For missions, technology has been used as a weapon to show tribals not only their deficient worldview but also has been used to promote a "civilization and christianization" approach - which has arguably done more harm than good.

Better medicine and better building supplies become a lure to pull people into following Christianity...until something better comes along.

It has also made Western Christians equate other cultures as lower and has led to a tardiness in ordaining locals and has impeded the growth of the indegenous church.

Also, it has caused missionaries to try to turn animists into secularists before they can become Christians...ditching their beliefs in the supernatural as mere superstition before the missionary believes that they are ready to be considered as Christian. Our western christianity is very much affected by the enlightenment and in our "advanced" society we have almost thrown out all supernaturalism totally.


Many people now are throwing aside the terms "progress" or "primitive" because technological progress is only one slice of the whole pie. Talk of people groups as "backward savages" is now being poo-pooed, thankfully.

Also, for all of the West's technological superiority, our culture seems at times to be falling apart. That's not progress...

For the Gospel, high-technology cultures are not the goal of mission work but a thorough saturation of the Gospel into the culture where it is at.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone