Special Providence_ American Foreign Policy and How It Changed World - Walter Russell Mead

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stration farms, and setup printingpresses-sometimes in alphabets
designed by themissionariesforpreviouslyanalphabeticcultures. By
2000 onemissionaryorganization,theWycliffeBibleTranslators,had
translatedatleastpartofthescripturesinto1,571languages.^5 By2001,
theUnitedBibleSocieties hadpublished copiesofthescripturesin
2,261differentlanguagesanddialects;6theGideons-knowntomost
Americansasthesourceof theBiblesfoundinhotelandmotelrooms
across thecountry-haddistributed,gratis, nearly,onebillion copies
ofatleasttheNewTestamentineightylanguagesand 175 countries
aroundtheworld.7
ThemissionarypressespublishedBiblesandotherinspirationallit-
erature;theyalsopublishedscientific,medical,agricultural,andhistori-
calworks,oftengivinglocalinhabitantstheirfirstsystematicexposureto
theideasandthebackgroundoftheWesternworld.Thedigestsofpoliti-
cal,historical,cultural,andeconomicinformationthatwereprepared
bymissionariesandcompiledbymissionboards,intowhatsometimes
evolvedintoannualorbiannualpublications,werethemostcompre-
hensivecollectionsofinformationonthenon-Westernworldthatthe
nineteenth-centurypubliccouldfind.Diplomatsmovingtoa newpost-
ingand businessmenseeking newmarkets turned to themissionary
worldas theirbestsourceofinformation.Dictionariesandgrammars
preparedbymissionarieswereoftenthebestor theonlysourcesavailable
forlanguagestudy.
Itwouldbea mistake,however,tothinkofthemissionariesasnoth-
ingmorethanpsalm-singingfishersofsouls.Fromtheearlydays,when
AnnHasseltineJudsonfoundherselfintroducingliteracytothewomen
ofBurmaandReverendJudsonwasteachingWesterntechnologiesto
Burmesemen, themissionary movement hasdone muchmorethan
buildchurchesandsinghymns.Indeed,muchofwhatwenowregardas
left-wingsecular idealismhasits roots inthemissions, justas such
schoolsasHarvard,Princeton,andYalebeganasreligiouscollegesbefore
evolvingintothesecularuniversitiesweknowtoday.
Thetransitionfromfull-timereligiousmissionarytodoctor,nurse,or
agronomistwaseasytomake.Themissionariesinevitablyfoundthem-
selvesdealingwitha widerangeofproblemsinthecountriestowhich
theymoved.Veryearlyon,missionariesfoundthat,inorderforthemto
beeffective,theyhadtodomorethanpreachtheGospel.Foreignlan-
guageshadtobe learned,and insome casesalphabetsdevelopedfor
them,sothattheScripturescouldbereadinthenewlanguage.Butthe