The One Where I Say Some Things About Christian Missionary Martyrs
Or when God Calls Young People to Global God-Spreading
Journal 5/25/24 – 9:23 AM from The Front Porch
I read about a young USA missionary couple to Haiti dying by gang violence this week and it made me angry. It seems that in all those centuries of Western Christian Missions, Evangelical Christians still have not learned one thing about removing themselves from places where they do not belong.
I was raised in a denomination built on and obsessed with the Great Commission.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV)
In the denomination of my youth every year for an entire week, each church was mandated to organize global missions-focused events. They put up the flags of many nations in the church sanctuary. They rotated missionaries on home assignment who participated in events by sharing their stories and indigenous artifacts collected from their work on the field. While the focus was on updating the congregations on the global work being done to make believers in all nations, there was also a heavy emphasis on funding. A huge part of Western missions’ work is procuring donations.
For many mission-sending organizations, missionaries are tasked with raising a certain portion of the funds needed to work as religious expatriates. And it is the congregants who provide the bulk of that support. So, in addition to supporting our local congregations, members are also badgered into giving to missionaries.
I recall one missionary couple preparing to go to Russia for the first time. We were their home church in Western Pennsylvania. My dad worked as the church janitor, so I helped clean bathrooms and offices. You learn a lot about a man by how he treats the janitor and maintenance workers. On this specific occasion, as a teen, my taste for mission work in Russia lost its appeal as I witnessed one interaction between a CMA missionary demi-God and the church janitor. I wonder if that missionary demi-god would have treated my father differently if dad has something of value to offer him?
I rarely participated in those week-long mission events in the coming years. They made my skin crawl.
Missionary-Local Pastor Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy in denominations that focuses on global missions (like the CMA).
First, it’s the Missionary.
Then, it’s the corporate and district offices.
Next, it’s the mega-churches that provide the most material to “spotlight” the denomination’s local work, who also have the ability to give the most cash to the Great Commission Fund (a specific reference to the Christian & Missionary Alliance churches aka CMA).
Finally, the little neighborhood churches that struggle to pay their pastors and support pastoral families…. who sit at the bottom of the pyramid scheme.
Usually, these smaller local churches have one pastor who is a “jack of all trades” doing the work of an entire pastoral staff by himself (it’s always a man pastor - never women or queer folks) with a handful of volunteers. These little worker bees lean into their congregations from birth to death and bear the weight of the local great commission with minimal support or funding.
I’m not saying it is easy for missionaries to fundraise, but in the CMA denomination, much praise and acknowledgment is given to those congregations who bleed their congregants dry to support the Great Commission Fund. It is almost like they rank churches depending on how much is given and those churches are then given preferential treatment in their home districts. The more you give, the more your church is a mover and shaker in the denomination. It’s kinda gross.
Let’s Talk About the Legacy of Martyred Missionaries
During my deconstruction, I went through a phase when I read every book about missionaries I could find. It was enlightening. While the Christian good girl version of me from before my deconstruction found these types of tales inspiring and hopeful, the woman I was becoming - saw dollar signs, colonialism, and indoctrination in Jesus’ name.
In my teens, I served as a local backyard Bible missionary – I spent many summers in local churches and Christian homes in this role, so I was very familiar with the emphasis on young people trained to proselytize children. We were prime targets for leading other youth and children to Jesus.
Our churches also loved a martyr for Christ story.
The great Jim Elliot and his missionary comrades were hailed as Christian martyrs and heroes when they were killed by spear-wielding natives on an isolated beach in the Ecuadorian jungle 68 years ago. They were attempting to reach an indigenous group that was known for its violence against outsiders.
I remember as a teen the emphasis on Christian persecution and martyrdom of those who claimed Christ. These stories were paraded before us with themes of Christian piety and Biblical training, hearing God’s voice, and following that calling no matter the suffering, poverty, or loss of life that may come in service to that Divine initiative. Missionaries are paraded across the denomination as heroes of the faith sacrificing so much in the cause of globally spreading godslobber.
But then I grew up. I deconstructed my faith. I read the stories of missionary martyrdom through a fresh lens and I had a lot of questions.
The Questions
If we step back and remove the godslobber and ask questions beyond religion - what in the world were white men and women doing in a foreign jungle trying to reach an indigenous population anyway? What right did they think they had to be there? And saying, “God called them” should not be sufficient anymore.
If we understand the historical significance on a global stage of white, western missions work, perhaps our tolerance and funding for the “white savior” god initiatives would dry up.
From an insider’s perspective, trained in the vernacular of Evangelical Christianity – for God to call you into missions and ministry earns one bragging rights. Not everyone is called to serve in such a way. HOWEVER, after emotionally charged youth-focused, evangelistic campaigns and worship services with altar calls, I wish we had the data on how many young people raised in these environments felt called to such mission’s work. How many of those who felt “called” during a Wednesday night worship service at church camp then became accountants and nurses, teachers, and business folks in their adulthood and never stepped foot onto the mission field beyond a summer trip?
How many who had been called on a Sunday were then living normally by Thursday?
It's a select few evangelical darlings who make it to the mission field even though God called so many of them in their youth. The wise Christian grownups would claim that is the difference between those who are faithful to God’s calling on their life and those who are tempted away by the devil or worldly influence.
When you grow up in a global mission-focused environment, everyone you know in your youth is being called to serve as a missionary or pastor.
At no point is anyone saying – maybe those altar calls are just hyper-spiritualized, intense worship experiences that triggered a person’s physiological response to such an extent that they felt “called” or “chosen” … by a divine mandate. A divine mandate that ironically a vast number of young people in the room also heard. But once life and reality set in – the nurse who felt called – comes down from that mob-induced spiritual high and suddenly, that “divine Sunday calling” does not hold the same weight outside the heightened worship experience.
A well-crafted worship service, much like a rock concert, has all the makings of a “God experience.” It’s no wonder the kids stampede to the altar weekly – getting saved, claiming God’s will for their lives, and coming back to do it again next week. It feels good to be divinely selected and heard.
Global God-Spreading
It’s disconcerting to think that so many missionaries who did lose their lives on the field, who are now heralded as “martyrs for their faith,” could have continued to live if they had just stayed in their own white, Christian lane.
How entitled a people would have to be to think they had a God-given right to infiltrate indigenous land in Jesus’ name – bringing white culture, white values, and white religion with them all because of the default narratives about godless, brown savages who need to be introduced to the God of Christian faith.
That’s a lot of godslobber being spread globally. And can we chat about how that missionary work then influences the governments and systems around them and not always for the greater good? How nations would be better off if the colonizers had left their white religion at home?
I knew a man in the CMA denomination who spent decades on the field in India who engaged in arranging marriages of very young women at a price… how is this mission work?
It is a tragedy that a young couple and a 20-year-old local man lost their lives in Haiti this week. However, this tragedy like many lost missionaries before them – was not the result of Christian persecution. This is not an example of martyrdom. It was the result of Christian arrogance flagrantly believing that the god of their narratives who abundantly provides and protects by the power of prayer – would keep them safe from the violent gangs they had been sharing Facebook posts about for months.
It's tragic what religious indoctrination does to a young mind. Sometimes I think religion keeps us stupid for a reason.
May we all find our way out of the godslobber.
J.
References
Walter, Y. (2021). Towards a Qualitative Model of Religious Worship Experiences: Perceived encounters with the divine in the ritual context of musical devotion practices. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 5(1), 94-141. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/10814
Walter, Y., & Altorfer, A. (2022). Physiological Foundations for Religious Experiences in Devotional Worship Practices with Music Using Heart Rate and Respiration Rate Analyses. European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education, 12(2), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe12020011
Walter Y, Altorfer A. The psychological role of music and attentional control for religious experiences in worship. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2022 Dec;75(12):2272-2286. doi: 10.1177/17470218221075330. Epub 2022 Feb 4. PMID: 35001707; PMCID: PMC9619243.
All of this. 🔥