The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries

Christianity Today ^ | January 8, 2014 | Andrea Palpant Dilley

[tbw2]

The legacy of Protestant missionaries a century later is higher literacy rates, better public health and stronger institutions than places where Catholic missionaries were or state sanctioned Protestants worked.

[tbw2]

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/january-february/world-missionaries-made.html

[BipolarBob]

Oh boy, this ought to be good.

[ConservativeMind]

Well, the sexually transmitted and other diseases the Catholic missionaries brought with them were obviously not helpful to those areas.

[Ray76]

It’s a troll post.

[Ray76]

Catholics Christianized the whole of Europe.

[brucedickinson]

I’m originally from California and even though I’m Protestant, I’ve always loved going to the missions. They’re some of the most beautiful architecture in California. Also, if it weren’t for the Crusader Popes, none of us would be here. We need someone like that today to counter the endless supply of crazies from the desert crazy nations. The Allah is great - BOOM, nations

[mountn man]

Could have found any number of paragraphs that would have been more accurate to what the article is about.

It's a very good article.

[metmom]

The article is fantastic and fascinating.

[mountn man]

yes it is.

Just emailed a link to the article to my buddy, who’s an elder at church.

[metmom]

How is it a troll post?

Did you read the article?

Perhaps you could show us where the author is wrong.

[metmom]

Catholics Christianized the whole of Europe.

They Catholicized all of Europe.

They didn't Christianize anything.

[Popman]

Bkm

[Ray76]

Please. The post is designed to antagonize.

[Ray76]

> They Catholicized all of Europe.
>
> They didn’t Christianize anything.

That is an ignorant remark.

[Nifster]

Continental Europe

[aposiopetic]

If strong democratic institutions condone something that is clearly wrong, like infanticide (or abortion), what good are those strong institutions doing?

This is in no way to disparage the missionaries' sacrifice and overall salutary impact.

[vladimir998]

“They didn’t Christianize anything.”

Of course they did - and even the early Protestants would have agreed. Before the Catholic Church arrived Europe was pagan believing in many gods. After the Catholic Church came to Europe and taught people about Jesus - which they most certainly did - millions became Christians. They became Catholic Christians. There were no Protestants like yourself for more than 1400 years. Those are just the facts and there are plenty of Protestant scholars who admit them.

[BeauBo]

Correlation does not prove causation.

Even if the author was unbiased in his collection and analysis of data (he was a professional Protestant scholar after all), the author himself repeatedly points out Government policies as the cause of the discrepancy - the difference in (largely Catholic) French and (nominally Protestant) British educational policies in their colonies.

[Salvation]

Lord have mercy!

Another Catholic bashing thread.

[Salvation]

Nonsense!

There why did Catholics build the first hospitals?

Why did Catholics establish excellent schools?