Missionary

I had a great conversation last night, about missions.

For most people in Ethnic Studies, missionary is a dirty word. Not because of the position (that's hardly a dirty one), but because Christian missionaries were so complicit in colonization around the world. Like anthropologists, Christian missionaries have a bad reputation. Many people who think about colonization cannot imagine a missionary who did not cause more harm than they did good. According to the master narrative, missionaries either do not follow their Christian ideals, or are too naive to see the damage they do.

This brings me to last night. My Christian fellowship still sends out missionaries. A lot of churches do. Last summer, my Christian fellowship sent me out as a missionary. And in my defense, I like to think that my summer did not add to the violence of colonization.

What I did was live with a team of 5 college students, in a men's drug and alcohol rehab program. We lived and ate with the men, went to chapel and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and generally helped with the program in any way we could. For me, this meant I spent most of my time washing feet in the free medical clinic they ran, and tutoring in the academic center, and generally hanging out with men in the program. One or two nights a week we would get together with other people doing mission work in the same city to watch movies and talk about what the Bible/God says about poverty, racism, environmental stewardship, etc.

When I describe what I did and call it an internship, people seem to think its pretty cool. When I describe it as a mission, non-Christians seem surprised. Some Christians, too.

No conclusions here. But I think that Ethnic Studies and Christianity both include learning how to love other people, so they should be closer than most people think they are.