April 01, 1981 by Don Richardson

There is little doubt that the young intellectuals who killed Chet Bitterman were motivated primarily by Marxist and/or nationalist ideologies. Many fear, however, that certain well¬meaning members of the anthropological discipline in Europe and the Americas have unwittingly encouraged this and other related acts of violence by spreading, especially in Colombia, a spirit of suspicion and antagonism toward Christian missionaries. They have done this through films, books, lectures, personal contacts, and official condemnations in world level anthropological conferences. For example...

Anthropological Deception

1. A British anthropological team recently requested Wycliffe Bible Translator's Colombian branch to assist in the production of a film about Colombian Indians. Wycliffe personnel responded in good faith on the understanding that the film would be used to arouse public concern for tribal minorities in Latin America. By selective filming and editing, however, the anthropoligists converted the film into a condemnation of the very missionaries who helped to produce it. They entitled it THE WAR OF THE GODS. In addition to its worldwide distribution, THE WAR OF THE GODS was shown hundreds of times before large numbers of Colombians and tourists in Bogota's Gold Museum. There is a strong possibility that it has added anti mission feeling to local hostilities which originally were only political in nature. 

The Jaulin Attack

2. During the 1970s, French anthropologist Robert Jaulin, through personal contacts in Colombia and elsewhere, began voicing strong complaints against a young American missionary named Bruce Olson (not a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators). Swedish anthropoligist Lars Persson repeated Jaulin's accusations against Olson through the media in Scandinavia. The charges were so serious that journalist Andres Kung flew all the way to Colombia to investigate them. With the exception of a few comparatively minor details, Rung found Jaulin's charges to be false. He published his investigation in the form of a book called BRUCE. Before publication, Rung presented the manuscript to Persson. Persson responded with a written retraction of the charges he had repeated, and gave Kung permission to publish his apology with the manuscript. Persson's retraction reads as follows:

Dear Andres:

It has been both interesting and enlightening to read the manuscript... It remains only to say that I am sorry for being so quick to slander and generalize.. Even though I must apologize, I am happy to be able to do so, since it means that the situation at least for one Indian culture is full of more hope and light than it was assumed. I am also happy because new aspects have come into the debate about Indians, genocide, missionaries, and anthropologists. There remain many questions around the good, or at least better, Bruce Olson, and perhaps more will be said about that later. And anyway, why should he be perfect, not even I am...

from the prepublication manuscript of BRUCE, English edition, by Andres Rung. To be released in April, 1981, by Christian Herald Publications, Chappaqua, New York.

Thankfully, Persson's retraction has helped to clear the air in Scandinavia. Jaulin's charges, however, originated not in Scandinavia but in Colombia, the land where some of Chet Bitterman's colleagues  and even, according to latest reports, their children  are still being threatened. Those false charges desperately need to be retracted in Colombia before young radicals use them as justification for further violence against missionaries.

Enter the World Council

Sadly, in the absence of the kind of objective research and dialogue which occurred between Persson and Kung, animosity among anthropologists keeps rising. It is manifested not only in films, books, lectures and personal contacts with young intellectuals worldwide, but also through the recent spate of missionarycondemning resolutions passed in anthropological conferences  the two Barbados Conferences (sponsored by the World Council of Churches), and the conferences in Paris, September, 1976; Vancouver, August, 1979; and Merida, Mexico, fall, 1980. Some of the above resolutions actually call upon governments to halt missionary work over wide areas of the world. 

The Paris Debacle

At the Paris conference, a fair minded Brazilian anthropologist named Darcy Ribeiro invited a missionary with an M.A. in Linguistics to present a paper in defense of mission work. When she stood up to speak, not sofair minded anthropologists raised an uproar to prevent her from being heard. She waited patiently for 10 minutes until the uproar subsided, and then delivered her paper. But men who had taken such a strong position could not lose face by allowing one paper to change their minds; so they passed their condemnatory resolution anyway.

International Echoes

Missionaries in Colombia are perplexed by an amazing phenomenon. First an article critical of them appears in a Colombian newspaper, authored usually by an anthropologist. Then, a week or two later they learn that the same article has appeared in newspapers in India, Egypt, other parts of Africa, and who knows where else. One Colombian missionary said to me, "Who is coordinating this?"

My Response

1. First, not all anthropological criticism of missionaries has been unjustified. Most missionaries take the criticism seriously and take a close look at their ministries for the glory of God among various peoples: But even when they respond positively, the criticism continues. It's like a machine whose on/off switch is soldered in the "on" position.
2. We are concerned because ,the worldwide expansion of the other major religions and Communism arouses no objection from our detractors. Those who protest vehemently if a missionary gives a steel tool to a stoneage tribesman  who wants it desperately and will get it from other sources if he has to seem undisturbed by, for example, Communistinspired culture destruction through Mao's Cultural Revolution. An immense number of priceless objects of art were destroyed. Ancient Chinese traditions, such as respect for elders by the young  were violated on a colossal scale. It should be called an ANTI cultural revolution. But anthropologists never write books or produce films condemning International Communism as a culture¬destroying movement. Why not?
3. The much abhorred "westernization" of the world's remaining indigenous cultures is no longer in western hands, let alone missionary hands! That process is almost exclusively in the hands of Japanese entrepeneurs, Chinese businessmen, Malayan, Indian or African merchants. They are introducing western clothing styles, music, technology, architecture, and diet all over the world. And they outnumber missionaries by a factor of several thousand to one! Yet missionaries are the only ones anthropologists blame for "westernization" of indigenous peoples! Even many remote tribes that have never been touched by missionary influence have Sanyo transistors and Tiger Brand flashlights from China!
   
   We are increasingly convinced that anthropological antagonism toward missionaries (sometimes accompanied by ridicule of Christian students in University classrooms) is not a reasoned process, but an obsession.
4. Looking back into history, we find that Christianity was originally part of Judaism. What caused the separation? Two Apostles Paul and Barnabas  insisted that the Gospel of Christ must be imparted in a manner that brings a minimum of culture change to other peoples! They refused to demand circumcision and adherence to other aspects of Jewish culture on the part of Gentile converts! In time, other Apostles agreed with this new way of presenting the Gospel, and the separation of Christianity from Judaism became inevitable. Maintaining an attitude of respect for other peoples' cultures, then, was a founding principle of Christianity! Ever since, Christianity  with the exception of a few sects and orders  has required far fewer changes in diet and dress code than any other religion.
   
   Among the Dani of New Guinea, for example, modesty was defined as covering one's middle with a gourd or grass skirt. I have personally observed that Christian missionaries in New Guinea fully accepted the Dani definition of modesty. I have seen hundreds of Dani leaders of beautifully indigenous churches leading church services with only a gourd covering their genitals! Missionaries present showed not the slightest sign of displeasure. Demand for clothing is now rising through the actions of Indonesian traders and official "clothe thenatives" projects such as "Operation Koteka."
5. Those who bemoan the westernization of other peoples often meet with an unexpected rebuff from the peoples themselves: "What makes you westerners think all these good things come only from you? And who are you to decide on our behalf that we should not change our lifestyle? You are constantly changing your own lifestyle, and so may we. We want to know the options this world offers. And we reserve the right to choose for ourselves what we find to be good!"
6. And an incredible number of peoples around the world are accepting the Christian gospel as one of the world's better options. Many affirm it emphatically as the best option. Some even declare it is the only option to anarchy or oppression. Christendom, by the latest computer estimates at Project Daystar in Nairobi, is now gaining approximately 63,000 new adherents per day and 1600 new churches per week! Amazingly, two thirds to three quarters of that phenomenal growth is happening in so called third world countries through the initiative of third world Christians themselves! Missionary work, then, has generally found an incredible degree of receptivity among people of other cultures. If missionary work was detrimental to those peoples they would soon reject the missionaries on their own. Even seemingly unsophisticated peoples are perfectly capable of saying "NO! "  as even many anthropologists have discovered.
7. Anthropologists have failed to appreciate the fact that 90% or more of the world's folk religions contain lingering memories of a supreme God who once commanded the allegiance of their forefathers, but has been left without advocates in their midst for a very long time. Thus it has made sense to people of many folk religions that advocates of that supreme God should one day arrive to call them back to a right relationship with Him! I have documented several examples of peoples who were thus phenomenally prepared for the Christian Gospel in my latest book, ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS, to be released in June, 1981. Missionaries down through history have followed the Apostles' lead in this matter. Just as the Apostles identified Plato's Theos with the Jewish Elohim, and his logos with Jesus Christ, so also later generations of missionaries acknowledged Him as Deus among the Romans, Gott among Germanic tribes, Hodah among the Persians, etc.
   
   It is this kind of amazing preparedness that has made many cultures ten times more willing to receive the Gospel than we Christians have been to take it to them!
8. Christianity's tradition of reaching out to people of non Christian cultures is part of a 4000 year old historical imperative. 4000 years? Yes! The Apostles consistently identified their missionary zeal with the bottom line of God's promise to Abraham, dated about 2000 B.C. What was the bottom line? "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.' (Genesis 28:14) The promise was so important to God that he even found himself by an oath to fulfill it! (Genesis 22:17)

I submit to anthropologists who dislike missionaries that people who see themselves as fitting into a 4000 year old historical perspective will not give up easily. Rather than continuing your present worldwide "full court press" against them, why not follow the advice of a Jewish scholar named Gamaliel, who said: "Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:38,39)

Don Richardson was formerly a missionary in Netherlands New Guinea. Don has also written / .J Peace Child (1974), Lords of the Earth (1977),and Eternity in Their Hearts (June 1981), and is Director of Tribal Peoples Studies at William Carey International University, Pasadena.