_The Right to Feel Superior_
The meeting of the Missionary Union had closed. The Bible Institute
students were leaving the room in groups, and many of them were
discussing the message which they had just heard.
"What did you think of his last point?" asked one.
"That about race prejudice, you mean? About not thinking that because
our skin is white, we're better than anyone else? To tell the truth,
it seemed a bit superfluous to me. I suppose race prejudice and race
pride still do exist, but not in a group like this. Why, we're
practically all missionary candidates!"
"Just what I thought myself!" rejoined the first. "You'd think he'd
gotten his audience mixed. But he knew he was talking to missionary
candidates, all right. That's the strange part. The rest of his
talk--it was the real stuff. But that one point--I just couldn't make
it out."
"Oh, he's just fifty years out of date, that's all," commented
another. "That's the way it was when _he_ went to the field--the
imperialistic white man and the downtrodden native--but times have
changed. People wouldn't act like that now. Each race has its own
culture, and its own contribution to make to enrich the culture of the
world. We realize all this now. The Christian world has come a long
way since _he_ was in training. Pride of race! We're more likely to be
ashamed of our race, if he only knew it. Look at the state the world's
in--all trouble stirred up by the white race!"
"Some of those old missionaries _were_ imperialistic, all right!" A
slight, blond youth joined the conversation. "You should hear some of
the tales my father tells! Ordering the native people around as if
they were slaves! Such cases were few and far between, of course. But,
you know, I don't think that's the sort of thing he was driving at.
Times may change, but not the human heart. Pride is just as easy a sin
to fall into as it ever was. Thinking that we're better than someone
else--it may not be because of our race, but merely because the other
fellow is poor or uneducated--we can't just dismiss it and say, 'I'm
in no danger of that.'"
"Well, perhaps there's something--"
"Aw, just because you grew up on a mission field--"
"You know, _I_ think--" Several began to talk at once. Suddenly a gong
rang, and the group scattered in all directions.
"Oh, Ann, I've been wanting to find you! A bunch of us are planning to
go to Tong's for a Chinese meal. Do you want to come along?"
"Chinese meal? Dear me, I've never had one. Do you have to eat with
chopsticks? Don't they serve you rats and mice and all sorts of
horrible things?"
"Of course not, you silly! There are the most delicious things! And
you don't have to eat with chopsticks unless you want to. In fact,
they always give us knives and forks unless we especially ask for
chopsticks. But I adore strange ways! This will be my third time for
Chinese food. We always ask for chopsticks--it's the most fun trying
to use them! Though I must admit that we usually give up halfway--the
food is so delicious and we're so hungry we have to. Then you'll
come?"
"Well--to tell the truth, I'm afraid it will be some awful stuff I
can't eat."
"I'm surprised at you, Ann! You're a missionary candidate, aren't you?
You'll _have_ to get used to strange--"
"No, but it seems so sort of uncivilized to eat with sticks, or
fingers--and all out of one dish, isn't it? Ugh!"
"Now don't be fussy! Didn't you hear that missionary talk last night?
You've got to appreciate other people's ways on the mission
field--can't go around thinking your ways are best!"
"I know." Ann was suddenly very serious. "But there's only one thing
about it that bothers me. What if your own ways really _are_ best?"
* * * * *
Chopsticks, or knives and forks--which are best? Not which are the
most intriguing, or cause the most hilarity, but which really and
truly are the most useful for their purpose--that of conveying food to
one's mouth in a convenient and graceful manner. Don't condemn Ann
offhand. If I were to ask _you_ this question, what answer would _you_
give?
"Well--really--" you say. "After all--" Yes. That's just it. You, and
Ann, and millions more can't help realizing (or is it feeling?) that
your way _is_ best. But what about the millions in China and Japan?
How would they answer the question? Did you ever stop to think that
their reaction would be just as immediate, and their answer just as
sure? And I think I am safe in saying that a larger proportion of them
have actually tried using the other person's implements than we have.
When a group of ex-China missionaries get together at home and go to a
Chinese restaurant for a meal, the first thing they do after ordering
is to request that the food be served in bowls, and they be supplied
with chopsticks instead of knives and forks. Why? Ask any of them. The
reply you will probably get is, "Oh, it doesn't taste the same when
eaten with knives and forks!" And the strange part about it is that it
is really true.
"But," you say, "chopsticks are so difficult to use!" Not at all! You
just need a little practice. Even knives and forks are difficult for
beginners to manage. You would know that if you had watched as many
beginners (adults) try to use them as I have.
"No, but you can't cut anything with them!" Of course you can't. The
kitchen is the place for cutting up food. To serve a slab of meat on a
plate, and expect the eater to saw off pieces with a dull knife--it's
utterly barbarous! Chinese food is properly prepared, bite-size, in
the kitchen.
"Oh? But what about soup or gravy? You can't eat _them_ with
chopsticks!" Quite true; neither can you eat them with knife and fork.
Chinese eat soup with a spoon, or drink it from a bowl.
"Well, chopsticks are awkward, in any case!" Awkward? What are you
talking about? They are just like pincers--you nip a bite and pick it
up daintily, instead of spearing, or shoveling, as you do with a fork.
It's amazing how hard it is for an American (I won't speak for other
nationalities!) to come to the place where he will appreciate the
fact that the ways of people in other lands are in many cases better
for them than our ways would be. If you are going to the foreign field
in order to teach "the American way of life," you had better stay at
home. In saying this I do not mean that Americans do not have some
skills that it might be advantageous for the people on some foreign
mission fields to learn. But any missionary who has the feeling that
his ways of doing things are better just because they are "civilized"
ways, or "American" ways, or just his own ways, is heading for
trouble.
When I first went to China I thought I had no feeling of race
superiority. Then an incident occurred that showed me I was not as
humble as I had thought. It was at the Chinese New Year season.
Chinese New Year is the time of preparing all sorts of special foods,
and frequently at that time some of the Christian women would send us
a bowl of this, or a plate of that. There was a neighborly feeling
about it all that warmed my heart. Then one year a fairly wealthy
Christian woman, who had just recently moved to our city, sent her
servant over with a gift of a different kind. It was not food this
time, but money. In purchasing value the amount would have been
equivalent to an American dollar or two. It was the first money gift
that had ever been presented to me by a Chinese.
I had always been pleased with the gifts of food, but somehow, when I
saw what this gift was, I reacted strongly against it. There was
something in me that rebelled. "_I_ don't need your money!" was my
instinctive reaction. Fortunately I had enough politeness left to
realize that I could not refuse it without offending the giver, and so
I did take it, mumbling my thanks, which I did not feel, and watched
the servant depart. Then I sat down to think it out. _Why_ did it make
me so uncomfortable to accept that gift? When I finally got to the
bottom of it, I decided that the real reason was that I unconsciously
felt that it put me in an inferior position. Accepting a gift of food
was different--that was just neighborliness. But a small gift of
money! That is normally given by a superior to an inferior--a father
to his child, a mistress to her servant, one who has sufficient for
his needs to one who has not. In this case the giver did not look at
it like that, of course. Money gifts were a common thing in her
circle, and to her the amount was not too small. But my unconscious
reaction was that I was being put in an inferior position, and this
was the thing at which I rebelled. How could I, who was this woman's
superior (this was my unconscious feeling), take this money, and so
accept the place of being her inferior?
The position of a missionary is something like that of a teacher. He
comes to tell people something that they do not know; to introduce a
Friend of whom they have not heard. He certainly knows more about
Christianity, academically and experimentally, than the people to whom
he goes--otherwise there would be no point in his going. He probably
knows more about the world in general than the people to whom he goes.
He may know better ways of living and working, even for their
environment, than they do. How can a person be conscious of how much
more he knows than someone else, and still not feel _superior_? Those
among whom he works may realize that he knows much that they should
learn, and may look up to him as a superior being. This makes it even
harder. How can he overcome the superiority complex that comes from
race, or from looking on oneself as _civilized_, or even just from
recognizing that one has more education and experience than those
among whom he works?
The first step in conquering this superiority complex is to realize
that it is there. Most of us have it without realizing it. If we
realize that this thing probably exists somewhere in our make-up, it
will be easier to recognize it when it suddenly rears its head, as it
did with me. Seeing it for what it is is the first step in conquering
it. The second step, I think, is to become thoroughly acquainted with
those to whom we go. Perhaps if we know more about them we will not
find them so inferior. Go and live their life with them, twenty-four
hours of the day. Don't just put yourself in the position of an
observer, but try to do the things that they do. You will probably
find that you are not as proficient in doing most of the things that
they do as are their ten-year-old children! If your people are
_uncivilized_, go into the jungle with them and try to wrest your
living from the jungle--try to find or make everything that you need.
If they are _civilized_, but poor and backward, go into their homes,
and live their lives with them. See how they grow their own food, and
that without the use of modern machinery; how they grind their own
grain into flour, salt or dry their own vegetables, butcher their own
meat--if they have any; how they raise cotton, pick it, card it, spin
it, dye it, weave it into cloth, and make the clothes for the family
without the aid of a sewing machine. And then watch them (as I often
have) make beautiful embroidery for relaxation! By the time you have
become really familiar with (I won't say proficient in) their way of
life, I think you will have lost most of your feeling of superiority.
You will no more think of them as "ignorant savages," or "those from
lower cultural groups." Instead, they will just be John, and Mary, and
Peter, and Paul--or whatever their names happen to be--real people,
like you and me; real people, who are amazingly skillful in some ways,
and amazingly stupid in others, just like the rest of us.
There is one more thing we need to do in conquering that superiority
complex. We need to realize what a difference having Christ makes.
Those to whom we minister may live in the midst of filth and disease.
Their minds may be dull, and their hearts dark and full of fears.
(Were our ancestors any different when Christ found them?) But see
them come to the One who is the Light of the world, and watch the
transformation that takes place. Then realize more deeply than ever
all that you owe to Christ, and the greatness of His power in making
the one who comes to Him literally "a new creation." What these people
need is not a training that will educate them out of their
environment. What they need is not to learn to use knives and forks
instead of chopsticks or fingers. What they need is a LIFE that will
transform them, and enable them to live a life of victory over sin and
the Devil within their environment. This imparted life may gradually
transform that environment too--probably it will; but that is a
secondary thing. There is one thing that is essential, and one
alone--the impartation of the life of Christ. It does not matter how
low, how ignorant, how degraded the person is, Christ is _able_ to
transform him into someone far superior to me; and it may be that
that is _just what He is going to do_. Who am I, a poor redeemed
sinner, to look down upon anyone else? Who am I to challenge Christ's
power, and refuse to believe that anyone can be made new?
* * * * *
_Dear Lord, forgive me for feeling that I am superior to anyone! Open
my eyes to see how deep was the pit from which I was digged! Grant
that I may make myself one with the people to whom Thou art sending
me, and that by faith I can see them transformed by Thy power, even
before that transformation has taken place!_