Am I a Missionary Colonizer?

I have devoted my life to Christian missions. Am I guilty of cultural assault? 

My job is to hire, onboard, coach, and train new missionaries. Sometimes it’s a bit disconcerting to work in a profession that so many people hate.  

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an article from The Guardian: “Missionaries using secret audio devices to evangelise Brazil’s isolated peoples.” 

The headline is clickbait for an article that is mostly speculative. Considering that a companion article claims that the same tribe’s longhouses “glow with screens” and are asking for Starlink, I’m not sure they’re as isolated as we imagine. 

But it was the comments that got my attention. 

Over a thousand negative comments with over 700 shares. 

Some are valid accusations. History has shown us plenty of ignorant, arrogant, or destructive missionaries. I met some. Sometimes I was one. In fact, the whole reason I am passionate about my job of preparing and equipping missionaries is because I want to prevent them from making these mistakes. From making mistakes that I made. Anyone who has sat through one of my trainings knows that the thing I say over and over again is to enter another culture with humility. 

But I also understand that many people believe that a missionary should never go in the first place. Or that if he does, his work should only be humanitarian. He should never dare to try to persuade someone to change their beliefs.

That’s sort of the mantra of our culture today, isn’t it? You can believe whatever you want as long as you don’t impose it on someone else. 

Kind of ironic, actually. The people who say we shouldn’t impose our beliefs on other people are, in fact, imposing that very belief on other people. They are making personal autonomy the highest value. But who gets to decide that’s the highest value?

And why doesn’t the same principle apply to any “imposed belief?” When we believe something will either benefit or harm humanity, we feel compelled to share it with others. It’s a moral obligation ingrained in our souls. 

Right? Everybody’s got their thing. Maybe it’s vaccines. Or Gaza. Or Black Lives Matter. Or guns. If you are one of the people who believe that Christian missionaries = colonizers, bear with me for a second and imagine this:

Imagine you’re a doctor living in Brazil and you find out that a tribal group is dying out because they are treating a disease with an herb that’s poisoning them. Would it be arrogant to tell them the truth? Would the most compassionate response truly be to just “leave them alone?” 

Christians may be wrong. They may be crazy. But if Christians really believe what they say they believe, can you blame them for wanting to get their message out to every soul on earth, even the most remote tribes? Wouldn’t it be immoral not to? 

Of course, some methods are better than others, and that’s an ongoing, essential missions conversation that is worthy of critique. My point is that even missionaries’ critics must admit that each of us is rooting for our version of what’s best for humanity to spread around the world. It’s how we define ourselves as compassionate. 

Speaking of missionaries and South American tribes, arguably the most famous story happened in 1956, when five American missionaries made contact with the Waodani tribe of Ecuador and were subsequently speared to death.

Yet the story didn’t end there, because remarkably, the widow and toddler of one man who was killed, and a sister of another, found their way into the tribe. They evangelized. They learned this unwritten language, taught the people to read, and translated the Bible into it. Today, it’s estimated that 40% of the 3000 Waodani are Christians. 

Was this colonialism? Cultural assault? Evil? 

What many don’t realize is that these missionaries may have saved the Waodani from extinction. 

One historian wrote, “By 1956, the [Waodani] tribe was in danger of exterminating itself. Six or seven of every ten deaths were due to spearing; add in their mortality rate in childbirth and deaths due to snakebites, anaconda, and other threats, and the Waodani were dying off. 

[T]he Waodani spearing of oil company workers had hindered jungle petroleum exploration. Now the missionaries were hearing that oil executives had discussed the situation with the Ecuadorian government; there were fears that the military would find a way to get rid of the Waodani problem once and for all.”

When the five men about to be murdered didn’t fight back, didn’t fire the guns they were carrying, and then a sister and widowed wife persisted in not only preaching the gospel but living it out, the Waodani were forever transformed. Forgiveness, redemption, and changed lives mark true Christianity. And though some missionaries are undoubtedly guilty of ethnocentrism and cultural insensitivity, the best ones help to redeem culture, not destroy it. 

Seven years ago, I wrote an article called “Is Missions a Joke? Answering the Critics.” I asked the question, Do [missionaries] have a message worth sharing?

“The data suggests we do. Robert Woodberry has conducted extensive, peer-reviewed analyses of historical data that demonstrate the overwhelmingly positive impact of the gospel. In “The Truth About Missionaries,” Hugh Whelchel writes, “[Woodberry’s] research finds that where Protestant missionaries had a significant historical presence, those countries on average are now more economically developed. These countries have comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in non-governmental associations.

In fact, Woodberry’s research shows that, contrary to popular belief, protestant missionaries often stood in direct opposition to white colonialism. He writes, “[M]issionaries punished abusive colonial officials and counterbalanced white settlers, which fostered the rule of law, encouraged less violent repression of anti-colonial political organization, and facilitated peaceful decolonization.” Andrea Palpant Dilley, referring to Woodberry, concludes, “In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple – if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary.”

More irony: The very belief that we need to look out for the rights of vulnerable people is, in fact, a value that originated with Christianity. So those who hold the conviction that tribal people (the vulnerable ones) must be protected from those who want to harm them is a value that was spread throughout the world by . . . (drumroll) Christian missionaries. 

I never want to be one who puts missionaries on pedestals, because only bad things come from that attitude. But at the same time, a glorious message demands to be proclaimed. My life has been transformed by it. How can I not share it? 

 Related: 
When Missionaries Think They Know Everything
Seeing Myself in The Poisonwood Bible
Why I’m Still an Evangelical

And the movie about the Waodani’s story: The End of the Spear