I (Fred) try to play racquetball every week for my health. I play with a group of “mature” men (not their real picture). As typical, sufficient Americans, they are generally non-conversant regarding religion, if not smugly against it. So I don’t share much, until yesterday….
My athletic friend shared how he went on a six day wilderness hike, got lost, and wound up in a poor Indian village and soon to miss their plane back. While without hope, someone led them to a missionary, who kindly gave them all a ride, barely making their flight on time (but no time for showers!). Being extremely thankful, he listened to the gospel message during the whole three hour trip to the airport .
He listened carefully, he didn’t want to be kicked out of the car! And he said he was surprised by the missionary. He had had a dim view of them, thinking of them as subverting other cultures and being cultural imperialists. But while in the village he had seen the utter drunkenness of the people — mothers with children strapped to them, passing out and crushing them. Now he says he really respects what this man is doing to help change their culture. Not only did he pay for the gas but he donated to him!
I asked him if was familiar with Star Trek and the Prime Directive, which says that Captain Kirk and the Enterprise were to never interfere with primitive societies. But every other episode Kirk does just that, because the societies that he encounters are highly dysfunctional. The Prime Directive is good in theory, but in reality there is the stark realization that there are cultural absolutes of right and wrong, and there is a cross-cultural mandate to assist all others, no matter where they are in the evolution of their society.
Assistance of a missionary is a tacit admission of cultural absolutes, and eventually of a Right and Wrong by which we ourselves will be judged. Now I pray for him to discover his own moral poverty.
Do pray for this man and his friends to find the Savior before he meets the Judge.
Video Resource: A Man Fell in a Hole