I’ve been reading about William Carey with my son recently. We found some interesting connections with things we avoid saying or doing today in order to protect our “missional” reputation.
Carey was the father of the modern missionary movement which inspired thousands of missionaries to go to the ends of the earth with the Gospel. His dedication to reaching India and surrounding nations was incredible. He learned several languages, and often knew those languages better than the governing imperial officers. Carey longed to reach the lost with the Gospel. He laboured to plant the seeds of the Gospel wherever he was, to be “salt and light” (Matt. 5:13-16) to the culture. This often meant confronting the culture, head-on.
Against the World
It’s easy to say
we care for the
downtrodden
when there are
no big toes to
tread on when
we say it.
Most famously, Carey opposed the practice of sati, whereby Indian widows were burned alive once their husbands had died. Carey knew this was simply wrong. He did not worry about offending the existing traditions by saying so. Nor did he worry about being called a “white supremacist” for telling Indian people they shouldn’t be burning widows alive. He cared more about the widows than what people would think or say of him.
In challenging sati Carey was also remembering James’ exhortation “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27). It’s easy to say we care for the downtrodden when there are no big toes to tread on in order to say it. It’s easy to parrot trendy hashtags about who we’re willing to support when it’s the flavour of the week on social media. We’re usually happy to support whatever or whoever we’re told to, provided we don’t get called names for doing so. This is a problem, and it’s why James said we must keep ourselves “unstained from the world”. Even when we’re trying to care for people in the world, the world may still drag us into self-serving habits.
Caring is Costly
Caring for the oppressed is not about virtue-signalling or reputation-building. Truly caring for those most oppressed by the sins and lies of our time will usually be costly. It will usually involve confronting and/or challenging an oppressor. Generally speaking, oppressors tend to prefer remaining unconfronted and/or unchallenged. Be warned, but do not fear.
Carey’s fear
of God was
greater than
his fear of
people.
God’s care for the oppressed is one of the most prominent themes in Scripture, especially those most socially vulnerable. This is why orphans and widows are mentioned more than a few times: ‘You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry’ (Exodus 22:22-23). One of the burdens of missionaries like Carey was to respond to God’s call to liberate the mistreated and oppressed. This wasn’t just about talking about God’s love, but also his judgement on oppressors.
This judgement may also extend to enablers and cowards, who may see what is wrong and yet may still do nothing about it for fear of the consequences. Carey’s fear of God was greater than his fear of people.
Challenging the Unimaginable
This dual care for God’s holiness and God’s care for people drove Carey to confront another abominable practice he encountered in India: child sacrifice…
“Why should babies be cast into the river year after year?” It’s a really excellent question. So excellent that it’s almost stupid. The answer seems so obvious that it seems to render the question pointless. Evidently, it was not so obvious for Carey’s hearers or he wouldn’t have had to say it.
We’re too
advanced to
be throwing
babies into
rivers …we
just remove
“placental
parasites”
But he did say it, loud and clear: “Why should babies be cast into the river year after year?” You don’t need to look too far today to see that this question remains an excellent and/or obvious question for us too. We call it abortion. Or: the legal, morally acceptable murder of unborn children by the millions. Or: the casting of babies into the river year after year.
Abortion’s Magic Words
Naturally, the modern pro-choice advocate has ways of dealing with such crude and unnuanced comparisons as I’ve just made. They will say that Carey was opposing “primitive, barbaric practices” for the sake of “outdated religious superstitions”. We all know the modern west is far too civilised for such things. We’re too advanced to be throwing babies into rivers at the behest of a river goddess! No, instead we simply remove “placental parasites” from human “hosts”. Totally different. For one thing, you cannot hear the parasites cry. This helps a lot.
We also profess not to believe in magic today. And yet, oddly enough, we find that words sometimes accomplish quite magical things when we ask them to. Words like “parasite”, “foetus”, “health”, “medical procedure”. Such words are magic words because they accomplish remarkable feats. They form opinions in the minds of mothers which would have been thought unthinkable by most mothers ever before our time.
Like all magic tricks, it works best if you close your eyes. We’ve been closing our eyes on abortion for decades. Why should babies be cast into the river, year after year? Because we’ve told ourselves it might not be all that evil after all. Or perhaps I’m oversimplifying?
We’ve been
closing our
eyes on abortion
for well over
half a century
now.
Justifying the Unjustifiable
Surely, abortion is nothing like all that superstitious nonsense Carey was talking about? Surely, abandoning sickly babies in forests to be devoured by wild animals because “their parents thought they were bewitched and would bring disaster to the village” is just crazy? We would never dream of giving such a reason today, of course. How many down’s syndrome detection scans during pregnancy result in abortion? Well…I guess you could say that disability is a kind of “bewitchment”. And what about the fear that they’d “bring disaster to the village”? Well…we all know that “having a child is the grandest act of climate destruction”. In other words, if we really care about the future of the human race, we must kill more of our babies.
Carey chose to
protect babies
rather than
his missional
reputation.
Their Life or Your Reputation?
Perhaps Christians should stay silent about such things? After all, “complex” side-topics might harm our missional witness. That brilliant missional witness. The one which sees thousands of new converts flocking to our churches each week. Must protect that missional witness… It’s working so well…
I’m encouraged that William Carey chose to protect babies (and widows) rather than his missional reputation. In any case, opposing evil is hardly going to be harmful to the mission in the long run. Most people would agree that Carey wasn’t such a bad missionary, as missionaries go.
“Why should babies be cast into the river year after year?” It’s still a really excellent question.