Mission Problem of Illiteracy

Illiteracy is one of the greatest problems that face foreign missions.

By ROGER ALTMAN, Office Secretary of the General Conference

Illiteracy is one of the greatest problems that face foreign missions. In the non-Christian portion of the world, nine out of ten of the people are unable to read. And illit­eracy is on the increase. In India, for ex­ample, between the last two censuses, literacy increased five million, while the population increased thirty-five million, largely owing to the success of medical missions in reducing infant mortality. This gives some idea of the situation in what we call heathen lands. Frank C. Laubach brings these facts before us in the Christian Century. He says further:

"This inability to catch up with their popu­lations is making governments desperate. They are eagerly seeking any assistance or sugges­tions that promise relief. It is here that they feel the need of missionary help more than at any other point. . . . I know many missionaries who are permitted to teach illiterates in prisons and other public institutions where no other missionaries are permitted to work. I have been invited by officials of Afghanistan to start literacy campaigns in that country, which is 99 per cent illiterate, and where no missionaries have ever been allowed to live. What other missionary opportunity equals this ? . . .

"Spreading literacy lies at the heart of mis­sions, and if you doubt it I can give you five reasons why it is true. First, this enterprise is necessary in order to open the eyes of three fifths of the human race to read the Bible. Second, it is a necessary means of winning the co-operation and gratitude of all governments in illiterate areas. Third, spreading literacy is at the heart of missions, because these illit­erates are the poor, the brokenhearted, the bruised, the imprisoned, whom Jesus said He came to set free. . . .

"The fourth reason I would advance for the vital relation of this enterprise to missions is that teaching illiterates is proving to be a won­derful way to bring people to Christ. If you sit down beside an illiterate as your equal, your heart overflowing with love for him, with a prayer on your lips that you may help him to a new vision, if you never yawn nor frown nor criticize, but look pleased and surprised and praise him for his progress, a thousand silver threads wind themselves about his heart and yours. You are the first educated man who ever looked at him except to swindle him, and he is so bewildered that he will soon stop and ask you why you are so strangely interested in him. Then you have your chance to say :

"'I have learned this from Jesus. He spent all His time helping people. From the moment He awoke in the morning until He closed His eyes at night, He was looking around asking whom He could teach, or heal, or encourage, or defend, or save. That is the way to live. I have found that when I try to help people all the time as He did, my heart sings. When I have finished teaching you, I want you to go and teach others. Don't take any money for it, and see how your heart will sing.' . . .

"And the fifth and final point proving the centrality of the literacy problem to missions is to be found in the fact that even if illiterates do become Christians, the church which con­tains them is in trouble until it has taught them to read. Since they cannot read the Bible for themselves, nor study Sunday school lessons. nor read hymns, they need far more personal attention to keep them from sinking back into their former pagan vices than they would need if they could read or write. Then again, illit­erates have little or no influence with the people of the country in which they live. 'Their presence in large numbers creates the impression that Christianity is a religion for the ignorant, not for the enlightened.' It is universally recognized in Protestant missions, therefore, that literacy must be a first objective in every mass movement."—Nov. 19, 1941.


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By ROGER ALTMAN, Office Secretary of the General Conference

May 1942

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