A chap on facebook posted this, and then took it down. I'd already written a rejoinder, which I like, so :
Chap: I'd like to hear more peoples' takes on Baptist and other fundamentalist Christian ideologies...and their relationship to missionary work in foreign (non-white) lands (such as Congo).
Example: GRACE CHURCH OF THE VALLEY (http://www.gcotv.net/
Theologically, GCOTV is a reformed church holding to the Five Solas of
the reformation: Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Fide (Faith
alone), Sola Gratia (Grace alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), Soli
Deo Gloria (to the Glory of God alone). Our primary confession of faith
is the London Baptist Confession of 1689.
Yrs Truly replied: From the 15th Century onward, weren't missionaries almost always emissaries of Imperial/colonial powers? Surely, it was true of the Roman church's apostolic branch. The Jesuits, the Franciscans, the Dominicans. They were relentless proselytizers not only of the Gospel, but of European hegemony. They would have to be regarded as at LEAST incipient colonizers, even if their explicit (or implicit) mission were to secure the loyalties of the natives to the "new" religion...and tribute to that religion's temporal authority.
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