Racism in Missions

by George J. Taylor

Even though we may pretend that we love, people can sense our attitude and it is difficult to win them for Christ.

Racism in Missions When one thinks of racial tension, of racism, it is possible to believe that this is a problem only in the United States, South Africa, and England. The reason for this faulty thinking is that in these countries the mass media keep us informed, and we read about these problems immediately. I can assure you that all over the world people know what has taken place in Watts, in Alabama and in Harlem. And yet in other countries people do not hear about what takes place and what happens because they do not have the facilities to communicate that easily.

Unfortunately one finds racial discrimination in many other countries, at times in very open ways, at other times in subtle ways, and at times through indifference. For instance, we find racial discrimination in Latin America, in the West Indies, and in Europe. Discrimination is sometimes against the blacks, sometimes against the Indians, other times against Orientals.

And we see discrimination in several areas of life - in housing, in social life, in marriage, in schools and in recreation. Here I will point to some examples of how race discrimination is manifested in Latin America. A little over three years ago, a black teacher was invited to preach a sermon - just one sermon - on Easter Sunday in San Salvador, Central America. When the committee heard he was a black teacher, they immediately cabled: "Sorry, no visa for that preacher." The government would not grant it.

In Port Limon, Costa Rica, there is a special social club where one becomes a member only through invitation. But although the majority who live in that city are blacks, there is not one black who has received an invitation to become a member.

In the same city two couples, one couple black and the other couple white, wanted to spend a weekend in a hotel owned by North Americans in Port Limon. The desk clerk politely said to the two couples, "Sorry, we have only one room available," and he gave the key to the white couple. They refused it. And these people were South American.

In Ecuador, individuals born of Indian heritage and from the coast of this country are not accepted in the capital, Quito. Sometimes just the last name is sufficient for these people not to be employed in Quito. Unfortunately some mission boards are following the very same policy.

In Brazil where there are more blacks than in any other country in the Western hemisphere - close to 29 million black people live there - we also find racial discrimination. In 1967, two Brazilians, a black and a white, conducted an experiment to prove what many people know and what very few people are willing to say: there is racial discrimination in Brazil. These two men, Narcisco Kalili (the white man) and Odaeir de Mattos (the black man) visited six major cities in twenty days in Brazil-Belem, Recife, Salvador, Rio, Sao Paolo and Porto Alegre. They had some very painful and striking experiences.They found out (1) that blacks could not enter certain hotels, (2) that black children could not enter schools in these cities, (3) that the people believe that a white man could not love a black woman, but wanted her only for sexual relations, and (4) that the people believe that blacks are dirty, deceitful and irresponsible.

These men did something very interesting. For instance, first, the black man pretended that he was sick and held on to a lightpost with his pockets out. People from all walks of life passed and looked at him. During a fifteen-minute test, not even one person stopped to see what was wrong with this man. Ten minutes later, about six feet from where the black man had stood, the white man came and he began the very same test. He dressed the very same way and posed himself the very same way. Before five minutes were up, many people had stopped to see what was wrong. They offered to call a doctor, but he declined the suggestion. They took him to a bar and bought mineral water for him and wouldn't allow him to pay for it.

In Brazil this whole attitude is paradoxical, since the most popular person in this country, the man who is considered to be a king - Edson Arantes Donasimento, "Pele" - is a black man. In the West Indies, countries like Jamaica, Barbados, there is not only white discrimination against blacks but something even worse - lighter-skinned blacks discriminating against darker-skinned blacks. This is repeated over and over in many countries in Europe, such as England, Italy, and Germany where at times the non-whites are only tolerated. It is difficult for non-whites to find employment and places to live in these countries.

I want you to ask yourself a question: how does this situation affect world evangelism? What meaning does it have for us who are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ? What implication for world missions?

First of all, we must realize that racism wherever we find it is a sin and it must be eradicated. This can only take place when the love of Jesus Christ is flooding the people's hearts. It is not by rules or laws that we can remove racism. It has to be something with force, with power. Jesus Christ can give it to us, and it can eradicate racism from the hearts of men. We cannot be indifferent either to the calling we have received as Christians or to the world situation.

I recognize a temptation. It is difficult for many black people from North America to consider missions in light of the many problems we are facing. Even if we were to remain at home either in the States or in whatever country you are from, we can imagine how few people know about Jesus Christ. But if the apostle Paul had remained in one country until all the problems were solved there, where would we have been today? If Christ had remained in one city during his life, how many people would never have heard of his gospel and would not have been touched by his power?

On the contrary, as Christians I feel we must accept this great challenge. Paul says in, speaking to the Colossians, You have "put on the new nature which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman [or white or black], but Christ is all and in all" (Col. 3:10-11). The world needs to see this, the gospel, in action. This is really the hope for a better world, a world where men from all races can live together, work together, pray together; where the black men, the white men, the yellow men, can all come together. Why? Because Jesus Christ has filled their hearts and minds with love.

If the world sees this, we can expect a better world. We can expect the world to have a much more healthy mental concept of the gospel.

Second, I believe that we must try to remove the negative attitude toward many people in our countries. For instance, a couple of years ago it was very difficult for North Americans, for white people, to go to certain countries, especially in Latin America. People talked constantly of the ugly American. And yet after the Peace Corps began its work and members of this group went to several countries where they lived with people and worked with people, these young men and women very quietly removed the false image that so many had of the United States. And I feel that as Christians, we are called to do the very same thing.

Third, there are several changes that must take place - primarily changes of attitude on the part of those who proclaim the gospel. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman, he did not let racial barriers interfere with his mission. The Samaritan woman said, "How is it that you would ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" If Christ had given in to her argument, he would have left her. Yet Christ continued to minister unto her, and, because she received Christ, she was the instrument that God used to start a great revival in the country of Samaria. I don't think we have to evangelize more, although evangelism is necessary. I don't think we have to preach more, although we must preach. I think we must live together and show forth the love that Christ has for us.

When I was a little boy, about the first song I heard was the first chorus of the following: "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight." And yet over and over the question is asked, "If Jesus Christ loves the blacks, why are they absent in so many places in the world, especially on the mission field?" And then one says, "Maybe Christ loves me, but I wonder if the missionary really loves me." And we have to show people, crystal-clear, that we do love them.

Bill Pannell, while he was in Costa Rica, mentioned that Christ never said to anyone, "I love you." And he is right, for he gave such a powerful demonstration of love that it was not difficult for people to realize how much he loved them. It's not talking about love, it's living love.

This change of attitude must also be deep enough to remove stereotyped thinking. Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, a black psychiatrist, says this:

In the legacy of our civilization the color black has been virtually synonymous with sin and bad. Witness such terms as black sheep, black magic, black list, blackguard, blackball, black light and many others. The word is associated with all the dirty, lowly, unintellectual functions in human life. The word white is usually invested with the opposite meaning. Americans have been conditioned to perceive black as inferior and white as superior.1 The change must be deep enough to remove these attitudes.

Guy B. Johnson also zeroed in on this stereotyped thinking when he said:

One might compile a catalogue of "What Every White Man Thinks He Knows about Negroes." Its main theme would be as follows: The Negro is lazy. He will not work if he can get out of it. He cannot manage complicated machinery because he cannot give it sustained attention and will fall asleep. He is dirty, "smelly," careless of his personal appearance. He is fond of loud colors and flashy clothing. He is less inhibited than the white man, is more given to loud laughter and boisterous talk. He is a natural-born clown and mimic.

He is endowed with an inordinate sexual passion which overrides all considerations of modesty, chastity and marital fidelity. He has no sense of time; never gets anywhere on time. He does not know the value of a dollar and will spend his money on "foolishness" and then beg for the necessities of life. Even when he acquires property, he cannot take care of it. He is very gullible and is a great "joiner." He will join anything which promises a good time or a big noise or give him a chance to "show off." He is naturally religious, but his religion is all feeling, emotion, and superstition. He believes in ghosts, spirits, voodoo charms, and magic formulae.

His mind works like a child's mind. His thoughts are shallow, his associations flimsy and superficial. His emotions are powerful but fickle. He is given to high criminality because he has no respect for life or property or morality and cannot control his impulses. He is incapable of appreciating the deeper values of white civilization, is incapable of self-government, and therefore must have the supervision and guidance of the white man.2

The danger about this is that many times white missionaries remove the word Negroes and think that Latins are lazy; they think the Indians are lazy, they think the Frenchmen are lazy. In other words any people are lazy except themselves.

Thus, a change of attitude is basic, because even though we may pretend that we love, people can sense our attitude and it is difficult to win them for Christ. Beside these things that I have mentioned already, there should also be a significant change in the proportion of blacks and other nonwhites willing to go as missionaries to other countries. I have lived in San Jose, Costa Rica, for more than twelve years. In the lovely city of San Jose, there is a Spanish language institute where the majority of mission boards send their candidates to learn the Spanish language. From 1958 to 1968 more than 117 agencies (denominations and the mission boards) sent 3,519 missionaries to prepare themselves for service in Latin America. Of this number less than seven were blacks, and I believe there were no more than five Orientals who attended the language institute during this period.

In the light of these numbers, one is faced with the following questions: (1) Does God call black missionaries and nonwhite missionaries? (2) Aren't white boards interested in sending nonwhite missionaries to other countries, especially Latin America?

I do not know how many nonwhite missionaries are in Europe or in the West Indies, but I do know there are very few nonwhite missionaries in Latin America today, and the majority of them are working with one or two or maybe three mission boards. Today if one could analyze all the mission boards in the world, he would be surprised to see the small number of nonwhite missionaries and executives of different countries serving in these agencies.

I would ask the foreign mission boards represented here, "How many nonwhites are being sent out by your board? How many blacks have been sent? How many nonwhites form part of your executive committees?" Today you find that the number of black Christians goes into the millions and yet very, very few are represented on the mission field.

Many mission boards are not willing to send nonwhite missionaries and many are not willing to let their missionaries marry nonwhite people. How many missionaries were sent home because they fell in love with "a native"? I am not minimizing the problem that there is in a racially- or culturally-mixed couple. We must admit that intermarriage is a problem. But the more important problem is that the mission boards do not stop to consider the intellectual, emotional, or spiritual maturity of the native. Just when it is discovered that a person is in love with a native, he is sent home immediately.

This change will also mean that more nonwhites will take an active part in the decision-making process concerning theological education for future missionaries. In most theological training centers black leaders shine by their absence, and yet the leaders are all over the place.

This will also call for a change in the local church. I have heard of so many churches, local churches with a great missionary program, that will send their money and people to help the poor Indians over there, the poor blacks over there, and yet these very same churches, with great missionary vision and great missionary resources find it difficult at times to admit one Indian or one black into their fellowship. The local church must change. There are black Christians who have been refused permission to enter a white church. What they have suffered has been intense. It is difficult for us to express all the negative feeling, to understand what these people have gone through in this country especially.

But I believe firmly that as Christians we have the potential in our lives to show the world what the gospel can do. It can remove hatred and replace it with love. The Holy Spirit can open a mind that is closed.

This also means that more blacks and black churches will be involved in the world mission. Black people will also give their money. This is what really counts. More black churches will begin to send more missionaries to other countries and develop various mission boards. I'm sure that we have leaders in these churches.

Perhaps today as Christians we would like to face this challenge. David Howard has reminded us of the great impact that students have made in world missions. I quote from Student Power in World Evangelism: "It is remarkable that students have played a decisive role in many of the greatest forward movements of the church in world evangelism. It has been through their vision and energy that the church has often been propelled into a new effort of outreach." And I think today we stand at a turning point where students once more can give the church this vision; they can help us recapture the need to go and tell others about Jesus Christ. If while we are at Urbana, we can live together and we can talk together, and if we can minimize hatred and let the world see how we love each other, this will be a new day in missions.

Notes

1 TIME (April 6, 1970), p. 55. back
2 Quoted by George Eaton Simpson and Milton Yinger in Racial and Cultural Minorities (New York: Harper and Row, 1958), pp. 165-66; the quotation originally appeared in Otto Klineberg, ed., Characteristics of the American Negro, p. 4. back

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Racism in Missions

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December 27-31, 2009