Just wondering: do Americans actually realize that the shittiest people in their country are actively spreading their ideas across the world? And I’m not just talking about the political interference or the mega-corporations. I’m talking lobbyists, articles, bloggers, think tanks, street missionaries.
Do y’all even realize there are Americans in the Netherlands who came here in groups specifically to do ‘mission work’ against abortion? And American-funded groups that vilify autism and tell people not to vaccinate their kids?
A lot of Dutch people don’t notice that they’re here either because these groups strategically underplay their American roots but they’re here and when a country that previously didn’t have an anti-vax movement suddenly needs to deal with that shit… yeah.. that happened.
And that’s just the Netherlands, far more money and energy goes into ‘missionary’ work in countries recovering from a history of colonization, countries recovering from wars and disasters, countries with a weakened education system. Republican Americans rush to those places to spread conservative Christianity with all the bigotry, anti-science and absolutely ridiculous politics that go with it.
Like, you should probably be aware of this shit, ‘cause it leaves a smell.
Never heard about missionaries going to other 1st world countries. The other part reminds me of some virulently homophobic US evangelicals pushing for a bill to further criminalize homosexuality in Uganda (and the initial criminalization dates from the British colonial era) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Act,_2014
It seems that in general with religious charity, proselytizing can take precedence over practical good works, and toxic forms of religion can be at least a side effect.
There has been a lot of missionary work overlapping neocolonialism, with missionaries from Europe and the US targetting countries still recovering from colonialism, and using their economic power to open schools and churches that cater their agenda. It’s important to recognize that. People giving money to ‘ development aid’
charities quickly become complicit in that process.
But that is by no means the only form of missionary work. International Christian networks (both protestant and catholic) are looking for opportunities everywhere and are recruiting missionaries in any place where their highly conservative take on Christianity is popular and sending them to places where it is not.
I’ve encountered (white catholic) anti-abortion missionaries from Brazil coming to the Netherlands to do their work. That does’t fit our idea of missionaries working hand in hand with colonialists, but it is happening nonetheless.
QueerAnarchism 