sign that they are handling conversion the wrong way? Is that not a sign that cultures do not want to be converted? Isn’t it time to realize that simply hammering in won’t work? Isn’t it a clear indication that people have become much too used to seeing the hackneyed, blaring signs of mission organizations to care? Yet, how could these acts of faith be applauded on the same scale as, let's say, someone who saves a child from a burning fire?

Reading Don Richardson's article, I found that he was very much an idealist in believing the amalgamation of culture and religion. But is that truly possible? With religion always comes the disintegration of traditions to some extent simply because the religion that is introduced comes from different cultures that are of an absolute truth to each individual civilization. In Korea for example, many Christian homes do not practice jae-sah because of the Ten Commandments which demands that "thou shall not bow before any god but me." To Korea, which is fundamentally based upon Buddhism and Confucianism, traditions of honoring our superiors and ancestors like jae-sah are a significant part of culture. Yet, because Christianity is synonymous with absoluteness, these foundations are often induced to fit and become worn remnants of what once was.

The argument that someone would 'invade' the unknown territories of 'Stone Age' cultures eventually, and therefore, missionaries, who are the "most sympathetic" should be the first. That was weak. Is sympathy defined invariably for both “these people” and the mission organizations? And are these missionaries really sympathetic? And if so, what are they sympathetic for? The fact that these cultures are educated differently from us? The fact that these cultures observe different traditions from us? Or the fact that they are not aware of the rest of the world? Is it truly for the people rather than for themselves?

Currently, I find that many missionary organizations have lost the means of communicating their purpose. Of communicating the Christian truth. They need to regroup and find effective ways of introducing (rather than enforcing) Christianity in a respectful way. So what do current mission organizations do for ‘these people’ besides erode culture? Well, I don’t really know...yet.