This Sunday was Mission Sunday in our church, where we celebrate missions to spread the Good News, etc., etc., to other peoples.
It’s a difficult thing. Prosetylization is … well, distasteful to have to do it. And it’s rude, since it assumes that the person being proselytized is, well, in a less good place (even, orthodoxically, a damned one). In this time of moral relevance, of an awareness of an our ability to grasp the totality of the Truth (and even debate as to whether Truth exists), to run around saying, “Hey, I got the Spirit, wanna join me?” seems crude, simplistic, and even condescending. Heck, I don’t want people knocking on my doors, or suggesting I’m misguided (let alone condemned to Eternal Torment), so why would I want to do the same, or support those who do?
On the other hand … the best path for truth is exposure to many paths. Unanimity and homogeneity of beliefs is often more of a problem than diversity.
So while it seems impolitic to, say, send Christian missionaries off to Muslim countries — after all, they clearly have their own beliefs, so how dare we impose ours on them? — in reality I think it’s healthier for the Christian and Muslim worlds to to send missionaries in both directions. There are those in the “Christian” world who might find the message of Islam resonates with them. Similarly, there are those in the “Muslim” world who might find the Christian message is what stirs their hearts. While individuals might differ as to what they believe the Truth to be, the Truth does not need to be defended by hushing up those of differing opinions.
(And for those who say, “Well, it’s all clap-trap anyway” — you, too, should have the opportunity to have your voice heard.)
Christian missions (and Christianity as a whole) have had a a deservedly bad rap at times because of their imposition of faith, and their denegrating of the faiths of those to whom they were visiting. And, yes, that was rude, and ultimately destructive. But those Christian missionaries I’ve met of late aren’t busy converting benighted heathens from their primative and Satanic pagan beliefs. They are extending a hand, an offer to hear what they consider to be the Good News, and, in general, they have a lot of respect for the people they go amongst. They are not coat-tailing off of the colonial powers, making Christianity a price to pay, a sacrifice to make, in order to get in good with the new honchos in the land. They are putting themselves at risk, at the very least personally sacrificing a lot, in order to share what they believe with others.
Hybrid vigor works with memes as well as genes. If there are those who want to share their faith with others in lands where it is not commonly known, that’s probably a good thing. We should all be willing to be as receptive to other beliefs as well.