Confessions of a Missionary

“The Limits of Liberal Views of World Missions” is the title of the ninth chapter of my book The Limits of Liberalism: A Historical, Theological, and Personal Appraisal of Christian Liberalism (2010), which I am updating and slightly revising for re-publication at year’s end. 

This post is related to the subject of that next-to-last chapter of the book, but it is mainly the confessions of a missionary, who happens to be me. 

Confessing Shame over Missionary Mistakes

In Chapter Nine, I sadly indicate some of the mistakes made by many missionaries of the past, mistakes that are widely, and for good reason, criticized especially in liberal Christian circles.

From the last of the 15^th century, Christianity was largely spread by means of the imperialistic activities of European nations.

“God, guns, and gold” were linked: the activities of missionaries were often forerunners of, or concomitant with, the military forces that secured foreign wealth for the powerful countries of Europe. Spanish missionary Junípero Serra, whom I wrote about on Oct. 5, was just one example of many.

Early Protestant missionaries such as William Carey, “the father of modern (Protestant) missions,” and early missionaries such as Ann and Adoniram Judson were not linked with imperialistic power, but unfortunately, many of their successors in the 19^th century were.

I confess that I am ashamed of much that has been done by missionaries in the past, although the same sort of activities are, thankfully, rarely seen in the present.

Confessing Lack of Missionary Success

On a more personal level, I confess that I was not particularly successful as a missionary to Japan from 1966 to 2004—and sadly, most of the missionaries to Japan over the last 60 years would have to make a similar confession.

Traditionally, overseas missionaries have been popularly pictured as living in poor countries and having to cope with challenging living conditions. That certainly wasn’t true for those of us who served in Japan after, say, 1965.

The challenge we regularly faced was how to deal with the sense of failure in what we were sent there to do. In contrast to the first 20 years after WWII, those of us missionaries who went to Japan after 1965 have to confess that, to a large part, we saw scant success from our efforts.

(I would be happy to respond to questions concerning this matter.)

“Confessing” Joy from a Missionary Career

“Liberal” Christians have long held a dim view of missionary activity, and I have personally seen a shift in attitudes toward missionaries. During my family’s second missionary “furlough,” as it was called then, we lived in a house generously provided by Second Baptist Church here in Liberty.

That year of 1976-77 was a good year for our family and we were well treated and supported by the church. Then, in 2005 after retiring from our missionary work in Japan, we bought a house in Liberty and that fall became members again of Second Baptist Church.

It was a bit of a shock when I began to sense negative feelings toward missionaries by some—and only by a very few—members of the church. They seemed to think that missionary work was wrongheaded, and the implication was that June and I had wasted our lives being missionaries.

Nevertheless, the last part of the ninth chapter of my book is titled “Reaffirmation of the Christian Mission,” and in it I contend that “world missions” is legitimate and that the rejection of such is a major weakness of Christian liberalism.

And even though I don’t say so directly in the book, I have to “confess” that in spite of the criticism of missionary activity by some, I count it a great joy to have been able to serve as a missionary for 38 years—and I appreciate the support of Southern Baptists during those years.

If I had it all to do over again, I would unhesitatingly choose to do the same thing—although I would, I hope, do it a little better the second time around.

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For more about my thought on this topic, see “#13  Missionary Activity Is Still Legitimate And Important” in my book Thirty True Things Everyone Needs to Know Now (2018) and my May 20, 2018 blog article based on that chapter.

TTT #13 Missionary Activity is Still Legitimate and Important

This article, based on the 13^th chapter of Thirty True Things... (TTT), is presented here with the hope that it will help Christian believers reflect on their own faith and practice and that it will help others come to a better understanding of Christianity.

The Modern Missionary Era

There have been missionaries to “foreign” places and ethnic groups from the time of the Apostle Paul to the present. The modern Protestant missionary movement, however, began with Englishman William Carey in 1792.

Building upon Carey’s ground-breaking ideas and actions, extensive time, effort, and resources have been expended on global missionary activities during the 225 years since Carey first went to India. 

According to the most recent statistics I could find (here), in 2010 there were approximately 400,000 serving as international Christian missionaries. Of those, 127,000 were U.S. missionaries; surprisingly, Brazil was the number two missionary-sending country.

As missionary activity by Europeans and Americans is much less prominent now than in previous generations, nearly half of the world's top missionary-sending countries are now located in the global South.

In this country, there are now many Christians who seem to think that evangelistic missionary activities ought to be curtailed altogether.

Criticism of Missionary Activity

There were, of course, opponents and critics of the modern missionary movement from the beginning and throughout the two centuries in which it flourished. From the beginning, Carey struggled to overcome strong opposition to his ideas about missions.

In recent decades, though, much of the criticism of “foreign” missionary work has been, justifiably, because of what was so often a tie between the work of the missionaries and the colonialistic and imperialistic activities of the Western countries from which most missionaries were sent.

Previously, that link was also the scourge of Catholic missions in the so-called “new world” from the time of Columbus, who saw himself as a missionary of sorts. And Hernán Cortés (1485~1547), who founded Vera Cruz [true cross], Mexico, reportedly said, “We have come here to win souls for Holy Mother Church, and to get much gold.”

More than three centuries later, the famous Scottish missionary David Livingstone (1813~73) declared in a 1857 speech given at Cambridge, “My desire is to open a path to this district [in Africa], that civilization, commerce, and Christianity might find their way there.”

To many critics, even more odious than the link between missionary activity and economic imperialism was what seemed to be cultural and/or religious imperialism promulgated by the missionaries. The latter was especially seen in much of the missionary work among the “Indians” of North America.

The Shifting Focus of Missionary Activity

Perhaps largely because of the criticism of much traditional missionary activity, which emphasized converting people to Christianity, the focus of much mission work in recent years has shifted primarily to benevolent work aimed at helping people live better in this present world.

“Mission trips,” which have become commonplace for many churches and Christian organizations, are almost completely concerned with helping people in physical need or deprivation.

To be sure, through the years since the beginning of the modern mission movement, responding in Christian love to the physical and psychological needs of suffering people has been a definite part of missionary activity.

For most forms of the faith, however, that activity was conducted in addition to, and usually secondarily to, the work of evangelism that endeavored to lead people to make a confession of faith in Jesus as Savior, to be baptized, and to become members of a local church.

While there is good reason to emphasize deeds and not just words, is there any reason not to have both?

American Empire, 1898-2018

We all know who POTUS #45 is, but do you know who was #25? That would be William McKinley, who was born 175 years ago this month—and who became President 121 years ago, in March 1897.

Learning about McKinley

June and I have the good fortune of living only about 12 miles from the Truman Presidential Library and fairly often are able to hear talks given there by guest lecturers. Such was the case last fall when were able to hear author Robert Merry talk about his new book President McKinley, Architect of the American Century.

Perhaps like many of you, I have never known (or cared?) much about McKinley, except that he was the third President to be assassinated in office (all within the space of 36 years!).

Even five years ago when I posted a blog article titled “Remember the Maine,” I didn’t mention the President when that event took place 120 years ago on February 15, 1898.

Merry titled the Introduction to his book, “The Mystery of William McKinley,” and it is somewhat mysterious that McKinley has not been more highly regarded—especially if, as Merry thinks, he can rightly be considered to be the “architect of the American century.”

Achievements of McKinley

While there are certainly other aspects of McKinley’s presidency that are noteworthy, none are more significant that the expansion of American power during his time in office. In fact, the events of 1898 initiated the beginning of what some call the American Empire.

The Spanish-American War began in April 1898 and ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10 of that year. Merry summarizes the benefits received: “The president [McKinley] got all he wanted: the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Spain out of Cuba and the Caribbean, with no debt assumed by the United States” (p. 340).

It was also in July 1898 that the U.S. annexed the Republic of Hawaii, which had formerly been known as the Sandwich Islands.

McKinley was serving “Uncle Sam” new territory for his enjoyment, as is expressed by the following cartoon by Boz in the May 28, 1898, issue of the Boston Globe newspaper. (The cartoonist could see which way the winds were blowing.)  

By the end of 1898 it looked as if the U.S. had, indeed, become an empire, which Merry recognized by titling his 21^st chapter “Empire.”

Questioning McKinley’s Achievements

There was strong opposition, however, to what seemed to be the surge of American imperialism under McKinley. On June 15, 1898, the Anti-Imperialist League was formed especially to fight U.S. annexation of the Philippines. It included among its members such notables as Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, and William James. 

It was in that context that James, the eminent American philosopher and Harvard professor, exclaimed, “God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippine Isles” (cited in Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, p. 307).

(With reference to his much-criticized remarks back in 2008, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor, said he was quoting James. See my brief article about that here.)

The U.S. relinquished its sovereignty over the Philippines in 1946. Then in 1959 statehood was given to Hawaii, even though it is not in North America.

Guam and Puerto Rico still remain U.S. territories and their inhabitants are citizens of the U.S.—although they seem to be treated as “second-class” citizens as the insufficient response to last year’s hurricane destruction of Puerto Rico has shown.

In recent decades the American “Empire” has been seen primarily in its global leadership and international influence, positions now being considerably weakened because of the words and actions of #45.