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June 20, 2012
Was First U.S. Missionary Black Not White? SBC Dodges Answer
Southern Baptists officially recognize that many believe freed slave George Liele's departure to Jamaica beats Adoniram and Ann Judson's dispatch to Burma.
Who was really the first Protestant missionary from America?
This title has traditionally been bestowed upon Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann, who left for Burma in 1812. But last week, Southern Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic proposed that delegates to today's SBC annual meeting challenge this tradition and instead recognize George Liele, a freed slave who started a church in Jamaica 30 years before the Judsons left New England, as "America's First Missionary."
Today the SBC acknowledged but dodged McKissic's request by passing a resolution affirming "African American Contributions to American Baptist History." Delegates affirmed that "historiography has not always reflected the contribution of African American Baptists," thus "we celebrate pioneers such as African Americans George Liele, who many acknowledge as the first overseas missionary from the United States in 1782."
The debate over whether Liele trumps the Judsons largely rests on the fact that the Judsons were "sent out" as missionaries, while Liele was not. CT's sister publication, Christian History, tells the story of how Liele had to emigrate to live and worship freely.
Comments
How do you acknowledge AND dodge? Either the tone of this article is negatively biased against the SBC or the writer has a poor command of the English language. Either way, the decline journalism into biased commentary appears to continue.
Posted By: Greg | June 20, 2012 6:12 PM
Reconciling missions with its true roots is good news for all of us. Also, it gives us a strong example as to how a humble church made a huge impact by commissioning George Liele to the service of the Lord in Jamaica.
Posted By: Claudio Rodriguez | June 20, 2012 9:23 PM
So...where is the dodge?
Posted By: aaron | June 21, 2012 12:39 AM
The Moravian brethren in America in the 1740s sent missionaries all over the world--both from Europe and, I believe from America. This was LONG before other Protestants or Baptists made any effort at cross-cultural missions. The American wilderness however was considered a prime missionary field in and of itself--which was why the Moravians came to the English colonies in the first place. Indian languages were learned by scholars and writing was developed for them...all as early as the 1750s. Bethlehem, PA, and Winston-Salem, NC were both founded as Moravian mission centers....
Several notable colonial Moravian missionaries were evangelizing and building the church deep in American Indian territories--even while they were opposed by other Protestants.
Posted By: Ralph W. Davis | June 21, 2012 10:45 AM
We Americans are obsessed with "firsts." it seems. Everything is not a contest to see who prevails. Is it not feasible to praise the work has done through Godly servants over the centuries and not obsess that it was someone of European or African descent? Christ descended and did not seek glory that was his due; even so none of the missionaries who went out would have cared a flip about our obsessing about who's first. Let's give God the thanks and praise and realize we do nothing without his grace.
Posted By: Ray Blunt | June 21, 2012 6:00 PM
Nowhere in Scripture do I read of Peter seeking the bragging rights for being the first Apostle to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Why are christian's today so caught up in trivial pursuit. Shouldn't we rather be thankful that Mr. Liele and the Judson's answered God's call service? Suffice it to say that the Message is more important than the messenger.
Posted By: herman powell | June 25, 2012 3:30 PM
My understanding is that Judson hadn't been "sent." Indeed, he wasn't even a Baptist when he left the US as a missionary. He became a Baptist in India. With the War of 1812, he was deported from India and ended up in Rangoon, where he offered to be a Baptist missionary.
Of course, the Southern Baptist Convention didn't exist then, and was still decades in the future. This sounds very much like SBC cultural appropriation of both Judson and Leile.
Posted By: Gregory Peterson | June 27, 2012 2:14 AM
I am thrilled my fellow Southern Baptists are learning about this part of Baptist missions history. Fully embracing and promoting the George Leile story can be a giant step toward seeing more African Americans mobilized for global missions. Maybe God is priming the SBC to contribute significantly to an increase in US missionaries of African descent, who at present consist of about one half of one percent of the US missionary force.
As to whether George Leile or Adoniram Judson were the first missionaries who departed from the US to preach the gospel overseas, I believe a key question is this: who were the first missionaries? Those many unnamed disciples who were scattered from Jerusalem by the persecution and went everywhere preaching the gospel, or the two named ones who were sent out by the church at Antioch? I think this is the issue when mission historians discuss whether George Leile or Adoniram Judson were the first overseas missionaries. Leile’s leaving was closer to that of the Acts 8 scattered ones. The departure of Judson is more in line with the Acts 13 sending. The former is involuntary, the latter voluntary (Ralph Winter’s words). But, both were sent by God.
Posted By: Terre Haas | July 2, 2012 1:30 PM
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