16450: Vander-Zaag: RE: 16416: Harvey: Re: 16444: Zachary: Re: negative comments on Christian missionaries (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Ray Vander-Zaag <rvanderzaag@cmu.ca>

At the root of this discussion regarding Christian missionaries in Haiti
(and whether they contribute to Haiti's well-being) is the question of the
relation of religious values and worldview to Haiti's well-being (by
worldview, I mean those fundamental commitments about reality, good and
evil, etc that we all hold.)  Christian missionaries believe that Haiti's
crisis is fundamentally caused by 'spiritual' factors - the (negative)
influence of vodou and its worldview.  Many other probably believe that
Haiti's crisis is fundamentally caused by the (negative) influence of
historic Christian ethics and worldview (ie. support for slavery, racism,
ecological destruction, individualism, etc.)  Both sides claim the other
side misunderstands its 'true' values and worldview, which is claimed to
support justice, freedom, development, sharing, etc, etc.
In my experience (9 years living in Haiti, 8 as a development worker for a
church-supported NGO), key  issues are to NOT simplify the complex causes of
(and solution to) Haiti's situation to 'individual spiritual commitment to
Christ or loas/Satan', as seemingly done by the missionaries in St. Marc.
But at the same time, it is important to recognize that personal spiritual
values and worldview ARE important for creating social change.  Most public
development agencies ignore the importance of 'spiritual' or 'cultural'
values (at least in public pronoucements), while, as I've stated, most
Christian mission agencies put too much emphasis on this.  Respect and
dialogue should exist between adherents of different 'faiths', and from this
the sharing of foundational stories about the sources of the good, trust,
reconciliation, community, etc can occur.  These then have the potential to
create PUBLIC (ie. open to all) organizations to work for social change in
Haiti.  'Winner take all' approaches won't work.

Ray Vander Zaag