NEWS STORY: In Wake of Tsunami, Relief Groups Plant Seeds of Faith for Later Growth

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When the Rev. Dr. Tim Dearborn journeyed to tsunami-plundered Thailand in early January to encourage a team of Christian missionaries there, he reaffirmed what has become a standard vow for faith-inspired relief workers: we don’t proselytize those we serve. Refusing to proselytize, however, doesn’t mean stifling hopes for church […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When the Rev. Dr. Tim Dearborn journeyed to tsunami-plundered Thailand in early January to encourage a team of Christian missionaries there, he reaffirmed what has become a standard vow for faith-inspired relief workers: we don’t proselytize those we serve.

Refusing to proselytize, however, doesn’t mean stifling hopes for church growth after an epic disaster. On the contrary, Dearborn and others say they hope aid recipients will seek to know _ and possibly experience for themselves _ what it was that inspired so many workers to help them rebuild their lives.


“This builds the credibility of the gospel. It also builds the credibility of the church,” said Dearborn, who is associate director for Christian Impact at World Vision International. “Our hope is that our work will open people up to a deeper understanding of who God is.”

As tsunami relief projects begin to tackle long-term needs, Christian missionaries are bringing a similarly long view to the prospect of nurturing seeds of faith in south Asia. Unlike the faithful of prior centuries, who might have rushed in with Bibles to convert the unsettled masses, today’s established organizations are making it priority one to alleviate physical suffering and let indigenous communities minister to the acute spiritual needs of the afflicted. The theory: do good works, and local interest in the motivating faith might follow.

In providing relief as a sign of God’s unconditional love, missionaries have at times laid groundwork for thousands of religious conversions, according to Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological School. But he adds a cautionary note, especially for a region marked by passionate adherence to Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism: if relief workers are perceived to have ulterior motives, good relationships can abruptly turn sour.

“There is a window of opportunity that just has to do with human psychology,” Johnson said, adding that spiritual openness tends to peak in times of transition and tragedy, as it did in America after Sept. 11, 2001. “But it’s also a dangerous time because you don’t know how outside forces will be perceived … The danger is for people to come in for a short period of time and expect big things to happen.”

When the tsunami hit on Dec. 26, Christian organizations with years of history in the region used extensive contact networks to shuffle supplies to where they were needed. Elsewhere, Christian fundraisers kicked into gear just as quickly. The Rev. Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse operation has committed at least $4 million to tsunami relief. Catholic Relief Services intends to raise $25 million. World Vision International, based in Monrovia, Calif, has raised more than $200 million, the most ever for a single disaster since its inception in 1950. And non-Western Christians have mounted their own efforts, such as a campaign undertaken by Kenyans to send help to hard-hit areas.

To explain their passion for relief work, Christians routinely cite the example of Jesus, who healed the sick and comforted the poor during his days in Galilee. To minister in his name, they say, is to bear witness to a God of grace and, in some cases, to expect that beneficiaries of such mercy might one day want to know that same God for themselves.

These dynamics date back to the Roman Empire, when Christians defied norms of the day by ministering to diseased outcasts, according to Dr. Dana Robert, co-director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the Boston University School of Theology.


“Because Christians believed in the resurrection of the body and in Jesus as a healer, they went in and nursed the sick,” Robert said. “Those who were nursed were more likely to become a Christian. Was that a strategy? No. It was part of what it meant to be a Christian: to nurse the sick.”

Today, scholars of mission history know the converting power of humanitarian missions.

Thousands of Koreans, for instance, broke from their traditional religions in the 20th century after humanitarian-minded Presbyterian missionaries established schools and hospitals there. Recent African history, Johnson said, has witnessed conversions of entire tribes who had looked to Christians for help in times of war or other crises. And in Thailand, Johnson watched first-hand in 1979 as 20,000 Cambodian refugees converted to Christianity after receiving food and medical supplies from Christians in a camp on the border. Some of those converts, he said, now work as pastors and missionaries themselves.

The work of missionaries in south Asia remains controversial. Indonesia has begun restricting the movement of humanitarian aid workers outside the hardest-hit provinces. And the Parliament of Sri Lanka is considering two bills that aim to protect Buddhism by barring all missionaries from the island, according to the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

“There are always people eager to exploit tragedy,” said Dr. Nathan Katz, professor of Religious Studies at Florida International University and an expert in Sri Lankan Buddhism. “They’re very nervous (in south Asia) about bringing in church- or mosque-related relief workers. (Missionaries) do provide great services, but at a cost, I’m afraid. … The most disenfranchised ones in society are the most fertile ones for conversion.”

Yet relief workers see a different picture. Those connected with Samaritan’s Purse, for instance, are open with officials and aid recipients about being a Christian organization. Even so, they discuss matters of faith with indigenous people only when the latter group raises the subject, according to spokesman Jeremy Blume. Otherwise, the work done with bare hands in God’s name is meant to speak for itself.

“We hope they’ll remember we loved them because God loved us, and our helping them is just a reflection of God’s love,” Blume said. “What they choose to do in response is between them and God.”


(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Pledging not to proselytize hasn’t kept Christian relief ministries out of controversy.

When Samaritan’s Purse, headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham _ Billy Graham’s son _ announced it would do relief work in Iraq on the heels of the U.S. invasion of that country, the organization was criticized for allegedly exploiting the situation. But according to Blume, the group has a longstanding policy of providing assistance with “no strings attached” and without regard to religious affiliation.

In Iraq, he said, the group was clear from the beginning about its Christian identity and ultimately received words of thanks from local residents, including an imam.

MO/JL END RNS

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