Christians Who Changed their World

Christianity in India
India in the nineteenth century was coming to grips with the modern world thanks to its exposure to England through the British East India Company and the work of missionaries such as William Carey. Some of the most creative interaction with Western culture occurred in Bengal, due in part to Carey’s work in creating a unified Bengal language and in opposing practices such as sati (burning widows on their husband’s funeral pyre).

…and why you shouldn’t be such a stranger to these parts

Two ideas
Take two very widespread ideas – ideas, by the way, which we consistently oppose at The Colson Center.

Idea 1: A fetus is not a human being but merely an extension, albeit living, of the mother. A corollary idea to this: Human beings are nothing special, just a higher form of animal.

Idea 2: If something works to achieve your goals, then it’s probably OK to do, especially if it helps the economy.

Now, sift, filter, combine, and recombine these two ideas, and what do you get?

Major food companies marketing their products to you as sweeter and tastier because they are enhanced by a chemical manufactured by a company called Senomyx.

Christians Who Changed their World

Anant Shastri and the education of women
Traditional society in India was not a very welcoming place for girls. Women were considered inferior to men and were not allowed to be educated or to work. Child brides were very common, as were child widows. Even with the abolition of sati (the practice of burning widows on their husband’s funeral pyres), the fate of these widows was harsh: they were considered cursed and were subjected to terrible abuse and even torture at the hands of their husband’s family.

Anant Shastri was a highly educated Brahmin (the priestly caste in India) who made his living reading the Puranas (Hindu Scriptures) in Temples. Hinduism teaches that listening to the Puranas is a way of earning spiritual merit.

Preliminary Biblical Talking Points

Scripture and public policy
The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is good news for all of life. Jesus is reconciling the world to God and making all things new. His followers, therefore, as ambassadors of His Kingdom, are called to represent and pursue His interests as He brings His Kingdom to bear on earth as it is in heaven.

Which means, among other things, that Christians must be prepared to engage matters of public policy from the perspective of the Lord’s thinking about such matters. We have the mind of Christ; it is incumbent upon us to employ that mind in thinking through, discussing, and acting in the various arenas of public policy with a view to furthering the work of Christ for the His glory and the blessing of the world.

Christians Who Changed their World

Background

Chiune Sugihara was born into a middle class family in Gifu Prefecture in Japan. His father, who was a physician, intended Chiune to go to medical school. Chiune had other plans, however: he intentionally failed his entrance exams by writing only his name on the tests. Instead of medical school, he entered Waseda University in 1918, where he majored in English. While there, he joined Yuai Gakusha, a Christian fraternity.

In 1919 he passed the Foreign Ministry Scholarship exam and was soon sent to Harbin, a city in Manchuria, China, to study German and Russian. He graduated in 1924 with honors, and was promptly hired by the Foreign Ministry as Deputy Foreign Minister in Manchuria.

Christians Who Changed their World

Background

The Tsuda family were low-ranking samurai from Sakura, Japan. Tsuda Sen, the fourth son of the family, went to school at age 15 to learn English, Dutch, and Western learning. With the Meiji Restoration, he joined the government and enthusiastically embraced the Westernization of Japan. He became very interested in the education of girls, and in particular in the possibility of girls participating as exchange students with Western countries. When the Iwakura Mission (1871) was sent around the world to learn about Western ways of doing things, he volunteered his six year old daughter Mume (or Ume, meaning “plum”) to go.