# Rising anti-missionary sentiments.



## Pergamum (Dec 10, 2018)

There seems to be a rising tide of anti-missionary sentiments. 

I'd like to list some typical sentiments here and respond to them.

First: Last week I had a person typify me as "Begging the churches for funds and endangering my children with tropical diseases."

Second: Another person told me that tribes just want to be left alone but we are pushign our values onto them. 


Any other common anti-missionary sentiments, and how do we answer them?


----------



## Tom Hart (Dec 10, 2018)

Who's making these statements? Believers or unbelievers? Are they from your home country, or elsewhere? Are these people you've encountered face-to-face or online?


----------



## Pergamum (Dec 10, 2018)

Online. Some folks raised in the church, not sure they are believers or not.

Reactions: Informative 1


----------



## Taylor (Dec 10, 2018)

Pergamum said:


> Last week I had a person typify me as "Begging the churches for funds and endangering my children with tropical diseases."



I wonder if this accusation was made by someone who doesn't consider the danger to which the great majority of American children are subjected every day. [*cough* public school *cough*]



Pergamum said:


> Another person told me that tribes just want to be left alone but we are pushign our values onto them.



Were they pushing their values on you by saying that?


----------



## Taylor (Dec 10, 2018)

Sorry for the double-post...

In the end, brother, a lot of these statements, if by Christians, are from those who in their hearts are convicted for their apathy regarding the gospel. They see you endangering yourself for the sake of the gospel in a foreign land, yet they are unlikely to go across the street to speak to their neighbor about Jesus. I say this because I have felt it in my own heart at times in the past toward missionaries. Granted, there is sometimes a tendency to make missionaries "super Christians," and of course that is wrong. But many times resentment toward missionaries by fellow Christians comes from a convicted heart unwilling to confess its own weakness and failures.

Now, if these statements are coming from unbelievers, then would you expect anything else? These people are hypocrites to the core. They hate missionaries asking for money to spread the gospel, all the while voting for legislation that takes funds from the people by force to fund the wholesale indoctrination of America's children via the public school system. They castigate missionaries for endangering their kids to tropical diseases, all the while defending a mother's "right" to murder their child before it even has the chance to breathe air at all.

Consider the source, brother...


----------



## Edward (Dec 10, 2018)

Pergamum said:


> There seems to be a rising tide of anti-missionary sentiments.



Just a logical extension of this line of thought:

https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/what-are-the-rules-of-just-warfare-in-cases-like-this.96692/

Which is all just part of the old myth of the 'noble savage'.


----------



## Pergamum (Dec 10, 2018)

Edward said:


> Just a logical extension of this line of thought:
> 
> https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/what-are-the-rules-of-just-warfare-in-cases-like-this.96692/
> 
> Which is all just part of the old myth of the 'noble savage'.


I don't see the relation.


----------



## Ryan&Amber2013 (Dec 10, 2018)

For some reason, I can totally see this mindset as normal in our day. For many of us, our propensity for comfort and the good life here and now will be prioritized over sacrifice on the mission field.


----------



## TheOldCourse (Dec 10, 2018)

Foolish and wicked men have always opposed the gospel. It's one thing to disagree about methods, it's quite another to doubt the need for the gospel among the heathen. If one denies that pagan tribes need the gospel of Jesus Christ then the fool should be answered according to his unbelieving folly.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## chuckd (Dec 14, 2018)

Pergamum said:


> Online. Some folks raised in the church, not sure they are believers or not.


Online anonymity brings out the worst in people. I wouldn't engage them as it can only bring you down.

Reactions: Amen 1


----------



## Taylor (Dec 14, 2018)

chuckd said:


> Online anonymity brings out the worst in people. I wouldn't engage them as it can only bring you down.



This is the primary reason I finally decided to chuck my Facebook for good. PurtanBoard is now my only online social interaction.


----------



## deleteduser99 (Dec 14, 2018)

Is it truly something new or on the rise? Seems like in past centuries the sentiment existed well enough. Maybe we just hear more about it because our world is more connected?

I was mortified at the words spoken to John Paton after returning from the cannibals himself: "You should have stayed at your post until you dropped dead."


----------



## Pergamum (Dec 15, 2018)

Harley said:


> Is it truly something new or on the rise? Seems like in past centuries the sentiment existed well enough. Maybe we just hear more about it because our world is more connected?
> 
> I was mortified at the words spoken to John Paton after returning from the cannibals himself: "You should have stayed at your post until you dropped dead."


I would prefer that sentiment of sticking to one's post until death than the sentiment that prevents people from going to difficult posts in the first place. Though I am glad that the churches supported me relocating to get medical help since my internal organs are enlarged now.


----------



## deleteduser99 (Dec 15, 2018)

Pergamum said:


> I would prefer that sentiment of sticking to one's post until death than the sentiment that prevents people from going to difficult posts in the first place. Though I am glad that the churches supported me relocating to get medical help since my internal organs are enlarged now.



I might not have been clearing my reply. The criticism was that he ever went to the cannibals in the first place and “left his post” in Scotland to do it. That after spending four years there, not having seen the success he hoped for (yet).

We don’t generally suffer from being over-ambitious for the kingdom of God. It’s usually the opposite.

Luke 16.... worldlings work so hard to satisfy their lusts. Why do we who work for eternal treasures have so little gusto?

Reactions: Like 1


----------

