The indigenous people responded with:
“We… decided to take advantage of Pope John Paul II’s visit to return to him his bible because in five centuries it has given us neither love, nor peace, nor justice. Please take your bible and give it to our oppressors: they are in greater moral need of its precepts than we are.”
Ouch. That cuts deep.
Christopher Columbus and the conquistadors came to the Caribbean in 1492. Ever since then, the white man has been playing in Latin America for three reasons: God, glory, and gold. Herds of missionaries came to preach the "good news", to offer salvation, to "rescue" a people caught up in bloody human sacrifices.
So where exactly did we go wrong?
Was it when we gave them smallpox?
Was it when we pillaged their villages?
Was it when we forced them into conscripted slavery?
Was it when we looked at them as a thing rather than a people?
I love Mexico. It's no secret. I go there for God, or at least I think I do. I'm not finding gold there; in fact, I'm losing gobs of money with all my travels south. I don't find a whole lot of glory - there's not much that's sexy or powerful about not bathing for a week. Yet sometimes I do get caught up in the pride of it all, in being able to say that I gave up my holiday breaks. Sometimes, starting a story with "So I was in Mexico last weekend and..." is an exciting thing to do - especially when all of my friends back home are eating mahi mahi sandwiches at McKenna's Place or lying in the sand on 27th Ave. Sometimes I start to think that I'm doing something right.
And that's when everything starts to go wrong.
This video has gone viral among my circle of friends over the last couple of weeks. It was made several years ago by a former APU student and takes a harsh yet true look at Mexico Outreach.
Several years ago, students were saying "there's something about the dirt." We're still saying that today.
We come home after a few days, hot, sunburned, tired, probably vomiting and running a fever. We have new profile pictures for our Facebook pages and adventure stories of getting lost, trying strange foods, and sleeping on packed earth. We tell stories of love, redemption, and the new people we've met yet can't remember the names of. We remember how close we felt to God when we were worshiping as a group for the fourth time in two days and think that it's Mexico that did it, not simply the fact that we are taking time for the Lord.
We come home brave, altruistic, and "holy". On Monday we crawl out of our warm beds, sip a latte, scramble to our air-conditioned class in our clean clothes, and go about our day with the occasional prayer for the country we claim to love.
We suck.
500 years after the conquest, we are still feeding them the bible with one hand while holding them down with the other. America cries "liberty, freedom, opportunity, (arguably) Christian" yet we fight over whether fathers should be allowed within our gates to feed their starving children. We go on mission trips as enablers, as spoiled WASPs looking for an exciting story.
I used to always think that when we work in the name of the Lord, it is good. Now I am not so sure. The conquistadors claimed to be working for God - but was what they did "good"? I think I go to Mexico for God - but the people in the video aren't so sure we're helpful.
I don't think all of what we do in Mexico is bad. I think we do a lot of good and that we're still in a process. It's hard to develop a ministry when the life cycle of your generation of workers is only 4 years; by the time our leaders are equipped and trained, they are ready to leave.
I am guilty of going to Mexico without prayer, of feeling like I have an agenda to meet rather than a God to obey. I am guilty of saying I love the people I forget the names of. I am guilty of telling stories of getting pulled over by Mexican police rather than the stories of what God is doing in my heart and in the lives of others. I am guilty of fearing that people will think I am crazy or one of "those" Christians if I tell them my God stories. I am guilty of looking at the Mexican people of something that needs rather than someone who is.
When we work in the name of the Lord, we are doing good. It's a good thing that God has told us what is good: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly.
Micah 6:8
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