(ABP) — Imagine being invited to go on a short-term mission trip to a country closed to mission personnel and bordering a closed nation torn by civil war. Participants cannot disclose the underlying reason for the trip — ministry to refugees — to the host country’s government. Instead, they must go in on a tourist visa.
Is that ethical? Should a conscientious Christian participate?
Most missionaries, both career and short-term volunteers, must deal with ethical dilemmas as they strive to share God’s love.
In making tough ethical decisions, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board stress the importance of understanding culture and applying biblical principles. The IMB helps missionaries understand and apply two concepts — to strip away Western culture and go to the Bible to avoid anything that might cause a brother to stumble, spokesperson Wendy Norvelle explained.
“Sometimes applying biblical principles is hard to do, because we encase our understanding of the Bible in our Western culture,” she said.
Missionaries must understand the culture where they work to avoid causing problems for those to whom they minister, even when understanding may require them to adopt patterns from that culture.
For example, women in some societies are required to cover their heads when they go out in public.
“It’s not our custom or belief, but it is in some cultures; or in some places, it’s the law…. We teach missionaries to look at the culture and determine how to bridge the two,” Norvelle said.
Still, missionaries face difficult choices. For instance, some cultures forbid educating women.
“What law are you breaking to teach a woman to read?” Norvelle asked.
Strategies for dealing with ethical issues are woven into the presentations and classes new appointees take during stateside orientation.
“We teach them how to live cross-culturally…. We teach them to seek answers, not give them answers,” she said. “We give them the tools to teach them how to live and adapt.”
The IMB also works hard during the candidate-screening process to make sure an appointee serves where his or her gifts are best suited. An individual gifted in street evangelism likely would be sent to an area that allows open religious activity, for example, rather than to a closed country.
Honesty and integrity are the bedrocks upon which ethical decisions — both at home and abroad — must be made, a longtime missionary and former top missions leader believes.
“The best course is to maintain integrity and honesty, to recognize that anything we do or say can become public knowledge,” Keith Parks said. “The best defense is to say, ‘I did what I thought was right.’”
Parks speaks from years of missions experience, including 42 years as a missions professional. He served 38 years with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign Mission Board, first as a missionary and then as a field administrator, with his final 13 years as the agency’s chief executive.
He also served the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as coordinator of global missions for six years.
Missionaries — whether career workers or short-term volunteers — face ethical dilemmas, he acknowledged. Even a simple choice can present an ethical issue. For example, should a worker going into a country that does not allow mission volunteers declare that he or she is on vacation?
“I recognize that there are gray areas and that it is necessary to fudge a little at times,” Parks said. “I have had to struggle with [the visa issue]. I would put down ‘administrator’ or ‘teacher’ rather than ‘missionary’ or ‘preacher’” on visa applications, Parks said.
But outright lying never has been an option, he stressed. Sometimes, Parks added, staying within a country’s legal system requires telling the truth without volunteering additional information.
Parks believes missionary-sending agencies and volunteer groups do not need to use clandestine methods for reaching people with the gospel. Should officials of the host nation discover such deception, he noted, that usually results in the end of missions work in that country. Such exposures also can lead to even tighter religious restrictions for the local residents and potential future missionaries.
Learning the culture and following the laws of the land can help minimize the ethical conflict, he said.
“I think the way we are able to function is to play by the rules of the country. I think [government officials] know — or at least know most of — what we’re doing” in their country, Parks added. “If we try to flaunt their rules, they are going to do something about it. We’re not 007 [the agent number of fictional spy James Bond]. We’re not super secret.”
Working within a country’s laws can often lead to encounters to develop relationships or share the gospel. Parks believes sending workers into closed countries as professionals in non-religion-specific fields is ethically appropriate as long as the sending agency delivers what it promised.
“I think we had a problem early on of sending people in as a professional but who were not fully qualified,” he said. “But I think we’ve transitioned from pretending to be proficient in business to actually being proficient and using that proficiency as an opportunity.”
Sending professional people into closed countries has been a longstanding IMB strategy.
Medical professionals, teachers, agricultural specialists, business executives and others have been able to connect one-to-one with unreached people in restricted countries while fulfilling their secular roles.
Is that a clandestine approach? Norvelle acknowledged some would see it as such. But the IMB believes professional workers uphold the law and have opportunities to build personal relationships — “the best way to mission effectiveness.”
“Governments grant visas and welcome U.S. citizens to come for teaching, agriculture, medicine and others,” she said. “As they go, they seek ways to build relationships and to share what they believe. They do what the Bible says: Build relationships where you are. … Paul was a tentmaker. He ran a business.”
Programs and workers tend to be accepted best when they deliver on the promises administrators make. And following the rules sets an example.
“There is such an expectation and a common reality of lying and cheating in many cultures. When people encounter those who don’t [lie or cheat], it is more of a witness,” Parks said.
“There is the sense of ‘this guy is different’… and it gives the worker a chance to witness.”
But problems in restricted countries may arise after missions workers — whether short-term or long-term — return to the United States or other open societies.
Instantaneous worldwide access to information through the Internet can create those problems. Articles, books, e-mails and blogs by returning missionary personnel can create risks for workers and nationals who remain in those high-security areas. Most mission-sending agencies use pseudonyms for individuals in those areas and do not disclose actual locations.
“It’s a very uncomfortable situation when people are working incognito but then come home and write about their experiences,” Parks said. “It’s a real problem because it casts suspicion on others working in those countries.”
“Play by the rules” and “do what’s right” are the two maxims Parks tries to follow in any missions endeavor. And sometimes doing “what’s right” may mean breaking the laws of a repressive country.
“The distinction is to do what’s right. When the law says we can’t witness, we break that law” when workers respond to opportunities to share as they develop relationships, he said.
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Read more:
Missions in a Dangerous World: Don’t deceive, expert says
Missions in a Dangerous World: Tell the whole truth?