In Response...

I was on Facebook for no more than 10 minutes before these two items loaded into my newsfeed. One posted by a friend and the other by a page.

10 Reasons Not to Become a Missionary

Religious Missionaries Spread Homophobic Hate in Uganda

The topics in the first article should probably be discerned in the process to become a missionary. If those topics aren't discussed in detail and thoroughly worked through, I'd have to believe the pre-leave training is rather worthless. However, the post did make me think immediately of 10 Reasons to leave the paid profession of being a missionary. Here are my 10.

1. Do not stay in any situation in which the relationship is one sided. You go to serve, to help, and to build relationship. If the receiving body has different ideas on your purpose, if you can't be reassigned, maybe you should leave. The position is based on reciprocity and relationship. If it doesn't exist, how can you serve?

2. If the purpose of your being there is to provide a feather in the status cap of the receiving body rather than to fill the position in the job description, if you can't get a reassignment, maybe you should leave.

3. If the receiving body isn't honest with you and uses you as a playing piece in some game that does not serve God or even match the job description for your position and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

4. If the receiving body is more interested in you performing in stereotypical ways that have always been the way missionaries have behaved, i.e. Western privilege and attitude of cultural superiority, if you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

5. If the relationship between the sending body and receiving body is not based on mutual respect, transparency and accountability, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

6. If the situation is beginning to be stressful and manipulative and you have no outlet for counsel or mediation, you should leave if you can't get reassigned.

7. If you find that your presence is to reinforce norms established during mission work of a past era, i.e. Colonial, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

8. If the work/service that you are asked to do is in direct conflict with the ethics of your profession and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

9. If the attitude expected of you is based on a conservative view of Christianity and you are a progressive Christian, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

10. If you find yourself in a position in which you have to be dishonest with the people supporting you because you're not permitted to do the work that they're paying for you to do, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.

Unfortunately, because of the hell fire and damnation battle cry of missionaries during the Colonial era, many Christian churches abroad are still locked in the ideology of that time. Western ways of old are the "right" ways. There is a "pure" religion. Pictures of the blonde-haired blue eyed Jesus abound. Contextualization is not Christian. Basically, anything that does not reinforce the punitive and sacrificial aspects of  this perception of "pure" Christianity is heretical. People who sided with the Colonialists usually had a higher status than other people. Therefore, the status associated with Christianity is very high in some places. Status = power. People with power don't want to give it up, you know.

Progressive Christianity is not only about gay marriage and similar, it is based on a more LOVE based interpretation of the Bible. Less punitive. Less literal and more contextual. Less rule-oriented. And more empowering towards marginalized and outcast people.

That perspective does not go over very well in places that use Christianity as a means to keep people in line by selectively enforcing traditional and social values or even as a way of elevating status.

So the second link above is about the hate pumped into Uganda by right-wing conservative missionaries. I don't know why people are shocked about this. It's much easier for right-wingers to get funding to go abroad than progressive Christians. Right-wingers love to impose their beliefs on others and "evangelizing the natives" by teaching right from wrong and good from bad is right up their simple minded alley. The mindset of the Colonial era is alive and well in the 21st century.

Sounds pretty dreary, doesn't it? I'm sure that not all mission workers are incorrectly matched with their assignments, but when it happens, it's really a nasty situation. There are progressive Christians all over the world, but very few of them have the resources to push for the changes they seek against the moneyed conservative Christians who still wield the power.

The ugly side of mission work that we rarely hear about involves those who leave for service and support those systems of injustice. It can be hard to eschew a status based on "White is right" and therefore hard for someone in that position to NOT live the life of privilege, riches and even leisure such an unearned status grants. An American salary in many former colonies, such as Uganda and even Indonesia, allows for a quality of life that is absolutely impossible in the US.

So. I could write a book about this and still am not sure where to begin, but the fact is, being a missionary is not just going abroad to share the love of God that we know through Christ. It is a constant transitioning between cultures, between different corporate climates, language, what's accepted and what's not, what Christianity means, what is the most loving way to serve, and especially how to keep everybody's egos, cultural and personal out of the mix.

It's very arrogant to assume that just because an entity professes Christianity that they practice in the same ways. Yes, we all should be the Body of Christ, but as those of us from the US know (and need to remember when we think of doing ANYTHING abroad), the rift between conservative Christians and progressive Christians is not just a US thing. It's everywhere.

And we need to really make sure that we're putting our eggs in the right baskets.