Do you remember a few years ago when Jim Bowers and his family were shot down in Peru? They were missionaries and the government mistook their aircraft for drug runners. Jim’s wife and infant daughter were killed and the pilot was injured. At the funeral service, Jim announced that he and his surviving son would indeed return. Though I can’t find them now, I seem to remember that some of the commentators thought he was wrong and they mildly criticized his decision.
More recently we heard the tragic news of a gunman killing 5 Amish children in their schoolhouse. The Amish community quietly came together and buried their dead and prayed for the one who killed them. I understand that Bill Maher said this week that the Amish were “real Christians”. I know the news media really embraced the Amish and sympathized with them.
Why the different approaches to the tragedies? Why was Bowers wrong and the Amish right? I won’t pretend to have all the answers or even that there isn’t a difference. But it was Maher’s comment that the Amish seemed like real Christians to him that got me thinking of these two.
The Amish are an appealing because they are “quaint”. We like them because they’re different and sequestered. They have their beliefs, strong beliefs at that, and the hold them dearly, but they don’t try to spread them. That’s comfortable for American society. Such religious beliefs are museum pieces we can look at safely stored behind glass. When we stop thinking of them, they go away. They make no demands on us. But missionary Christians, whoa, that’s another issue. They aren’t safe. They are not museum pieces, they are involved in society. They vote and express their opinions and sometimes make demands of us. They climb outside the glass case and live lives that are compelling. Missionaries who get captured by the Taliban or shot down by the Peruvian government live lives that we can’t just observe from the outside and say “aww, that’s nice.” There is something about those kinds of lives that shout at us. There is something that would lead a person, a seemingly sane and normal person, to go and do those things. The two women captured by the Taliban were especially arresting for our news media because they looked good on camera. That kind of a thing gives instant credibility to them in the image-based culture of the news media. “Now what are we supposed to do with them?” they ask, “We can’t make them look crazy, they’re pretty!”
The juxtaposition of these two reactions demonstrate, to me, what Jesus meant when he said “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 5:16 ESV)
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