History of and current missionaries, has bringing the bible to indigenous peoples helped them?

Question

Lets quantify "help"
Other than bring them "the Lord"
Has the quality of life improved?
Do they live more in harmony with the natural world?
Did suffering end?

Lökásennä, I love your answer too!

Answer 1

Sara (I think you are HAWT!)

Hell no it hasnt helped - and I know first hand.

I grew up in SE Asai, spending two years in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, near the Ok Tedi gold mine. Prior to our arrival, there were still headhunters in the jungles in the 1960's. I got there in 1983. What white man brought these natives was bibles and clothing - and alcohol and disease... Living in a rain forest, the natives wore no clothing. Men wore a "penis gourd" (a dried vegetable gourd that slipped over the penis - thats ALL - completely free balling it...) and the ladies wore only grass skirts. So, white man comes and preaches and tells them they must wear clothing. Within five years, half the population died from the common cold - also a gift from white men. They caught colds because they would get caught in the rain wearing clothing, would get soaked, and would continue to walk around soaking wet, because thats what they always did - the sun would dry your skin in minutes...clothing not so much... The aocohol - another story.

Quality of life DEFINITLY not improved - with God or not.

Answer 2

I am not a Christian but my cousin is a missionary she is too ill to do it now but she spent a lot of time in Senegal, Africa with the Fulas.
She now spends her time translating a newsletter into Fulla and praying that people will come to understand the translation of the new testament in Fulla. Which was only completed a couple of years ago.

This might nt seem that helpful - however while she was there she was playing her part in helping to end female genital mutilation a long time before it became a widely known occurrence. She worked in dangerous circumstances - an uncircumcised woman trying to end an ancient practice believed to keep the women pure. Women who aren't circumcised are at best under threat of starvation because no one will marry them and at worst death because they are dirty sluts. Those working to end the suffering are in as much if not more danger. Of course those who have to endure the procedure face death from infection, shock, blood loss, added danger in childbirth among many other things.

Missionary's may have a jaded history but please think about what they do - the campaign to end genital mutilation wasn't used for propaganda in the west and wasn't depend ant upon the girls or their family's converting to Christianity it was just an attempt to stop this horrific practice.

I have fundraised for both secular and religious aid groups and both are very rewarding and both put the people they are trying to help first.

Answer 3

Missionaries have always destroyed any native culture they've had contact with, there can be absolutely no question about that.

Besides there's an old joke about a missionary and a native...the missionary tells the native about Jesus and how if he accepts Jesus into his heart he'll go to heaven and if he rejects him he'll go to hell. After listening to him the native asks, what would have happened if our people had never heard of Jesus. The missionary said, you'd all go to heaven because you'd be innocent in the eyes of the lord. The native says, well why did you tell me? If you had left us alone according to you we'd all go to heaven, now because you have come here and told us, we could go to hell.

Of course, this joke makes the assumption that most Christians belief people who never got the chance to hear about their God die innocent and get a chance to learn in the hereafter; I've met some Christians would relish in informing people that their ancestors are burning in hell.

Answer 4

You don't get to quantify help. Has any contact resulted in improvement. Like AIDS, starvation,genocide. Let quantify has life improved for many third world countries with the introduction of science. The answer to Aids is the Bible- Monogamy, fidelity.

Answer 5

You cannot expect this world to be perfect. We don't deserve a perfect world! We were all born into sin, and we all fall short of God's glory.
We who are saved through Jesus Christ, do want to share His gospel with others, and everywhere we can! And we pray it will reach many and that many will be saved....but God has told us from the beginning that because of sin, these things would happen.....We cannot stop all the bad from happening, but we who are saved do have hope in Christ and know that He has the victory in the end--and Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 10:15
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Answer 6

The gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that's where they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go. Which they won't do if they don't know about it. This explains why it is so important to shoot missionaries on sight.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

Answer 7

No. They have been stripped of their culture and history (example: Hawaiians, Native Americans, Africans) They have been overrun and tortured (example: early Californians and Mexicans, Africans). They have been enslaved to work as servants (example: early Californians and Mexicans, Africans). They have been made to feel ashamed of their ancesters (all).