Missionary efforts to take the gospel to the Islamic world have received a mixed assessment in a major "Time" magazine investigation. The newsweekly found both "arrogance" and "heroic" service, it reports in its latest cover story: "Should Christians Convert Muslims?"
While the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent U.S. actions in Afghanistan and Iraq have heightened general awareness of the Muslim world, missionary focus on the religious bloc has been increasing for some time, "Time" says. According to one study, the number of missionaries to Islamic countries almost doubled to 27,000 between 1981 and 2001.
At the same time, mounting restrictions on missionary activity in Islamic countries have "sometimes erupted tragically." The magazine notes the murders of four missionaries in the Middle East last year, and the 2001 arrest and imprisonment of U.S. missionaries Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry in Afghanistan.
The pair has been criticized by some for their actions in the country. "They broke every rule in the book," Robert Seiple, the State Department's Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, told "Time." Commented a long-term missionary in another Muslim capital: "I'm sorry that they suffered, but they just didn't think. They did not project their idealism to its farthest conclusion."
Although many missionaries are sensitive to the restrictions they face "there remains a troubling contingent of indeterminate size that combines religious arrogance with political ignorance," "Time" says.
Though their evangelistic efforts "would not necessarily raise eyebrows on the average American street corner," in strict Muslim societies "the more audacious missionaries are engaged, intentionally or not, in provocation ..."
At the same time, the magazine concludes that claims that Christian groups offer charitable aid as a cover for evangelism "do a disservice to the sometimes heroic humanitarian efforts by workers who believed that Christians should heed not just Jesus' message of salvation but also his example as a feeder and healer."
Recognizing the sensitive nature of missionary activity in Muslim countries, "Time" took the unusual approach of giving pseudonyms to some of those it interviewed and omitted details of "many locations."
Among those the magazine spoke with were "Henry" and "Sarah," who have served in a North African country for around 20 years. They founded an adventure-travel business and befriended their neighbors, waiting to be asked before sharing their faith.
"Henry" said their "relationship evangelism" approach was based on the difference between the two Arabic words "tansir" and "tabshir." " 'Tansir' means to coerce people to change their religion," he said. " 'Tabshir' means to share, to be a witness."
As part of its report, "Time" also noted the impact of the evangelistic "Jesus" film, made by Campus Crusade for Christ in 1979 and since translated into more than 830 languages.
"The efforts to dub the film, syllable by syllable, into languages from Adangme (spoken in Ghana) to Zhuang (spoken in China), are legendary," says the magazine, "as are the heroics of three-person teams that took it to five continents, running projectors with old car batteries or screening it on bedsheets -- and the miraculous healings that, by team members' accounts, attended some showings."
