The Theology of Missions

countries. Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, started smuggling Bibles into
communist countries in the 1950s. Operation Mobilisation was established in 1957 by
George Verwer. Other Christian publishers, such as Plough Publishing, provide free
books to people in the UK and US as a form of mission. The Bible Society translates
and prints Bibles, in an attempt to reach every country in the world.
Westernization
Criticism
Objections to missionary work among isolated, indigenous populations involve the claim
that the goal of mission is to Westernize them. Such claims have been raised by
indigenous rights groups organizations, such as Friends of Peoples Close to Nature and
Survival International.
Communicating Diseases
Missionaries, along with other travelers, brought diseases into local populations.
Smallpox, measles, even the common cold, have been blamed on their arrivals. David
Igler of the University of California, Irvine, includes missionary activity as a cause of
spreading germs. However, he says that commercial traders were the main agents of
disease.
... other diseases arrived on non-commercial voyages; missionary activities certainly
spread germs, and Spanish conquests had dispersed deadly germs in parts of the
Americas and Pacific prior to the late eighteenth century. Yet, for the period between
Page 27 of 137