Article Assessment- Mission Assignment

HIWD 370 A RTICLE A SSESSMENT : M ISSIONS A SSIGNMENT Brianna Pine December 11 th , 2023 Robert Woodberry “Reclaiming the M-Word: The Legacy of Missions in Nonwestern Societies”. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Vol.4 Iss.1 (April 26, 2010): 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2006.9523232 Woodberry believes that missionairies have a big impact on a number of things within the 19 th and beginning of 20 th century. In this artcle he discusses the controversy about missions and the importance of missions. In this article Woodberry shares what is commonly related with colonialism and hold responsible for offending different native religious freedoms, cultures, while missionary’s job has been shown to be synergistic. 1 Woodburry supports his thesis by looking more at the historical research on missions rather than the statistics. 2 He goes back to the whole 19 th and beginning of 20 th century and re;ates it to today for this whole article. Therfore he shares with us the readers how the missionairies was and is still measurable in areas of infant mortality, political democracy and educational enrollment that is shown in a number of communities around the world back then and now 3 Woodberry starts with the reasons why missions matter by sharing how a a lot of the missionaries that come have a college degree so are very well educated which then can help with educating not only the children but also adults in those communities. When you look at many socities with missionairies you see less of a negaitive impact than those societies with no missionairies. It has been seen according to Woodberry when it comes to colonism and the negative results of so have been shown to be higher when missionaires are not presence. 4 Woodberry then going on to dicuss the racial attitudes towards missionaries. According to Woodberry ethnocentrism is what was known to be the biggest analyst when it comes to missionaries. However Woodberry later in this article shares that instead of the issue being racial it should be considered more cultural than anything due to believes rather than color of ones self. Lastly Woodberry shares on the impact that missionaires had the on the growth of the society. Many people did not believe the same thing some were Protestants while others were Hindus and there was a lot of controversy. 5 However as missionairies came they shared that many people are going to believe in certain things those people should have the ability to believe what they believe. The biggest impact Woodberry believed they had was colonial reform because the missionairies’s biggest concerns were not politics it was more conversational. Missionairies had the choice of sharing the gospel with others because of freedom they had and they did what they believed was right no matter the society they were in. 1 Robert Woodberry “Reclaiming the M-Word: The Legacy of Missions in Nonwestern Societies”. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Vol.4 Iss.1 (April 26, 2010) 3 2 Woodberry , “Reclaiming the M-Word,” 3 3 Woodberry , “Reclaiming the M-Word,” 3-4 4 Woodberry , “Reclaiming the M-Word,” 4 5 Woodberry , “Reclaiming the M-Word,” 6