Test of faith: Missionaries can be unexpected factor in international politics

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 4:19 a.m.

Christian missionary Walter Ehrich is a boulder of a man -- a thick-bodied, rough-talking carpenter who says of himself upon first encounter, "I've had what you might call 'a colorful past.' "

He briefly tells the tale of his early years -- something about trouble with the law, trouble with substance abuse, trouble generally.

In 1986 he got sober. A few years later, he started going to church. By 1996 he was working in a field in El Salvador, spreading his new faith by laying blocks and mortar for the locals, working up a sweat -- and a reputation that would eventually put his name above the door of a Salvadoran Lutheran Church.

Ehrich, 50, is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian missionaries from Las Vegas who are called by their faith to foreign destinations each year. Some go with large church groups on organized multinational tours; others travel in smaller packs to a single destination and stay for weeks, months or sometimes years.

"Mission work is one of the fastest-growing works in all of the denominations," said the Rev. David Devine of the First United Methodist Church in Las Vegas. "People want to serve the Lord, and they want to help others and have that new faith experience. It's a test of your faith."

It's a test of faith not only for the faithful but for the countries that missionaries are sent to. Many governments don't want anyone spreading different religious beliefs, as was seen this fall when two American Christian missionaries were captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan. They were freed unharmed in November -- but not before prompting scrutiny of the role of missionaries in international politics.

"This is an extraordinarily sticky issue," said Phil Hammond, a sociology of religion professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Should missionaries be over there evangelizing? I don't know. Certainly they think they should be.

"Should the U.S. government be more concerned about what they do? Let's just say the government should be attentive.

"If I were in President Bush's shoes, rather than having a welcome-home celebration for those two missionaries, I would have sat them down and said, 'What were you doing there?' And was it interfering in the efforts to oust the Taliban?"

While simple works such as digging ditches or building basic houses may not seem like much, missionaries are on the cutting edge of international politics. With their beliefs and Bibles, they carry solutions to health and engineering problems, modern medicine and an introduction to Western culture.

Although Christian missionaries provide invaluable humanitarian aid, they also draw hostility from authoritarian regimes and disdain from members of other faiths.

And they are persecuted in many places.

Some are persecuted

Ehrich said that sharing his beliefs in another country -- as Jesus exhorts the faithful in the book of Matthew 28:19, "Go out and make disciples of all nations," -- is at the foundation of his work, and that may put him in harm's way. He notes that in Third World countries, missionaries have to be careful because indigenous religious leaders hold power.

"It's dangerous to get involved in politics," he said. "They welcome me as long as I don't speak out about things. I am always welcome as long as I don't stick my nose into things."

For many countries, the problem may be evangelism itself. Hammond explains two ways of viewing evangelism: "If I've got a toothache and I find a good dentist, and he makes me better and happier, I'm going to tell everyone about that dentist. It's the same with religion. That's one way of looking at it.

"Another way is to see Christians like the Taliban -- although certainly on a different scale. They think they have the truth, and they are instructed to make everybody else know that truth," Hammond said. "Some people find that offensive."

By the time Ehrich took his boots off and gave them to a barefoot El Salvadoran standing in a muddy field, the mission was well under way.

He and a team from Community Lutheran Church had been -- since 1995 -- building shelters for locals who have no homes, trying to teach agricultural basics to people who lived in garbage dumps, and erecting new churches.

"It helps me realize how much I have. These people ... have nothing. We have so much. When I gave this kid my work boots, he was so grateful. It puts your life in perspective," Ehrich said. "It makes you grateful.

"When you help someone you're helping them, but really you're helping yourself. It changed my life."

Many missionaries say that their goal is more than providing temporary aid -- it's establishing social justice.

"We're working for economic justice in El Salvador," the Rev. Ray Christenson of Community Lutheran said. "Our goal is not necessarily evangelistic, it's more a partnership with the Lutheran Church in El Salvador. They have their own ministry, and their own credibility in the communities, and we help them.

"There is an economic persecution in El Salvador. The poor are discriminated against. We are helping the poor. The Lutheran Church is trying to put families together to farm land. They have no schools and churches, and we're helping fix that."

Devine said the Methodists also plan their missions with the larger goal of transforming poverty-stricken communities in mind.

"We go wherever there is an identified need," said Devine, who has taken three missionary teams to Guatemala.

"There is poverty across the board in Guatemala. The average income is a few dollars a day. They are recovering from years of war. Hospitals are in bad repair ... There are a lot of Americans down there trying to help out."

International politics

But, says theology professor Bill Daniel of Emory University, a former missionary, "You very easily can become a pawn or a target in international issues. Organizations need to be more politically sensitive than they were in the past.

"Missionaries are the unseen factor in world history."

Hammond said missionaries can become a liability to their own nations if they make deals, or alliances, with political entities to continue their missionary work.

Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, the two American women who were held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, found themselves in a troubled spot.

The two missionaries for Shelter Now International, a Wisconsin-based, internationally funded group that aids victims of war, persecution or natural disaster, went to Afghanistan in part to feed the needy and help the sick -- knowing that preaching Christianity was forbidden under the Taliban.

They were arrested Aug. 5 after showing a video about Jesus to an Afghan family.

Although some Christians say the women's ordeal will inspire a new generation of missionaries, others say the worldwide attention will make the work of existing missionaries in some areas more difficult. Some missionaries are only allowed to do their work because they keep a low profile.

"The truth is, they know who we are. We're not fooling anybody," Avery Willis, senior vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, told the Washington Post last month. "We're Christians who have come here to do a job that needs doing. And they allow us to do it. 'Just do it quietly.' "

Most Muslim nations do not offer visas to missionaries -- but will to engineers or nurses or other types of aid workers, although often those workers are sponsored by Christian organizations.

But because medical and construction services are so needed, officials look the other way when workers also evangelize.

"There is a growing awareness that sometimes what we bring, as missionaries, is the contact to participate in Western democracy," Daniel said. "There is so much money in these aid organizations. They (foreign communities) want to participate."

In some countries there is no government policy prohibiting religious freedom, but members of the majority faith oppose Christian missions in their country.

In India, for example, Hindus have repeatedly voiced opposition to missionaries. They say the use of "forced conversion" -- using lures such as schools and health care to influence faith conversion -- is unethical.

At a meeting on religious tolerance in New Delhi last month, former Indian President R. Venkataraman said conversions are to be blamed for some of the religious violence that has erupted in the country.

"Conversions lead to animosity among religious groups," Venkataraman said, according to Reuters News Service. "They also lead to retaliation by reconversion. As a result, communal rioting, arson and looting follow. Induced conversions are a grave threat to national and world peace and harmony."

Still, missionaries of all faiths are headed across the globe, often putting their faith ahead of their safety.

"We try not to go into a country where their lives will be at risk," Devine said. "We would not go to Afghanistan now. But later, when peace comes into the country, we would go."

India's charges certainly don't change the course for Las Vegas missionary Paul Trainor, 40, who went to India last year with a group of 23 to evangelize. Only 3 percent of the Indian population is Christian, and, he said, there are millions of people "in the world who have never heard of Jesus."

The group went to seven cities in nine days, performing "concerts and shows" at colleges and high schools, sponsored by the Gospel Association of India.

Main motivation

"I think our main motivation is obedience to God. It's his will that people have a chance to hear his message ... Christians in the U.S. have a responsibility to be a blessing to those who are in underdeveloped areas," Trainor said. "At each place we went we'd give a little testimony about our faith.

"The poverty that we saw was unbelievable. We were received like celebrities. They don't see many American tourists and so here we are -- some blond-haired, blue-eyed people -- like we had just landed from Mars in an air-conditioned bus."

Although his mission was religious conversion and not engineering or medical work, Trainor said he believes Christianity is necessary for some civilizations to further evolve.

For example, he said, he believes Hinduism is fundamentally troubling because, in his view, it discourages charitable work.

"Their religious system inhibits real development. Hinduism, with its reincarnation and karma, prohibits social development. They don't want to interrupt karma. So if they see someone else suffering, they believe that person is getting what they deserve because of what they did in a previous life. So they don't reach out to help one another the way Christians do.

"It affects the average person's outlook. It's different than in America, where we all expect to come to one another's aid," Trainor said. "So it's a big task."

Hindus oppose Trainor's interpretation of their faith and say Hindus' belief in karma does not prevent helping others. Additionally, many Indian Hindus think Christians are guilty of religious attack.

"Christian missionaries have perfected their con game over centuries," says an October 2000 article by Vikram Chobe in the Hindu Internet publication Sword of Truth.

"They came to India to set up hospitals, schools and universities in order to try to fool the people into believing that they are there for social welfare. After setting up their traps and firmly entrenching themselves, these followers of the 'true faith' act upon their real motives.

"They attempt to convert the uncivilized pagans in many ways: promise of jobs and money in return for conversion, financing of the separatist movements in the country which will further divide the Hindus and make them vulnerable."

Because of anti-conversion violence -- bombings and protests -- in India last year, Trainor's group almost called off its mission. Instead, it canceled portions of the agenda, such as meeting with Indian dignitaries.

"There was some persecution going on, but I never felt afraid," Trainor said. "I just want to help people."

Trainor is designing a long-range foreign missions program for Las Vegas' Central Christian Church.

"We get requests all the time, and people send information and ask for financial help because we are a large church. We want to have a holistic plan in which we are meeting the physical and spiritual needs.

"We will continue to work," Trainor said. "Because the great goal is to do church planting in places there are no churches -- to reach unreached peoples."

archive