Re: SIL (was: A project)

On Sat, 15 Sep 2001, Jesse Bangs wrote:

> Besides, the people at Wycliffe/SIL are only really concerned about
> religion.  The real work of cultural change--the loss of native styles of
> dress, music, and modes of living--is done by the corporations and
> governments.
You can't promote Christianity without changing many styles of dress and
living in the world. Christianity has views on issues of modesty, family
structures, and sexual access that do not necessarily match the cultures
being visited. Such changes will probably be seen as good things to a
Christian, but they are still radical changes ("destruction") to the
culture.

But even apart from the Christianity issue, SIL workers bring their own
cultures with them. Sometimes in an honest attempt to be friendly and
helpful, they introduce things and ideas that are harmful to the local
culture. A case in point (one I was told about, but have no confirmation
of) is where SIL workers introduced soccer and the card game UNO to a
culture that did not encourage competition. This, apparently, brought
about hard feelings between natives of the town that drastically changed
things. Whether or not this is true, it does illustrate the point that SIL
workers can destroy a culture/community, even if Christianity itself is
not the main problem.

Marcus

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