Missionary, that is. You know, cultural imperialists, moralizers, making the Hawaiian women wear Muumuu’s, generally spoiling paradise, wherever they go.  Except, that it isn’t true.  Not if you’ve ever known any of these people, or if you’ve visited them where they live and work, or even if you read accurate accounts of what they’re like and what they do.

But either way, we try very hard to avoid using the M-word ourselves, on the general principle that if there’s something that people find obnoxious in our culture, we’re ready to drop it. After all, nobody ever didn’t like Jesus. We do our best to stick with him, and what he taught and what he’s like. But we can’t give up on actual mission activity—or perhaps saying it better, we can’t stop reaching out—including to people in other cultures.

Haiti brings all this to the fore. The papers in general, and the NYT in particular, have been using the M-word in their reports of how the Christians get all the aid first (well, if you were a Baptist, for example, and went to Haiti to share resources given by your friends at church, where would you go to start? A Haitian Baptist Church, right?)

The wonderful thing about Jesus is that he came to live among us, experiencing what we go through, and then from his love, letting us have life “abundantly”. we’re supposed to be doing the same kind of thing, in the flesh. So, let’s not accept the M-word, at least as applied to what we try to do. But let’s not stop the work of reaching out.