Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
She Who Harasses Slacker Bloggers Into Posting should get no recognition here except that I spotted Jeremy in a comment on her blog and checked out his blog, around the house.
He's about as political as she is. But he's intelligent. Always a good sign.
You really don't be linking around a person's diary blog in a site like this, but he's got a religion section there too, and since we've gone there recently I'll point out his two most recent posts; one because it makes a cogent point and one because it doesn't finish making a cogent point.
In his book Disciple Juan Carlos Ortiz tells about his church experience in Buenos Aires. He began with 184 members and after two years had grown to 600. In his words, his 'Sunday School was tops' and his follow-up system 'was one of the best.' His denomination was so impressed, they invited him to speak at two different conventions.
"Yet underneath it all," he wrote, "I sensed that something wasn't right. Things seemed to stay high so long as I worked sixteen hours a day. But when I relaxed, everything came down... I headed for the countryside and gave myself to meditation and prayer.
"The Holy Spirit began to break me down. The first thing He said was, 'Juan, that thing you have is not a church. It's a business.' I didn't understand what He meant. 'You are promoting the gospel the same way Coca-Cola sells Coke,' He said, 'the same way Reader's Digest sells books and magazines. You are using all the human tricks you learned in school. But where is My finger in all this?'
"I didn't know what to say. I had to admit that my congregation was more of a business enterprise than a spiritual body."Then the Lord told me a second thing. 'You are not growing,' He said. 'You think you are, because you've gone from 200 to 600. But you're not growing - you're just getting fat.' What did that mean? 'All you have is more people of the same quality as before. No one is maturing; the level remains the same. Before, you had 200 spiritual babies; now you have 600 spiritual babies.'" [P6: emphasis added…and all that need be added]
That's really an interesting commentary on missionary activity and one I agree with. It also seems that quite often the missionaries don't care about whether their arrival on the scene might cause disruption and harm, and about what happens after they leave. All that matters is adding a few more names to their list of converts.
Obviously, not all Christian missionaries are like this, nor is it limited to Christians. However, they're the ones that have the money to organize huge missionary drives in developing countries.
Al-Muhajabah,
I agree with you totally, i have a strong dislike for how the majority of Christain missionary work is done these days. We generally send a group of fifteen 15-20 year olds that have a hard enough time serving Christ as it is, can't relate to the poverty and general way of life in most of the places we go... we fed them "hope" and "love" yet never stop to ask their names, only to leave a week later and never think twice about them again.
i've been there and done it three times, and wonder if anyone i talked to even remembers those silly gringos that didn't make any sense.