Ways
of thought rejected by the educated in the West are seeking to
perpetuate themselves in the East by targeting the gullible and
defenseless. Strangely Western thinkers and religious leaders don't
seem to mind if their cultural superstitions are foisted on the
Third World and are making no efforts to counter it.
Yet
missionary colonialism has new faces as well. It has also taken up
the banner of humanism and human rights. In some areas, like Central
America, the Catholic church has allied itself with leftist forces,
and claims to represent the rights of the very indigenous peoples
that it has through the centuries sought to dominate and whose
culture it has decimated. In other areas Catholicism has softened
its appeals, no longer claiming that non-Christian religions are
useless but willing to honor them as stepping stones to
Christianity. Catholic priests in India dress up as Hindu Swamis in
order to afford a more indigenous appeal to their conversion
efforts. The strange thing about this sentiment is that the
Christians don't see how condescending it is and that it is really
no different than their previous snobbery. Whether you call a person
of different religious persuasion a heathen or credit him with
making it to the level of a half-Christian, you are still only
defining him in your own image.
The media continues to excuse the
missionaries as well. When non-Christians try to counter aggressive
Christian conversion efforts occurring within their own countries it
is portrayed by the modern media as somehow intolerant and contrary
to freedom of religion. It is as if in spite of the brutal history
to the contrary, there is nothing suspect about such conversion
efforts and they have no negative impact on other cultures and
religions. |