About the Work
Christianizing the Heathen is an inquiry into the efficacy, methods, and consequences of Christian missionary work around the world, produced in the early twentieth century. The work emerged from a request made to the Rationalist Press Association to conduct an independent investigation into whether the returns from foreign missions bear a reasonable relation to the enormous financial outlay involved. In 1919, the Association prepared a Questionnaire on Christian Missions and sent it to correspondents worldwide; over the succeeding twelve months, many careful and exhaustive replies arrived from a wide range of locations. Most correspondents were Rationalists, though some were Christians who set down facts as they saw them.
The book draws on these questionnaire responses alongside published sources, statistical reports, and personal observations to present a comprehensive survey of missionary activity across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and elsewhere. It examines the financial scale of missionary enterprises, the motivations of converts, the living standards and characters of missionaries, the educational and medical work attached to missions, and the moral and social effects of conversion on native populations. The work is structured as a series of regional reports and thematic discussions, weaving together testimony from dozens of named and unnamed correspondents, missionaries, colonial officials, and published authors.
The book is critical in tone, written from a Rationalist perspective, and seeks to demonstrate that the results of missionary endeavour do not justify the expenditure of millions of pounds annually. It covers the period immediately following the First World War, when overseas communications had been restored and missionary societies renewed their appeals for funds. The author examines the claims made by missionary organizations against the evidence supplied by observers on the ground, finding a consistent pattern of nominal conversions, material motives, cultural disruption, and inter-sectarian competition.
Context
The inquiry was undertaken against the backdrop of the First World War, which from August 1914 made overseas communications difficult and precarious for five years. With peace resumed, Christian sects began urgent appeals, bazaars, and fundraising efforts for foreign missions. Millions of pounds were being collected annually in Europe, America, and Australia to send missions to “the heathen.” The Rationalist Press Association was asked to make an independent inquiry into whether the return bore any reasonable relation to the outlay.
The historical context includes the Pan-Anglican Congress of 1908, at which Archdeacon A. E. Moule declared that mission work was not identical with education, civilization, or healing, but consisted in “the call to repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” This narrow definition of missionary purpose stood in tension with the widening aims that had developed as Protestant Christianity became permeated with Rationalism. Early missionaries had gone with the single object of carrying the cross to the heathen and salvation to the eternally damned, declaring that heathen were expressly doomed to perdition at a rate of fifty thousand per day. These were often people of great fervour and little knowledge, concerned exclusively with souls.
The sectarian landscape was extraordinarily fragmented. Missions were undertaken by Roman Catholics, United Free Church of Scotland, Irish Presbyterians, Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, Moravians, Lutherans, the Salvation Army, Seventh-Day Adventists, and many others, each believing there was only one road to heaven and that its missionaries were the only true guides. In China, Protestant teachers might be Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, or Congregational, divided by the Chinese into “the Great Wash, the Little Wash, and the No Wash,” alongside smaller missions such as the Tongues Movement Mission, Faith Mission, and Church of God Mission, some holding strange beliefs, offering instruction in foreign languages by rolling in fits, or insisting on curing cataract by prayer.
The financial scale was considerable. Missions Overseas for 1920 showed 1919 income exceeding two-and-a-half million pounds, employing over five thousand clergy and eleven thousand women workers, excluding Roman Catholic missions, Seventh-Day Adventists, the Salvation Army, and Continental, American, and Australasian missions. The Church Missionary Society alone advertised for £700,000 in early 1921, later reduced to £600,000, while the Wesleyan Methodists appealed for £300,000. An article in the Sunday Express of October 1921 estimated that about £4,000,000 yearly was collected in Great Britain and Ireland for converting heathens, and urged that these millions be used for domestic distress relief instead.
Structure of the Book
The book opens with an introductory discussion of the conflicting teaching among Christian sects and the questions the inquiry seeks to answer: whether the sole aim is conversion, whether it must be a particular kind of Christianity, whether converts are proportionate to energy expended, and whether conversions are stable. It then proceeds through a series of regional surveys and thematic chapters.
The early sections examine the competition among missions and the confusion this creates for potential converts. The testimony of Mr. Wm. Baucke, son of one of the earliest missionaries to New Zealand, is presented at length. Baucke was born in a populous native village, learned Maori with his own language, became his father’s interpreter at sixteen, and was set apart for South Sea Islands mission work before Darwin’s Origin of Species started him toward Rationalism. His Maori friend Said Hao describes how the Maori had his own gods—Papa, Rangi, Tane—and how the preacher dinned at his ears and doctored his sick. The Maori listened, smiled, and departed with jokes. Told of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, inherited curse, and eternal punishment unless remission by faith in the Creator’s Son’s propitiation, he cried “Ana i” and “Ko wai ka mohio!” (possibly, but who knows?). Said Hao continued: “We expected great things… Then came tales of inborn sin and propitiation, which sounded as the babbling of infants.” The poor and weak-minded joined the new karakia, were baptized, entered in sect books, and built a house for the new God. Then came other doctrine-men in strange garbs saying previous teachers “meant well, but their lessons must be forgotten.” No perceptible difference was discernible except some eschewed women; they bought land, built stately houses, despised the poor, and foregathered with chiefs while the ragged man ate in the cookhouse. A rumour gained credence that while the Maori knelt praying, the preacher cried “Look upward” so they would not see lands appropriated by the white trader. Every new sect spoke softly, then louder, until one creed shouted this, another besmirched that. “If we forsook the faith of our fathers, which creed should we select and adopt? For they all spoke ‘Truths,’ yet condemned the Truths of the other! And the end was that we sat on our heels and doubted the preaching of either!”
The book then examines the question of supply and the financial statistics of missionary work, including the Seventh-Day Adventists who stand outside the cooperative alliance of Protestant missions, gaining adherents by drawing members from other Christian denominations rather than converting heathens, and the Negro Churches of America which undertake considerable foreign missionary work in Panama, Haiti, the British West Indies, Africa, and South America. The author notes that these American Negro missions are not always welcomed by white Christian brethren—an outcry is raised that “Ethiopianism,” the doctrine imported from America under the guise of Christianity teaching equality of black and white, endangers white rule in South Africa.
Regional surveys follow, covering Mauritius, China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Mesopotamia, South Africa, Natal, Nigeria, Australia, Fiji, and New Guinea. Each region is examined through the testimony of correspondents and published sources, with attention to the number and character of missions, the methods employed, the motives of converts, and the observable results. The Mauritius section, for example, traces the island’s history from its discovery by the Portuguese in 1507 through Dutch, French, and British occupation, and describes the missionary work carried on by a Central Board with Councils, staffed by eight European clergy and twenty-two native priests, deacons, and catechists, plus about thirty clergy for dependencies including Seychelles.
Later sections address the status of the missionary, including living standards, character, and selection; language and misunderstanding in missionary communication; caste and social dynamics in India; the motives of conversion, including self-interest and trivial reasons; educational work and its criticisms; medical missions; social service, particularly by the Salvation Army; and the character and condition of the Christianized native across various regions. The book concludes with observations on the deterioration of native populations in some areas and the mixed or negative results of missionary endeavour.
Detailed Section-by-Section Summary
The Inquiry Begins
The book opens by situating its investigation in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. From August 1914, overseas communications had been difficult and precarious for five years. With the resumption of peace, Christian sects launched urgent appeals, bazaars, and fundraising efforts for foreign missions, collecting millions of pounds annually across Europe, America, and Australia to send missions to “the heathen.” The Rationalist Press Association was asked to make an independent inquiry into whether the return bears any reasonable relation to the outlay. In 1919, the Association prepared a Questionnaire on Christian Missions, which was sent to correspondents worldwide. Over the succeeding twelve months, many careful and exhaustive replies arrived. Most correspondents were Rationalists, though some were Christians who set down facts as they saw them.
The author poses several key questions: Is the sole aim conversion? Must it be a particular kind of Christianity? Are converts proportionate to the energy expended, and are conversions stable? Is the object also to civilize, educate, and humanize? And how does this apply to peoples already highly civilized?
Early Missionaries and Archdeacon Moule
Early missionaries went out with the single object of carrying the cross to the heathen and salvation to the eternally damned. They declared that the heathen were expressly doomed to perdition, going down to the fire that is not quenched at a rate of fifty thousand a day, a figure cited from Alger’s History of the Doctrine of a Future Life. These were often people of great fervour and little knowledge, concerned exclusively with souls. As Protestant Christianity became permeated with Rationalism, missionary aims modified and widened, though most missions are still ostensibly organized for saving the damned.
At the Pan-Anglican Congress in 1908, Archdeacon A. E. Moule declared that mission work was not identical with education, though education was part of it; not civilization, though civilization was “the sure result”; not healing, though healing was a sign of charity. Mission work, he insisted, consists in “the call to repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Sectarian Divisions and Teichman on China
Missions are undertaken by Roman Catholics, the United Free Church of Scotland, Irish Presbyterians, Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, Moravians, Lutherans, the Salvation Army, and others, including Seventh-Day Adventists financed by American business men. Each sect believes there is only one road to heaven and that its missionaries are the only true guides. The London Missionary Society was shocked by rumours that two of its Indian missionaries at Bangalore were teaching Christianity without Christ in a mixed school where Hindoos and Moslems preponderated; a deputation was proceeding to India.
Mr. Eric Teichman, in his Travels of a Consular Officer in N.W. China, notes that Catholics have unity; Chinese inquirers find Catholic priests preaching the same doctrines, whereas Protestant teachers may be Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, or Congregational, divided by the Chinese into “the Great Wash, the Little Wash, and the No Wash.” There are also smaller missions like the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Tongues Movement Mission, the Faith Mission, and the Church of God Mission, some holding strange beliefs, offering instruction in foreign languages by rolling in fits, known as “Holy Rollers,” or insisting on curing cataract by prayer.
Baucke on the Maori
Mr. Wm. Baucke, son of one of the earliest missionaries to New Zealand, was born in a populous native village, learned Maori alongside his own language, and became his father’s interpreter at sixteen. He was set apart for South Sea Islands mission work under a Presbyterian tutor, but Darwin’s Origin of Species started him toward Rationalism. His Maori friend Said Hao described the Maori’s own gods—Papa, Rangi, Tane. The preacher dinned at his ears and doctored his sick; he listened, smiled, and departed with jokes. Told of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, the inherited curse, and eternal punishment unless remission came by faith in the Creator’s Son’s propitiation, he cried “Ana i” and “Ko wai ka mohio!”—possibly, but who knows? Said Hao continued: “We expected great things… Then came tales of inborn sin and propitiation, which sounded as the babbling of infants.” The poor and weak-minded joined the new karakia, were baptized, entered in sect books, built a house for the new God, and learnt to read books of questions and answers. “Of themselves, the preachers were noble men and women… they paid for their wants.” But when they condemned beliefs efficacious for ages, it hurt. Then came other doctrine-men in strange garbs saying previous teachers “meant well, but their lessons must be forgotten.” No perceptible difference was discernible except some eschewed women; they bought land, built stately houses, despised the poor, and foregathered with chiefs while the ragged man ate in the cookhouse. A rumour gained credence that while the Maori knelt praying, the preacher cried “Look upward” so they would not see lands appropriated by the white trader. Thence came the password “Kia mohio”—be wise, cautious. Every new sect spoke softly, then louder, until one creed shouted this, another besmirched that. “If we forsook the faith of our fathers, which creed should we select and adopt? For they all spoke ‘Truths,’ yet condemned the Truths of the other! And the end was that we sat on our heels and doubted the preaching of either!” A story is told of a quarrel between the White Fathers and the Church Missionary Society, interrupted by the arrival of a third party.
Seventh-Day Adventists and Negro Churches
The Seventh-Day Adventists stand outside the cooperative alliance of Protestant missions, gaining adherents by drawing members from other Christian denominations rather than converting heathens. The Negro Churches of America undertake considerable foreign missionary work: Negro Baptists operate in five foreign countries including Panama and Haiti; the African Methodist Episcopal Church has missionaries in the British West Indies and Africa, supporting two Bishops in Africa and recently electing a Bishop for South America; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has a Bishop for Africa and extended work to South America, particularly Brazil. These American Negro missions are not always welcomed by white Christian brethren—an outcry is raised that “Ethiopianism,” the doctrine imported from America under the guise of Christianity teaching equality of black and white, endangers white rule in South Africa.
The Question of Supply
The author states it is nearly impossible for outsiders to ascertain the exact cost of carrying Christ to the heathen. Missions Overseas for 1920 provides incomplete statistics: Anglican data comes from societies’ reports “as they furnish it,” and only principal non-Anglican societies are given. Returns show 1919 income exceeding two-and-a-half million pounds, employing 5,247 clergy (2,663 European, 2,584 native) and 11,202 women (3,130 European, 8,072 native), plus medical staff and lay workers. This excludes Roman Catholic missions, Seventh-Day Adventists, the Salvation Army, and Continental, American, and Australasian missions—so the total represents only part, probably a small part, of annual costs.
In early 1921, the Church Missionary Society advertised needing £700,000, having employed in 1920 1,338 European missionaries and 13,325 native workers. By November, “drastic cuts” reduced the appeal to £600,000. The Wesleyan Methodists appealed for £300,000, so these two societies alone account for nearly a million. “Ignatius Phayre” in the Sunday Express urged that millions collected for foreign missions be used for domestic distress relief, noting that about £4,000,000 yearly is collected in Great Britain and Ireland for converting heathens. The C.M.S. spends £393,000 in East and West Africa, the Sudan, Turkish Arabia, and Persia “where we are now so hated.” The Bible Society has £422,695 income, translating the Holy Book into 497 languages including Eskimo, where “the Lamb of God” becomes the “Little Seal” since woolly things convey no meaning to Polar hunters. The S.P.G. spends £229,000 yearly on Pagans of Polynesia, China, Madagascar, the Africas, Central and South America, and Korea, where Japanese officials oppose British missionary efforts. Cardinal Vanutelli of the Sacred College addressed Pope Benedict on “the five plagues” afflicting the faithful, yet the central Roman Catholic Association spends £279,467 annually on spiritual and medical missions. The author suggests Churches should use these millions for domestic distress alleviation.
Rev. D. J. Fleming’s chart, used at a Foreign Missions Conference at Long Island in 1918 and reproduced in the China Mission Year Book, shows Protestant missionaries per million population: Africa 5,365 (39 per m.), China 5,750 (18), India 5,465 (17), Japan 1,123 (19). Native staff per million: Africa 213, China 49, India 124, Japan 54. American negro churches contribute $100,000 annually, supporting 300 missionaries and 200 churches. Dr. E. C. Lobenstein of the China Continuation Committee gives American missionary contributions for 1915 as $18,302,000 gold, about twenty-five percent remitted to China. The author defends examining finances despite some considering it sordid, arguing publicly subscribed money urgently needed for productive work or succoring diseased and starving populations from the War is being wasted disseminating “grotesque pseudo-science, fictitious history, and confused and faulty morality.” Examining income sources and expenditure illuminates missionary work; vested interests create “limpets” who hold tight to organizations.
Mauritius
The Questionnaire revealed missions vary in support: some entirely from home, some partly self-supporting, one or two self-supporting and contributing to home funds; income is supplemented by land, trade, or local industry. Mauritius, with a report from Mr. Lucien Seillier, was discovered by the Portuguese in 1507, abandoned to Spaniards who left in 1598, visited by Dutch who named it Mauritius and established a small colony, then left. The French took possession in 1715, colonized it, and renamed it Île de France. In 1810 the British took it, restored the Dutch name but preserved French language and law. During the eighteenth century Roman Catholicism was legally recognized, with church expenses on yearly estimates; every master had to ensure black slaves were taught religion, regularly married, and baptized. The Act of Capitulation of 1810 maintained Roman Catholic privileges, later extended to other denominations; the first Anglican bishop was appointed in 1854. Missionary work is carried on by a Central Board with Councils, staffed by eight European clergy and twenty-two native priests, deacons, and catechists, plus about thirty clergy for dependencies including Seychelles. Presbyterians have had a church since 1843; the Church of New Jerusalem dates from 1877 with few but wealthy adherents of European descent; Seventh-Day Adventists appeared in 1913 with hundreds of members.
Islam in China and Japan
Despite internal religious quarrels, Moslems present a united front toward the Chinese. The Chinese compare both Islam and the Catholic Church to vast worldwide secret societies for mutual benefit. Moslems of North West China, unsupported by Foreign Power treaties, have acquired a privileged and independent position, becoming the principal power in the province. Islam is naturalized among the Chinese as a native faith, while Protestant Christianity remains a foreign institution supported by foreign energy, brains, and money.
In Japan, Shinto prevails, often overlaid with Buddhism, which was introduced in the sixth century. Japan opened to foreigners in 1859; becoming Christian became lawful in 1873. The Questionnaire drew replies from Osaka and two from Yokohama, one from Mr. Mason, a 44-year resident, and one from Mr. Yoshiro Oyama. Missions include Roman Catholics, Church of England, Russian Orthodox, Methodist Episcopalian, Methodist Presbyterian, Canadian Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, Reformed Dutch Church, United Brethren, Holiness Mission, Disciples of Christ, Mormons, Christian Science, Seventh-Day Adventists, Salvation Army, and Christ’s Second Coming. The Church of England established a bishop in 1883, now six; Catholics have an archbishop and three bishops. In 1903, foreign money was nearly five million yen, with about 500 Protestant and 300 Catholic missionaries. Mr. Oyama puts “nominal Christians” in Yokohama at 5,000 in 444,000; he says Christianity makes little progress among educated people, Buddhist missionaries are more successful due to non-destructive views, and the Salvation Army progresses but minds become “daily more corrupt.” Mr. Mason says Christianity makes no progress among educated Japanese, who are “frankly materialistic” and “nationalist without ideals.” One missionary confessed to Mason that after fifteen years he knew of but one genuine convert—his wife’s maidservant. The Osaka correspondent reports missionaries say their only chance is before converts become educated; uncomfortable seats, inartistic churches, and Sunday attendance keep many as “inquirers.” A clergyman reported leakage among converts exactly proportional to new converts. Lectures on Christianity are followed by ones on Buddhism. Japanese statesmen offer no opposition, but missionaries report Shintoism gaining ground, new stirrings in Buddhism, and Emperor Worship grown under contact with Christianity.
India and the Punjab
India’s population approaches China’s, with various races, over 200 languages, and antagonistic faiths.
Nigeria: The Scale and the Doubt
The Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, a territory of 336,000 square miles, presented a vast and complex field for missionary work, with a native population of sixteen and a half million, of whom only about four million were even nominally Christian. Correspondents reported from Lagos, the Calabar Hinterland, and Sierra Leone, detailing the operations of the chief missionary societies—Church of England, Church of Scotland, Wesleyan, Baptist, and Roman Catholic—some of which had been proselytizing for seventy-five years or more. The Church Missionary Society alone fielded a substantial force of seventy-eight English missionaries, seventy-two African clergymen, and 772 lay helpers. A notable feature was the increasing financial independence of the native church, with native contributions to the C.M.S. Mission reaching £2,353 and the church in the southern provinces becoming self-supporting. This was underscored by the fact that two Church of England Bishops were native Africans. However, this move toward independence also spawned African Christian Churches under native control, such as the United African Church, the Bethel African Church, and the Zion African Church, some of which countenanced polygamy. The dangers of unchecked native leadership were illustrated by a convert who posed as “Elijah the Second,” attracting followers before being “imprisoned for misconduct, and has since died.”
The reports from the field painted a grim picture of the motivations and methods of conversion. Mr. Snowden from the Calabar Hinterland was particularly scathing, observing that native missionaries often became “nothing more nor less than a harpy, living on the ignorance of the people,” teaching reading and writing while growing rich. In 1919, baptisms in Western Equatorial Africa exceeded 9,000, but this number was inflated by “free-lance baptizers” who pretended “for the sake of gain to make people Christians, and even to confirm them.” The appeal of Islam was a growing concern, with Mr. White noting that “Moslems are more brotherly and tolerant towards those who differ from them, and are less hypocritical.” The spread of secular and heterodox ideas was also evident, as three anti-Christian movements had arisen in Lagos: the Unitarian Brotherhood, a branch of the National Secular Society, and a branch of the Ahmadi sect. Literature from England and America spread to the interior, read in many parts of the Hausa States. Overall, the correspondents’ assessments of conversion numbers were pessimistic: “fewer” for Lagos, “more” for Calabar Hinterland, and “doubtful” for Sierra Leone.
Australia: The Missionary as Businessman
An article from the Melbourne Argus (August 2, 1921) offered a starkly materialistic view of missionary enterprise, describing missionaries as “business men.” The Mission of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ owned 35,000 acres freehold, and the Mission of the Holy Ghost owned 17,000, with both registered as companies: “The Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Limited” and “Holy Ghost, Limited.” The former was the fourth largest trading concern in the late German islands, conducting saw mills and other enterprises. During the war, these missions had claimed immunity on religious grounds. The hypocrisy of this commercial-religious hybrid was exposed by a Customs officer at Rabaul who discovered wine cases labeled “for use at Communion” containing champagne and sparkling hock. Plantation workers were cynically styled “pupils” or “converts,” and the article concluded that missionaries were “far keener on converting their coconuts into copra than on converting Kanakas to Christianity.”
Fiji: The Economics of a Christian Island
Fiji, comprising about two hundred islands and roughly 7,000 square miles, had a population in 1917 of 165,991, including 91,013 native Fijians, 61,153 Indians, and 4,824 Europeans. All natives were nominally Christian, chiefly through the Methodist Church of Australia, which had settled in 1835, followed by Roman Catholics (French) in 1844, the Church of England in 1870, and Seventh-Day Adventists in 1905. A native-controlled schism called “Tanatina” had begun about fourteen years earlier in the eastern group, similar to the Free Church of Tonga. Eight Questionnaire replies came from Fiji, one from Rotuma, with respondents including a retired planter of fifty years, a country settler of fifty years from Rewa, and others from Dreketi, Nadi, and Rotuma.
The correspondents’ observations focused heavily on the economic entanglements of the missions. Trading observations revealed that organs, harmoniums, and furniture for religious purposes were duty-free, and religious institutions’ incomes were tax-exempt. The Catholic mission traded and received copra from natives, and both Catholic and Methodist missions owned large land areas. In 1869, the head of the Wesleyan mission had even run a large trading station in Levuka under the names Moore and Smith. Missions owned big coconut stations and were mostly self-supporting. The spiritual impact was judged to be shallow. Mr. Turner reported that natives thought less of missions than formerly, and that converts were “only skin deep” or “politic” Christians, with few Indian labourers converting. “C.” stated that Indians become converts “always for some material advantage or worldly position,” and that educated youngsters avoided manual labour for clerking, inspecting, motor-car driving, or picture-show work. “J.B.” claimed that a new mission offering worldly gains would attract most Fijians.
On Rotuma (about 300 square miles, population about 2,000), the island was one-third Roman Catholic and two-thirds Methodist, with considerable antagonism between them. Both missions had been there fifty years, supported entirely by local contributions. “D.” reported that the R.C. mission shipped copra, had a drying platform, two copra houses, a launch, and used unpaid native labourers.
New Guinea: Land Holdings
In former German New Guinea, the properties held by various missions were listed, including the Rheinische Mission (Lutheran Calvinists) with 2,897 acres, the Neuendettelsau Mission (Lutheran) with 10,411, the Liebenzell Mission (Lutheran) with 25, the Methodist Mission (Australian) with 5,387, and the Moorish Mission (Roman Catholic).
The Border Missionary Character
The narrative shifted to a starkly critical portrait of missionaries on “the Border,” apparently the Tibet/China border regions. The passage described these missionaries as developing “cranks and crotchets and crazes” to such a degree that “after forty there is hardly a man on the Border who can be considered wholly sane.” Some cultivated “epidemic hysteria,” jabbering jargon and calling it the “Pentecostal gift of tongues,” while others preferred “engendered epilepsy,” rolling and groveling across floors, a practice they called “Boilers.” Each form of frenzy detested the other “with a truly early Christian intensity,” attributing to opponents “the nearest degrees of kinship with the Evil One.”
Contrast of Missionary Types
The text drew a sharp contrast between the Catholic priest, who was “leisured, educated, polished, and interested in life and humanity,” and the Church of England, which bred a similar spirit. However, on the Border, conversion work was entrusted “chiefly, if not solely” to “small heretical sects and schisms of Protestantism,” which were joined in an “ad hoc alliance” that only thinly veiled their theological hatred, much to the “edification of the non-Christian laity and the amusement of the Buddhist hierarchy.”
Mr. Farrer on Missionary Hardships and Life
Mr. Farrer argued that too much was talked of hardships, as many missionaries exchanged their former life for one of greater “affluence and innocence.” The real price paid was “life at home.” There was no sacrifice in giving up “insignificance and squalor” in an “ugly little tenement” for a better income, position, and power in a “beautiful Tibetan house on the March” or a Chinese town. A former nobody became “a person of consideration and prominence.” While risks were not wholly absent, Farrer asked, “where are they that?” Apart from medical missionaries, whom he praised warmly, others led “a life of much pleasantness,” not one to “widen the sympathies or the mind.” Their work did not fill their time, and their lives revolved around domestic affairs and servants’ misdoings. “Every mission station is a constant ganglion of gossip.” Missionaries learned nothing, claiming with “conscious pride” they had “no time”—”a pretence which is patently a pretence.” He cited the missionary at Jo-ni who acted as post-master but had a letter written by Farrer’s servant read out by his Chinese teacher.
Mr. Eric Teichman’s Observations
Mr. Eric Teichman offered a more systematic critique. He remarked that Catholic celibacy gave an advantage over Protestants: Catholics merged with the Chinese, entered their lives, and preached from among them, whereas Protestants lived Western lives in Western homes, cut off from those they sought to influence. The celibate priest living on a “merest pittance” was more economical than the Protestant whose family maintenance “accounts for a large proportion of missionary funds.” The extended summer holidays of Protestants—abandoning work in hot cities for months at hill resorts—made “a thoroughly bad impression among thinking Chinese,” while Catholic priests and China Inland Mission members never abandoned work thus. Teichman also criticized missionary selection, stating that “proper selection does not always seem to be exercised by the home boards,” as any subscriber to “the necessary dogma” was deemed good enough to convert the Chinese. With “a people of such acute intelligence and ancient civilization,” quality mattered more than quantity. Many missionaries took up work “principally as a means of livelihood,” plodding “like clerks in a city office,” with some stations showing “practically nothing” after decades. Others lacked intellect or education, while others, attracted by the “romance of travel,” rushed around distributing texts with “practically nil” effect. Scholarly men with liberal ideas and sympathy did the good work, and there was a “remarkable variety” in education and intellect among Protestant missionaries, while Catholic priests were “well ahead.”
Regional Reports on Missionary Living Standards
Regional reports confirmed the disparity between missionary rhetoric and reality. In South China (Kwantung, Kwangsi), the mission provided good dwellings, but all missionaries were underpaid—a man of twenty years’ standing might get £200 per annum, and in small missions perhaps £30. In Song Kong, practically all missionaries lived in very fine houses, better than at home, with better food, unlimited cheap servants, and free coal, light, and coolies. Some houses would be tenanted in England only by very rich people, and “The Bishop of South China lives in a palace.” Catholic priests lived on a lower scale than Protestants, but all lived well. In Japan, a certain percentage in Yokohama lived very well, and the average missionary in certain districts lived better than was possible for similar ability in Europe or America. In India, Punjab correspondents were unanimous that the prevailing Indian opinion was that the average missionary lived better than at home, with exceptions “few and far between.” One correspondent met only two exceptions in Rawalpindi and one in seventeen years elsewhere in Punjab, Sind, and Baluchistan—only exceptions out of thirty. Another noted that the general rule applied especially to American missions and the Salvation Army, adding “The American is usually a very poor type.” Of nine Punjab replies, only one dissented. In the United Provinces, Allahabad, missionaries lived more luxuriously than fellow workers of better ability, and foreign missionaries including Y.M.C.A. secretaries lived in “very grand style.”
Language and Misunderstanding
The narrative turned to the profound difficulties of communication, opening with an account of a missionary among people who had no sheep and had never seen one. Since the words for sheep and lamb were absent from their language, the missionary converted “lamb” into “curly pig,” causing his countrymen’s prestige to suffer. Lengthy argument and persuasion were required to convince the chief tactfully that an error had been made. Mr. Stefansson provided an instance of ill-feeling between a missionary and Eskimos regarding his own expedition. The Eskimos explained a bad ice year by saying a certain missionary had told them “that the Lord had sent the ice to keep the wicked scientists in the Karluk from getting into the country.” However, the same ice that kept out scientists also kept out traders, making the Eskimos resentful, though the missionary denied making such a statement.
Point of View and Cultural Perception
The Rev. Frank Lenwood, formerly a missionary in India, told a story illustrating that difficulty depends on point of view, not merely language. In Benares, he showed low-caste shoemakers a coloured picture of John the Baptist in prison. After explaining it, the master of the shop said: “Sahib, if I were you, I would not show that picture,” explaining he would not like to show any holy man of theirs in such humiliation. What was a “triumph” to the Christian was humiliation to the Hindu.
Caste in India
In India, caste worked both for and against the missionary. The lowest Sudra castes and out-castes were gathered into the Christian fold, finding their social position ameliorated. But while church doors opened wider for them, they closed correspondingly for higher classes. For a high-caste Hindu to be Christian was tantamount to submerging among the lower classes—like asking an American or European to be submerged among negroes.
Medical Missions and Their Limits
The chapter continues its examination of medical missions with an anecdote from Owen R. O’Neill’s Adventures in Swaziland (1921), in which a captain ignored the protests of local people and forced them to “eat with the rest or go hungry.” This small incident sets the tone for a broader critique of the methods and consequences of medical proselytism. In China, medical missions operate throughout the country, with Protestants being “more avowedly” proselytizing than their Catholic counterparts. Catholic priests and sisters, however, mix with the lower classes and run hospitals for the very poor, healing first and Christianizing afterward. Most hospitals employ lay helpers or clergymen for doctrinal instruction, though in Kwangsi an American Mission treats sickness by prayer rather than medicine.
An inquiry presented to the China Medical Missionary Association at Pekin in February 1920 examined the efficiency of mission hospitals. Of some 200 hospitals, two-thirds lack isolation blocks, screened kitchens, screened latrines, and bedding sterilization; one-third lack clean garments, fly and mosquito protection, and trained nurses—some have no nurse at all. Some never bathe patients; some lack baths entirely; many have inadequate laundry. These institutions purport to “propagate the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ,” yet in some, science is “definitely separated from religion”—religion holds the field. Even sincere medical missionaries admit that inefficient hospitals are a danger to community health.
In Japan, texts and tracts are printed on prescription backs. In India, healing is generally regarded as a proselytizing means. The leper asylum at Rawalpindi is run by the American Presbyterian Mission, and all mission hospitals have male and female catechists preaching to non-Christians seeking medicine. One correspondent calls it “a help to poor people.” Catholics run a leper asylum in Rangoon; Anglicans run an institution for the blind. A large northern hospital run by the American mission does excellent medical work, especially among women, though proselytizing forms a large part of its activities. In Africa, medical missions are limited in South Africa, where government medical officers have nothing to do with missions. In Oburu market in Nigeria, the missionary is a sort of “doctor of medicine.” In Nairobi, mission doctors receive government subsidies. In Uganda, medical work is a “great boon,” but “the medical staff is pre-eminently a missionary staff.”
Social Service and the Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is pre-eminent in social service. In Indian provinces it has worked among “the untouchables,” reclaiming released prisoners and criminal tribes—communities with predatory habits as the “accepted rule of life.” Finding no opening among the educated “owing to the prevalence of the caste system,” it turned to depressed classes, aiming to bring “these needy souls to a personal knowledge of the Saviour.” It formed land colonies with silk farms, fruit farms, weaving schools, lace schools, and carpentry; day schools for children; and dispensaries and hospitals. In the Punjab it is known as “the free army,” not exacting about converts’ Christianity quality. Between 1891 and 1918, the Salvation Army established 120 boarding and day schools teaching 4,025 boys and 1,685 girls, mainly among lowest-class labourers. In Madras, its “loud religion” made no progress, so it turned to social work. Its results opened Hindu, Sikh, and Mohammedan eyes to depressed-class miseries, prompting each community to form societies for social elevation.
In Burma, the Salvation Army runs an institution for conditionally released young prisoners—the only such organization, working with the Burma Prison Department. Its religious vagaries are “of quite secondary importance”; workers put humanitarianism before faith, also working among prostitutes. An Anglican missionary says such activities are “of very limited value… They do not, in fact, produce Christians.” In Japan, the Salvation Army works among ex-prisoners and unfortunate women with practical results.
The Christianized Native: A Reassessment
The average Christian imagines “heathen” as a monster with all vices, no virtues, living in torture, ignorant of morality. Rev. Campbell N. Moody, an English Presbyterian missionary in Formosa, writing in the International Review of Missions (July 1921), reveals his astonishment at discovering otherwise. Questioning Chinese heathen and Christians, he found no dissatisfaction with their religion, no hungering for righteousness, no fear of death or judgment; many are “happy and well behaved.” Living three months in a congested village of thirty-five households, he saw no strife. In a heathen farmhouse, “there was no serious strife… it would have borne comparison with many a Christian home in the West”—”a harmonious home, kindly, vivacious… happy without God.” Parents were kind; children harmonious. He concludes Augustine “spoke for himself and the few” when saying “The heart is restless till it rest in Thee.” Yet their morality is “not high-soaring”—they are “apt to be selfish and greedy and keen for an unjust bargain.” The author notes Moody writes as though these vices were confined to heathen.
Japan and India: The Reality of Converts
In Japan, the custom of saké drinking at New Year frequently causes disgrace for baptismal candidates. A small cup of saké accompanies wishes when paying visits, requiring great conviction for a Japanese to refuse. Girl converts marrying non-Christians upon leaving mission schools causes great unhappiness. Kindliness is noted as a leading Japanese characteristic, with simple country folk and the average Japanese exceeding converts in kindness.
In India, Moslems, Sikhs, and Hindus are essentially sober, but drunkenness is not uncommon among Indian Christians. Converts come almost entirely from the lowest classes; only among the small educated minority is there evidence of intelligence development. Many such converts lose original simplicity, becoming less continent, less truthful, and less industrious. Converts acquire false superiority over unconverted brethren and abandon hereditary occupations for laziness. A Punjab correspondent reports few officers employ Christian servants, considered lazy and thievish. A regimental observer notes native Christians—about fifty, all Roman Catholics born Christian, not converts—furnished the great majority of drunkenness cases, though drunkenness is rare in the native army. Southern India reports Christian servants bear poor reputation for sobriety and honesty.
A correspondent from Ranchi states converts differ little from countrymen except in intelligence among the educated, having lost simplicity while becoming less continent, truthful, and industrious, with town converts imitating vices rather than virtues. Another reports incontinence increasing among females from cultivating luxurious habits without means of gratification; converts become less industrious, more place-hunters, more lying, degenerating in honesty. A Rawalpindi correspondent flatly states Christianizing has made the Indian more intemperate. Converts feel traditional industries beneath them. A Lahore correspondent calls converts proud, arrogant, haughty. An Allahabad correspondent says Hindus stand head and shoulders above Christians in morality, truthfulness, honesty, intelligence, and kindliness. Another observes that converts who previously observed caste rules and couldn’t drink often develop liquor habits after conversion. A Travancore correspondent finds educated converts more industrious but labouring classes lazy; another reports converts less sober but more industrious. A Tangore correspondent says converts become unsettled, unstable, with intemperance common among ignorant converts.
A Punjab correspondent counters that Christianized depressed classes—high-class conversions being rare—show improved dress, manners, and customs versus non-Christianized, with education facilities developing qualities of mind and heart. This results from education and training, better done by Indians themselves now aware of their permanently depressed class. The missionary confuses education with proselytism; the Indian reformer has no ulterior motive.
Regarding marriage, converts often participate in both Christian and native ceremonies. The new label “Christian” with supplementary sect tags may be merely “a new name for the old wine”—converts likely retain old beliefs, as European Christianity incorporated earlier religions. Most correspondents believe Indian Christians secretly observe former faith practices. A drunken convert reprimanded for participating in the annual “Sarhal” (Spring festival) replied: “Have I given up my ‘dharam’ (religion) because I have become a Christian?” Syrian Christians perform Shraddhas (ancestor worship); Pariah Christians are devil worshippers. Near Bombay, converts worship Hindu gods as Ganesha and observe festivals like Divati, especially in fishing villages converted early. Aborigines east and south of Punjab merely add Christianity or Islam to prehistoric animism.
Burma and Ceylon
In Burma, few Burmese Christians exist; conversion makes Burmans neither more nor less sober, continent, honest, or kindly—a Christian Burman is indistinguishable from a Buddhist. Karens, however, are transformed: from dirty, ignorant, drunken barbarians to clean, educated, sober, trustworthy people fit as policemen or nurses. Baptists are chief agents; Catholics only baptize without civilizing; Anglicans take the via media. American missions preach temperance and their converts are sober; Roman Catholics are less sober than average Buddhists. Missionary influence increased intemperance among converts from Buddhism but reduced it among Animism converts. Christian Tamils are more intemperate than same-rank Hindus. Christians practice monogamy; Buddhists may take a minor wife with chief wife’s consent, though respectable Buddhists no longer do. Karens are less intelligent than Burmese, simple-minded and easy-going, with a pre-missionary tradition of a white prophet aiding Christian acceptance. Burmese are very temperate; missionaries haven’t reduced vice. A coolie’s Vishnu temple and Christian Church are nearly identical on estates—Christ on the cross replaces the idol, receiving rice and plantain offerings.
In Ceylon, a Medical Officer writes Christians are more addicted to alcohol but otherwise little different. Social-service workers of different religions have done good. The Christian Government farms liquor tavern rents, encouraging the newly-acquired drink habit.
Southern Africa: Deterioration and the Kafir
Captain Tylden reports that the most active sellers of strong drink are Christian natives. A correspondent from Bethulie writes that natives in close contact with whites have acquired all European vices and none of their virtues. Another estimates that 90 percent of native experience favors “the raw native” over the Christianized one; a resident of South Africa for thirty-eight years confirms this. In the Transvaal, opinion is emphatic and unanimous that rapid deterioration is occurring among natives, attributed either to Christianity’s introduction or to “civilization” (meaning Christian civilization). Chiefs complain their authority is destroyed, drunkenness is common among men and women, and illegitimacy threatens to become the rule. Christianity is not blamed for teaching drinking or immorality, but for destroying national customs and ideals without providing an efficient substitute.
The author, after twenty years in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, reports no benefit from Christian teaching apart from technical training. “Whitewashing” natives with European civilization degrades the Kafir race; the Europeanized Kafir is “immeasurably inferior” to the kraal heathen. The missionary detracts from chiefly influence, which the author condemns, seeing chiefly authority as the only hope for Kafir progress. Christianity’s substitution of its marriage service for “lobolo” (buying a wife with perhaps a dozen cows) is radically objected to. Lobolo required about ten years’ steady employment from adolescents; the Kafir works well when “up against it” but finds settled occupation irksome. Away from missionary supervision, Sunday service accompanies drinking native beer or smoking “dagga” (Indian hemp). The Kafir resorts to the witch doctor’s “doloso” as readily as white Christians resort to mediums. The Christianized Kafir is sober but doesn’t regard native beer as harmful; he takes Christian marriage but retains polygamy. Venereal disease is general; morals are destroyed. Bone-throwing and bewitchery continue covertly, thoroughly believed in.
In Basutoland, the only reporter, the Chief Instructor of Government Industrial Schools, believes Christian missions beneficial, declaring Christianized natives superior to raw natives, with few backsliders given temptations.
West Africa, Ashanti, and Uganda
In West Africa, Mohammedan missionary effort is more easily assimilated by pagans than Christianity; offering Christianity to Moslems is practically useless. A doctor-missionary reported one convert from Islam after a year in a great Mohammedan centre, adding “But I don’t trust him.” At Ibadan, a Christian Lagos trader declared himself “a great believer in polygamy,” smiling fatuously at colleagues who smiled sympathetically. Sir F. D. Lugard, lately Governor of Nigeria, notes Islam is indigenous, spread by men of like race, combining social code with simple religious forms, yet generally not adopted by negro races. Where accepted, it has had a civilizing effect, abolishing pagan superstition and barbarous practices. Christianity has not proved so powerful for political and social organization; it doesn’t appeal to negro temperament, though hymns and church music are powerful auxiliaries. Successful Christianity produces intolerance in converts.
From Calabar Hinterland: natives have deteriorated; intelligence greater but trustworthiness less; backslidings frequent; Christian natives fear tribal juju and conciliate it quietly. From Lagos: Christianized natives inferior except in book education; whisky and brandy follow the Bible; nearly all believe in heathen charms and witches. In Ashanti, Christianity gains ground steadily, but whether people will benefit is unproved. As heathens, crime was small—only forty-nine cases in 1918. Converts refused personal service to their chief citing religious scruples; Government upheld this, but it was merely an excuse to avoid obligations.
In Uganda, Christianity arrived mid-nineteenth century under King Mutesa; Baganda are now accepted as Christianized.
Main Arguments
The central argument of the book is that the results of Christian missionary work do not justify the enormous expenditure of money and energy devoted to it. The author contends that millions of pounds are collected annually and spent on missions that produce few genuine converts, that those converts are often motivated by self-interest rather than conviction, and that the overall effect on native populations is frequently harmful rather than beneficial.
The book argues that conversions are rarely the result of reasoned conviction. Whatever method is employed, the motive of conversion is nearly always self-interest or unreasoning credulity. Among Naga Hills tribes, Christian numbers increase because “It pays the Ao financially to turn Christian”—Christians are exempted by Government from certain periodic contributions levied on heathens. A German Lutheran Mission report from 1869 states that the missionary is welcomed not for inquiring into spiritual condition but because he is expected to assist in regaining land and freeing people from Thikadars’ oppression. Colonel E. T. Dalton describes how Kols who embraced Christianity imbibed more independent notions and successfully asserted rights, leading others to profess Christianity in the belief that Christian Kols were more uniformly successful in Court. A Jesuit missionary in Chota Nagpore states: “Personally, I know of some cases where individuals came over from religious motives. But these cases are rare.” “Keralan” reports that most Indian Christians became Christians for livelihood, especially in British Malabar where the Basel German Mission conducted large propaganda; the common name for Indian Christians there is “rice Christians.” He has not met a single person who embraced Christianity from faith, having travelled from Trivandrum to Mussoorie.
The book argues that missionary work is characterized by sectarian competition that confuses and repels potential converts. Each sect believes there is only one road to heaven and its missionaries are the only true guides. In China, the Chinese compare both Islam and the Catholic Church to vast worldwide secret societies for mutual benefit, while Protestant Christianity remains a foreign institution supported by foreign energy, brains, and money. The multiplicity of Protestant sects, divided by the Chinese into “the Great Wash, the Little Wash, and the No Wash,” presents a spectacle of contradiction that undermines the missionary message.
The author argues that missionary educational work, while providing some benefits, is adulterated with evangelistic effort and often amounts to compulsion. Students seeking Western knowledge must “swallow the Christian powder skilfully hidden between layers of scientific jam.” In India, all students must attend morning prayer and Bible lessons; the aim is avowedly conversion rather than education. In Wilson College, Bible instruction is compulsory on all students though ninety-nine per cent may be non-Christian, and examination marks count toward scholarships. In Japan, missionary-controlled schools evade Government restrictions on religious teaching by using regular hours set apart for morals instruction for Bible instruction—a “clear evasion” of Japanese law. In South Africa, natives desire education but can obtain it only by becoming Christian.
The book further argues that missionaries themselves are often ill-suited to their work. Teichman remarks that “proper selection does not always seem to be exercised by the home boards”—any subscriber to “the necessary dogma” is deemed good enough to convert the Chinese. Many missionaries took up work “principally as a means of livelihood,” plodding “like clerks in a city office”; some stations show “practically nothing” after decades. Others lack intellect or education; others, attracted by “romance of travel,” rush around distributing texts with “practically nil” effect. Scholarly men with liberal ideas and sympathy do the good work. The author quotes Farrer’s observation that missionaries on the Border develop “cranks and crotchets and crazes” to such a degree that “after forty there is hardly a man on the Border who can be considered wholly sane.”
The book argues that the Christianized native is often morally and socially deteriorated rather than improved. Across India, correspondents report that converts become less continent, less truthful, and less industrious, acquire false superiority over unconverted brethren, and abandon hereditary occupations for laziness. A regimental observer notes that native Christians furnished the great majority of drunkenness cases in the native army—the only way Christian soldiers fall below non-Christians, with no way they rise above. In Southern Africa, opinion is emphatic and unanimous that rapid deterioration is occurring among natives, attributed either to Christianity’s introduction or to “civilization” (meaning Christian civilization). Chiefs complain their authority is destroyed, drunkenness is common among men and women, and illegitimacy threatens to become the rule. The author, after twenty years in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, reports no benefit from Christian teaching apart from technical training, and declares that the Europeanized Kafir is “immeasurably inferior” to the kraal heathen.
Key Concepts
The Questionnaire on Christian Missions: The instrument devised by the Rationalist Press Association in 1919 and sent to correspondents worldwide, eliciting careful and exhaustive replies over the succeeding twelve months. The questionnaire responses form the backbone of the book’s evidence, supplemented by published sources.
The “heathen” concept: The book examines the Christian imagination of the “heathen” as a monster with all vices, no virtues, living in torture, ignorant of morality. Rev. Campbell N. Moody’s testimony reveals his astonishment at finding Chinese heathen and Christians who had no dissatisfaction with their religion, no hungering for righteousness, no fear of death or judgment—many “happy and well behaved.” The author notes that Moody writes as though vices such as selfishness and greed were confined to heathen.
“Rice Christians”: The common name for Indian Christians in British Malabar, indicating that most became Christians for livelihood rather than faith. The term encapsulates the book’s argument that material motives, not religious conviction, drive most conversions.
“Ethiopianism”: The doctrine imported from America under the guise of Christianity teaching equality of black and white, which white Christian brethren in South Africa claim endangers white rule. Native sects constantly spring up in South Africa; the most notorious were the Israelites, who refused government orders unless their Prophet Enoch declared them sanctioned by Jehovah, leading to force being used and Enoch receiving six years’ hard labour for sedition.
“The Great Wash, the Little Wash, and the No Wash”: The Chinese classification of Protestant missionary sects—Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and Congregational—reflecting the confusion created by sectarian division. Smaller missions included the Seventh-Day Adventists, Tongues Movement Mission, Faith Mission, and Church of God Mission, some holding strange beliefs, offering instruction in foreign languages by rolling in fits (known as “Holy Rollers”), or insisting on curing cataract by prayer.
“Kia mohio” (be wise, cautious): The password that gained currency among the Maori after they observed missionaries appropriating land while telling them to look upward. The phrase encapsulates native suspicion of missionary motives.
“English study Christians”: The name given to Korean attendees of missionary schools, indicating that they sought English education rather than religious conversion.
“The Border missionary”: The type of missionary on the Tibet/China border who develops “cranks and crotchets and crazes,” cultivating “epidemic hysteria” (jabbering jargon called the “Pentecostal gift of tongues”) or “engendered epilepsy” (rolling and groveling across floors, called “Boilers”). Each form of frenzy detests the other “with a truly early Christian intensity.”
“Lobolo”: The Kafir custom of buying a wife with perhaps a dozen cows, which required about ten years’ steady employment from adolescents. The book argues that Christianity’s substitution of its marriage service for lobolo is radically objectionable, as it removes the incentive for sustained work.
“Dagga” (Indian hemp): Smoked by the Kafir at Sunday services away from missionary supervision, alongside drinking native beer. The passage notes the Kafir resorts to the witch doctor’s “doloso” as readily as white Christians resort to mediums.
“The Christianized native”: The book’s examination of converts across regions reveals a consistent pattern: in Burma, a Christian Burman is indistinguishable from a Buddhist, while Karens are transformed from “dirty, ignorant, drunken barbarians” to “clean, educated, sober, trustworthy people.” In India, converts often participate in both Christian and native ceremonies, and most correspondents believe Indian Christians secretly observe former faith practices. A drunken convert reprimanded for participating in the annual “Sarhal” (Spring festival) replied: “Have I given up my ‘dharam’ (religion) because I have become a Christian?”
Themes
A recurring theme is the gap between missionary claims and observable reality. The book consistently contrasts the rhetoric of missionary societies—their appeals for funds, their declarations of purpose, their statistics of converts and schools—with the testimony of observers on the ground who report nominal conversions, material motives, and negligible spiritual impact. This gap is presented not as an isolated failing but as a structural feature of an enterprise sustained by vested interests. The author notes that examining income sources and expenditure illuminates missionary work; vested interests create “limpets” who hold tight to organizations.
Another theme is the destructive effect of missions on native cultures and social structures. The book argues that Christianity destroys national customs and ideals without providing an efficient substitute. In South Africa, Christian education breaks down tribal authority and sets up no adequate substitute. Chiefs complain their authority is destroyed. The missionary detracts from chiefly influence, which the author condemns, seeing chiefly authority as the only hope for Kafir progress. In India, Christianity is a dividing spirit tending to denationalization; Indian Christians become alienated, a new caste is created, and zeal becomes zeal for caste privileges, sometimes concealing Indian nationality by adopting European names and manners.
The theme of cultural misunderstanding runs throughout. A missionary among people who had no sheep and had never seen one converted “lamb” into “curly pig,” causing his countrymen’s prestige to suffer. The Rev. Frank Lenwood’s story from Benares illustrates that difficulty depends on point of view, not merely language: when he showed low-caste shoemakers a coloured picture of John the Baptist in prison, the master of the shop said he would not show any holy man of theirs in such humiliation—what was a “triumph” to the Christian was humiliation to the Hindu.
The theme of self-interest as the dominant motive for conversion appears across regions and faiths. In Fiji, converts are “only skin deep” or “politic” Christians; Indians become converts “always for some material advantage or worldly position.” In China, enrolling inquirers is at times a gross abuse of both Catholic and Protestant Churches—people guilty or accused of crimes against Catholics register as inquirers among Protestants and vice versa, seeking protection. Missionaries admit individuals are influenced by irrelevant or puerile motives: a young man dislikes kneeling before idols at marriage and turns church-goer; another desires to remain unmarried, contrary to Confucian precepts, so embraces Christianity; another converts after seeing a sugar mill with European machinery.
The theme of missionary living standards and the contrast with native poverty is explored through regional reports. In South China, practically all missionaries live in very fine houses, better than at home; food better, unlimited cheap servants, free coal, light, coolies. Some houses would be tenanted in England only by very rich people. “The Bishop of South China lives in a palace.” In India, Punjab correspondents are unanimous that prevailing Indian opinion is the average missionary lives better than at home. The author quotes Farrer’s observation that missionaries exchange former life for one of greater “affluence and innocence”—a former nobody becomes “a person of consideration and prominence.”
The theme of hypocrisy and double standards emerges in the contrast between missionary teaching and missionary practice. In Australia, the Mission of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ owns 35,000 acres freehold and is the fourth largest trading concern in the late German islands, conducting saw mills and other enterprises. A Customs officer at Rabaul discovered wine cases labeled “for use at Communion” containing champagne and sparkling hock. Plantation workers were styled “pupils” or “converts.” Missionaries were “far keener on converting their coconuts into copra than on converting Kanakas to Christianity.”
The theme of native religion and its persistence beneath the surface of conversion is documented across regions. Most correspondents believe Indian Christians secretly observe former faith practices. Syrian Christians perform Shraddhas (ancestor worship); Pariah Christians are devil worshippers. Near Bombay, converts worship Hindu gods as Ganesha and observe festivals like Divati. In Nigeria, Christian natives fear tribal juju and conciliate it quietly. The author notes that converts likely retain old beliefs, as European Christianity incorporated earlier religions.
The Author’s Conclusions
The book concludes that the missionary enterprise, as documented across the regions surveyed, fails to justify its enormous cost in money, energy, and cultural destruction. The author argues that publicly subscribed money urgently needed for productive work or succoring diseased and starving populations from the War is being wasted disseminating “grotesque pseudo-science, fictitious history, and confused and faulty morality.”
The evidence from correspondents worldwide shows that conversions are few, unstable, and motivated by self-interest rather than conviction. In Japan, Christianity makes little progress among educated people, who are “frankly materialistic” and “nationalist without ideals.” One missionary confessed that after fifteen years he knew of but one genuine convert—his wife’s maidservant. In India, converts come almost entirely from the lowest classes, and educated converts are few. In South Africa, the 1911 census shows that 64.14% of the coloured population had “No religion” despite over a hundred years of missionary effort.
The book argues that missions have a harmful effect on native populations. The author, after twenty years in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, reports no benefit from Christian teaching apart from technical training. “Whitewashing” natives with European civilization degrades the Kafir race; the Europeanized Kafir is “immeasurably inferior” to the kraal heathen. In India, converts lose original simplicity, becoming less continent, less truthful, and less industrious. A Punjab correspondent reports few officers employ Christian servants, considered lazy and thievish.
The author suggests that Churches should use the millions collected for foreign missions for domestic distress alleviation. The book notes that about £4,000,000 yearly is collected in Great Britain and Ireland for converting heathens, and argues this money could be better spent at home. The author defends examining finances despite some considering it sordid, arguing that examining income sources and expenditure illuminates missionary work.
The book’s final observations concern the character of the Christianized native. In Southern Africa, the most active sellers of strong drink are Christian natives. Natives in close contact with whites have acquired all European vices and none of their virtues. Ninety percent of native experience favors “the raw native” over the Christianized one. In West Africa, successful Christianity produces intolerance in converts. In Nigeria, natives have deteriorated; intelligence greater but trustworthiness less; backslidings frequent; Christian natives fear tribal juju and conciliate it quietly. Whisky and brandy follow the Bible; nearly all believe in heathen charms and witches.
The book closes with the observation that Christianity gains ground steadily in Ashanti, but whether the people will benefit is unproven. The overall conclusion is that the missionary enterprise, as documented across the regions surveyed, fails to justify its enormous cost in money, energy, and cultural destruction, and that the Churches would be better advised to redirect their resources toward domestic needs.
Significance
The book represents a significant Rationalist intervention in the early-twentieth-century debate over foreign missions. It was produced at a moment when missionary societies were intensifying their fundraising appeals after the disruption of the First World War, and it sought to subject their claims to independent scrutiny. The book’s methodology—a questionnaire distributed to correspondents worldwide, supplemented by published sources and statistical data—anticipated later social scientific approaches to the study of missions and their effects.
The book is notable for the breadth of its geographical coverage, encompassing missions in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East, and for its use of testimony from a wide range of observers, including missionaries themselves, colonial officials, native converts, and long-term European residents.
