Comparing Nazarene and SIM missionaries

This week, we are finding some point of contact between our readings in The Other Sheep and Evangelical Christians in the Muslim Sahel, a book we have been reading for class. As I was reading these texts, there was one thing I did find very similar, in that both groups, the Nazarenes and SIM, seemed to have trouble knowing how much to inculturate their message. There were times that I felt that they were demanding unnecessary things from the new Christians.

I believe that this issue is most prevalent when discussing the subject of clothing. In Evangelical Christians, we read about a school set up by the SIM missionaries, which served to educate some of the male converts in Niger. The school was in the practice of handing out second hand clothes to the students, but would first rip out the collars, shorten the shirts sleeves, and shorten the pants into shorts. This was apparently done to emphasize the difference between the Muslims living in the area and those who had converted to Christ. However, there was a problem in that shorts were considered quite humiliating. No man from that culture would wear shorts unless he was doing laborious field work, but these men were made to go “bare legged” all the time. Even at the time of the writing of Evangelical Christians in 2004, the scars from this past incident had not yet healed.

The Nazarenes too made their converts wear different, more western clothes. In one article, a missionary wrote about the extreme poverty of the African converts, and how awful it was that many of the girls were only able to buy one dress after becoming Christians, and that not even all of the boys were able to buy a real shirt, but had to make do with a cheap undershirt. This is in contrast to the “skins and rags” they wore before. I am not implying that the poverty was and is not horrific, only that I do not see the point in making the new Christians buy more clothing.

In reading thee and similar stories, I have come to the conclusion that while we must learn from the past, we should not be quick to condemn any of its various people groups.  Often, the practices that we now look back on with aversion were simply expected by the culture of the time. This does not make it right, but certainly more understandable. I am sure that when our actions are looked back upon, the people of the future will similarly wonder how we could have possibly believed some things to be correct.