The Missionary in the Angry Seventies

“Deliver us from feudalism and imperialism but deliver us not into the hands of Communism.” Walking with the dean of the theological department through the halls of San Carlos, the oldest Roman Catholic university in the Philippines, I noticed a poster displaying this plea. It eloquently expresses the tension in the minds of many Filipino Christians. At a meeting of Asian Roman Catholic bishops in November, 1971, the challenge of Chinese Communism was mentioned frequently. Thomas B. Cardinal Cooray highlighted the problem when he said: “The tragedy of our peoples is that no one else other than Mao’s China seems to offer realistic solutions that are radical enough to meet the urgent and grave needs of the poor Asian masses, the proletariat of the world.”

On the plane leaving Cebu I read the Manila Chronicle, which expressed the same thought in a different way:

It is our firm belief that there is more of the Christmas spirit, which is just another name for Christian spirit, in the Peoples’ Republic of China every day than we find in this so called “only Christian nation in Asia” on Christmas Day. People are so sad and angry that they do not even want to talk about Christmas. The message of Christmas is “Joy to the World, the Lord has come.” The only way we can maintain the spirit of this message is to help alleviate the poverty of the great majority of our people.

In what has come to be known as “the angry seventies,” the missionary together with his Asian fellow workers finds that criticism comes not only from Communists and members of other religions but also from some Christian students who denounce both the established church and its leaders. The bishops in Manila were told by Catholic students:

As long as you become wealthy, you will be incapable of becoming a saving sign in the world. You will remain a part of the status quo that you yourselves condemn, yet ironically benefit from—and thus be a self contradictor. Your voices will be but feeble echoes of the resounding message of the Gospel as your wealth has imprisoned you in structures that breed hunger for power and thus alienate you from the poor.

Protestant missionaries are also accused of introducing a capitalistic ethic of Christianity. “The exploiting group in the capitalist society,” it is said,

finds a magnificent ally in religion because the salvation would always be an individual salvation. Instead of trying to help his brethren lift themselves out of their misery, the believer takes comfort in the Christian egoism of salvation and is concerned only with the well being of his own soul.

A young editor of a radical newspaper told me he thought it was unrealistic of Christians to talk about transforming the lives of individuals when they do nothing to change the structures of society. Like others in his generation he could not imagine the existence of a true church in a capitalist society. It was an echo of a complaint we heard many times in China in 1949.

What should be the attitude of the missionary in the angry seventies?

1. We must be willing to listen humbly to the critics, recognizing that we cannot divorce ourselves from our political, economic, and cultural background. Although we ourselves may not agree with all the policies of our own government, non-Christians will still associate us with the cultural imperialism of the West. In the early fifties the Communists described the China Inland Mission as a “spy organization.” After we left China, because I had been working with students my name was placarded on the “wall newspapers” as that of “a leading American imperialist”—even though I came from England! We must acknowledge that a few missionaries have engaged in political activities or have supplied information to government agencies. We suffered in China when an American broadcast announced that although all embassy personnel had been withdrawn, a good number of American missionaries remained.

2. We should take seriously the criticism that the church is often dominated by missionaries and examine our relation with church leaders. It is possible to be paternalistic toward church leaders without realizing it. We may also be exercising a very short-sighted policy about training leaders. Missionaries who persist in doing most of the teaching and preaching may leave the church totally unprepared when the time comes for the Western worker to withdraw.

3. Together with Asian fellow workers we should reexamine the attitude of the church toward the injustice and suffering in society. Church leaders should study the teaching of the Old Testament prophets and Christ’s denunciation of the social and religious evils of his day.

If a church does not understand the protests of the “angry young men” of our generation, it will have no opportunity to win them for Christ and may well lose some of its own young people. Too many churches take the ostrich attitude toward approaching danger. Training programs for young believers should include a course on how to confront the burning issues of our day. These Christians will face difficult problems in the future, and the decisions they make must be based, not upon emotional appeals or pressures from outside, but upon obedience to the principles of God’s Word.

4. The missionary must identify himself with the members of his church in seeking to understand how to carry out the instructions given in James 2. The social work of the church is never to be a reaction to the criticisms of the non-Christian: it is to be undertaken in obedience to the teaching of Christ and his disciples to love our neighbor as ourselves. Christians minister to the poor, not to improve their reputation or to justify themselves in the sight of their critics, but in response to the love of Christ.

The missionary has to be very careful lest he identify himself with a style of living that can only be a stumbling block to those sensitive to the terrible gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Each missionary will have to wrestle with this problem himself. His standard of living will depend primarily upon the people among whom he is working. Many factors, such as his health and what is needed for effectiveness in the work, will have to be taken into account. He will need to discuss it with his national fellow workers. The charge that often the church ties itself to the bourgeois class and is out of touch with the vast masses of industrial and rural workers is not easy to deny.

It is not enough to point to the amount of money given to relief organizations. The sight of Christians working alongside their poorer brethren in times of national disaster, or of Christian lawyers counseling oppressed tribal minorities in isolated mountain villages, or of doctors giving up lucrative city practices to minister in rural areas or leprosy settlements, will show far more effectively the reality of Christian love.

5. The missionary must understand Communist teaching and strategy, and share this knowledge with the church. In the coming years China will have more and more influence upon other Asian countries. Its social experiments, its educational methods, and the philosophy of Mao Tse-tung will be discussed in schools and factories throughout Asia. Many, even in the churches, will be carried away with enthusiasm for a revolution that is said to provide the only radical solution to the immense problems facing the developing countries. The missionary who does not understand the appeal of Communism, who dismisses the Communist movement as atheist materialism—the work of the devil, something that must be completely avoided and opposed—cannot help the church prepare for the trials that may come to Christians called to live either in a Communist society or under a government that adopts Communist principles.

Chosen People

Chosen People

cherish

special benison:

manna,

quail, unfailing

torrents of

sweet water;

they savor rememberd

favors.

yet, must not

let delight omit

the harsh denial

when the Chosen

choose their own

pleasure, make

self the measure

of unmeasurd gift

(which may come wrapt

in thorns that

crackle with points

of tender flame)

EUGENE WARREN

It is very important that the missionary (1) understand the problems that Communism seeks to solve, (2) appreciate the dedication and discipline shown by many followers of Mao Tse-tung and recognize their strength, (3) understand the Communist claim that “scientific Communism is the antithesis of religion. Like fire and water, the struggle for realization of the ideal of communism in the world is incompatible with ‘the building of the Kingdom of Christ on earth’ ” (Peking Review, August, 1969). For the Communist, any compromise with religion is only temporary.

To be prepared for possible trials and persecution, disciples of Christ first need to have a Christian world view. It is not enough to be sure of their own salvation. They must understand the sovereign work of God in history and be convinced that in Christ, through his redeeming death and resurrection, a victory has already been won, a process has been started that will eventually lead to “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). The Communist claims of a future classless society must be answered by Christians who see clearly that all human attempts to build utopia on earth without God founder on the basic sinfulness of the human heart. The Communist revolution is not radical enough. The Christian hope of Christ’s return must be persuasively proclaimed to those who find it hard to accept the idea of divine intervention in human history.

Second, in preparing for persecution Christians must understand Communist arguments and be able to answer them from the Scriptures. This requires the study of Communist literature and books that compare the thought patterns of Communism with Christian revelation. Although a vital experience of Christ’s presence and power is more important than the ability to answer Communist arguments, the Christian is told explicitly to be “prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet. 3:15).

Third, disciples of the Lord Jesus must be encouraged to count the cost of a faithful witness, to think through situations that may arise so that they will know when they are called to say, “We must obey God rather than man.” They are bound to live according to the rules of the society in which they live, even if it is anti-Christian. There may be times, however, when loyalty to Christ will require them to disobey government orders either secretly or openly. There was a time under the Roman Empire when Christianity was an illegal religion and Christians had to worship in secret. The same is true in some Communist countries today.

Fourth, the church needs to be prepared to continue without any pastors or full-time workers and if necessary without any church buildings. This will involve the building up of cell groups, and the fostering of very close fellowship with deep loyalty to Christ and to one another. Divisions among evangelicals are a “luxury” we cannot afford in a hostile society. A study of Communist tactics in China shows clearly that they will seek to divide the church. A radical party favorable to “Maoism” already exists in some countries, and this will form the core of a “new church” that the Communists will seek to build. In the early stages Christians will not be arrested because they are Christians; they will be arrested for being “reactionary” and unwilling to conform to the principles of the new progressive and patriotic church. Christians will be called upon to accuse Christians. Those who will not sacrifice loyalty to the truth for political expediency are bound to suffer, and unless they stand together in the “fellowship of His suffering,” they will not be able to survive the pressures that will be brought to bear upon them.

Fifth, Christians need to be actively engaged now in ministering to those in need so that it will be quite clear that they are motivated by the love of Christ. If they wait until the government compels all to take part in some form of social service, their opportunity to witness through voluntary Christian service will have passed. Under Communism, doctors and teachers cannot choose the most comfortable and highly paid positions in the cities. The Communists ask, “How can we judge whether a youth is a revolutionary? There can be only one criterion, namely, whether or not he is willing to integrate himself with the broad masses of workers and peasants and does so in practice.”

Christian professional men and women may well ask themselves whether they are motivated by love for Christ and their fellow men or by self-interest. One of the most tragic comments I have ever heard was this: “Christianity will not do for Asia; it is not sufficiently sacrificial.”

Sixth, Christians in non-Western countries must beware of adopting a purely Western style of life and expression, for while this enables them to move in international commercial and intellectual circles, it will disqualify them from effectively witnessing to the masses of their own people. Those Christians who are more at home in English than in the prevailing language of the country in which they live should work at overcoming this deficiency. The national language of China is spoken by more than 800 million people. Surely Chinese Christians who are concerned for their own people will want to be proficient in that language, not merely in the English lingua franca of international-minded business and professional circles. In other countries, Christians may have to learn Malay, Indonesian, or Tagalog.

The missionary may not be able to remain with the church when the time of testing comes. Although he will not want to leave his brethren in Christ, the time may come when either he will be forced by the government to leave or his presence will cause such embarrassment to the local believers that it will be better for him to withdraw.

While he is still free to live and work with the church, he can do much to help his fellow workers look ahead and see ways in which the church can be preparing itself for future trials. It is not enough to think only of preserving the church. There must be courageous and creative planning under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to penetrate even Communist society so that those whose minds are “blinded by the god of this world” may hear the liberating message of Jesus Christ.

David H. Adeney is dean of the Discipleship Training Centre in Singapore. He is a member of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. He served in China with the China Inland Mission 1934–41 and 1946–50 (fifteen months under the Communist regime). He received the M.A. from Queen’s College, Cambridge University.

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