“Pretty harsh take on two Christian missionaries.”
The number one goal of any Christian should be to protect his family. I tried my darndest to help a renter, a 27 year old “special needs” guy. I got him a working car, which I was giving him for free, agreed to pay the insurance and teach him to drive. Turns out he wasn’t as “special needs” as his live-with Christian grandmother had molded him to be. When she found out, she went ape$hit on me and tried to strike me. I think she was afraid that he would get a job, a girlfriend and move out. (He’s modestly good looking.) He can’t survive without her income as he has practically none of his own. She even stopped me from getting him assistance because she wants him dependent. I asked her, “What happens when she (in her mid-eighties) dies?” She said, “God will take care of him. Now stop interfering with our lives!” So, there’s Christian, there’s Christian and then there’s Christian. They sound the same, but they aren’t.
In my entire thirty-plus year working career, I had one, fabulous, standout boss. From careful observation and listening to what he said, and watching what he did for people who never knew their good fortune was related to him, I found out he was a Christian. I was so impressed. Incidentally, he put his foot down and would not let his daughter go to Haiti. And this was years ago.
Conversely, the man who arguably did the most damage to me introduced himself to me as, “I’m a good, God-fearing Christian man.” Seriously, those were his first words. I should have run away.
I feel sorry for these people.
I knew a terrific guy who had gone to Africa as a missionary. They were digging wells. He said, (approximatly) “I will never do that again. The men sat around smoking dope under the trees while we and their woman worked. F***k ‘em, I’m never going back. I will do my work for God here at home.”
Haiti is a lost cause. You can’t help people who view us as worth whatever they can take off our dead bodies.
Incidentally, I won’t travel to third world country where whatever I’m wearing and carrying is worth more than they’ll make in two months. I’m reminded of a magazine photo* of a naked woman in Africa squatting over a hot rock making some kind of food. She was watching Mary Tyler Moore on a little black and white TV. Is it a good thing to expose these people who have no hope of ever escaping their lot to a life they can’t even espier to?
* Remember when it was perfectly okay to show photos of naked black people in magazines?
+1
We have different views of Christian faith, I’m glad missionaries take on the Christian duty and frequently dangerous work, history and the world would be very different without their courage and sacrifice.