Citizen Columns

Citizen Columns >> Answer (September 16th, 2006)

Question

What is the role of mission in your community. Does your faith see evangelism or spreading the word of God to non-believers as part of its duty? What is your opinion of other faiths trying to convert your members, i.e. Christian missionaries appealing to Jews or Muslims?

Answer

I'll answer the second part of your question first. Orthodox Christians have their own bitter experience with aggressive proselytism to usually inoculate them against taking this approach with others. In Muslim lands in the Middle East they often face official or unofficial restrictions on freedom of religion and civil rights and there is pressure to convert. Muslims who convert to Christianity could be put to death. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe was flooded with fundamentalist Christian missionaries who saw this as a God-blessed open season on the Orthodox, whose faith they would not recognize as Christian. When I lived in Greece I encountered a Swedish Baptist missionary trying to convert Greek Orthodox believers, though with little success. This wasn't surprising, since he spoke no Greek and had scant knowledge, respect or love for the people, the country or their faith. The Orthodox don't have clean hands in this either however. Ukrainian Catholics have painful memories of Orthodox collaboration with Stalin's forced "conversion" of their churches in 1946.

Having said this, it is still a fact that mission is at the heart of the Christian message. This can't be avoided. We claim that God desires that people everywhere would have the love, joy, peace, freedom from fear, communion with God and victory over death that Jesus Christ brings. Some are searching spiritually but have never heard of this. Others have been completely turned off to the forms of Christianity that they have encountered. Should we turn on backs on them?

But the world is weary of religious advertising. People want to see the results before they buy. Today more than ever we need to demonstrate our love of God and love of neighbor if the message about Christ is to ring true.

Father John Jillions