The story of American missionary Renee Bach made waves last year when she was implicated in the deaths of more than 100 Ugandan children. But does her complex situation serve as a mirror for us—and for modern evangelical missions in general? This week, Scott and Alex address whether or not Western missions is dominated by the “white savior” mindset and how pastors can send and train better to prevent stories like this from happening.
Read Darren Carlson’s article, “The White Savior Complex in Missions?” on The Gospel Coalition.
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The Missions Podcast is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund. This episode is also sponsored by Radius International, CROSS Conference, Fusion, and Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention.
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The problem is that there are continued overtones of colonialism that still plague the Evangelical missions movement. For example, the Amazon algorithms recently suggested this new missions “devotional” book entitled “Press On: What the missionary journeys of James Gribble teach us about prayer, perseverance and the ultimate prize” (look it up on Amazon). The book cover displays an old photo of a white missionary dressed in colonial gear surrounded by a several “primitive” looking Africans. An excerpt from the book says: “When I get to heaven,” he wrote, “and there see crowds of these bright faced people, perhaps I shall ask, ‘Who are these?’ And another shall reply, ‘These are those who are rescued from dark heathendom in neglected Africa.’ Oh, that He may be able to say—‘through you.’ And we wonder why we still struggle with a white savior complex. It’s hard to believe that books like this are still being published in our day.