“I will do it for you and you will thank me.”
A CHARACTER OF OUR MODERN MISSION METHOD
The characteristic of the missionary leadership of the Church is a paternalism which inhibits both the internal and the external growth of the Church. This paternalism is integral to the structure of the Church as we have planted it, even where the individual missionary personally may abjure it.
Paton in Reform of the Ministry p32.
THE METHOD CREATES “RICE CHRISTIANS”
Such people have often been called rice Christians. For the Western point of view a better term would be apron strings Christians, for their psychology is created by our desire to keep them closely related to, dependent up, and grateful to us.
McGavran in Church Growth and Christian Mission p54.
IT IS EASY TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE IN METHOD
There is a great difference between going to a people with the power of Christ to say to them “Rise up and walk in the Name of Christ,” and going to them with the message that you hope some day to find a man in England to hold them up.
Paton in Reform of the Ministry, letter from Roland Allen to the Bishop of Melanesia in 1925.
IS PATERNALISM A WAY OF SHOWING CHRISTIAN LOVE?
Although charity must be a mark of every missionary, he is not to limit himself to doing things for his flock but rather he is to teach them how to do things for themselves. This is the great form of charity, the type of charity that can bring about culture change.
Luzbetak in Church and Culture p205.
WHAT’S THE CAUSE OF PATERNALISM?
One of the major causes of paternalism in colonial missions was Western individualism and competitiveness.
Tippet in Missiology p60.
IS PATERNALISM A FORM OF PREJUDICE?
Another way in which the religious worker betrays his racial prejudice is through his paternalistic attitude and behavior. Paternalism is an attitude of pity driving the missioner to do everything for his people rather than to teach them how to help themselves.