On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:11:25 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

On Jan 16, 10:34*am, "H :) K" wrote:
Tim wrote:
Burt then again, you're not running a forien coutry, and they have had
missionaries there for years. There's probably more mission run
clinics there in Haiti *then any thing supplied by any government
inside, or outside

I'm aware of that, as I have fundie relatives by marriage who have
served stints as missionaries in Central and South America. The primary
goal of fundamentalist missionaries is to spread "the faith," no matter
what else they are doing in those underdeveloped countries. That was the
primary goal of my southern baptist "relatives," one of whom worked as a
nurse at a clinic and the other who worked as a teacher in a little
school. The sickening part was they were working to convert Catholics
into protestants.

Did they help improve peoples health? Did they teach kids to read?
I think that's a bit better than living in desease and ignorance.

Now I could agree with your conversion thoughts if the missionaries
method of "converting" was forced. I really doubt there was any
"forcing" going on. But if you wish to disagree, it's always your
right to be critical.

All too often missionary groups have committed a form of cultural
genocide by suppressing native languages and customs, all in the name
of education and western morality of course. We were given a first
hand view of this in Alaska last year. Several different native
Alaskans that we spoke to remembered very well their days as children
in missionary schools, and the memories are not exactly positive to
say the least. It was apparently common place for the children to be
beaten for any use of their native language or display of native
customs. Parents were coerced into sending their children to the
schools under various threats. There are also many reports of this
sort of thing from Hawaii and other south Pacific islands. The
medical services and educational opportunities always seem to come
with strings attached.