Bob Bixby rants: “Progressives, Colonialism, and Christian Missions.”

The link is now dead, and so is the website it was posted on. No idea what the context of the quote (above) is, but Bixby sounds … angry!

And it’s an article worth reading.

Well, at least I got the “mad” part right!

I can quibble about the wisdom of going on a rant, but Bixby makes a great point by noting that it’s not a gimme that those on the island are living idyllic lives, that no one wants to see the world beyond, and the like. Forced isolation is not necessarily good.

We Christians may be silly and foolish and wrong-headed and even evil at times, but in the main we are willing to die for people without taking their lives and/or forcing them to adopt our views. We just want them to have options and an opportunity to hear.

This doesn’t describe how Christianity came from Europe to the “New World” at all. Christianity often came by the edge of the sword. Repent or be annihilated. Or, rather, repent and give us your gold, and still be annihilated.

Sorry. Christian missions were often a mask for colonialism and imperialism. We need to admit that.

[T Howard]

Quote:

We Christians may be silly and foolish and wrong-headed and even evil at times, but in the main we are willing to die for people without taking their lives and/or forcing them to adopt our views. We just want them to have options and an opportunity to hear.

This doesn’t describe how Christianity came from Europe to the “New World” at all. Christianity often came by the edge of the sword. Repent or be annihilated. Or, rather, repent and give us your gold, and still be annihilated.

Sorry. Christian missions were often a mask for colonialism and imperialism. We need to admit that.

You know, when you actually start digging into the history, the picture that emerges is quite a bit more complicated than that, to put it mildly.
As an interesting example, I’ve discovered through reading through some primary sources that the Dutch East India company in Indonesia actively undermined missions efforts, when it suited them, siding with the Arabic Muslim traders, when they considered it to their advantage.
Meanwhile, what missionary efforts there were in that field were largely funded through the sacrificial efforts of small Dutch congregations—not the colonial govt, that was largely indifferent, as long as the money flow continued. But you’re not going to find any of this out from the popular narrative.

Errm, that’s how RCC Missions came to the Americas and India. Comparing RCC missions and Baptist\Biblical Missions is like comparing apples and oranges.

[T Howard]

Quote:

We Christians may be silly and foolish and wrong-headed and even evil at times, but in the main we are willing to die for people without taking their lives and/or forcing them to adopt our views. We just want them to have options and an opportunity to hear.

This doesn’t describe how Christianity came from Europe to the “New World” at all. Christianity often came by the edge of the sword. Repent or be annihilated. Or, rather, repent and give us your gold, and still be annihilated.

Sorry. Christian missions were often a mask for colonialism and imperialism. We need to admit that.

Reputable Sociologist scholar Robert Woodberry studied the impact of Missionaries, including RC, Protestant, and those sponsored by the State along with those who had no ties with colonial governments. His research concluded that African and Asian countries who were evangelized by non-governmental protestant missionaries had comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in non-governmental associations than those who were evangelized by RC and state-sponsored missionaries and governments where no missionaries were allowed by these colonial governments. Here is 4 or so articles that summarize Woodberry’s findings.

https://tifwe.org/the-truth-about-missionaries/

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/january-february/world-missio…

https://tifwe.org/robert-woodberry-and-the-benefits-of-protestant-missi…

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/missions-rescuing-from-hell-and-re…

This does not mean there weren’t Protestant non-government-sponsored missionaries that fit the stereotypical cultural imperialists, but rather it shows the “Poisonwood Bible” cultural-imperialist stereotype was more the exception than the rule.

Unfortunately, the RCC didn’t corner the market on forced conversions and the annihilation of native peoples. Anyone hear of the pilgrims or the puritans? Their contact with the native Americans (i.e. “the savages”) led to outbreaks of disease and death among the native people. The pilgrims and puritans also participated in the forced conversion of “the savages.”

Later, missionary schools were set up in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. These also were a form of forced conversion.

T. Howard, while the point about missions being used to impose a foreign culture on a group instead of introducing them to the Gospel is well taken, when we’re talking about outbreaks of disease, we need to remember that it was Louis Pasteur who finally figured out that microorganisms caused certain diseases around 1860. Determining that certain populations are more susceptible came somewhat later. So it becomes harder to blame missionaries on a smallpox or other outbreak that they had no clue about.

Sadly, when Missions has been more in one’s backyard (example-North American-Native American) rather than in the uttermost parts of Africa and Asia, Protestants were mostly cultural imperialists. Native American cultures were often destroyed and ruined in the name of Manifest Destiny, all of which is historical record. At the same time, there were a minority of missionaries (think of Puritan John Sergeant in Massachusetts and then later Moravian missionaries in NY) who evangelized the Mohican tribes. When white settlers kept taking their land, it was the Moravian missionaries that stood with the Mohicans and were eventually expelled from the state of NY. These missionaries lived among the Mohicans and for a few generations after and stood and were expelled with the Mohicans every time they were forcibly removed from their land until they permanently settled in Wisconsin The Mohicans still retain the Christian faith (however I think some syncretism has crept in their belief system).