A city boy like me does not belong in the jungles of the Amazon

[jook]

Some thoughts on the missionary impulse of the Korean-American Christian church:

I've been asked by my pastor and small group leader if I'd be interested in going on one of several missions trips being planned by my church. We'd be ministering the Word of God to the poor people of the Dominican Republic, the natives of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, and the Asian diaspora in Madagascar.

A typical missions trip lasts anywhere from 10 days to a couple of weeks. A portion is financed by the church and the balance is covered by those willing to sponsor you. It's up to you to find those sponsors, usually members of the congregation who are well-off and unable to go themselves.

I informed my pastor and small group leader that I have "neither the heart nor the conviction to go on a missions trip". I thought that this honest and unambiguous answer would be sufficient to disqualify me for any consideration. I was wrong. I was asked again several times if I would change my mind, with my well-meaning pastor reminding me that this is great way to fulfill the Great Commission.

There are those who have received a calling and dedicated their entire lives to sharing the gospel in far-flung regions. I have met such people and I have great respect for them.

And then there are people like me, lay congregation members, regular 9-to-5ish working stiffs who don't speak any foreign languages, have no training in missions work, and zero experience living in conditions where there is no electricity and no running water.

I have seen some camcorder videos of such missions trips, made by those lay congregation members who've ventured abroad in the name of God, blissfully unaware of their own inadequacies. I was not impressed by footages of ridiculous 2nd gen Korean-American Christians performing lame "body-worship" praises in English, Korean, or Konglish in front of bewildered rural Uzbekistanis nor of senior Korean-American pastors making cultural faux-pas's in places like Afganistan. Listening to their verbal accounts of their "missionary" experience sound little difference from anyone, Christian or not, who had just returned from a slightly exotic vacation trip.

With this being the case, I shudder at the fact that Koreans (including jaemi dong-po) comprise the second largest group of missionaries in the world.

Exactly what would someone like me accomplish in just 10 days in a foreign country, in an alien culture? By my own admission, I barely engage in evangelical work, with close-by neighbors, coworkers, or friends as it is. Yet the fact that the church thoughtlessly pushes such ill-conceived pursuits (I am hardly an isolated case) is disturbing. It is a gross mismanagement of Church resources.

[kimtae]

Leave common folks to their own. The Western imperial march of missionary Christianity should be resisted at every turn. I can think of fewer evils that exist in the Korean communities, in Korea and amongst the diaspora, than the slavish devotion to the Western mythology of Christianity.
This from a Baptist Deacon's son.

[lopan]

You're a deacon's son?? No wonder you're so angry!

[kimtae]

You're a deacon's son?? No wonder you're so angry!

Baptist no less, would do it to just about anybody. Funny thing is, I intuitively knew christianity was BS as young as 12 but the church told me that was just the devil whispering in my ear. Then I knew for sure it was BS.

[jaehwan]

Leave common folks to their own. The Western imperial march of missionary Christianity should be resisted at every turn. I can think of fewer evils that exist in the Korean communities, in Korea and amongst the diaspora, than the slavish devotion to the Western mythology of Christianity.
This from a Baptist Deacon's son.

Well spoken. Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christianity is pure evil, and most "followers" are just living in denial. I had this nonsense drilled into me from the time I was born, and I too knew it was bullshit from a very young age. I too was told that it was the devil speaking to me. Fuck. How do people tell such stupid lies to kids? Learning that the devil was supposedly fucking with my soul was worse than the day I learned there was no Santa Claus. These Bible thumpers are sick people. (and again, there are nice people who happen to be Christian. But they're the minority.)

This from an Fundamentalist Christian Elder's son.

[kimtae]

Well spoken. Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christianity is pure evil, and most "followers" are just living in denial. I had this nonsense drilled into me from the time I was born, and I too knew it was bullshit from a very young age. I too was told that it was the devil speaking to me. Fuck. How do people tell such stupid lies to kids? Learning that the devil was supposedly fucking with my soul was worse than the day I learned there was no Santa Claus. These Bible thumpers are sick people. (and again, there are nice people who happen to be Christian. But they're the minority.)

This from an Fundamentalist Christian Elder's son.

Why are we Koreans so damn crazy with the bible thumping? It really makes me wonder how well any of the evangelical zealots in our community actually understand the historical religion and the implications of a book accumulated and collated a century or more after the supposed death of the messiah by a group of men with some very political agendas. Never mind, I think I know. The fear mongering of the Korean churches aside, if you have any capacity for reason or logic and are not afraid to apply it you can smell the BS even as a child.

[nskripchun]

Why are we Koreans so damn crazy with the bible thumping?

Who knows? Korean patriarchy + fundamentalism? Conservative Chinese churches can be the same.

(coming from a pastor's son, haha)

but back to the topic...

jook>
Just wanted to say that your reservations about short-term mission work are valid, and that you shouldn't be afraid to express them to people at church. You didn't mention exactly what you'd be doing on your trip, but coming from an evangelical Christian background myself, I have bad feeling that there's a heavy emphasis on "evangelism" and less on actually ministering to people's real needs.

There's a lot of different Christian views on the subject of "missions", but I believe strongly that missionary work is ultimately futile, useless, and even detrimental unless it's first grounded in a genuine concern for the well being of your fellow human beings. It's not enough to go some place and "drop the gospel" on them - what about the effects of colonialism and exploitative capitalism? What about poverty, unemployment, and lack of education? What about AIDS and lack of clean water?

It's disappointing to me that many Christian missionaries spend less time on ministering to people's needs in place of singing a couple of bad renditions of Christian contemporary pop songs and giving sermons in English that no one in the local populace understands.

But yeah... in case people at your church don't want to listen to your concerns or the points I brought up... drop this on them:

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:16-18

Short term missions are too much words... not enough action.

[kwak76]

Just stop going to church if it bothers you that much or next time they ask you to go to mission tell them in a very blunt way that it's a waste of time and waste of church resources and that if they push your going to become Muslim or something.

I grew up in NYC all my life and good portion of my life I went to church and was a former (Korean Christian Fellowship). I personally think it was a waste of time for me.

SOme of the most closed minded people I met are Korean Christian. You would think because they are chirstian they should be about love and forgiving. Fuck that..they judge you more and they are just as superficial as secular people are.

At least with secular people they are more honest about it but with allot of Korean Christian they put up a front. It's like a two face for them but I hate to say this Korean people are very good at having two faces.

Anyway, I have my beef with Korean chrisitian because they do amass allot of money from donation . What do they do with it? Either build a bigger church or do some missiona work.

WHat about the issues here at home? I could only think of maybe 2-3 Korean Churches that actually do grass roots and social activities. One Korean church has senior center that gives free food to older people. ANother church I know helps illegal immigrants in law and support. The other Korean churches are just plain selfish and keeps the money for their own church instread of helping the community.

99.99% of Korean Christian (I'm talking about kypopo here) are plain ignorant when it comes to Asian American issues.

To them if you pray to Jesus hard enough your problem will go away and if it does not go away well Jesus is testing you or God has a purpose.

Fuck that!! I really hope that there is a God because when I die and meet my maker I have one huge RANT !!

[awong]

kwak I think that goes for any organized religion, its just most people are too blinded to see it, my friend and his dad always complain about the buddhist temple they go to and sees them as greedy and only for money, though he he thinks organized religion is too corrupt when he sees monks driving a lexuses, pastors buying big screen tv's in their office, etc. Money which comes from the people that go

but I do think the asian churches do seem to lean on the extreme side, like the one I went to chinese churches last summer felt like I was going to a Bush like viewpoint in politics. ugh creationism, evolution, abortion. Nice people, but way to closed minded

[nskripchun]

Anyway, I have my beef with Korean chrisitian because they do amass allot of money from donation . What do they do with it? Either build a bigger church or do some missiona work.


Actually, this is true across evangelical / fundamentalist Christian denominations across America. Churches are more likely to spend money on themselves - salaries for pastors, staff, building, facilities - than to spend it on social programs that benefit the community or needy people abroad:

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=23274

Nearly a third of ministers -– 31 percent -– said they would opt to spend a sudden financial windfall received by their church to build, expand or update the buildings and facilities, followed by increasing community evangelism activities, 16 percent; paying off debt, 12 percent; and adding staff, 10 percent.

Much less likely to be a top priority for spending a sudden influx of funds: giving more to foreign missions and evangelism (7 percent), spending more on social programs such as homelessness or education (6 percent) and giving more to domestic outreach or evangelism (3 percent). The following received 2 percent or less: saving or investing it for the future, increasing denominational giving, increasing church programs such as Vacation Bible School or different classes, adding or updating technology, adding or updating Bibles or hymnals, increasing advertising or marketing efforts, raising staff pay or benefits, or increasing staff training and education.


My old youth pastor once told this all to me that in a talk about how Christians ought to continually re-examine their priorities in terms of time and money - where is it going? It's all part of the sad state of Christianity in America.

[jaehwan]

Why are we Koreans so damn crazy with the bible thumping? It really makes me wonder how well any of the evangelical zealots in our community actually understand the historical religion and the implications of a book accumulated and collated a century or more after the supposed death of the messiah by a group of men with some very political agendas. Never mind, I think I know. The fear mongering of the Korean churches aside, if you have any capacity for reason or logic and are not afraid to apply it you can smell the BS even as a child.

Actually I'm Chinese (though of course "jaehwan" is a Korean name--it's a long story...).

I started out in a white church when I was really young, then I moved to a Chinese church. For a little while, I also went to a Korean church. The Chinese aren't as loud and boisterous as the Koreans--no speaking in tongues, crying, shouting at the altar about how they're unworthy of atonement--and therefore we don't evangelize as much. But make no mistake--the hardcore Chinese Christian bible thumpers are just as bad. They are just as evil, and some of them are just as crazy. They just tend to be evil and crazy in a silent kind of way.

My wife and I have this one Chinese friend. He's probably the most unethical slime you've ever met. He'll steal money from people through shady deals without regard for the law, yet every other word out of his mouth is "Jesus" this or "church" that. I stopped hanging out with him long ago, but when I do see him, he'll try to sneak up on us by getting us to drive him to church ("Why don't you just come on in?") or telling us about the great people we'll meet there. I'm not sure why he continues; he knows what we think of him.

Most C-thumpers are like this. They'll pretend that they're open-minded and non-judgmental, but the minute you turn your back and turn around again, they'll mace you with their biblical bullshit.

From what I've noticed--and maybe it's only because I'm not Korean--most hardcore Korean bible-thumpers will tell you you're going to Hell if you aren't a Christian, and then they'll just stop talking to you. They're crazy as hell, but they draw a much clearer line between Christians and everyone else. What you see is more often what you get.

[averagejoette]

leave the missionary work up to the jesuits...i kid. I think your choice is respectable. Afterall, you wouldn't want to go then cry for the city once you get there.
I went to a church down in newport beach (they were really cool about me being a non-believer, none of that hellfire mischief), and they were advertising for teenagers to go on missionary trips. I have never been to a Chinese Christian church though...although there is one a block away. I should go stir it up a bit tomorrow.
jaehwan, about that chinese guy...i think it delves down into the subject of using religion, rather than believing in it. Thats a whole other topic of its own.

[cattygurl]

Most C-thumpers are like this. They'll pretend that they're open-minded and non-judgmental, but the minute you turn your back and turn around again, they'll mace you with their biblical bullshit.

I think a lot of religions tend to develop the clique mentality. You're either "in" or "out" and the rules change according to the ringleader. I've experienced this from every fundamentalist- whether they were Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Caucasian, Black, Latino, what have you. At this point, I simply avoid the fundamentalist crowd as much as I can.

[jaehwan]

I think a lot of religions tend to develop the clique mentality. You're either "in" or "out" and the rules change according to the ringleader. I've experienced this from every fundamentalist- whether they were Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Caucasian, Black, Latino, what have you. At this point, I simply avoid the fundamentalist crowd as much as I can.

Speaking of which...

http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/41/left-behind

"Show me that smile again. (Show me that smile)
Don’t waste another minute on your cryin’.
We're nowhere near the end (nowhere near)
The best is ready to begin."

Maybe he objected to the lyrics.

Kirk: We're nowhere near the end? But it says in Revelation chapter 1 verses three and four...

jaehwan, about that chinese guy...i think it delves down into the subject of using religion, rather than believing in it. Thats a whole other topic of its own.

Well, they believe it, but they also believe in "forgiveness." So these thumpers sin like there's no tomorrow, and then they "atone." Fundies don't believe in karma. Maybe that's why they're so bad...