Smoke
Done here.
The recent scandal of three Mormon missionaries being revealed as having vandalized and desecrated a Catholic shrine has brought a lot of issues to the fore.
I'm not going to pretend that before this incident I really approved of the idea of missionaries. I think proselytizing missions are worse than useless; they're actively destructive. However, I've always had a generally favorable impression of Mormon missionaries as individuals. What's not to like about a bunch of clean cut, earnest young people, who -- whatever I may think about their mission -- at least believe they're trying to do something good?
What has shattered that favorable impression isn't the actions of these three young men in Colorado -- young men who have still not been publicly identified and have still not come forward to take responsibility for their actions, except for one who has not even had the courage or honesty to sign his "apology" with his full name. You can count on there being a few bad apples in any group of tens of thousands of young people. The reason I don't think I'll ever look at any Mormon missionaries the same way isn't this one deplorable incident, but the reactions to it.
The reaction of many Mormons, including several here on RF, has been commendable. The reaction of many other Mormons, though, has made a couple of things clear that really are shocking. One thing I've learned is that this is not an isolated incident. Apparently, stupid mockery of other religions and their sacred sites is remarkably common among missionaries. These three were just stupid enough to get caught -- so stupid, in fact, that they actually posted compromising photos of themselves on the internet. Another thing I've learned is that large numbers of Mormons don't think this incident and the apparently countless other incidents just like it are any big deal.
This is not a problem with three individuals. It's a problem with Mormonism -- and more than that, it's a problem with English-speaking Christianity generally. This particular incident involved Mormons, but the missionaries could just as easily have been Evangelicals, or Jehovah's Witnesses, or Seventh-Day Adventists, or Pentecostals. The Christian world is overrun with the adherents of 19th- and 20th-century sects who have no understanding of, and no respect for, Christian history or the Christians who belong to the historic churches, much less the adherents of non-Christian religions. Fervently believing that they have the key to "true" Christianity, they see Catholic, Orthodox, and Apostolic Christians not as brothers in Christ, or even as neighbors who ought to be respected, but as a mission field, a new land to be conquered in the name of their own novel visions of Christ.
When the Communist governments of Eastern Europe fell, these zealots came swarming in like a plague of flies, not to help the Christians of Eastern Europe -- Christians who had been persecuted for generations -- to rebuild their shattered communities, but to take advantage of their weakness, to break their bones and suck at the marrow. Christian missionaries have been every bit as vicious in their own way, and every bit as much of a curse for those formerly persecuted churches, as the Communists ever were.
In the Muslim world, missionaries thoughtlessly aggravate religious tensions and further endanger the already imperiled Christian minorities there. Yesterday's Taipei Times reported on the problems caused in Jordan by Christian missionaries, and quotes a Jordanian Christian columnist, Fahd Kheitan, as saying:
A story on IslamOnline.net explains further:
So what can be done to fix the situation? Should missionaries have training in cultural sensitivity? Should they be educated on the political realities of their mission fields? Should they learn to understand more about the religions and churches they hope to undermine, so that they can at least pretend to be respectful? Good luck.
The thing is, you can't fix this. Proselytizing missions are inherently disrespectful, and proselytizing missionaries are aggressive by definition.
Take any group of very young men, men who are -- all too obviously -- still adolescents emotionally, and tell them that they are priests and elders in God's One, True Church, that all other religions are false and all other churches are apostate, that their church and their church alone is pleasing to God, that their particular religious beliefs have an eternal importance that supersedes any other concern, and that the most important thing they can possibly do is to go out and tell the adherents of other religions and other churches that they must turn away from their present religions and churches and embrace the One, True Church. You can't reasonably expect that a significant number of those young men won't behave just like the three in Colorado.
Proselytizing missionaries, Mormon and otherwise, will always be aggressive, insensitive, arrogant clods, because that is what their mission requires them to be. Not all of them will be as stupid or as egregiously offensive as these three, or the two went to prison for six months in Thailand in 1972 when they had photos developed of themselves mocking a statue of the Buddha in an ancient temple, but for every missionary who gets caught like these, there are countless missionaries -- Mormon and non-Mormon alike -- who indulge themselves in the same adolescent games and, more importantly, are guided by a deep and abiding disrespect for anyone who doesn't share their own peculiar beliefs.
At the heart of the problem is the exclusionary character of Abrahamic religion, which insists on dividing the world into the Chosen People and the Gentiles, the Saved and the Unsaved, the House of Islam and the House of War, and -- with the exception of Judaism -- teaches that it's a matter of great importance for everybody to believe as you believe, to follow your scriptures and your teachers and belong to your particular brand of religion.
If you want to fix the problem with missionaries, you first have to fix the problem with the religions and churches than send them out. I don't think you can do it. The problem -- the exclusionary character, the dogmatism, the sheer overweening arrogance -- is too deeply embedded in those religions and churches themselves.
I'm not going to pretend that before this incident I really approved of the idea of missionaries. I think proselytizing missions are worse than useless; they're actively destructive. However, I've always had a generally favorable impression of Mormon missionaries as individuals. What's not to like about a bunch of clean cut, earnest young people, who -- whatever I may think about their mission -- at least believe they're trying to do something good?
What has shattered that favorable impression isn't the actions of these three young men in Colorado -- young men who have still not been publicly identified and have still not come forward to take responsibility for their actions, except for one who has not even had the courage or honesty to sign his "apology" with his full name. You can count on there being a few bad apples in any group of tens of thousands of young people. The reason I don't think I'll ever look at any Mormon missionaries the same way isn't this one deplorable incident, but the reactions to it.
The reaction of many Mormons, including several here on RF, has been commendable. The reaction of many other Mormons, though, has made a couple of things clear that really are shocking. One thing I've learned is that this is not an isolated incident. Apparently, stupid mockery of other religions and their sacred sites is remarkably common among missionaries. These three were just stupid enough to get caught -- so stupid, in fact, that they actually posted compromising photos of themselves on the internet. Another thing I've learned is that large numbers of Mormons don't think this incident and the apparently countless other incidents just like it are any big deal.
This is not a problem with three individuals. It's a problem with Mormonism -- and more than that, it's a problem with English-speaking Christianity generally. This particular incident involved Mormons, but the missionaries could just as easily have been Evangelicals, or Jehovah's Witnesses, or Seventh-Day Adventists, or Pentecostals. The Christian world is overrun with the adherents of 19th- and 20th-century sects who have no understanding of, and no respect for, Christian history or the Christians who belong to the historic churches, much less the adherents of non-Christian religions. Fervently believing that they have the key to "true" Christianity, they see Catholic, Orthodox, and Apostolic Christians not as brothers in Christ, or even as neighbors who ought to be respected, but as a mission field, a new land to be conquered in the name of their own novel visions of Christ.
When the Communist governments of Eastern Europe fell, these zealots came swarming in like a plague of flies, not to help the Christians of Eastern Europe -- Christians who had been persecuted for generations -- to rebuild their shattered communities, but to take advantage of their weakness, to break their bones and suck at the marrow. Christian missionaries have been every bit as vicious in their own way, and every bit as much of a curse for those formerly persecuted churches, as the Communists ever were.
In the Muslim world, missionaries thoughtlessly aggravate religious tensions and further endanger the already imperiled Christian minorities there. Yesterday's Taipei Times reported on the problems caused in Jordan by Christian missionaries, and quotes a Jordanian Christian columnist, Fahd Kheitan, as saying:
The [missionaries] target the strong beliefs of traditional churches in Jordan and try to create religious links with the Zionist movement, which is extremely dangerous
The story also quotes Odeh Kawwas, a Greek Orthodox Christian who is a former member of the Jordanian Parliament, as saying:
For years we have been urging the government to close such Christian shops that have nothing to do with Christianity and tolerance... It is an old problem. They create sensitivities and provoke discord among Jordanian Christians, not to mention their threat to Muslim-Christian coexistence. These groups don't belong to any church, but they try to hunt followers of other churches and trick some of our Muslim brothers to convert them.
By now, it shouldn't surprise anybody to learn that, as Kheitan says, the US has put pressure on its allies in Amman to allow missionaries into the country, where he says these groups have used their relations with some officials to "build a base."
A story on IslamOnline.net explains further:
Kheitan regretted that the Jordanian government has dragged its feet for long under pressures from the Bush administration.
"But the kingdom has realized now that the situation threatens the internal front."
Last month, the White House voiced concern about the expulsion of the foreign evangelicals.
Press Secretary Dana Perino said President George W. Bush believes missionaries in Jordan should be able to work freely.
Of course. It shouldn't surprise anybody to learn that the most stupid and reckless administration in American history gives the concerns of Evangelical missionaries higher priority than our national interest or the safety of the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East. "But the kingdom has realized now that the situation threatens the internal front."
Last month, the White House voiced concern about the expulsion of the foreign evangelicals.
Press Secretary Dana Perino said President George W. Bush believes missionaries in Jordan should be able to work freely.
So what can be done to fix the situation? Should missionaries have training in cultural sensitivity? Should they be educated on the political realities of their mission fields? Should they learn to understand more about the religions and churches they hope to undermine, so that they can at least pretend to be respectful? Good luck.
The thing is, you can't fix this. Proselytizing missions are inherently disrespectful, and proselytizing missionaries are aggressive by definition.
Take any group of very young men, men who are -- all too obviously -- still adolescents emotionally, and tell them that they are priests and elders in God's One, True Church, that all other religions are false and all other churches are apostate, that their church and their church alone is pleasing to God, that their particular religious beliefs have an eternal importance that supersedes any other concern, and that the most important thing they can possibly do is to go out and tell the adherents of other religions and other churches that they must turn away from their present religions and churches and embrace the One, True Church. You can't reasonably expect that a significant number of those young men won't behave just like the three in Colorado.
Proselytizing missionaries, Mormon and otherwise, will always be aggressive, insensitive, arrogant clods, because that is what their mission requires them to be. Not all of them will be as stupid or as egregiously offensive as these three, or the two went to prison for six months in Thailand in 1972 when they had photos developed of themselves mocking a statue of the Buddha in an ancient temple, but for every missionary who gets caught like these, there are countless missionaries -- Mormon and non-Mormon alike -- who indulge themselves in the same adolescent games and, more importantly, are guided by a deep and abiding disrespect for anyone who doesn't share their own peculiar beliefs.
At the heart of the problem is the exclusionary character of Abrahamic religion, which insists on dividing the world into the Chosen People and the Gentiles, the Saved and the Unsaved, the House of Islam and the House of War, and -- with the exception of Judaism -- teaches that it's a matter of great importance for everybody to believe as you believe, to follow your scriptures and your teachers and belong to your particular brand of religion.
If you want to fix the problem with missionaries, you first have to fix the problem with the religions and churches than send them out. I don't think you can do it. The problem -- the exclusionary character, the dogmatism, the sheer overweening arrogance -- is too deeply embedded in those religions and churches themselves.
