Missionary Insults
by Robert Warren Cromey

Walking down the Malecon, the main street, of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, my wife and I espied two Mormon Missionaries. The young men dressed in white shirts, plain tie, and dark trousers wore black plastic badges reading, in white letters, Elder Smith and Elder Gonzales. My wife Ann, a former Mormon, raised in Salt Lake City, whose three brothers and five nephews have all been missionaries, taught me how to respond to these men. They are far from home, live a highly disciplined life, travel two by two, and are never alone in public. They are often lonely, rebuffed and rejected. We always greet them properly saying, "Good morning Elder." They are usually dismayed that someone calls them by their proper title. We always ask where they are from. "North Ogden, Utah," said Elder Smith. "Mexico City," said Elder Gonzales." We wished them well and walked on by.

Returning to our rented condominium, we read a sign on a door. "This is a Catholic household. No Protestant missionaries." Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Roman Catholics send missionaries all over the world in order to bring people to Christ. They believe that people are not saved into eternal life unless they are baptized in the name of the Trinity or have a particular, spiritual experience of the living Christ. Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Disciples of Christ churches also send missionaries to foreign lands.

The words of Jesus seem to urge this missionary spirit. "Then he said to them: ‘Go forth into every part of the world, and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. Those who believe it and receive baptism will find salvation: those who do not believe will be condemned’" (Mark 16:16). These are very powerful words. They are the underlying urging that make many Christians desire to convert all people to Christ. They believe the unbaptized will go to hell. Jesus is said to have thought so too.

For us main line Protestants this raises the question of Biblical interpretation and criticism. Did Jesus really say these words? Mark was written 30 years after Jesus’ death. Who could remember? The words were not written down from Jesus’ lips. Did Jesus really want to limit God’s power to love and save? Were these words put into Jesus’ mouth to gratify the needs for expansion of the church in the 60’s of the first century? Those among us who believe in the literal interpretation of the scripture must take Jesus’ words as truth and act on them.

Those of us in the liberal camp will say that we must take the New Testament and its message as a whole. The thrust of the scripture is love, acceptance, freedom from the law and new life for us all. I have mulled over the question of God’s love and salvation for the over 55 years I have been an aware and Bible reading Christian. I have come to the conclusion, despite specific verses to the contrary, that God loves all the people of his creation and saves them to rest in his presence after we die.

No matter what our view of salvation is, the fact that we want to convert believers of other faiths is insulting to them and their religion…The fact is that millions upon millions of the people of the planet love their religion, their practices, their theology, their ethics and their God.

Recently in Africa, South America and elsewhere, Christian missionaries have been murdered for attempting to minister and proselytize among people of other religions. Americans and Christians are tempted to call them martyrs for their faith. Indeed, they are. There is no need to murder people who preach a different faith. But let us not be naïve and forget that many people regard the attempts to convert as arrogant and hostile to the local religions and to their country. Insulting one’s faith is a way of insulting a person.

Certainly, one can say that the perception of American imperialism is an excuse for murdering American Christian missionaries. People in some countries want revenge on any Americans. But there is plenty of documentation that American missionaries in foreign lands have been used by the CIA as spies. Certainly this is not true of all missionaries but the taint and stigma is there and further endangers evangelical efforts.

In the United States, we are used to the freedom of religion. The government may not interfere with the practice of religion. But this enlightened spirit is not everywhere written into the law. We might wish it were. American missionaries put themselves in danger from the government and well as local hostilities when they try to convert local people who are offended by such activity.

I believe we should stop trying to convert people of other faiths. We need to stop being offensive to the religions of others. We Christians can honor the religion and culture of other lands. We need to learn deeply the religious beliefs and practices of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and others.

People do not need us to insult and convert them from their own faith to some brand of Christianity. If American Christians are in foreign lands helping the nation become healthy and educated and want to gather for worship, fine. If Christians invite native people to join tem in worship, fine. There is a huge difference between inviting people to join in worship and attempting to scare them into conversion by insulting their basic faith and frightening them with eternal separation from God.

Mission as ministry to the basic needs of others speaks volumes of love and caring to the poor and sick of many lands. That is the only justification for missions to foreign lands.

The Rev. Robert Warren Cromey is a retired Episcopal Church priest living in San Francisco Cal. He frequently writes on issues of peace and justice, with a special interest in the Middle East. Robert may be reached by email at twocromeys@earthlink.net