SarahH has been involved with missionaries before, including her own parents. On the forums, she writes:
When I was a teenager, I took a summer-long trip to Zambia and South Africa with Teen Missions International, a group based in Florida that sends approximately 700 teens around the world every summer. Their mission is much more evangelically centered, in that they’re very very focused on the goal of saving souls rather than saving lives. The teens who work on construction projects are more likely to be helping to, say, work on a mission base than on houses or hospitals or schools, and some groups (like mine) were sent out solely to proselytize to the people and spread the gospel, with no medicine or education or help for them other than ‘salvation.’
She asks a few key questions at the end of her posting:
- Does motive matter as long as you’re helping people in ways that effect their lives positively? (examples would be helping with getting clean drinking water, providing food sources, donating clothes, building schools, etc.)
- Is there a clear line between benign missions and more aggressive missions? One example I can think of that crosses the line, IMO, is an inner city mission for drug addicts and alcoholics that only allows people to live there if they’re pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ. Where is the line, in your opinion?
- Would you ever donate money to a missionary project? Why or why not?
What do you think?
If you’ve been a part of a mission trip, please share that with us, too. Was it a good or bad experience for you?
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
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