What about those who…..?

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

– Romans 1:19-20 (ESV)

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A new favorite at my house is the Disney movie “Moana”. As with most movies these days the disk included many extras, including behind-the-scenes stories of the people who helped make the film.

I was really impressed by the filmmakers working with the Polynesian people to tell an authentic story in an authentic setting.  And while the finished product is a Disney product, complete with cute characters that can be sold as action figures and dolls, the folks in the features seemed very happy with the process and the story.

One thing I did not realize was that there is a character in the movie that, like in other Disney products, is based on someone ‘real’. Or more precisely, someone that many used to – or maybe still do- think is real.

Disney has done it more than once previously. Hercules has been featured, as has King Arthur, Pocahontas (though we know for certain that she was a live person, the movie was her mythical story), Mulan, many versions of Santa Claus…. not to mention many different trips into they religion/mythology of many different people (Brother Bear for example, as well as lots of stories with angels and witchcraft, etc.) But with Moana, the filmmakers wanted to do it with great respect and some authenticity.

Enter Maui. Not the island, but the demi-god the island was allegedly named after. And while other mythological aspects of the film were ‘fictionalized’ (no spoilers), they tried to make Maui as true to his religious/mythical being as one can in a Disney kids’ movie.

In reality, missionaries long ago brought the Gospel to the Polynesian islands and Maui, along with their other gods and demi-gods, has been relegated to children’s stories. Like Hercules, King Arthur, and the Ice Queen.

And this brings me to the point of this blog post. A question that has been around since Biblical times and many folks smarter than I have tried to answer: What happens to those who have never heard the gospel?

I used to be a big fan of missionaries. I had a great friend working in Colombia, a former preacher at our church was in Brazil, I was the chairperson of the Missions committee at our church for a long time….. but then something changed.

I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s enough to say that the whole “business’ of missions really got to me. At one point someone seriously asked: “are we saving enough souls per dollar?” Like we were buying people into heaven and we better shop around to make sure we’re getting the best bang for our missions bucks.

Since then I’ve often thought “what if we just ‘didn’t’?” What if we didn’t send people to China or Ireland or Uganda or the Polynesian islands?

Paul gave an answer – though I believe it’s out of context when it comes to missions – in his letter to the Romans: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

In other words “God made stuff, look around and this proves God”.

Māui Snaring the Sun, pen and ink drawing by Arman Manookian, circa 1927

But if that’s true, then why are there cultures, like the pre-missionary Polynesians, who have ‘different’ gods, like Maui? If looking at creation is all it takes, then why did they look at creation and see a being that created the tides and the wind and pulled the islands from the sea and not the god of Moses, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Of Jesus and Paul and Peter?

And were they wrong?

And what if the missionaries had never gone out to those islands? What if they still worshiped the gods of nature, the volcano, of the tide and wind?

Would they still be ‘wrong’? Would they be – in a word – ‘damned’?

And if not, have we done them a great disservice by insisting that they do away with their ‘gods’ and follow ‘ours’?

My short answer is “I don’t know” and “that’s for God to decide”.

My long answer – my full opinion, since I don’t honestly feel there is a single answer – is “I hope not”?

Putting aside the whole dilemma of “are we saving the most souls for our buck”, I really wonder…

There are some really great, colorful stories that we now call ‘mythology’. In fact, I would argue that the three major religions of our modern world, the so-called “Abrahamic faiths” of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, are downright packed with a ton of their own mythology (and I do mean ‘myth’ – but we’ll discuss literalism and the insanity of it at another time.) It’s through myth that we make sense of our world, it’s how we wrap our brains around bigger things that we cannot understand. Even in our modern age with our scientific methods and ways of actually knowing how things work, myth still helps us know the stories of people and animals and cultures long gone.

But in Christianity, with our ‘policy’ of sharing the Gospel and ‘forcing’ out whatever religion was there before, I have to wonder if we’ve done more harm than good. Not because we’ve shared the Gospel, but because in doing so we’ve insisted that the stories of other faiths have been crushed, destroyed, and forgotten.

My own lineage is complex and varied. I am the product of the Great American Melting Pot. My family is German, Irish, British.  We’ve traced our family line on one branch to the Morman migration, and being one of those that dropped out and settled in what is now the American Great Plains. On another branch they came over shortly after the Mayflower and became heroes in the Revolutionary war, the Civil War, and on through American history.

But my surname, that’s Danish. Old Danish. That branch of my family tree, they were Vikings and farmers and explorers. They told stories of Odin and Thor (not the comic book versions) and great wars and hope for a home in Valhalla in the afterlife, spirits in trees and water and even stone.  Those ancestors of mine, I want to be able to understand them. Maybe even someday I might meet them in Heaven (which starts a whole other discussion, again, for another time) and I want to talk to them about the things that were such a huge part of their lives. To do that, those old religions, what we now call myth, should be protected and honored. Shouldn’t they?

 

What do you think? Discuss in the comments.