R: Missionaries are Colonizers

St. San Junipero Serra was a great man. He converted and saved hundreds of Native Americans in what is now California and fought against the encroachment of European forces on Native American land. He went so far as to walk, despite a horribly injured leg, to Mexico City and advocate on behalf of Native Americans to the Archbishop. He was a missionary— completely distinct and separate from the European colonizers and the horrors they ushered into the North American continent. Or was he? Historically in the west, missionaries and colonizers seem to travel together. This begs the question: Are they one and the same? The so-called “Indian Boarding Schools” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries left a lasting scar among indigenous peoples in the United States. Some even may argue that the species of mission work practiced by St. San Junipero Serra both contributed to the destructive stereotype that indigenous people in North America needed to be “civilized,” and caused the erasure of indigenous culture in the Americas. None of this is to mention the mission work and colonization that existed in African countries, Asian countries, South American countries, and the Caribbean. Many have even criticized the mission trips of today as forms of self-aggrandizement that put more emphasis on the positive experience of the missionary than the spiritual health of those being evangelized. 

In considering this, it may be helpful to think about the endeavor of missionaries both in the ideal, and in how that work is practiced historically. Often times, missionaries enter foreign civilizations with love and admiration for both the people, and cultural commonalities. Is this evidence that true mission work and the violence that historically has accompanied it are distinct? On the other hand, because historically missionaries and colonizers have been virtually inseparable, might it suggest that they are practically tantamount? If so, should they be? In other words, is the project of missionary work inherently colonial? No matter one’s side, the body should address how we should view the many sorry historical instances of well-intentioned efforts devolving into violence and genocide.