Does Missionary Hurt?

[Liv]

220px-Starved_Vietnamese_man,_1966.JPEG (13.18 KiB) Viewed 1264 times

So, something that was brought up in the course of my reading today was the possibility that missionary may hurt more than it helps. No, not the position... the people, missionaries who go to countries and help impoverished nations. Sans the religious aspect, I'd quite like to find myself able to be apart of goodwill efforts someday. But I never thought of this:

You go to a country where people are starving and dying of disease. Let's assume there's only 5 bowls of rice for every 10 people. Assuming the normal course of things, 3 of those 10 people will die of Zombiaflatula (or polio, or whatever) leaving only two hungry. The flying nun swoops in with her westernized bag of medicines, and begins providing immunizations to the people that prevents Zombiaflatula and thereby reduces the death-rate, creating even greater starvation.


Of course this is a really over-simplified explanation, and as we all know Zombies don't really die, so it might work out if gas farting Zombism was actually a medical epidemic in starving Africa... but you get the point.

Does our position on Missionary aid, actually hurt people by ultimately affecting the death rates?

[A Person]

It undoubtedly often increases long term suffering. Aid without contraception is simply prolonging the suffering and of course we can't ask nuns to provide contraception - hell we can't even provide government funds to organizations that promote contraception

Yet another example of religion screwing things up with unreason.

[Jamy]

Liv, you are the queen of misleading and attention-grabbing headliners. This is SO not what I was expecting to read.

There are all kinds of organizations that provide medical care for Third World countries that aren't religiously affiliated. Just sayin'. This is a good question though....is it really a good thing to help people live longer if it's just going to prolong suffering? That could be applied to a lot of different situations and the answer is no. I'd always applauded any organization that goes to third world countries with medical help, but when you frame it in that context, it truly does seem well-intentioned, but short-sighted and cruel.

At any rate, I'm glad now that my charity dollars have gone towards Heifer International then. In its own way, it does end up attending to medical needs too, because people who are well-fed are going to have better immune systems and overall health.

Good topic, Liv.

https://secure1.heifer.org/gift-catalog?msource=kwga5&gclid=CLKO6Zv_kK4CFUgRNAodzybJew

[Liv]

There are all kinds of organizations that provide medical care for Third World countries that aren't religiously affiliated.

No I know, and that's my intentions behind my schooling, and I've applied to go abroad in Brussels (again) to possibly intern. Don't know what opportunities lie in front of me, but I'm hopeful to be a part of some of it at some point.

[Jamy]

There are all kinds of organizations that provide medical care for Third World countries that aren't religiously affiliated.

No I know, and that's my intentions behind my schooling, and I've applied to go abroad in Brussels (again) to possibly intern. Don't know what opportunities lie in front of me, but I'm hopeful to be a part of some of it at some point.

I think that is awesome and I am really envious. I'd love so much to get out there and experience more countries and cultures. People are endlessly interesting.

[Liv]

I'll be completely shocked if I get it.

Apparently only 2-3 people are chosen for the school I applied for exchange at in Brussels, but I really, really want Brussels.

If I would get it, I stay at a host family. That's like so crazy cool, I can't even imagine.... as long as it doesn't turn out like this.

Apparently a lot of students don't like "host" situations, because it was like they had to sit me down and warn me when they told me. They were a bit surprised when I was ecstatic about the idea. I personally can't imagine any better way of getting a firm grasp of living in another country then staying with a family there.

Though I know, it's unlikely I'll get it... I keep trying to imagine if I did, what my host family would be like. Will they be nice, mean, rich, poor?

I'm trying to work on a back-up application for a school in France, but at this point, Brussels would be like a dream come true for me.

[Liv]

Jamy's picture on Facebook, made me think of this thread from a human/American perspective.