American Missionaries and "Full Metal Jacket"

There’s a scene in “Full Metal Jacket” in which a General says to one of his troops:

"We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every (racial epithet) there is an American trying to get out.”

While the American Missionary movement would not identify with the racism of this quote, it shares some common ground.

At one time the American Missionary movement would go to foreign lands and build compounds. Churches back home would send their support by sending clothes and bibles. The missionaries would invite some of the locals to come and live on the compound.

What needed to take place in order for the locals to hear the gospel? They had to first become good Americans before they could become good Christians. The vehicle with which the gospel was proclaimed was an ethnocentric approach.

For some further reflections, take a look at my post on Mark D. Baker’s book “Religious No More.” In it he likens the gospel of North America to that of a car. On normal driving conditions (The United States) we have felt the vibrations for some time. When we export that car to places like Honduras (where he was a missionary for years), and the driving conditions are a bit more tumultuous, we can see how easily the car breaks down.

The more I delve into what the gospel means, the more I come to believe that the exportation of our theology (Western Theology) is poison. It is us who should be taught the Gospel by those in poverty stricken countries and communities. The only thing we should be exporting is our wealth to such as the Kingdom of Heaven belong. I am fearful that many of us (myself included) are blissfully ignorant of what it costs to follow Jesus; and I fear that it is our theology that has anesthetized us into thinking that we are safe from God because we believe and profess the "right thing."

I say this in all sincerity:

May God have mercy on us all for this grand delusion