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There are NO good missionaries. Though wrapped in benevolent self-justification, every missionary movement—religious, political, ideological—starts with an arrogant presumption of superiority and ends with the destruction of somebody else’s land/culture/identity/family/life.
There are nice people involved in missionary work—I’ve known many, and I’m even related to some who I love dearly. Doesn’t change the fact that very nice people can do very, very bad things and be party to terrible practices.
And it seems to me that the most enthusiastic missionaries tend to be those with the least experience of dealing with cultural difference, as if the very existence of ways that differ from their own is an existential threat to their sense of cultural singularity.
You can do a lot with your time, energy, and resources to assist those who seek assistance in a pain-filled world without working with the narcissistic goal of their eventual transformation into a version of yourself. Difference is not deficiency.
Missionizing is too often about turning a clear "no" into a "yes," no matter how unenthusiastic, of disregarding refusal and insisting on having one's own way. It's often realized through coercion and threats of violence (in this world or the next). There's another word for that.
And let's recall that the kinds of evangelicalism most often imposed on Indigenous communities today are deeply invested in the gospel of capitalist extractivism. Their motto could well be "Saving souls for Jesus while expanding markets for Mammon." There's nothing innocent here.
Many Indigenous people today are Christian; most Cherokees are Baptists, including my own kin. These are complicated histories and realities, and it takes nothing away from their sincere faith to acknowledge how missionary efforts have also deeply harmed our families and nations.
It was missionary zeal for transforming Indigenous peoples into a servile class that fuelled the residential school system. Missionary interests motivated the Sixties' Scoop and continue to fuel efforts to use state power to steal Indigenous children for white Christian families.
This is happening *now* throughout Canada; missionary interests have strengthened attacks on the Indian Child Welfare Act in the US, justified the theft and adoption of refugee children at the US-Mexico border, informed the new adoption law in New South Wales. It's not innocent.
Ultimately there's just something profoundly uncouth about people--with few discernibly useful skills and little demonstrable understanding of the world--being so invested in destroying other peoples' lifeways, kin, and connections in order to to feel superior about their own.
I recognize that these words are painful for some readers. But your hurt feelings aren't comparable to the manifest human misery that the missionary enterprise has had on so many people *for centuries*, nor its ongoing harms. If you want it to be better, work to change it.
