Rebekah Robertts

Dr. Jenkins
3/24/2014
Argument Paper
Is Doulos as an organization using Christianity for their own benefit?
Doulos Discovery School is a Christian, college-preparatory, expeditionary learning, and
English-immersion school. As a Christian school Doulos does not only have to live up to the
academic expectative but Doulos has to live up to the really high Christian standards. Sin is a
basic element of every humans life, and for Christians temptations caused by sin are still very
present. Doulos as a Christian school will have the temptation to use Christianity for their own
benefit. Many Christian organizations start with huge plans and great missions but fail to realize
that their organizations are vulnerable of not completing the purpose for which they were
created. Doulos should always seek to practice Christianity authentically because it is tempting
to use religion solely for economic benefit, to gain acceptance in the community, or as an excuse
for not compensating employees for their work in the name of the ministry.
Doulos Discovery School has a scholarship program, and its purpose is to educate and
equip leaders, not taking into account their economical status. Doulos has about 50 percent of
the students on a scholarship, this means that in order to get the necessary funds to give these
scholarships the school has to ask people to donate money to help educate a kid in the
Dominican Republic. Because the scholarship program was motivated by a Christian point of
view it is easier to find donors when they belong to the Christian faith. The teachers at Doulos do
not receive a salary, they come down to the school as volunteers and to serve Jesus. The teachers
have to raise their support back in the United States and most likely the people that will donate or
that will be willing to help them are Christians. Many times when Christians do some sort of
service they seek to feel important or indispensable, and in that situation is when it becomes
dangerous for the school or for the teachers to fall into the idea of using the schools religion to
get the funding they need. One teacher said that when he had to write letters back to his
supporters it became hard because the supporters back home seemed to only want to know all the
good changes or all the good stuff that was happening because of their help instead of wanting to
know all the day to day difficulties the staff and students had to go through. When 50 percent of
the students depend on the donors or when your basic day to day needs depend on people
donating money it is hard not to try to please the people who are partly responsible for all the
revolutionary work happening at Doulos and to forget the real reason why everything is
happening in the first place, which is to serve just like Jesus served.
Doulos is located in a small town right in the middle of the Dominican Republic.
Jarabacoa is not a very developed place, it is full of rivers and mountains and just many
agricultural fields. The people in Jarabacoa are very conservative and very religious, therefore
making the American culture hard to fit in with the conservative way of thinking of the people.
In order to get the communities trust the school has had to demonstrate the school is beneficial
for the community. When the school does some sort of service the school always uses
Christianity as the biggest factor, using the religion as the cause of all the good things that the
school does has opened doors in the community and it has made Doulos part of the community.
A year ago a class started a movement to help save the trees and just the environment in general,
one of the events was a march across town. For the march many schools were recruited and
invited to participate, the schools were told that the class was worried about how the
environment was being taken care of and that God had created it and therefore it had to be taken
care of. It is very easy to use Christianity to get a place among the people of Jarabacoa.
Doulos started as a very small school and then the school started to build more
classrooms, more bathrooms, a cafeteria and many other things. In order to build all of these new
things the school needs many hands to work. the school has work teams that come down to the
Dominican Republic from the United States to work in all of the projects. Even when the school
has American teachers that donate their time to teach it also has Latino teachers working at the
school. One of these teachers said the salary she earned was not good to live off and that the
school was not paying her when she is one of the best teachers in her area. The school has been
using the religion as an excuse for compensating their work, it is hard when there are not the
necessary funds needed to fix something around campus and it is easy to ask people to donate
their time and effort, but the school needs to be careful and needs to do this wisely.
Many people will argue that the things that have been said are not possible, that Doulos
as an organization is a Christian school because of authentic belief, and they are right, but what it
is being argued in this paper is that there is a very thin line between Doulos using Christianity for
their own benefit to Doulos being an authentic Christian organization. Teachers do give their
time and effort to educate kids, to serve, and to love; but as humans the temptation of doing what
seems to be easier and to please those around them is always present.
When the world was created the man was created with the purpose to give glory to God,
but sadly this purpose was corrupted. Doulos should always seek to fulfill its purpose because
just as the mans purpose was corrupted so can Doulos purpose be tainted by using religion
solely for economic benefit, to gain acceptance in the community, or as an excuse for not
compensating employees for their work in the name of the ministry. Even when it is appealing to
use Christianity, which is available to use as an excuse to get things that are needed , Doulos
should always go back to the basics of serving and loving. Because Jesus loved and served first
people will imitate Him.