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See also today's opposing view, "'I Feel Betrayed' | A son-in-law of one of the murdered missionaries says the casting was a mistake."

Last week I skipped out on work a bit to have an extended lunch with my friend Ron. He and his family got the boot by the Venezuelan government for being New Tribes missionaries. Apparently the Venezuelan government has a hard time telling the difference between missionaries and CIA agents, but that's another story. We chatted about the recently released movie End of the Spear, which tells the story of a group of missionaries who were murdered by Waodoni tribesman, the same tribesmen who later became Christians as a result of evangelistic efforts by the murdered men's families.

I was reminded of my buddy Mike, a slightly crazy guy who also happens to be a missionary with New Tribes. Once, when he was home trying to get over his latest battle with the malaria mosquitoes he patiently walked me through the process the mission uses to reach those who have not heard the gospel. Ron and I reviewed how it works over lunch.

Assuming they survive the initial contact (which no one takes for granted anymore) the missionaries spend a great deal of effort to learn the tribal language and culture. They work at building relationships so that when it comes time to share the Good News, people listen instead of chasing after them with machetes. Apparently food and medicine help a lot with this, at least according to the movie.

Okay, so once they understand the language and culture and have built relational bridges with the people, they begin to share the message of salvation. Now comes the interesting part—during this process, behavioral issues are very low in priority. Rather than being "sin police" the missionaries view themselves as ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). If they focus on behavioral problems, such as idolatry or sexual sin, it can be very counterproductive.

Ron recounted instances where the missionaries got the tribal people to do all the right things. You know, little things like wearing clothes, not murdering their neighbor, stuff like that. But for all their success in making the natives civilized, the gospel never took hold. The people did what the missionaries wanted, because they saw the benefits of cooperating. Frankly, it really amazes me what a well-timed gift of a cast-iron pot can do. But the people they were trying to reach never internalized the gospel and the result was tragic. Why did these efforts at evangelism fail? Because instead of looking with compassion on tribal people those particular missionaries viewed them as inferior or even "evil" and needing to be "fixed."

After telling me all this Ron reminded me that we are in a war for men's souls, so our response needs to be appropriate to the situation. That's when the light came on. You know, that little yellow bulb you see in the cartoons above someone's head when they finally recognize the obvious … We'd just been talking about the controversy over Chad Allen who plays both the part of Nate Saint and Steve Saint (as an adult) in the movie. He is openly homosexual, and a number of Christians are upset that Chad has "ruined" the story simply because he is gay. The ugly comments from so many evangelicals prompted me to think about how the church in America relates to homosexuals, as compared to tribal people.

Christians are willing to go to tribal people, and seek to understand their culture. At the same time, our general approach to homosexuals is to avoid them at all costs. When we do interact, it's to tell them how wrong they are, rather than trying to understand what has brought them to the place they are in this life. Instead of building relationships and sharing the gospel, we shout rude slogans, and tell them they are all going to hell because they are gay. Instead of realizing we are in a war for men's souls, we say we are in a culture war, and treat homosexuals like the enemy.

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50