Fast forward 1700 years, and we read this in Slate:
And yet, for secular Americans—or religious Americans who
prefer their medicine to be focused more on science than faith—it may be
difficult to shake a bit of discomfort with the situation. Our historic
ambivalence toward missionary medicine has crystallized into suspicion over the
past several decades. It’s great that these people are doing God’s work, but do
they have to talk about Him so much?
Brian Palmer, the author of the provocatively titled
article, "
In Medicine We Trust: Should we worry that so many of the doctors treating Ebola in Africa are missionaries?" goes on to complain
that large regions in Africa are, in essence, not first-world. They lack first-world
secular (he qualifies words like 'medicine' with the word 'secular') facilities
and reporting standards. Thus, we have even more reason to be worried that
Christian missionary doctors are unsupervised and on the loose. He is not alone
in his complaint. Both Ann Coulter and Donald Trump have added their far more
personal attacks to his concerns. After listing a few of his worries about
African medical systems, he adds:
And yet, truth be told, these valid critiques don’t fully
explain my discomfort with missionary medicine. If we had thousands of secular
doctors doing exactly the same work, I would probably excuse most of these
flaws. “They’re doing work no one else will,” I would say. “You can’t expect
perfection.”
So, clearly, his primary beef is with the qualifier
'Christian' in the medical care. He would trust secular physicians for no other
reason other than they are secular.
The problem is, and this is where he opens his article,
secular doctors are not there. And might I add, we should not hold our breath.
As someone who understands Christian history and
theology, and who is in a fair amount of contact with a lot of missionaries all
around the globe, let me add a couple of thoughts to his.
Christian missionary doctors are there because their theology
and historical DNA compel them. In this case Christian theology reveals itself
as an anthropology and sociology: all human beings are of infinite value because
they are created in the image of the God who really exists. This fundamental
belief has the profound theoretical consequence of not allowing Christians to
take human suffering lightly. And for those with the means and education, it
turns into the practical consequence of traveling where others don't want to go
to do the things others don't want to do. (As a side note, the Christian
missionary world is way ahead of the secular world in bringing drinkable water
to the developing world for the same reason.)
As for their historical DNA, acts of compassion are, for
all intents and purposes, the invention of the Christian world. This seems like
a radical claim, but history reveals a story bereft of compassion for the
'least of these' until Christians showed up and started taking care of them.
The quote from the Emperor Julian is a case in point. Everything we now know as
compassion, legitimately understood, is a result of what Christians have done
as they imitate Christ as best they can.
Even down to funerals for the poor.
The influence of Christianity is that deep and ubiquitous. See the works of
Rodney Stark and Alvin J. Schmidt on this neglected topic.
As for the 'problem' of Christian missionaries also
talking about Christ, two more thoughts are in order.
For the Christian, the very act of taking care of those
in need ought to be done in the name of Christ, and is thus, in itself, a
witness to the care and love within our faith. On one level, the act itself is
the witness. Secondly, the Christian cares for humans because they know them to
be eternal beings. Everyone has a existence that extends beyond this physical
life, and so the consequences of the Christian message for those lives is
enormous. It is popular right now to expect Christians to be privately
Christian, but that has been popular before and has failed tremendously before.
Many individual Christians will be successfully silenced, but there is no
hiding or privatizing the Christian faith.
It really may be the case that Ebola-ridden regions of
Africa are devoid of secular doctors because they simply have no compelling reason
to be there. Many talk a big game, but Christians are already there and will
have made tremendous physical and spiritual strides long before the vaunted
secular world catches up.
