Why some folks go to Evangelize to Christian Countries?

[Not David]

Example: I am from a Latin American country that is really Catholic but I saw a lot of missionaries from the US coming there. I know that this also happens in Russia and other places. Can you explain why they do that?

 

[akaDaScribe]

Example: I am from a Latin American country that is really Catholic but I saw a lot of missionaries from the US coming there. I know that this also happens in Russia and other places. Can you explain why they do that?

In many cases, missionaries are there to spread the gospel, but they are also there to try to help the people in that place.

 

[Phronema]

If I had to speculate it's because they think they're doing them a favor by bringing them away from Catholicism or Orthodoxy.

 

[thecolorsblend]

Example: I am from a Latin American country that is really Catholic but I saw a lot of missionaries from the US coming there. I know that this also happens in Russia and other places. Can you explain why they do that?

I've wondered about that myself.

I have a hard time shaking the suspicion that a lot of missionary stuff isn't operated by scammers who employee kind of dumb people. I'm otherwise at a loss to explain American missions to countries like Mexico or the Philippines.

Why don't these missionaries try evangelizing the Sudan? I mean, they want to reach the lost, don't they?

If they're looking for something safer, why not evangelize the state of Maine?

 

[Not David]

If I had to speculate it's because they think they're doing them a favor by bringing them away from Catholicism or Orthodoxy.

I wouldn't be surprised. I grew up in a really anti-Catholic environment.

 

[Not David]

I've wondered about that myself.

I have a hard time shaking the suspicion that a lot of missionary stuff isn't operated by scammers who employee kind of dumb people. I'm otherwise at a loss to explain American missions to countries like Mexico or the Philippines.

Why don't these missionaries try evangelizing the Sudan? I mean, they want to reach the lost, don't they?

If they're looking for something safer, why not evangelize the state of Maine?

Maybe they think they are trying to revitalize those countries with "Jesus"

 

[dzheremi]

Because other types of Christians are the wrong type(s). Maybe they're even non-Christians, depending on the outlook of the missionaries.

 

[Not David]

Because other types of Christians are the wrong type(s). Maybe they're even non-Christians, depending on the outlook of the missionaries.

Are you from the Middle East? If so, do you see those kinds of missioners?

 

[dzheremi]

No, I'm not, but everyone else in my Church is.

The Westerners have been trying to convert the Copts to their various churches for many centuries now, especially after finding the Muslims too difficult and/or stabby. They're not very successful at it, though. For instance, the Roman Catholics first came to Egypt (as opposed to having us come to them, as in the Council of Florence in the 15th century) around the 1600s or so and set up some missions there, and by the time they finally had a "Coptic Catholic" archbishop (the former Anba Athanasius of Jerusalem, who shortly after converting to Catholicism returned to Orthodoxy) to oversee the converts they had made, in the 18th century, they had about 2,000 Coptic Catholics. In the about two and a half centuries since then, they have grown, but not by much. Almost all the Coptic Catholics you'll find in the entire world live in Egypt (I think there are 2 or 3 congregations in the USA, and a few more in Canada, and some small number in Italy, but that's it; probably not even a dozen in the entire world outside of Egypt), and even there they are only about 165,000 people total. That's really not a lot when you consider that Egypt has the largest Christian population in the entire Middle East/North Africa region, at circa 8-10 million (some advocacy groups push it as high as 12-15 or more, but 8-10 is more realistic). Over 95% of those are Coptic Orthodox.

 

[FireDragon76]

Sometimes Protestant missionaries are simply ministering to needs that are not being met. There is a shortage of priests in Latin American countries, that is no secret, and sometimes people have less contact with institutional Catholicism than is assumed.

However, sometimes the problem is that the Church actively excludes the perspectives of certain groups, such as gays and women. I encountered a Mexican Episcopalian priest some time ago that was a gay man. He appreciated the church because he perceived the Catholic Church as problematic for people like himself, in Mexico.

Likewise, Protestantism sometimes presents opportunities for Latin American women in ordained ministry: I watched a video on fundamentalism in Brazil by a Brazilian pastor (Rev. Dr. Wanda Deifelt) who was a woman. She was criticizing Protestant fundamentalism sweeping Brazil. In the Catholic Church, there just aren't the kinds of opportunities for women like that to be religious authorities.

In addition, Protestant Christians like Dr. Deifelt are Latin American, but they have a background that is other than Roman Catholic because their ancestors came from countries like Germany, not Spain or Portugal. Latin American is not just Spanish or Portuguese people.

 

[FireDragon76]

I've wondered about that myself.

I have a hard time shaking the suspicion that a lot of missionary stuff isn't operated by scammers who employee kind of dumb people. I'm otherwise at a loss to explain American missions to countries like Mexico or the Philippines.

Why don't these missionaries try evangelizing the Sudan? I mean, they want to reach the lost, don't they?

Have you seen Machine Gun Preacher? It's a true story about a Baptist preacher, Sam Childres, in Sudan.

 

[FireDragon76]

The spread of Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism in Latin America is no doubt a bad thing from a human development perspective. That's something that Wanda Dreifelt touches on tangentially, in noting how these churches preach a simplistic message steeped in patriarchal and authoritarian assumptions about the family and society.

Here's an article about how Evangelicalism is hurting women in El Salvador. Evangelicals now account for a substantial percentage of the population in El Salvador, and their politics have been repressive towards women and gays in that country.

How El Salvador’s evangelicals have joined the backlash against women’s reproductive rights

 

[2PhiloVoid]

The spread of Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism in Latin America is no doubt a bad thing from a human development perspective. That's something that Wanda Dreifelt touches on tangentially, in noting how these churches preach a simplistic message steeped in patriarchal and authoritarian assumptions about the family and society.

Here's an article about how Evangelicalism is hurting women in El Salvador. Evangelicals now account for a substantial percentage of the population in El Salvador, and their politics have been repressive towards women and gays in that country.

How El Salvador’s evangelicals have joined the backlash against women’s reproductive rights

We might want to keep in mind that the term 'evangelicalism' isn't a synonym for either fundamentalism or pentecostalism; additionally, 'evangelicalism' is a spectrum of views rather than a monolithic one.

 

[Phil 1:21]

Why don't these missionaries try evangelizing the Sudan? I mean, they want to reach the lost, don't they?

Many of them do, and pay for it with their lives.

 

[Sabertooth]

Some people go to church as a family tradition, never seeing God's true intent for Salvation. (My family was like that.) Sometimes, God will bring in a strange people just to mix things up a little. A person from another culture presents the Gospel from a slightly different perspective and can jar us from our sleepy, comfort zone. They reveal a God that is bigger than our own culture.