Author: Yoginder Sikand
Publication: The Milli Gazette
Date: June 15, 2001
URL: http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15062001/31.htm
[Note from Hindu Vivek Kendra:
Sikand does not object to the missionaries using the same strategy to convert
Hindus. In fact, he would say that Hindu objection would be a sign
of intolerance!]
'Inculturation' is a buzz-word in
Christian missionary writings these days. The term, as Christian writers
understand it, suggests the expressing of the Christian message in a form
and idiom, culturally more acceptable to a particular target audience as
part of an overall missionary agenda.
'Inculturation' as a distinct Christian
missionary project can be traced to the crisis facing Christian missions
in the Third World in the post-colonial period. At the height of Western
colonial power, Christian missionaries were often the torch- bearers of
Western culture, 'civilizing' the 'natives', as they saw one of their principal
tasks. Christianity and western culture were seen as roughly synonymous
or, at least, inseparable from each other, and to become a Christian one
necessarily had to renounce one's own cultural heritage.
The political independence of almost
all former European colonies in Asia and Africa, many with large non-Christian
populations, posed major problems for Western Christian missionary agencies.
Newly-independent countries, some fired with a passionate commitment to
reviving their own, long-suppressed cultures and religious traditions,
made earlier missionary strategies seem, for the missionaries themselves,
increasingly irrelevant, if not counter-productive. If the spreading of
Christianity were to make any headway in the post-colonial world, it was
increasingly realized, the earlier hostility towards local cultures would
have to be revised, or, even reversed. This is when Christian theologians
began turning their attention to what is now fashionably called 'inculturation',
a project that received its blessings from the Pope himself in the 1960s
following the Second Vatican Council. Although the Catholics played a leading
role in the effort, and, indeed, continue to do so, various Protestant
groups, some belonging to the extreme Right, were not slow to jump onto
the bandwagon.
An interesting example of how 'inculturation'
is sought to be used as a Christian missionary strategy is a recently published
guide for Christian missions working among Muslims. Titled 'Issues and
Insights Into Church Planting In the Muslim World', it is authored by a
certain Ron George, founder of the UK-based WIN [World In Need] International
Associates, a Christian missionary organization which claims to have been
working for several decades now trying to spread Christianity among Muslims
all over the world.
George writes that after the collapse
of the Soviet Union, many Christian groups are turning their attention
to missionary work among Muslims, presumably because of the perceived threat
to Christianity from Muslim quarters, for, he insists, 'there is an inherently
anti-Christian spirit to Islam'. However, he notes, despite this increased
interest in the Muslims, one of the most 'unreached peoples' of the world,
Christian missionaries, for the most part, are not well equipped for the
task at hand. George intends his book as some sort of instruction manual
for prospective Christian missionaries working among Muslims. 'Inculturation'
is George's primary concern, and he insists that Muslims will be able to
respond positively to Christian missionary work only if Christianity is
made intelligible to them in terms and forms that they can understand and
relate to, stripped of its western moorings, and thus rendered less culturally
alien and threatening. George advocates a range of what he sees as innovative
adaptations in this regard. These can take several forms. Thus, for instance,
women Christian missionaries might wear Muslim-style veils. Churches might
be called ' messianic mosques', and may be designed to look like Muslim
places of worship, with worshippers being required to remove their footwear
before entering. Worship services might be designed on the lines of Sufi
zikr and sama sessions, with regular Christian Sufi orders in place. Certain
Muslim festivals may be celebrated by Christians after being 'suitably'
adapted. By thus presenting themselves as little different from Muslims
in external appearance, Christian missionaries, George hopes, will find
it easier to win Muslim friends, and, hopefully, converts. The motto, George
writes, should be, 'Become like the Muslims to reach the Muslims'. Be all
things to all men, George suggests to potential Christian missionaries.
If the word 'Islam' means 'submission to God', then Christians are actually
followers of 'Islam', for their religion alone is 'true'. Hence, George
suggests, in their encounters with Muslims, Christian missionaries must
insist that they alone are the true Muslims. This, he says, promises to
have 'an impact' on potential converts. In order to further convince Muslims
of their claims to true 'Islamicity', Christian missionaries could formulate
their own version of the Muslim 'shahada', on the lines of 'There is no
god but God, and Isa is His Messiah'. This, George writes, is 'a truth
that no Muslim can deny'. This does not mean that Christians must borrow
any theological truths from Islam, he insists, and nor does it mean granting
any legitimacy to syncretism. Rather, it is simply a means whereby 'Islamic
forms can be used.This may influence unbelievers [Muslims] to join them
[Christians] and [may] bring in an element of doubt and hesitancy in the
authority's attitudes that could means the difference between survival
and annihilation'. George urges Christian missionaries engaged in the 'inculturation'
project among Muslims to learn from Shia and Ismaili strategies of missionary
work.
Thus, like the Shia, Christian missionaries,
too, might adopt taqiya, concealing their faith when occasion demands,
focussing more on what unites them with the Muslims rather than on what
divides them, while at the same time trying to spread Christianity among
the Muslims through subtle means.
This, however, is clearly to be
understood not as a matter of faith or conviction but as a short or medium
term strategy, what George calls 'a strategy for survival until the storm
is over'. Strict secrecy may need to be adopted, in the manner of the medieval
Ismailis, not maintaining any written records and keeping their faith concealed,
while at the same time trying to infiltrate the higher levels of society
and the administration to 'wield influence secretly on behalf of their
brethren of faith'. This would carry on till such time as they can 'openly
take over society'.'Inculturation' is, George insists, only one aspect
of the strategy that the missionaries must adopt. They must, he says, also
turn their attention to setting up, of promoting, western education in
Muslim countries, for, he argues, such education is 'the greatest enemy'
of Islam.
Thus, while, on the one hand, missionaries
must appear to celebrate traditional Muslim culture, on the other hand,
they must also seek to subtly attack that very culture from within by promoting
Western culture through the educational system.
In addition, he suggests, Christian
missions must invest much more money in setting up centres for 'Islamics',
a curious term coined by Christian missionaries working among Muslims,
to study Islam from a polemical Christian perspective. Such centres should
train local missionaries to preach among their own people or among groups
of Muslims with whom they share close cultural relations. Thus, George
suggests, instead of despatching European or American missionaries to work
among Malaysian Muslims, the task could be done more effectively by using
Indonesian or Filipino Christian workers.
Among the Turks, Korean Christian
workers would probably score more missionary successes than Westerners,
as the Koreans and the Turks belong to the same large family of speakers
of Altaic languages. In addition, George hastens to comment, hiring the
services of a Third World Christian worker might cost just a hundredth
of what it would to employ a white missionary in his place. Neo-Imperialism
in the Mission Station, indeed! George is no mere cry in the wilderness.
A casual glance at the Internet reveals the existence of literally scores
of missionary bodies charged with the same agenda. Some choose to conceal
their missionary motives under seemingly harmless slogans of 'dialogue'
and 'reconciliation', while others, like George, are perhaps more honest
about their aims. While not seeking to deny the importance of dialogue
and inter-faith understanding, seemingly innocuous appeals for 'inculturation'
in the name of promoting better understanding between communities need
to be seen more critically in the light of what often appears as a hidden
agenda.
