Religion, Missionaries, Answers?

Continuing with the discussion of aid work and its efficacy – what about missionary work and aid from Christian organizations? A couple of interesting articles:
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God (thanks Cath!) - From an avowed non-believer, the positive effect he sees Christianity having on African communities, and his theory that having an organized spiritual centre does more for the attitude and motivation of the people than anything else he's seen – regardless of whether the author believes in Christianity, he believes it is having a huge positive effect on people.

Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love. I think the comments page for this has moved elsewhere, but the argument it generated among readers was fascinating! How dare Nick Kristof, a liberal columnist for the NYT, how DARE he post a column that said religion wasn't all bad? Kristof, who has travelled to every corner of the globe, gives a moving description of the Christian aid workers he's seen, persisting in areas so remote and hopeless that nobody else would stay.

Can faith drive people to stay when secular NGO workers back out? Can it turn around the attitudes of a community when no amount of well-meant training on the value of education and how-to-start-a-small-business can accomplish a similar change? In countries where the conflicts of colonialism, tribalism, traditional culture vs. modern world are clashing and leaving people in a morass of confusion about who they are, can religion provide a necessary grounding to help people move forward? I ask these questions without any sense of the answers; I'm an atheist, but I'm certainly willing to see the benefits of religion. (I'm going to leave out, for this discussion, the question of whether bringing Christ into your life will benefit your immortal soul.)

I think it's true that most secular aid work does very little to improve the morale of the communities and countries they work in; it fosters a culture of dependence that leaves both governments and people less motivated and less confident in their own abilities, and often a sense of victim's entitlement – as if each new infusion of aid is an admission of colonial guilt, and the recipients are somehow owed this never-ending stream of free money. In that sense, I think perhaps missionary work can provide a greater sense of empowerment; it doesn't foster the victim mentality, and you can get your own personal connection to god, which I suppose is empowering. On the other hand, it can be incredibly patronizing, discount the validity of local traditions and religions, and spend time and effort trying to accomplish religious conversion instead of something more practical. Depends on your outlook, I suppose. And to some extent, depends on the missionaries and/or aid workers in question. D'Kar has experienced the best and worst of missionary work – from corrupt priests using their influence to have sex with underaged girls, to 100% unselfish involvement and service for the community that truly does not come with any strings attached.

I've also witnessed, in D'Kar, some of what the first article was talking about – I'm a skeptic, but I can't argue with the facts: practically all of the community leaders in D'Kar are devout Christians, and they're good community leaders. I think that, in large part, this can be attributed to the fact that there's a strong anti-drinking element in all of the missionary work in D'Kar... Alcohol tears this community apart and keeps it down, and it's only individuals from the Christian community that abstain (there are, of course, Christians that drink as well). The difference it makes in their lives is remarkable. Not to say that there aren't some equally wonderful and effective individuals that do drink, but they are few. Whatever it is about converting to Christianity that does it, the Christians have managed to beat the bottle. I also think that missionaries are often more personally encouraging to communities – I think that there are many more missionaries than secular NGO workers that truly care about their community on a personal level, get to know people, get involved, spend a lot of time in the same community, and generally convince people that they care. I think that matters. Of course there are secular NGO workers that do just the same, but missionary work by its very nature is more personal. That kind of compassionate, long-term involvement and leadership can do a lot for a community, I think. It can help convince them that aid workers don't see them as hopeless victims, but as people with potential that are worth investing in.

As overall development agencies, I tend to think that missionary work and religious aid are not doing that well – nor is that their aim. As disaster relief, they're great. As remote medical workers, great. Distribution of donated goods, great – though donated goods come with a lot of problems. Development, education, income generation, getting communities to stand on their own two feet? Not so much (again, not their primary goal). Despite the good work I've seen it accomplish in D'Kar, I don't think that Christian morality is the final recipe for stable African communities – I think perhaps it's a sign that having been thrust into this maelstrom of Modern Africa, people need something they can believe in. Something larger than themselves. I'd venture to say that that something ought to be their country, their people, perhaps their continent or region - but they've been denied that, due to the utter failure of most African leadership. Is religion a good replacement for now? Maybe. As I said, I can't argue with what I've seen in D'Kar.