In my world, the region around the Great Lakes was closed to settlers and missionaries from the 1700s to 1934, when the region became part of the US. Pre-1934, there were people would held indigenous beliefs, some who held pre-Christian Norse beliefs and and small community of Catholics (Vinland became a working colony is this au). It wasn't until the 1960s that missionaries became free to move into the region, though I'm sure that there were some there before that, sort of sneakily. Theres also a lot of new settlement as first government employees then other businesses move into the the region bring many different types of people with them
Now, it's 2007 and the Great Lakes region is the new "hot" place attracting missionaries of various faiths. Their technology is on par with ours around the '60s, so no interent, no cable tv, no laptops, though '07 technology is available in Europe and some places on the east and west coast of the US and Canada, it just takes longer to get into the interior. What would it be like for the first set of missionaries, who sort of snuck in? How is that experience different from missionaries who are allowed in the region? What's it like for missionaries of several different denominations and religions to work in the same, pretty small region.
Neither the Natives, nor the Norse, nor the Catholics particularly want their people to be converted, though some do convert. How does it feel to be these groups, who are getting a pretty hard sell? Is it just annoying, or a threat to the community and what sort of response would you have to a missionary group specifically going after your "people"?
What would cause a group to pull their missionaries out of the region? I'm sure this is different for different groups, but violence? asking them to leave? sueing? protests again your group? war?
What would compel you to sneak into a region that you knew would cause you to go to jail for proselytizing? What sort of job/reason would be your cover for being there?
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50,053 / 50,000
Okt 13, 2007 - 19 59
I wouldn't expect a serious missionary group to be convinced to leave by anything except complete or near-complete lack of success in gaining converts. Violence, lawsuits, or protests against them would almost certainly convince them that they were all the more needed, that they were being persecuted by evil forces trying to keep them from saving souls. Perhaps the local Catholic bishop(s) (is the area populous enough to be divided into two dioceses?) and the comparable Norse and non-Catholic native authorities would make a big deal about instructing their followers not to do any harm to the missionaries, in hopes that the missionaries would decide that the region was full of unrepentant damned souls and leave?
If I felt called to be a missionary (I'm Catholic, so I'd be on the anti-missionary side in your novel ;)) I'd make sure I had some kind of useful skill or job so that I could go and serve people and then proselytize "on the side" so to speak. If I seriously believed that people were going to Hell for lack of knowing the Good News, and that I was called specifically to go to this region, I would hope that knowing that I was likely to go to jail wouldn't deter me much. What's imprisonment compared to helping people who are in dire need and don't know it?
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Uncle Cosmo, why do they call this a word processor?
It's simple, Skyler. You've seen what food processors do to food, right?
52,791 / 50,000
Okt 13, 2007 - 21 10
It's not the same genre as your novel, but an interesting insight into missionary families in the Congo in the 1950s is Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. Good luck!
----------Ellen or "Alienor"
She who writes first, writes last
http://www.firstgiving.com/ellenwilkin
http://www.electricrider.net/ellen/index.htm
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Okt 14, 2007 - 09 43
I think there are three dioceses (The area consists of what is today Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, New York and Canada, it's pretty big, even if it has a low population on au-earth). I also think the bishops aren't quite on the same page as how to handle the situation. The two who were born in the area are all for peaceful resistance, the other I think, wants to step up Catholic proselytizing in the region.
Since you said you'd be on the anti-missionary side, what do you think it would be like, living in a community that had been Catholic for a long time, and suddenly at least five other denominations were clamoring for your allegiance? Would you stop answering your door?
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Okt 14, 2007 - 09 44
Thanks, yeah, that was a good book. I'll have to go back and take a look through it.
50,053 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2007 - 13 22
Depends on how aggressive they were, really; if they made a pretext (or even if it was genuine) of wanting to discuss it with me, I'd love to discuss with them as much as they wanted (in hopes of converting them, obviously)
My husband, on the other hand, would be more likely to threaten them with violence if they came back.
When I was younger, a Mormon Temple was built within a mile of my parents house. We had three or four visits before our church provided small plaques (a member of the parish worked in pewter for a living and was selling them at cost) stating that we were members of St. Pius X Catholic Parish. Visits dropped off abruptly and my parents haven't been visited in at least five years.
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Uncle Cosmo, why do they call this a word processor?
It's simple, Skyler. You've seen what food processors do to food, right?
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Okt 14, 2007 - 20 07
I think the missionaries coming into the region are pretty aggressive. The region is the last place to allow missionaries in, and the region with the largest "pagan"/"unbeliever" population. Think of like, maybe Christian missionaries going to Iraq, or some Islamic country where proselytizing was illegal and then suddenly its not. Most of the missionaries will be from various Protestant groups, but also Orthodox, LDS, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist groups. Some more want to set up a resource for people who moved into the region that are of their faith, other are hard core, must convert and save people from hell, and some are the social justice, save the poor type missionaries.
Anyone else want to tell me about situations were they've attempted to convert/have had someone attempt to convert them? My experience ends with the slightly craxy wandering preachers who yelled at us on the quad during college.