Re: [asa] On Job

"My experience overseas has been just the opposite. People tend to
react better to a foreigner with perceived greater knowledge than a
local for much the same reason Christ faced rejection in his home town."

How much of this is attributable to the foreign missionary's coming from a technologically superior (e.g., medicinally, etc.) culture? I often wonder whether Christian missionaries from the West in foreign lands are promoting Western civilization as much as Christianity. Without the boost from the reputation of having a more advanced civilization, the impact would likely not be the same. In any case, making conversions in foreign lands is often a painfully slow process, not one in which a whole large city all of a sudden repents in sackcloth.

It's the "perceived greater knowledge," very likely, that has the impact. That's what I referred to when I wrote, "If [foreigners are] known in advance for their accomplishments, they're often given sometimes undeserved special respect." On what grounds would the Ninevites have perceived Jonah to have had such "greater knowledge"?

You're right in inferring that too much familiarity breeds disrespect. But being too different in the absence of a special reputation also breeds disrespect. That's normal human prejudice at work. People of Nazareth had a hard time accepting Jesus for who he was, but his most successful ministry was in nearby portions of Galilee, and his closest disciples as a rule came from there as well. They all spoke with the same accent (Matt. 26:73). And Jesus worked miracles to support his teaching, just as missionaries today use modern medicine to work miracles. Jonah apparently didn't do any such thing.

Don

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: IW<mailto:iain@secure.holuwon.com>
  To: ASA List<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:59 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] On Job

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  On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:43:37 -0700
  "Don Winterstein" <dfwinterstein@msn.com<mailto:dfwinterstein@msn.com>> wrote the following with the
  subject heading Re: [asa] On Job:

>A strong and rapid, though not too lasting, response to a mysterious
>foreign preacher does not seem historically improbable.
>
>Can you cite an instance where it's known to have happened? Seems
>highly improbable on the face of it to me.

  Why? My expereince overseas has been just the opposite. People tend to
  react better to a foreigner with perceived greater knowledge than a
  local for much the same reason Christ faced rejection in his home town.

  ¨I know your mother/father your life. Who are you to teach me?¨

  The foreigner, while often distrusted, is more likely in many (not all
  cases) to be listened simply because they are not local and not bound
  by traditions and culture of the locals.

  I have seen this often in my work in community development and in my
  peers work. As for religious examples I suggest reading
  missionary/historical literature on missions work in West papua for
  many examples.

>I picture a foreigner coming up to me out of the blue spouting all
>kinds of crazy things. I'd tend to distance myself quickly.

  Because you come from a western, scientific ¨debunk the myth¨
  cynical culture. Most people don´t! :)

  IW
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Received on Thu Oct 12 09:34:23 2006