Reply to Missionaries should be banned

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Missionaries should be banned"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My church hosted missionaries when I was a kid.  My understanding was that the goal was to go and serve communities by helping pregnant mothers and babies, educating kids, and building sanitation.  The missionaries were there to share their Christianity only through their example, not through proselytizing.  They'd host a church session on Sunday and all were welcome, but it's was not required.  No knocking on doors.  No taking money from the community.  Just service and helping those less fortunate.  We considered helping others who are less fortunate to be a key part of our faith.

I was shocked when I learned about Morman missionaries and that they are taking money from underprivileged communities.[/quote]

I’m a former Mormon missionary PP and the tithing issue wasn’t a huge deal for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a problem, and the church does hand out charity unfairly, but in my area people benefited financially from the church as much as they contributed. The church helped people find jobs, gave people money for medical and dental care, and assisted with with rent, and set up the congregation in a way to be sure everybody had enough food. It certainly wasn’t enough charity and again I don’t agree with the tithing requirements (I could write a lot about how problematic that whole thing is), but the demand for financial contribution isn’t the reason I think missionary work should be restricted. It’s the demand for cultural conformity.

That’s great for all those people who benefited from the charity you’re talking about, and it’s not as bad as what Mormons do sometimes (some Mormon missions are service-only). But let’s get real: those churches have a motive. They want people to be like them, to believe like them, to follow the same rules, to spend time together, to read the same things, etc. People forget that White America, and especially white American Christianity, has its own culture. We are sometimes so steeped in it that it’s hard to see, but it involves values about work, food, socialization, spending money, even punctuality. It impacts everything about somebody’s life. And white religious culture and many other cultures can’t completely coexist in the same person. So you do see a deterioration of cultures even if it’s just from service oriented missions.

[/quote]I really don't think it was about converting as much as serving.  Our church also hosted a local food pantry, soup kitchen, and clothing closet.  We did collections for kids in foster care.  None of those activities had any pressure to join our church or to become Christian.  It was all about serving those less fortunate.

I'm sure they the work done abroad wasn't perfect, but I don't think any less so than other non-religious charitable endeavors from the 80s and 90s.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics