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Yay!

:: rushes out to patent office ::

The beauty of English. No Academie Française.

ShnickyShnack wrote:

The vast majority, that I've met, however (and of course it's purely anecdotal), couldn't give a rat's ass about the people they lived among. Quite the contrary, they bore a necessary contempt for local customs, outlook -- and often the people.

That has been a historic problem - however, many mission agencies are now recognizing and adamantly teaching that successful missions requires embracing the culture of the people.

Tropical people who live in round huts and enjoy their tribal music don't want to worship in a wooden church with a ceiling designed to reduce snow weight and sing songs written to the tune of old brittish bar songs.

Wycliffe, YWAM, etc. have looked at the succesful missionaries of old, and saw they didn't westernize the cultures - but adapted themselves to the cultures.

In some cases changes need to be made for the survival of the people. For example, there was a tribe in South America that had previously been unreached by anyone - missionary or otherwise - because they had a tendency to kill whoever they came in contact with. Even other native tribes stayed away from them. The missionary that reached them taught them to raise cattle, and that was necessary - because western encroachment on their territory made hunting no longer viable, and had they not been taught to raise cattle, there would have been many clashes between them and the "urban" residents of the country, which probably would have ultimately resulted in their extinction.

Hank Rearden wrote:

resedit wrote:

That has been a historic problem - however, many mission agencies are now recognizing and adamantly teaching that successful missions requires embracing the culture of the people.

And, frankly, embracing the culture is not a completely new idea. E.g. Hudson Taylor in China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Taylor

(Yes, yes, I know it's a Wiki link. Humor me.)

Or if you want to go farther back (say, to the 16th century), the Jesuits in China.

Ricci began to train them so that they might approach the Chinese authorities, offering the court scholarly and scientific assistance with the deliberate intention of making a Confucian adaptation of their style of life, patterns of thought, preaching and worship. They were determined to completely de-westernize themselves.

[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China. They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture.

"Give me the boy and I'll give you the man"

Hank Rearden wrote:

resedit wrote:

That has been a historic problem - however, many mission agencies are now recognizing and adamantly teaching that successful missions requires embracing the culture of the people.

And, frankly, embracing the culture is not a completely new idea. E.g. Hudson Taylor in China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Taylor

(Yes, yes, I know it's a Wiki link. Humor me.)

Exactly - and they use Hudson Taylor as a prime example.

It really depends upon the agency.
Some agencies are better than others when it comes to properly training the missionaries.

Tallgeese wrote:

It's rather silly to argue this based purely on "what I saw."  There is never any good that comes out of this argument:
_____ are bad because most of the _____ I met are bad.
Nuh-uh. ____ are good because most of the ____ I met are good.

That's a useful way of not acknowledging evil in he world. It's the freecat approach: everything's anecdotal.

Tallgeese wrote:

ShnickyShnack wrote:

Tallgeese wrote:

It's rather silly to argue this based purely on "what I saw."  There is never any good that comes out of this argument:
_____ are bad because most of the _____ I met are bad.
Nuh-uh. ____ are good because most of the ____ I met are good.

That's a useful way of not acknowledging evil in he world. It's the freecat approach: everything's anecdotal.

That's a useful way of shifting your position from "most missionaries are bad" to "you're denying that there's evil in the world."

That was never my position. I said right from the outset that it was based on my own experience.

ShnickyShnack wrote:

I hate what missionaries have done to African countries (or at least the African countries I've been to).

ShnickyShnack wrote:

The vast majority, that I've met, however (and of course it's purely anecdotal)

But hey, thanks for playing. You've been great.

I'm saying that in my experience the majority of missionaries are douchsacks. That's all I'm saying.

Personally, I'll take my firsthand knowledge over your n'uh-uh approach.

Though I can understand why you wouldn't want to hear what I have to say, much less dispute it.

Last edited by ShnickyShnack (2008-08-24 9:09 pm)

Tallgeese wrote:

ShnickyShnack wrote:

I'm saying that in my experience the majority of missionaries are douchsacks. That's all I'm saying.

Personally, I'll take my firsthand knowledge over your n'uh-uh approach.

Though I can understand why you wouldn't want to hear what I have to say, much less dispute it.

In my experience the majority of missionaries are not douchesacks. But if you want to tell stories about people you've met we have another forum.

Otherwise, in this debate and discussion forum, you should be posting things that are up for debate or discussion. If "all you're saying" is that you know some people who aren't good people, that isn't really anything anyone here gives a smurf about.

Though I can understand why you feel the need to post things that you don't have to stand behind.

I always forget, you can outlast anyone on the ol' back-and-forth.

All right, you wore me down. I give.

ALL OPINIONS ARE ANECDOTAL

Dude, come on. I gave up. You can stop now.