TAKE NOTHING WITH YOU

A critique of evangelical foreign missions by a former missionary.

As the youngest son of American missionaries in Africa, Wilson grew up in the Kenyan highlands more than 50 years ago, surrounded by beautiful plants and flowers. Despite the surroundings, which he terms “idyllic,” he sensed a “malignancy” of misapplied Christianity—one “filled with anger, [and] ironclad control,” with daily devotions and Bible readings that taught kids not to think for themselves, but to submit to authority. His parents were highly respected among members of their church for the many people whom they “saved,” the ultimate goal of evangelical missionaries, but Wilson became increasingly skeptical of “conversion Protestants” who make up one-third of all Christian missionaries worldwide; he asserts that their obsession with saving souls sets them apart from those who undertake mainline and Catholic mission work, which is more focused on education and humanitarian aid. He left the mission field in adulthood and is now convinced that “regardless of motives and intentions, the best thing that a missionary…can do is to simply go home.” Borrowing from pan-African theories of neocolonialism, Wilson concludes, “We (white people and the Western complex) don’t help by helping.” Missionary ideology, however well intentioned, is built on a history of Western ethnocentrism that assumes Africans need Westerners to “progress,” he notes, and that Western civilization is inherently better than traditional African counterparts. As a result, he maintains, most missionaries do not “feel any obligation” to even learn the histories of the African nations where they live, beyond a few mandatory orientation classes. Overall, this book undertakes its challenge to Protestant doctrine by providing well-reasoned, alternative interpretations of Scripture that call into question core evangelical beliefs on the biblical “calling” of Christians to mission work. Indeed, the author’s dismantling of missionary ideology succeeds by using Christian missionary vocabulary—something that only one who was immersed in that culture could do. He also blends his biblical critique with sophisticated, although uncited, historical analysis. Although it’s occasionally repetitive and a bit scattered in its organization, this is a must-read for Christian readers interested in Wilson’s topic.

A scathing assessment that lands some solid blows.