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THE KING’S ENGLISH IN A TAMIL TONGUE Ray McMillan was only 21 years old when he began working with J. C. Bailey in 1963. In his ministry, he soon began to realize that the 1901 ASV—like the KJV—was difficult for English-speaking Indians to understand. So shortly before leaving on his first furlough to America, Ray put the controversial—but far more readable—RSV (Revised Standard Version) into the church pews, unaware of the sensitivity of the matter. His colleague, David Hallett, found out about this and took action. When Ray returned to India, he discovered that the RSVs were gone and KJV Bibles had been installed in the pews. He did not cause a fuss about it since he was quite a bit younger than Hallett. 50 The residual effect is that some English-speaking Church of Christ groups in India still insist on using the KJV. What translation is used generally has to do with the missionary held in the highest regard. For example, in northeast India, the churches under the influence of Ray McMillan are actually using the New International Version now, probably due to his theological influence. After all, he has been involved in their work continuously since 1963. They trust the translation he uses. Other Church of Christ networks, like Arise Shine, have tried to remain loyal to J. C. Bailey and the earlier, more conservative missionaries. The English-speaking churches associated with David Hallett’s ministry—both in India and America—still use the KJV. 51 HYBRIDITY A final issue that comes to the fore has to do with hybridity, or, the blended identity that many Indian Christians deal with today. 52 Tamil fealty to the king’s English is part of a much broader phenomenon of living in India with a faith that is perceived as being Western. There is a considerable body of scholarship dealing with religious and cultural hybridity in the context of Indian Christianity. 53 Historian Robert Frykenberg’s work is perhaps the most important. With an unparalleled breadth of understanding, including his own missionary upbringing in India, he speaks of the suffering that many Indians have endured because of this “dual identity.” 54 This hybridity plays out in various 50 Ray McMillan, e-mail message to author, March 30, 2011. 51 Ray McMillan communicated to me that a missionary named Jim Waldron is now in Shillong, Meghalaya, supervising the churches formerly associated with David Hallett. Ray McMillan, e-mail message to author, April 1, 2011. On Jim Waldron’s website, the KJV and occasionally the NKJV are used. See Waldron’s “Bulletin Briefs” at http://www.waldronmissions.org/bulletin_briefs.htm. 52 Hybridity has been defined as “The constant and organic fusion, intermixture, and translation of cultural practices.” John Hinnells, ed., The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2010), 586. 53 See Corinne Dempsey, Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); Chad Bauman, Christian Identity and Dalit Religion in Hindu India, 1868–1947, Studies in the History of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008); Selva Raj and Corinne Dempsey, eds., Popular Christianity in India: Riting between the Lines, SUNY Series in Hindu Studies (New York: State University of New York Press, 2002); Rowena Robinson and Joseph Marianus Kujur, eds., Margins of Faith: Dalit and Tribal Christianity in India (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2010); and Eliza Kent, Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). 54 Robert Eric Frykenberg, “Christian Missions and the Raj,” in Missions and Empire, ed. Norman Etherington, Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 128. Frykenberg’s own hybrid identity and hybrid style are discussed in Richard Fox Young, “The Frykenberg Vamsavali: A South Asia Historian’s Geneaology, Personal and Academic, with a Bibliography of His Works,” in India and the Indianness of Christianity: Essays on Understanding—Historical, Theological, and Bibliographical—in Honor 103
MISSIO DEI 4.1 (FEBRUARY 2013): 89–109 ways. For instance, in the nineteenth century there was a “Hindu Christian” movement that became a precursor to Indian independence movements. 55 Describing themselves as “ ‘Hindu’ in culture, Christian in faith,” they upheld Hindu traditions that were objectionable to Europeans. 56 For example, some Hindu Christians directly opposed missionary efforts to dispose of caste-ism in the church. He writes, “Among converts to Christianity . . . what was notable was the tenacity with which they preserved traditional culture and avoided, or even spurned, ways of the West.” Another example was the famous Indian Christian convert Sadhu Sundar Singh who declared “Indians need the Water of Life, but not the European cup.” 57 In spite of indigenization movements, there were—and are—problems stemming from the hybrid identity of being an Indian and a Christian, especially when caste is involved. 58 A change in religion does not translate to a change in caste. Buddhism, Janism, Sikhism, and Christianity have all—at one point or another—served as vehicles of hope for lowcaste people trying to escape the albatross of social stigmatization. And in more cases than not, those attempts have failed. In most cases, caste is more fundamental to Indian identity than is religion. It is much easier for one to change his or her religion than it is to change caste. In the Indian Churches of Christ, there is definitely a sense of having a foot in two worlds, of living a hybrid existence. Their religion came from North America. However, the majority of them know little of North America outside of media influences, stories, and the occasional missionary visit. For most of the Church of Christ members however, particularly in the village, North America is that Christian land from whence their heroes in the faith came. Living as a Church of Christ Christian in a sea of non-Church of Christ people requires a certain duality that allows the Christian to function as a member of Indian society without compromising the Christian ideals that have become sacred to the community. There are many tensions in living this way, however. Church of Christ identity in modern India is a rather insular affiliation, perhaps best exemplified in an old, self-deprecating Church of Christ joke: A man dies and goes to heaven. The apostle Peter welcomes him and gives him a tour of heaven. As they walk they notice Christians of all stripes— Methodists, Baptists, and Catholics. But then the man asks Peter, “Who are those people in that room by themselves?” Peter responds, “Shhhh . . . those are members of the Church of Christ; they think they’re the only ones here.” 59 Here again we encounter of Robert Eric Frykenberg, ed. Richard Fox Young, 1–25, Studies in the History of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009). 55 Frykenberg, 115, provides the notable example of Bishop V. S. Azariah as “a nationalist eager for the end of empire.” 56 Ibid., 122. 57 Ibid., 128. He cites Pandita Ramabi’s insistence that she was a “Hindu Christian.” 58 Ibid., 128, writes, “All Indian Christians knew that their religious identity could never supersede other identities that were grounded in history and culture.” 59 This joke is widely available on the web and perhaps oddly the Church of Christ community is well aware of it. Some of the websites perpetuating the joke actually defend the notion that the a capella movement does indeed have a monopoly on salvation. See, for example, one website’s attempt to vilify Max Lucado—a famous Church of Christ writer—for actually making light of the joke. See http://www.rowlettcoc.org/ 104
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February 2013 VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 VUL
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The cover of this issue is adapted
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FEBRUARY 2013 EDITORIAL BOARD Execu
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PREFACE TO THE ISSUE Dependency, wh
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MISSIONAL THEOLOGY
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“MISSION IN WEAKNESS AND VULNERAB
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BIBLIOGRAPHY “MISSION IN WEAKNESS
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Economy of Grace: An Early Christia
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ECONOMY OF GRACE understanding is t
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Economy of Grace in Ephesians ECONO
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ECONOMY OF GRACE This instruction b
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ECONOMY OF GRACE discovery and the
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ECONOMY OF GRACE missionaries must
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Unveiling Empire: Ecclesial Resista
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UNVEILING EMPIRE Of course, in this
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UNVEILING EMPIRE interpreting it, a
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UNVEILING EMPIRE tear the skin from
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UNVEILING EMPIRE curity is made to
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UNVEILING EMPIRE have. As Wendell B
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UNVEILING EMPIRE sions. Paul quite
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UNVEILING EMPIRE Howard-Brook, Wes.
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MISSIONAL PRAXIS
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REFLECTIONS
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BOOK REVIEWS
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