Adequate, for what?
Adequate for their purposes. It doesn't have to be adequate for yours.
The reason Christians share their faith in the first place is because they see all attempts to reach God from Man's perspective, by religious duty, or observance, as inadequate before a holy God.
Can you honestly say that and still wonder why the Christian impulse to share faith is seen as obnoxious by so many non Christians? Ok, they see all attempts to reach God as inadequate. So what? Other people see other things. Maybe you are right, maybe they are. Maybe nobody is. I don't know, and neither do you. Pretending that you do know - and pretending that your "knowledge" gives you the right to intrude into the spiritual lives of others - is pretty damned rude. Using the needs of people caught up in war or catastrophe as a lever to pry open their mouths to shove your beliefs dowen their throats is contemptible.
Our supposed good deeds are as puny as the tower of Babel in God's eyes.
And how do you "know" this? Did God tell you personally, or did you read it in a book that somebody told you was written by people who said God told them what to say?
Christians have an eternal perspective that does not register with you because you are spiritually blind.
Maybe. Or maybe it doesn't register with me because I don't share your fantasy.
Don't you see that an Afghan Muslim would doubtless tell you the same thing: that the true eternal perspective does not register with you because you are spiritually blinded by your false religion? What makes you right and the Muslim wrong?
God is the initiator of spiritual sight, we are simply told to Let our light shine (in word as well as deed) and leave the rest up to Him. That is what real missionary work is about.
Let me tell you a story about two missionaries I met in Mindanao back in the early '80's. One, a fellow named Harold Watson, ran a place called the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center, in Bansalan, Davao del Sur. It was an interesting place... Watson had been a farmer all his life, and set up the center for the specific purpose of teaching farmers how to cultivate sloping land without having it wash away in the first rainy season. This was and is a major problem there: large plantations and commercial farms have bought up much of the flat land, forcing small farmers onto marginal, usually hilly, land that they really don't know how to farm effectively. Watson set up a working farm, where farmers cane for a week or two to attend classes in the effective development of sloping land and, most of all, to actually work on the demonstration farm. Watson was fluent in Cebuano, and did much of the instruction himself. It was, overall, one of the most effective aid projects I've ever seen. Watson was very religious, and there were daily services, but nobvody was required to attend, and I never heard him say a public word about his religion, nor did I speak to anyone who had. I asked him about that (I interviewed him for a magazine article); his response was that this was quite deliberate. Religion at that time was the subject of considerable tension: the Catholic church in the area was largely picking up on liberation theology (this was in the late Marcos years, and things were pretty foul), and many of the local elite were joining and promoting very aggressive Protestant sects, several of which had armed auxiliaries known for extremely violent behaviour (several years later, members of one such killed an Italian priest in public, ate part of his brain, and held a party near the body, refusing to allow anyone to touch it). There was also a substantial Muslim population, which was at odds with all of the Christians, and upland tribes that had religions of their own. All were welcome at the center's training programs, and to main the peace and keep good relations with all parties, Watson made the decision to reject active evangelism.
I've forgotten the name of the second missionary, though I encountered him several times. He was a tall gaunt fellow with a perpetual frown, who made little effort to conceal his dislike for third world conditions. He traveled with a "crusade", complete with movies, a Christian rock band, and a generator to run the show. The focal moment of every show was a wild bit of spastic gibbering fire and brimstone preaching, complete with miraculous healings. It was occasionally observed that the same people were being miraculously healed at every show, making some wonder why relapses occurred so consistently, but that didn't bother this fellow one bit. "Prasie the Lord" in every sentence, and a good bit of politics thrown in, though all he knew - or cared - about the Philippines could have been engraved on one thumbnail with space left over. I've seldom met a more unpleasant character.
Which of these two, in your opinion, knew "what real missionary work is about"?
I don't see any room to compromise on that.
Don't go into relief aid work. Please.
If you truly believed that someone you knew was in danger of eternal damnation would you compromise? I didn't think so. You strike me as far too principled to do that.
I would have to compromise, principled or not. You can't force salvation down anybody's throat. Besides, I would have to know that my belief that damnation was imminent does not actually make damnation imminent.
It is very, very important to understand that your belief does not make what you believe "true", and what you believe is in no way inherently superior to what anyone else believes. Each person is entitled to the belief that works for them. Until we all accept this, civilized relations among people of different beliefs will be practically impossible. |
