SOME
of
our missionary schools and colleges in the Ottoman Empire are open for business,
and reports of the Mission Board describe them as flourishing. They are either
continuing or resuming operations after having suffered their share of
pillage and massacre. The Board of Missions is making an earnest and
vigorous campaign for raising more American money to be sent into Turkey for
their upkeep.
As
a church member, as an ex-official who has been of service to those institutions
on many occasions, I am obliged to state that I have serious doubts as to the
wisdom of contributing further money to our religious establishments in the
Ottoman Empire under present conditions.
Before doing so the fact should be widely advertised in Turkey that their real
object and that of the men and women working in them, is, by hook or crook, to
convert the Turks to Christianity, which is considered to be a religion superior
to Mohammedanism. American church people should be informed frankly that the
prohibition of the teaching of Christianity or the holding of Christian
religious exercises has been accepted by the Mission Board; and that no effort
to convert Turks is countenanced by the Ottoman Government. But this is really
no new thing, as Christian proselytizing in Turkey has never been possible; the
understanding that religious teaching is to be confined by the missionaries to
the members of their own families and to teachers already of the Christian
faith, is recent.
Soon
after the entrance of the Khemalists into Smyrna a committee of Moslems visited
one of our schools and expressed the most friendly sentiments to the
teachers:
“We
hope you will keep right on with your good work and we promise you every
support, only you understand that there is to be no more religious
teaching.”
When
I mentioned this to Mr. Jacobs, of the Y. M. C. A., he replied: “Where L— is
and C—” mentioning two missionaries, “Christ will be taught somehow.”
But, if that is so, the Turks ought to know it. Any other course is not quite
honest nor up to the standard of the old time Christians who testified in
heathen lands and suffered martyrdom. Moreover, the Mohammedan’s contempt of the
Christians is very easy to arouse and it would be a sad thing should it enter
the mind of the Turks that some of the missionaries were willing to forego the
teaching of their faith to save their buildings and their jobs. Even though this
is not true, it would not be difficult to create this
impression.
It
seems hardly probable that the Mission Board would come out and officially
inform the contributing church members of the United
States:
“We
have no intention or desire, either immediate or ultimate, of converting
Mussulmans in Turkey. We are running secular schools there with the hope of
raising their general moral standing and making Mohammedans of
them.”
If
the board can raise money for such a purpose, that would be a frank honest
proposition for both Turk and Christian.
It
is logical for the devout Christian to give money for the conversion of the
Moslem. The faith of the Nazarene is one of the proselytizing religions, as
Professor Max Muller said in his famous lecture in Westminster Abbey in 1873. It
can not be possible, however, that there is any mental impulse in this country
which would lead Americans to contribute large sums for the support of purely
secular schools in foreign countries. Even from a humanitarian standpoint, there
are more crying needs for their charity.
The
one thing that the missionary working in Turkey
really fears is that some Turk may be converted. Should this occur a storm of
fanaticism and violence would break upon his head that might close his school
and end his career. It is not possible to convert Mohamrnedans in Turkey, nor
even let them get wind that one is trying to do such a thing. In my thirty years
of service in the Near East I have known of but one Moslem really converted. I
remember distinctly the uneasiness, which his impending public confession caused
among his teachers, imperiling, as it did, all their future activities. He was
persuaded by the missionaries that the time was not ripe for him to proclaim his
change of faith, but the Mohammedans became aware of it and promptly murdered
him. According to the best information available it cost between forty-five and
eighty million dollars to convert that unfortunate young man and he did not last
long. The Moslem who renounces his religion suffers ostracism, forfeiture of his
goods and practically commits suicide.
During
the War and before the Turks severed diplomatic relations with the United
States, the Germans were anxious to seize the beautiful and expensive buildings
of the International College of Smyrna and turn them into barracks. I had much
to do in preventing this. On one occasion, while talking with Rahmi Bey, the
Turkish governor (vail) of Smyrna at
that time, he said
to me: “The only reason that I can protect that college is that I have never
seen any disposition on the part of its president and faculty to convert
Moslems. Should any such attempt be made I could no longer shield it.” This
was the argument, which the vali used with the authorities at
Constantinople. It was this clean record which saved the
college.
The
missionaries in Turkey now find themselves in the position of hostages. They
have seen many of their buildings destroyed, their native teachers, Armenians
and Greeks butchered, their pupils scattered. They have received no help from
the American Government. They are in the hands of the Turks. Many of them have
spent their lives in the work and not a few of them own comfortable modern
homes, which they have paid for in part or entirely.
That
very shrewd and capable Scot, Doctor Alexander MacLachlan, has built up the
International College at Smyrna by a lifetime of earnest and persistent effort.
Its beautiful and expensive buildings, erected with money raised in America, his
own substantial home, the delightful residences of the faculty, situated in
charming gardens, are all resting on a powder mine. An outburst of fanaticism
might sweep this idyllic picture from the face of the earth at a moment’s
notice; might make it one with the desolate ruins of Smyrna but a few minutes’
distant. It would need but a tiny spark to set off the powder mine—some adverse
criticism of the Turk, the conversion of a Mohammedan. The danger for this, as
well as for similar institutions, is augmented by the fact that the ignorant,
fanatical population of the Ottoman Empire is greatly in the majority, and there
is abundant evidence that the Spirit of the Prophet is abroad, impatient of
reform.
One
missionary, at least, has been in the United States loudly proclaiming Mustapha
Khemal the George Washington of Turkey, and comparing the soldiers who burned
and sacked Smyrna and violated its women with the veterans of Valley Forge.
This
has doubtless got back to Asia Minor and has produced a salutary effect. One
word more: Our missionaries have been operating in Turkey for nearly a century.
They did admirable work among the native Christians, but what evidence have the
Turks shown in their conduct of any results obtained from the vast sums sent
into their country for their enlightenment and moral uplifting? It is impossible
to argue with a religious devotee of any creed. The question is put to the
normal men and women of America.
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