but what they [missionaries] do destroys indigenous cultures
Changes come and go. The cultures my families existed in 100 years ago don't exist. There is little reason to think all members of some cultures are for preserving them in amber. And anyway, you have to make the case that all indigenous cultures are worth saving and in certain cases that's a mighty hard thing to do.
For many people the best thing that ever happened to them is the result of the work missionaries do. For others, not so.
I don't think, for instance, the effect Wahabbist Islamist missionaries have had on US Muslim culture is something many US Muslims are pleased with. Most of the rest of us in North America aren't pleased with it either.
The vast part of Christian missionary work is done by protestant organizations which, whatever their faults, are fairly clear about separation of church and state, and if you're a modern person, that's the important thing to care about. (Incidently, your esteemed president went ahead with the Iraq intervention even though his bishop was definitely against it).
It's clear that certain religious organizations in the US have managed to influence US government aid giving but they didn't do it through a national official religion, they had to do it through lobbying and getting out the vote. I'm sure certain of their sentiments are anti-modern but they had to go the modern route to achieve their goals. And, eventually, when the US government changes, the aid policy will change and those religious organizations will be unhappy about it, as you are with the present policy.
In the meantime most of these organizations are doing a lot of good, useful work even if they aren't counseling on birth control. I'm not sure this can be said of a lot of government aid.
The most important aspect of what they do in many places is compete with Wahhabist/Deobandist Islamist ideologists who, once they hit a certain critical mass, bring in the hard men and the guns. As far as I'm concerned, the more conversions these Christians obtain, the better |
