White Missionary Savior Complex

[gustava]

interesting piece on two new documentaries about young, white missionaries.  I know that we have discussed John Chau, who was killed by an indigeneous people who wanted him to go away.

https://www.vox.com/culture/23889421/savior-complex-hbo-mission-chau-bach

 

[Howl]

 Thanks for posting. 

I think we may have discussed Renee Bach at some point here on FJ. Renee set up a center to minister to malnourished and starving children in Uganda, at age 19, with zero medical training.   105 children died. 

This is so powerful (from the Vox article) 

Yet it’s a perfect companion piece, particularly for the incisive diagnosis raised by former Serving His Children volunteer Jackie Kramlich, a young nurse who moved to Jinja with her husband and became frustrated with what she saw as Bach’s inability to take criticism or suggestions, even from people more educated than herself. “I think Renee got into a fantasy that she was ordained and special and set apart,” Kramlich says. Her husband Chris agrees, saying he believes that “Renee felt like if she took advice from other people it would lessen her value to the story of being someone that God worked through to heal these children.”

...What the Kramlichs saw in Bach’s unwillingness to take medical advice, however, was the belief that she was the heroine of this story — that she was appointed by God, in the way God appointed others in the past, to save these children, and that she thus innately had the skill to do so. “God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called,” as the popular saying (and the first episode’s title) goes.

In other words, Renee Bach was delusional and children died because of it. 

More from NPR about Renee Bach: How NPR covered the missionary who ran a center for malnourished kids where 105 died (Sept. 26, 2023)

 

 

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

I think we may have discussed Renee Bach at some point here on FJ

We definitely did - I listened to "The Missionary" podcast because it was linked from here. 

I still find the unconscious arrogance of these people utterly amazing - that they believe a "calling" will somehow give them expertise in fields and cultures where they don't even begin to know the limits of their ignorance is astounding. If Renee had worked towards becoming a nurse and gaining practical skills or even worked towards fundraising to train and employ local nurses and fund clinic supplies she would have achieved more.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

We definitely did - I listened to "The Missionary" podcast because it was linked from here. 

Yes, and we also discussed this New Yorker profile of Bach from several years ago.

Thanks for the link to the Vox article.

[meep]

I watched. 

She was a homeschooled kid who never got any type of legit medical training or degree. At most, she did a two-week missionary medical training. Yet she called the medical shots at her fake "clinic", even after she hired legit Ugandan nurses and doctors, and she felt like she knew better than them because God had chosen her for this work (in her mind). She would talk over them, question their diagnoses, refuse to take baseline vitals of the children because she thought it was a waste of time, outright give dosages & diagnoses that contradicted what the Ugandan doctors had told her, and even perform advanced medical treatments on malnourished babies by herself that only licensed practicing doctors are allowed to perform. She came across as arrogant, deluded, and remorseless. Her mother is a criminal enabler. I feel so bad for her children. 

[hoipolloi]

7 hours ago, meep said:

I watched. 

Thank you for the summary. Bach clearly fled Uganda one or two steps ahead of law enforcement. It seems as though there will be no justice for those she harmed. 

The New Yorker piece is interesting but I felt as though the reporter was bamboozled by Bach and came to see her as the victim. 

Edited October 1, 2023 by hoipolloi

[JermajestyDuggar]

We know this is how so many fundies operate. They think they are chosen by god and so special that they don’t need education or training. 

[QuittersTry]

Watching the documentary on HBO/MAX now and trying to remember when/where I went down that rabbit hole 🤣

Edited October 4, 2023 by QuittersTry

[FilleMondaine]

This adorable 21-year-old* told me about a whole series about how NOT to do mission trips. It's called Helping Without Hurting. I'll put the cover image in a spoiler. There is a whole series, apparently.  I haven't read any of them, but I do like that there is widespread questioning of "mission" work within the Christian community.

*Adorable 21-year-old comes from a very fundamentalist family, who is studying theology at a very fundamentalist university. I see him starting to question things, and I anticipate some emotional struggle for him. 

Spoiler