Of Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Of Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise: Reflections on the
“Presbyterian Predicament"
Author(s): Mark Banker
Source: The Journal of Presbyterian History (1997-), Vol. 81, No. 2, Special Issue on
Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainline Protestantism (Summer 2003), pp. 77-102
Published by: Presbyterian Historical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23336263
Accessed: 28-06-2016 10:02 UTC
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Article
Of Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and

Mainstream Malaise: Reflections on the
"Presbyterian Predicament"
by Mark Banker
Although mainstream Protestant missionaries were among the first institu

tional groups in United States history to engage in sustained encounters with
"foreign" cultures and populations, few observers have considered the historical
significance of the cultural interaction that occurred in the mission fields. Until
recently church people typically viewed missionaries in hagiographie terms while
academics, particularly since the 1960s, more often considered them agents
of imperialism. Collectively, mission officials, church members, and mission
historians focused on the impact, whether positive or negative, of mission work
on the target populations. In this essay, the author recounts his evolution as
mission historian and the professional and personal circumstances that led him
to contemplate how service in the mission fields affected the missionaries—and
particularly their understanding of cultural diversity. He concludes by speculat
ing on the potential significance of his findings for the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) and other mainstream denominations as they seek to fulfill their
calling in the increasingly multicultural twenty-first century.
hardly a subject of consensus, for Where Have All the

At the dawn
tury, of a new
mainstream cen
American scholars since the early 1990s. "Old Favorites" Gone?
Protestants in general, and Louisville Presbyterian Seminary

members of the Presbyterian with funding from the Lilly This oracle of our denomina
Church (U.S.A.) in particular, Foundation conducted the most tional fortunes is The Presbyterian
are rightfully concerned about extensive research thus far into Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and
their place in American society. the "Presbyterian Predicament." Spiritual Songs. Future historians
Statistics indicate that the mem The findings from this impres who view this 1989 copyrighted
bership decline that began in the sive endeavor have fdtered down volume alongside its predeces
1960s continues. More subjective to some local congregations, sors will surely agree that it
indicators suggest more clearly but the average Presbyterian reflects a "world much changed."
that the role and relevance of in the pew today is still only "Onward Christian Soldiers" is
the "liberal mainstream" and dimly aware of them. Ironically just the most notable of many
the nation's largest Presbyterian many Presbyterians hold in their "old favorites" missing from this
denomination have slipped since hands on Sunday mornings a newest edition of Presbyterian
the halcyon days of the 1950s. more accessible source that offers hymns. Gospel songwriter Fanny
Analysis of the causes and conse valuable glimpses into how our J. Crosby, who had five entries
quences of mainstream woes has church came to this important in The Hymnbook (1955), has
been a cottage industry, though historical juncture. only two in the new volume.
Mark Banker is on the faculty of the Webb School of Knoxville, Tennessee, and is a former moderator of the Committee
for the Presbyterian Historical Society.
Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003 • 77
The
Hymnbook HYMNAL
Published by
HYMNS, PSALMS,
Presbyterian Church in the United States AND
Presbyterian Church SPIRITUAL SONGS

in the United States of America
United Presbyterian Church of North America
Reformed Church in America
PHILADELPHIA
Westminster/John Knox Press
PITTSBURGH
Louisville, Kentucky
NEW YORK
Title pages of The Hymnbook (1955) and The Presbyterian Hymnal (1989), reflecting a "world much changed."
Notable among the new selections in this book are congregational responses to this new, truly mul
ten hymns by Jane Parker Huber. The latter typi ticultural hymnal reflect broader divisions in the
cally retain familiar tunes but address issues that denomination and American society. I believe few
the generation that sang from The Hymnbook could Presbyterians, particularly the hymnbook's most
not have fathomed. The most distinctive addi vocal critics and its most ardent defenders, ap
tion to the new hymnal is a veritable kaleidoscope preciate the complex circumstances that gave birth
of hymns from abroad and from African, Asian, to the cross-cultural perspectives manifest in the
Hispanic, and Native American backgrounds. Even new hymnal. Those circumstances, I maintain,
the most revered holdover from earlier hymnals, are rooted in part in the history of Presbyterian
"Amazing Grace," now has verses in Cherokee, missions. Rediscovering this history will not cause
Navajo, and Kiowa. Not surprisingly, introduction divisions and discord to disappear. But I do believe
of the new hymnal in 1990 generated controversy that an informed and objective understanding of
in Presbyterian circles, and as recently as 1997, only how we came to this point is essential if we are to
38% of Presbyterian (U.S.A.) congregations had move beyond our present rancor and woes.
adopted it.1 Before proceeding, I should forewarn readers
Although many factors undoubtedly influ of several points. My reasons for focusing on the
ence a congregation's adoption (or rejection) of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are simple. This is
a new hymnbook, there can be little doubt that the denomination that I know best, both personally
78 • Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise
Oak Dale School, Alpine, Tennessee, circa 1930
(Bernard Taylor Papers, RG 254, Presbyterian
Historical Society, Philadelphia).
examined the same mission fields as I,

including both individuals with whom
I had at least some contact and others
whose work was completed indepen
dently of my own. Perhaps even more
significantly, scholars who have exam
ined other mission fields from around the
globe and mission activities conducted by
and as a scholar. To suggest that the Presbyterian a diverse array or otner mainstream denominations
experience in the nineteenth and twentieth cen have reached conclusions similar to mine.2
turies was either unique or universal would distort Most of us practitioners of the new mission
and oversimplify the complex history of American history are relatively unknown beyond our im
Protestantism. However, I do believe that other mediate circle. One notable exception was the late
churches of the liberal mainstream have shared William McLoughlin. During the last decade of
many similar experiences with Presbyterians—in his life, the longtime Brown University professor
cluding, by the way, heated debates over new completed exhaustive research into Cherokee his
hymnals! Perhaps Methodists, Episcopalians, tory. Not surprisingly, considering McLoughlin's
members of the various Reformed denominations, impressive earlier contributions to the history of
and at least some Baptists and Lutherans, among American revivalism, he devoted particular atten
others, can learn valuable lessons from the historic tion to Cherokee interaction with missionaries.
Presbyterian experience. McLoughlin clearly listed what he considered the
Second, readers should know in advance that "essential features of successful missionary work":
this essay has several distinct parts. After briefly show respect and equality, not ethnocentric pater
recounting my own background and how and why nalism; learn the indigenous language and customs;
I became engaged in missionary history, I offer find ways to bridge the gap between the best of the
insights from what can be called the "new" mission old ways and values and the best of the new; then
history. Here I suggest that mainstream Protestant create a native ministry and let it take leadership.
missionaries by the middle third of the twentieth McLoughlm found this attribute in sev
century became one of the first institutional groups eral mid-nineteenth century missionaries to the
in American society to question traditional melting Cherokees, most notably the Baptist Evan Jones.
pot assumptions and begin moving toward a more A number of recent scholarly works demonstrate
tolerant and positive understanding of diversity. that Jones was not unique. McLoughlin's untimely
The controversial new hymnal is, I believe, a con death in 1992 deprived our "thesis" of its most
crete manifestation of this new pluralism. renowned voice. His passing challenges others of
Connecting missionaries and multiculturalism us who have reached similar conclusions about the
runs counter to popular notions about the mis missionary experience to build upon his important
sion enterprise and will undoubtedly surprise some efforts and share our insights with broader audi
scholars and many mainstream church members. ences.3
Considerable recent scholarship, however, clearly Like many new areas of scholarship, the new
affirms this assertion. This includes my own work mission history is too much of a well-kept secret.
which focuses primarily on Presbyterian home mis Even though this new research literally turns upside
sions in the Southwest and Appalachia. To my great down many widely held assumptions about mis
satisfaction (and relief!) I have discovered over the sionaries, few Presbyterians in the pew, and indeed
past fifteen years that a number of other students only a handful of ministers and denominational
of mainstream missions have reached strikingly officials, are familiar with our work. Moreover,
similar conclusions. Among these are scholars who academics are equally unfamiliar with our findings.
Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003
Vacation Bible School, Casa Blanca, New Mex
ico, 1937, conducted by Rev. and Mrs. Donald
Schwab (RG 303, PHS, Philadelphia).
toral student at the University of New

Mexico (and a young father) in the
early 1980s, I needed a dissertation
topic that could be completed with a
minimum of time, travel, and ex
pense. The Menaul Historical Library
of the Southwest, on the campus of
Albuquerque's Menaul School where I
was employed, provided the veritable
gold mine for the primary research that
I needed. Thus Presbyterian mission
This oversight is particularly dismaying when one ary activity in the American southwest became
considers that most students of American history my field of research. Menaul School is a remnant
acknowledge that the mainstream churches have of a network of Presbyterian mission schools that
long been among our nation's most influential cul sought to bring into the American Protestant
tural and social institutions. (and cultural) mainstream people that Gilded Age
I will conclude this essay by linking our col Presbyterians called "the exceptional popula
lective failure to understand the circumstances tions of the Southwest." These included an array
that led to the waning of the missionary cause in of Native American peoples, Hispanic Catholics,
the middle third of the twentieth century to the and Mormons. By the time I arrived at Menaul
doldrums that beset mainstream Protestantism in School to teach history in the mid-1970s, it had
our own times. My conclusions here will be more evolved into an independent high school offering
speculative. To be sure, I will draw from research both day and boarding students of Hispano, Native
completed in recent years, particularly the Lilly American, and Anglo backgrounds an innovative
Louisville project and several monographs. But, program and multicultural curriculum. Thanks to
my commentary and conclusions reflect heav the determination of Carolyn Atkins, the school
ily personal experiences and insights that I have housed the Menaul Historical Library of the
gained as a lifelong Presbyterian. To fellow scholars Southwest, an invaluable collection of missionary
and Presbyterians, I offer few definitive answers. related materials.
Instead, I will raise questions and point to poten As a UNM doctoral student, I did exten
tially useful areas for research that may challenge sive research, wrote several seminar papers, and
us all to rethink old "truths" and begin to glimpse completed a 444-page dissertation that focused on
new ones. If this helps Presbyterians think more Presbyterian responses to the Southwest's "excep
clearly about how we came up with our new hym tional populations." I must confess that when I be
nal, it will be well worth my effort. I will be even gan my efforts, I was a typical, smart aleck, 1960s
more pleased if this piece nudges readers of any and liberal historian who anticipated some type of sat
all persuasions to move beyond the rancorous cul isfaction in bashing missionaries. James Michener's
ture wars of recent years and glimpse a more honest Hawaii (the movie version—I had not read the
understanding of our church's and our nation's novel!) and the prevailing secularism and skepti
encounter with diversity. cism of the era clearly influenced my outlook.4 My
transition to a more balanced and appreciative view
My Journey of mission history was not a Paul on the road to
Damascus conversion. Instead it involved a gradual,
Like the missionaries who are the focus of this still ongoing, and even now sometimes begrudg
study, I was unaware when I began this project ing awakening. Hindsight suggests that this journey
where my sojourn would take me. As a doc actually began in my childhood.
Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise
Aerial view of Warren Wilson College, circa 1950 (RG 303).
As with many persons raised in the church, ful nor brazen enough as a youngster to challenge
participation as a youth in formal religious activi them about their efforts, but I was a bit puzzled
ties (in spite of considerable resistance on my part) why good Christian people felt the need to change
marked my development. Most notably, several peoples who to me seemed equally "good."
visits in the 1950s and 1960s to my home congre Unbeknownst to me, two other important
gation in Kingston, Tennessee, from the Reverend. aspects of my education influenced what eventually
Ernest Mathews and his wife Eula, who devoted became my interest and interpretation of mission
their adult lives to mission work among the Mayan ary history. From 1969 to 1973, I was an under
peoples of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, had a pro graduate at Presbyterian-related Warren Wilson
found impact on me. I recall very little that they College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. I knew
said about their Bible School or other work during vaguely that Warren Wilson had evolved from late
their visits. But the slides they showed of Mayan nineteenth-century Presbyterian missionary ef
temples at Chichen Itza and the brightly embroi forts to uplift Appalachian youth, but the college's
dered huípiles (native blouses) that Mrs. Mathews beautiful mountain setting, its diverse, multina
wore are still vivid in my mind today. Less obvious tional student body, and its innovative, idealistic
at the time, the Mathews' visits also stirred my first programs, and not its Presbyterian ties, enticed me
thinking about missionaries. I was neither thought to enroll there. Only later in 1982, when Warren
Wilson president Reuben Holden asked if I would
write a history for the college's ninetieth anniver
sary, did I seriously consider the school's mission
ary past. By that time I was engaged in research on
Presbyterian missions in the Southwest. Slowly, I
began to glimpse from both studies that some of
my preconceived notions about missionaries re
quired deeper consideration.
Warren Wilson College and Menaul School,
the two institutions whose mission pasts I first
explored, had been created by the Presbyterian
Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA) to "melt"
Appalachian "mountain whites" and Hispanic
New Mexicans into the American mainstream.
But by the time I became acquainted with the
two schools in the final third of the twentieth
century, they celebrated the very diversity they
had originally attempted to eliminate. Although
the two Presbyterian-related schools that shaped
my life had moved far beyond what I at least
thought I knew about their mission school pasts, I
did not immediately glimpse this insight. Perhaps
I was just dense. Perhaps prevailing intellectual
currents blurred my vision. Indeed the metaphori
cal trees that surrounded me were themselves so
dense that it took me a long time to see the forest.
As I wrote the dissertation and probed Warren
Wilson's history, the insights that I share in the
pages that follow appeared only slowly. Cautious
hypotheses about the impact of mission work on
missionaries accompanied the final drafts of these
early scholarly endeavors. But honesty compels
me to admit that I only glimpsed this insight
"through a glass darkly."
Over the past decade and a half, wide read
ing from the aforementioned new works on
mainstream missionaries confirmed and then
strengthened my initially tentative assumptions
about the missionary experience and its signifi
cance. Ongoing debates over contemporary issues,
most notably rancor over American pluralism Nineteenth-century missionary martyr Narcissa Whitman
and heightened concern about the "Presbyterian (RG 414).
predicament" and mainstream decline, sharp
ened my focus and made me more aware of the center of a photo but blurs the fringes, undoubt
relevance of my evolving thesis for our own times. edly impairs my understanding of other impor
Now I understand how and why Native American tant aspects of the missionary experience and the
versions of "Amazing Grace" and Negro spiritu American encounter with diversity. If readers can
als like "There is a Balm in Gilead" made their accept these shortcomings, I believe they will find
way into our new hymnbook. And I know that in the remaining pages some insights that will
their presence there is historically significant. Like help them better understand the dimly understood
many a new convert, my zeal can be excessive. sojourn that led our church and society to our
My insight, like a flash bulb that illuminates the present multicultural juncture.
Children at Pima-Papago Indian Mission, Arizona,
1920 (RG 303).
concludes that Whitman's inability to "free her

self from the power of familiar social norms and
expectations" assured her "failure as a missionary"
Pima woman, 1932 (RG 303). and tragic death at the hands of Cayuse Indians.
Writing a decade ago, Jeffrey frankly observed "I
New Insights into the "Heyday" of suspect that [Narcissa's] response was more typical
Presbyterian Missions, c. 1810-1930 than not."7
Most of us who have forged the new mis
The new mission history makes two points sion history in the years since Jeffrey completed
clear. Mainstream missionaries were a diverse and Converting the West agree with much in her as
varied lot, and the consequences of their labor were sessment of Whitman's outlook and her diagnosis
mixed and complex. Harvard historian William of the missionary's failures. We object, however,
Hutchison suggests that nineteenth- and twenti to her broader assertion that Whitman may have
eth-century missionaries were the first significant been "typical." Indeed the most important finding
group of Americans to live among non-Western of our work is that there was no "typical" mission
peoples.3 As such they were undeniably ethno ary experience. Missionaries who "went forth"
centric. Indeed, from the antebellum era to the from the United States to the corners of the world
years after World War I, a rhetoric of triumpha in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were no
lism that combined the Christian and American less varied and diverse than any other subgroup of
gospels shaped mainstream responses to the diverse humans. Their motives, responses to the peoples
peoples they encountered in this nation and around they encountered, and the consequences of their
the world.6 All of us who engage in missionary labors defy easy generalization, and the actions of
research can cite countless examples of individual individual missionaries were often mutually con
missionaries who could not overcome inherited tradictory. We simply assert that some missionar
cultural predilections and engaged in work so eth ies overcame their biases, developed more positive
nocentric (one is tempted to say "so arrogant") as views of the peoples they encountered, and began
to offend even current observers who are less than to glimpse a different understanding of cultural
politically correct. For instance, Julie Roy Jeffrey's and religious diversity. These experiences were, of
outstanding biography of nineteenth-century mis course, not universal. Moreover, evidence suggests
sionary martyr Narcissa Whitman suggests that that these developments only gradually altered
a decade among "heathen" Indians of the Pacific official mission strategies and only belatedly influ
Northwest "strengthened [Whitman's] prejudice enced official mission rhetoric. Nonetheless these
and preconceptions." Not surprisingly, Jeffrey experiences are worthy of attention today.
Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003 • 83
Charles Cook, who ministered forty-three years
among the Pirnas and Papagos of southern Arizona,
and the Reverend John Menaul, who after a
short stint among the Navajos and Apaches served
New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo for fourteen years,
shared much in common. Menaul immigrated to
Pennsylvania from Ireland as a young man and
arrived in the Southwest in 1870 after a pain
fully disappointing missionary tour in Africa. In
the same year Cook, who had immigrated to the
U.S. from Germany fifteen years before, initiated
work among the Pimas. Over the course of their
labors, Menaul and Cook exhibited unusual aware
ness of the difficulties of acculturation. Menaul,
for example, bluntly informed idealistic friends
of Indian missions in 1880 that "it won't help the
Indian if we pretend he is what he is not." The
following year, an anonymous observer from the
Pima-Papago field (most likely Cook , and, if not,
someone reflecting his influence) commented: "we
make a mistake in expecting the Indians to adopt
Carrie Pond, n.d., missionary to the Zuni Pueblo our habits in a day."9 Although it is a matter that
who recognized the wisdom of bridging language historians cannot answer with absolute certainty,
barriers (RG 414). one suspects that Menaul's and Cook's own experi
ences adjusting to new cultural traditions as immi
The most intriguing (and evasive) question grants may have influenced their relatively flexible
the new mission historians address is why some and patient outlooks.
missionaries adopted more tolerant views of cul Less debatable are the circumstances that made
tural differences than some of their more inflex Menaul and Cook relatively successful in their
ible counterparts and most of the "back home work. In addition to their extended tenures of ser
Christians" who supported their efforts. Tenure vice and flexibility, both men responded practically
of service is one obvious consideration. For ex to Native American needs. Menaul introduced
ample, in my study of Presbyterian missions in new farming methods, vegetables, fruit trees,
the Southwest, I distinguish between "1 to 5 ers" and even a new species of fish at Laguna. Cook
and "longtermers." Most of the former, I discov performed similar services among the Pirnas and
ered, returned home from missionary stints of less Papagos, and in the 1890s led the former in resist
than five years with their biases against Indians, ing white settlers who illegally cut off the Indians'
Catholics, and Mormons confirmed. Those who traditional water supply. Lagunas and Pirnas who
served more than five years often remained in the may have been skeptical of Menaul's and Cook's
Southwest much longer, some for the remainder religious message often pragmatically embraced
of their lives. Many of these individuals experi their other offerings.10
enced a transformation similar to that of one New Both men also understood that bridging the
Mexico "longtermer" who reported in 1893 that language barrier was essential to their efforts.
she "learned Spanish, ate beans almost exclusively, Despite an "English only" policy by church and
[and] lived in a little adobe house" in order to reach federal officials who oversaw their schools, both
"her people."8 men devoted themselves to the difficult task of
Similar personal backgrounds and predilections learning unwritten native languages. Carrie Pond,
often combined with extended tours of service to missionary to Zuni Pueblo, also recognized the
lead some missionaries to greater appreciation of wisdom of this stance. In 1889, she likened teach
target populations and cultural differences. The ing the Zunis in English to "throwing rubber balls
same influences also appear to have enhanced mis against the wall" and concluded "they bounce back
sionary effectiveness. For instance, the Reverend into our faces."11 Studies by other new mission
Alice Blake (n.d.), who served
in Trementia, New Mexico, for
nearly 40 years, along with
one of her Woman's Board of
Home Missions' commissions
(RG 414).
historians reveal that such practical and tolerant

jo i¿iss Alice A. Blaice
views were common overseas and within the U.S.,
wherever mainstream missionaries faced language (Elic lUomaii's ÎUiuirï) of Hume J-Hissimts of tin
barriers and confronted practical challenges to the ^JrfBbuterian (llluircli in tlje 11. ;§■. j\.
people to whom they ministered. commissions you as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church
The new mission history also reveals that the in the U. S. A.
outspoken Carrie Pond was hardly atypical. Indeed

from October i'irst, 19 18.
gender was perhaps the clearest, and most im
at an annual salary of ¿'iV6 Hundred.
portant, predictor of missionary longevity and of
the emergence of a more tolerant and empathetic Dollars ($500.— ) and maintenance.
missionary view. Single female mission teach Issued on behalf of the Board October cil,10 lä .
ers such as Pond, who served most of her adult
life in the Southwestern and Appalachian fields,
were particularly predisposed to making the type
of intellectual adjustments that recent scholar 1
ship highlights. Well before I began my research, fofa^Treasurer.
f
women's studies scholars, including Barbara Welter,
Rosemary Keller, and Rosemary Radford Ruether,
had argued persuasively that women played impor
tant roles and found new opportunities in nine en missionaries (particularly single women) to be
teenth century missions; studies by Florence Hayes, more flexible and accepting of cultural differences
Doug Brackenridge and Lois Boyd, Elizabeth than their male counterparts. For example, Laura
Howell Verdesi, Fred Heuser, and Janet Harbison Work, longtime missionary among the Mormons,
Penfield revealed that this was particularly true for complained bitterly in 1901 about accounts that
Presbyterian women.12 portrayed Latter-day Saints negatively. "No teacher
Even though women s roles were not a major who conducts herself with dignity and kindliness
concern of my studies of Presbyterian work in the [among Mormons]," she concluded, "will ever
Southwest and Appalachia, I quickly recognized suffer indignity." Susan Yohn's and Cheryl Foote's
the veracity and importance of these conclusions. vivid descriptions of Alice Blake, who served the
An array of circumstances, including prevailing village of Trementina, New Mexico, as teacher and
social proscriptions and the need for certain spe nurse for nearly forty years, offer similar evidence
cialized skills, assured that more than 90% of the of mutual affection between women missionaries
approximately 180 Presbyterian mission teachers and the people they served; Blake's Hispano friends
in the Southwest in 1890 were women. A dis lovingly referred to her as the "mother of us all."
proportionately large number of that group, and Kay Stockdale's recent dissertation on Elizabeth
of the aforementioned longtermers, were single. Williams, matriarch of Asheville Farm School,
Traditional gender role expectations allowed worn offers similar evidence. A native of New York,
Journal of Presbyterian History I Summer 2003 • 85
World War I era and the hard times of the Great
Depression actually brought a golden era to several
mission stations.
For example, Asheville Farm School under

the leadership of Henry S. Randolph won wide
acclaim as a model of John Dewey's progressive
education. Perhaps most significantly for this paper,
Henry S. Randolph was himself a southern moun
taineer. His formal education began in an East
Tennessee mission school and was completed with
a Ph.D. from Columbia. By the time of his 1925
appointment to lead the struggling Farm School,
officials from the Board of National Missions
acknowledged that the school they had opened
30 years before to uplift and transform "moun
tain boys" would best be served by a product of
the mountains. Randolph truly loved his own
people and intimately understood the difficulties
of mountain life. These attributes combined with
This March issue of The Owl and Spadf. is dedicated by the student* and faculty of
Farm School to
his devotion to Dewey's controversial ideals and
MISS ELIZABETH B WILLIAMS , his infectious enthusiasm to assure Farm School
in honor of her thirtieth anniversary as a teacher at Farm School. We hope that she
may remain with us for many years to come and that her example may more than survival. The North Carolina mission
inspire us to greater achievement and nobler lives
school won acclaim from Eleanor Roosevelt and
Elizabeth B. Williams, the matriarch of Asheville Farm a host of other observers from around the world.
School, 1925, as honored in The Owl and Spade, the school's Difficult economic times also brought Farm School
newspaper (RG 414). a talented group of individuals, whose hard work
and energy made Randolph's vision a reality in
Williams came to the southern Appalachians in her the 1930s. Indeed Arthur Bannerman and Henry
early twenties when Farm School was founded in Jensen, who took over when Warren Wilson Junior
1894; she remained there until her death in 1942, College was born on the Farm School campus in
the year Farm School became Warren Wilson 1942 (several years after Randolph's departure),
Junior College. Her "circular letters" and personal had the vision to lead (and allow) that institution
correspondence reveal genuine love for the "moun to evolve into the Warren Wilson College that so
tain boys" and respect for Appalachian culture; profoundly influenced my life.15
comments from Farm School alumni suggest that The Great Depression bore similarly fortu
they returned similar sentiments to their beloved itous consequences for the other mission school I
Miss Williams.13 know best. Albuquerque's Menaul School thrived
Numerous other studies focusing on the work throughout Harper Donaldson's long tenure from
of women from other denominations and in mis 1916 to 1953. Tight budgets for New Mexico's
sion fields across the globe reveal the importance nascent public schools in the 1920s and 1930s as
of women to the mission cause and that women's sured that the Presbyterian boarding school had
relative success in crossing cultural barriers was not long waiting lists of talented Hispano students,
unique to the Southwestern and Appalachian fields.14 and the Depression brought Menaul a host of
The new mission history also suggests that excellent teachers, just as it did Farm School and
popular assumptions about timing and specific his other schools under the Presbyterian National
torical epochs need to be reconsidered and refined. Missions board. Menaul alumni throughout
Observers have suggested, for example, that the northern New Mexico still revere Donaldson
1920s and 1930s were difficult years for mainstream and praise his decision to administer IQ tests to
missions. To be sure, the general atmosphere (ir large numbers of Hispano students to disprove
reverence, moral malaise, and economic instabil Anglo assertions of innate Hispanic inferiority.
ity) hindered missions in general. But my research Menaul School did not appoint a Hispanic presi
suggests that the cultural ferment of the post dent until the 1960s, but it did so before native
The "mountain boys" in the Asheville Farm School band and orchestra, circa 1925 (RG 303).
New Mexicans held similar positions in the state's however, that some missionaries (typically long
public schools and other comparable fields.16 For termers) had second thoughts about at least some
Menaul and Farm School, the 1930s were not of these standards.
years of "spiritual depression." Instead they were Commenting on the tenacity of New Mexican
important transitional eras that bridged trium Catholicism, long-time Taos mission teacher Alice
phalist and multicultural responses to diversity. Hyson observed in 1900 that the church in which
How and why these developments occurred needs one is raised "is not simply a presentation of a
further scholarly attention. creed; it is his home." A year later, Leva Granger,
Recent research also offers alternative in who assisted in her mother's New Mexico school as
sights for assessing the results of missionary ef a youth and taught in the New Mexico and Utah
forts. Early missionaries, their benefactors back fields as an adult, chided Presbyterians for attempt
home, and church officials typically measured ing to convert elderly Hispanos. "Is it not worth
success in religious conversions and native em while to teach people about Jesus," she asked, "even
bracement of American/mainstream values and if they continue to call themselves Catholic?"
material culture. Until recent years, historical Several years later a Utah teacher spoke of the posi
commentators accepted these measuring sticks, tive results of her work on many individuals who
typically using them to either praise missionary remained Mormon or who abandoned religion
accomplishment or condemn their destructive entirely; these were results, she observed that "the
ethnocentrism. The new mission history reveals, church roll does not give."17
Alice Hyson Mission Presbyterian School, circa 1934
Kindergarten toy orchestra, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, (RG 303).
circa 1950 (RG303).
In front of the school house, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico,

n.d. (RG 414).
New insights also help observers better under

stand the circumstances that produced missionary
"successes" and "failures." Ethnohistorians James
Axtell and Anthony F. C. Wallace and sociolo
gist Thomas O'Dea asserted long ago that native
populations usually embrace outside religions in
order to meet their own needs. They suggested that
blending new and old ways often revitalized native
cultures, helping them deal with the trauma of
change and cultural fragmentation.
This understanding of cultural interaction
Long-time Taos mission teacher Alice Hyson, circa 1914 helped me realize that unique circumstances
(RG 414). opened the door (or at least left it ajar) in the loca
tions in the Southwest where Presbyterians actually
won more than a few converts or had appreciable
cultural impacts. For example, Presbyterian ac
complishments among the Pimas and Laguna
Pueblos were not solely the result of the longev
ity and practicality of Charles Cook and John
Menaul. Latter-nineteenth-century Pirnas, for
example, found themselves in a state of disarray
due to increasing pressure from white immigrants.
They also found direction in certain aspects of the
Protestant message, badly needed help in Cook's
generosity, and a social structure akin to their own
in the Presbyterian emphasis on elder leadership.
The Laguna Pueblos, even before John Menaul
appeared, had a more progressive reputation than
Zuni, Jemez, and Taos Pueblos, or the Navajo
and Apache peoples, who more strongly resisted
Presbyterian efforts.18
Similarly, Hispano and Utah communities
where Presbyterians made some inroads were
typically places that had been neglected, or for Navajo group, Cook Training School, Tempe, Arizona, 1948
some reason were at odds with local Catholic and (RG 303).
Mormon officials. In discussing missionary suc
cesses among the Cherokee, historians John Finger
and William McLoughlin emphasize that mission
Practical training in mechanics, Asheville Farm School, circa 1920 (RG 303)
New studies also suggest that cultural interac
tion and selective acculturation ran more than one
way in the mission fields. Indeed, recent research
goes beyond my relatively timid assertions on this
point in the published version of my dissertation
and the two editions of Warren Wilson's history.
These revisionist accounts offer clear evidence that
attitudes of some missionaries toward their target
populations changed in response to both setbacks
and unexpected realities in their assigned fields and
traumatic developments in their own dominant
culture. Chinese-American historian Lian Xi bril
liantly argues this point in his provocatively entitled
The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American
Protestant Missions in China, 1907—1932. Xi focuses
on how the views of missionaries from several dif
ferent denominations, including Presbyterian Pearl
S. Buck (and perhaps more notably representatives
of several more conservative churches), changed
as a result of their experiences in China. Another
insightful work is Keith Widder's Battle for the Soul,
which focuses on Presbyterian and Congregational
Charles Lemuel Thompson, head of the Presbyterian interaction with Métis and Native Americans
Board of Home Missions from 1898 to 1914, on a mis on Michigan's Mackinaw Island in the 1820s
sionary tour of Puerto Rico, n.d. (RG 414). and 1830s. When this interaction served mutual
"needs," Widder asserts, the missionaries enjoyed
aries took advantage of divisions between tradition some successes. On the other hand, when mission
alists and progressives in taking their messages to ary efforts challenged or violated native interests
the target population.19 Further research is needed and needs, their work accomplished little.21 These
to explore in greater depth circumstances in other works affirm William McLoughlin's list of the
mission fields, such as Korea, where Presbyterians "essential features of successful missionary work"
enjoyed particularly notable (some might even say cited earlier. Future works focusing on other mis
surprising) successes. sion fields from around the globe and dealing with
Perhaps most interestingly new mission scholars missionaries of varied denominational backgrounds
are beginning to better understand that a complex, will, I am confident, find that these were not
two-way process of selective acculturation typi unique patterns in missionary experiences.
cally occurred in the mission fields. For example, Although we new mission historians have found
Southwestern and Appalachian students in the evidence of missionary adjustments in the field, we
Presbyterian schools that I have studied often eagerly often become frustrated when we try to link these
embraced practical training in mechanics, farming, adjustments to official mission policies. This prob
and other fields; similarly, non-English speakers of lem, however, should not be surprising. First, the
ten learned the language of the dominant culture in examples of altered missionary views offered earlier
Presbyterian schools in the Southwest and elsewhere. in this paper were often spontaneous. Indeed, some
Mission school students were less willing, however, of the statements I have cited were not meant for
to abandon their inherited faiths for the missionaries' public or official audiences. One suspects, moreover,
Presbyterianism. Indeed, in the New Mexico mis that missionaries, for pragmatic reasons, were care
sions even those who converted to Protestantism (in ful that their messages confirm at least somewhat
cluding the first Spanish Presbyterian ministers, Jose the expectations of those who read them and who
Ynes Perea and Gabino Rendon) retained distinctive funded their endeavors. Furthermore, only a few of
"Catholic" features in their faith, continued to speak the missionaries could see (and then at best dimly)
Spanish regularly, and battled the ethnocentrism and the circumstances that inform modern observers
racism of their Anglo brethren.20 about their "successes" and "failures." Thus they
rarely suggested what modern observers (blinded eluded emphasis on the Social Gospel and ecumen
by our own hindsight) might consider appropriate ism, plus a new attitude toward cultural differences
changes in mission policy. offered by Franz Boas's cultural anthropology. Most
To be sure, a few insightful Southwestern importantly, although few saw it clearly at the time,
missionaries acknowledged that matters beyond it is obvious to me that the experiences of some
their control (e.g., neglect of certain New Mexico missionaries and these new intellectual currents
and Utah villages by Catholic and Mormon of confirmed each other. Out of this convergence and
ficials) contributed to their successes. From the mutual confirmation, doubts about traditional melt
Appalachian field during the Depression years, ing pot notions appeared and new attitudes about
Henry S. Randolph showed rare insight into the cultural differences germinated and took root.
influence of timing on his accomplishments at However, more pressing concerns in the churches
Asheville Farm School when he observed that and broader society, particularly debates over such
"pioneering in the field of ideas is not difficult controversial issues as evolution, comparative reli
when ancient good becomes uncouth."22 Several gion, and higher criticism of the scriptures, tempo
of the missionaries that are the focus ofXi's study rarily overshadowed this important development.
of missions in China made similar observations Not surprisingly, scholars who have exam
and proposed concrete changes in mission policy. ined these debates and the schism they engendered
However, these individuals appear to be the excep typically ignore missionaries. Their works rarely
tion. For a variety of reasons the typical missionary consider missionary responses to these issues or
in the field seems to have rarely offered concrete how these controversies affected work in the mis
advice about mission strategy Perhaps most obvi sion fields. The largely unwritten assumption seems
ously, they were simply too busy. to be that missionaries were theological conserva
With or without input from the mission tields, tives. This view is not surprising but neither is it
changes did, indeed, occur in mission strategy by accurate. Indeed one might suspect that missionary
the early years of the twentieth century. For ex experiences like those I earlier highlighted made
ample, Charles Lemuel Thompson, who headed the some missionaries receptive to such "liberal" ideas
Presbyterian Board of Home Missions from 1898 as comparative religion. But there is little concrete
to 1914, was a strong advocate of the Social Gospel, evidence to support this assumption.
interdenominational cooperation, and increased A story about Sheldon Jackson, longtime mis
specialization in home missions. For example, he sionary pioneer in the West and Alaska, offers a
and a talented staff of subordinates sought to shift possible explanation for this neglect of theological
the emphasis of Presbyterian home missions in the issues. As chair of the influential Committee on
Southwest away from the earlier triumphalism and Bills and Overtures at the 1898 General Assembly
called Presbyterians to greater toleration of the dis of the PCUSA, Jackson reportedly made light of
tinctive peoples they encountered. Robert Handy as charges before his committee that the writings
a young scholar in the 1950s attributed Thompson's and teachings of Union Seminary professor Arthur
views to the prevailing influence of Progressivism. C. McGiffert exhibited irreverence toward the
Writing thirty years later, I largely accepted Handy's scriptures. Several chagrined theological purists
interpretation. But now, with the passage of more charged that Jackson was more concerned about
than another decade and after reading additional the fate of reindeer he had recently introduced
works dealing with missionary responses to diver into Alaska; three hundred of them had reportedly
sity, I believe that scholars should probe this issue died!24 I suspect, most missionaries were very much
more deeply. Even if missionary influence was like Jackson. They were typically "doers" and the
low-key and subtle, I suspect those engaged directly fundamentals of their work had little to do with
in the far-flung fields of mission activity may have the theological debates that divided Presbyterians
contributed to the more progressive stances advo in the early decades of the twentieth century.
cated by such mission officials as Thompson.23
I personally have no doubt that during the first Fundamentalism, Modernism,
two decades of the twentieth century the experi and Missionaries
ences of some missionaries in the field and new
developments in the broader church and society At least one Presbyterian missionary, Pearl S.
began to converge. These latter developments in Buck, played a significant role in long-developing
Sheldon Jackson's reindeer herd in the city park, Seattle, Washington, 1898, en route to Alaska (Sheldon Jackson
Collection, RG 239).
divisions between Fundamentalists and Modernists final stage of the Presbyterian controversy."
that erupted in the 1920s and 1930s and resulted This controversial report, the product of an
in a major schism that has shaped American investigation of Protestant missions in China,
Presbyterianism since that time. Raised in China Japan, Burma and India, reflected the views of
of missionary parents, Buck returned there as an liberal Congregationalist and Harvard professor
adult, married a missionary, and before gaining William Ernest Hocking and called into ques
fame as a writer was employed by the Presbyterian tion the triumphalist rhetoric, goals, and policies
foreign missions board. In the Depression era, long associated with Protestant missions. In the
crises in the Presbyterian Church and in Buck's words of historians John R. Fitzmier and Richard
personal and professional lives converged with ex Balmer, the report emphasized that "soul sav
plosive consequences. Bradley Longfield's brilliant ing, the traditional shibboleth of the nineteenth
analysis of the broader controversy concludes with century Protestant missionary, was now but one
the persuasive argument that the 1936 withdrawal item on the crowded mission agenda."26 Speer cau
of Fundamentalists behind J. Gresham Machen tiously applauded many practical suggestions from
represented a victory for Presbyterian moderates, the Laymen's Inquiry that were intended to make
including foreign missions secretary Robert Speer, mission work more effective. But he distanced
rather than for such allegedly liberal proponents himself from more controversial theological as
of modernism as Buck. Longfield further suggests sertions, such as its call for "a steady growth of
that the 1930 publication of Re-thinking Missions: mutual understanding and respect among . . . seek
A Laymen's Inquiry after 100 Years precipitated "the ers of various faiths."
Nonetheless, this report, and Speer's acceptance said a loud 'Amen' to some of the controversial
of even some of its provisions, infuriated Machen. assertions and practical suggestions of Re-thinking
Unequivocal support from missionary Buck, who Missions. The report's emphasis, for example, on
had just won acclaim (indeed a 1932 Pulitzer the Social Gospel, ecumenism, and its critique of
Prize) for her novel The Good Earth, more gravely the earlier triumphalism, echoed the experiences
appalled the Fundamentalist Princeton seminary of many missionaries. At least some longtermers
professor. Longfield, and more recently Fitzmier had learned well before 1930 that "soul saving"
and Balmer, have insightfully analyzed Buck's (to reiterate Fitzmier and Balmer's summation of
role in the crisis and link her irreverent views to the Hocking Report) was "only one item on the
personal crises (including an unhappy marriage), crowded missions agenda." More significantly, I
her newfound fame among secular audiences, and suspect that they were simply too busy doing "the
the general ferment of the culturally iconoclastic Lord's work" to make the distinctions or engage
1930s. Although the foreign missions board ac in the rancor that so divided Presyterian seminar
cepted "with deep regret" Buck's 1933 resignation, ians and, increasingly, Presbyterians in the pews
moderates like Speer were apparently glad to see back home.
her go. They thereafter disassociated themselves Fitzmier and Balmer conclude their essay on
further from Buck and the more radical findings of Pearl S. Buck and the Hocking Report with the
the Hocking Committee.27 assertion that "despite [the] storm of controversy
Beyond Pearl S. Buck, we know very little in the 1930s, the story of Presbyterian missions
about missionaries' roles or responses to the over the next four decades can be understood as a
Fundamentalist-Modernist split. Longfield's gradual process in which American Presbyterians
broader treatment of Presbyterian theological wars adopted the proposals set forth in Re-thinking
and Balmer and Fitzmier's in-depth analysis of Missions."28 To be sure, the missionary crusade
the final skirmishes of that conflict prior to the waned in the middle years of the twentieth century,
Fundamentalists' 1936 secession present the views and Presbyterians, for a complex array of reasons,
of prominent mission officials such as Speer. But retreated from their ambitious endeavors. However,
they tell us nothing about the views of missionar with all due respect, I believe these two fine schol
ies in the field, with the exception of Buck, who ars have the story backward. Many insights and pro
by the time she entered the fray was no longer in posed changes from the Hocking Report mirrored
the field. Moreover, Buck, as a second-generation what experience previously taught many mission
missionary who was deeply disenchanted and a aries, particularly what they had learned firsthand
very articulate writer, was arguably never represen about cultural resilience.
tative of the average Presbyterian workers in either
the foreign or home mission fields. Although I Rethinking the "Retreat," c. 1930-80
noted previously that missionaries rarely engaged in
theological and policy-related dialog, I suspect that For Presbyterians and other mainstream
Longfield and Fitzmier and Balmer misread the Protestants, the years since the Fundamentalist
missionaries' relative silence on these matters. Modernist schism of the 1930s can usefully be
Some missionaries undoubtedly agreed with divided into three eras: c. 1930 to the mid-1960s,
critics of Re-thinking Missions. The report's as c. 1965 to c. 1980, c. 1980 to the present. The first
sertion that many missionaries were "devoted, two of these eras provided the cultural-chrono
patient, and unimaginative people, content with logical context in which the mainstream mission
the dull round of conventional service and so ary "retreat" occurred. Earlier, I suggested that by
encumbered with administrative routine as to be the 1920s missionary experiences with culturally
incapable of thinking freshly and planning wisely" different peoples and new intellectual currents and
surely stung many workers in home and foreign understandings of diversity had begun to converge.
fields. But my research on Southwestern and However, from the 1920s to the 1960s an array of
Appalachian missions, and the findings by many distractions demanded full attention and kept po
other practitioners of the new mission history, tentially divisive issues, including new understand
caution against making such broad generalizations ings of diversity, on the proverbial back burner.
about missionary attitudes. More significantly, Ironically, in the mid-1960s, at the historical
our research suggests some missionaries may have moment that the great, century-long, mainstream
Protestant missionary crusade ground unceremo U.S. sent out fewer missionaries during this period,
niously to a virtual halt, unrelated developments but their effort was more consistent. Their foreign
in the broader society were forging among some board sent out 427 foreign missionaries in 1930
Americans an understanding of cultural differences and 504 in 1970, but Southern Presbyterians never
surprisingly similar to the more tolerant and ac supported more than 567 missionaries in any given
cepting views learned generations earlier by some year during the forty-year period.30 As a personal
in the mission fields. However, the irreverent and note, I vividly recall the dismay among some mem
typically secular exponents of this new outlook, bers of my home congregation (UPCUSA) in the
certain that they were the first to see this "light," late 1960s when we learned that missionaries would
could not imagine that such bastions of the estab thereafter be known as "fraternal workers."
lishment as mainstream missionaries could have Ironically these signs of decline make this era in
shared their outlook. Thus, rather than converg missions history particularly deserving of schol
ing in the 1960s, these two viewpoints passed by arly attention. In the current absence of significant
each other like ships in the night. This failure to research, I offer several informed hunches about
connect forged divisions and distrust in the broader mainstream missions in the transitional middle years
society and the church that are still apparent today. of the twentieth century. First, the retreat from mis
From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, sion responsibilities resulted from complex, some
economic depression, the rise of fascism abroad, times contradictory considerations that are beyond
involvement in World War II, and the Cold War the scope of this essay. It is clear, however, that the
distracted Americans in general from other con decision was both financial and philosophical, and
cerns. In response to these challenges and the af that the retreat represented both laudable and nega
tershocks of the earlier schism, leading Protestants, tive aspects of the mainstream story. Critics chastise
most notably Reinhold Niebuhr, moved away the churches for abandoning longstanding commit
from the earlier, more naïve idealism often es ments. Conversely, defenders point to the emphasis
poused by Christian liberals. Niebuhr's "Christian on turning the church's efforts over to native work
realism" appealed to many leading Presbyterian ers and disengaging from triumphalist arrogance.
moderates. This combined with the defection of There is merit in both of these views.
disgruntled ultraconservative elements behind the This much is sure. Even as the movement
likes of J. Gresham Machen and Carl Mclntire to waned, missionaries in the field remained on the
foster a moderate consensus in Presbyterian circles. front line of the American encounter with di
Although several leading churchmen participated versity, and again we know relatively little about
in the early civil rights movement, their roles were their experiences. No less than early longtermers
relatively uncontroversial, particularly when com in the Southwest and Appalachian fields, and Pearl
pared to Presbyterian activism of the late 1960s S. Buck in China, some missionaries from this era
and 1970s.29 experienced cross-cultural encounters that defied
Scholars have thus far devoted minimal atten conventional rhetoric and simplistic understand
tion to mainstream missions during the era from ings of the missionary enterprise. Two aforemen
about 1935 to 1980. My own research, for ex tioned examples from my own research into home
ample, largely culminates in the early part of this missions in the Southwest and Appalachia suggest
era. The obvious reason for this general neglect that the more broad-minded views of the "target
is that the mid-twentieth century represents the populations" and adjustments in mission goals and
end of the "great missions era." For example, the strategies apparent prior to World War I continued,
foreign mission board of the PCUSA ("Northern indeed became more pronounced, in the inter
Presbyterians") sent out 1,491 foreign missionar war years. During the 1930s, the home missions
ies in 1930. A decade later the number dropped board employed native Appalachian Henry S.
to 1,222 and to 1,140 in 1950. After a 1957 Randolph to lead struggling Asheville Farm School
merger created the United Presbyterian Church in a progressive, new direction while across the
in the U.S.A., the newly reorganized "Northern nation Harper Donaldson administered IQ tests
Presbyterians" sent out 1,261 foreign missionaries to Hispanic youths of northern New Mexico to
in 1960, but that number plummeted to a forty prove wrong those who labeled them intellectually
year low of 904 in 1970. The typically more con inferior. Further research will reveal, I believe, that
servative "southern" Presbyterian Church in the these developments were part of a broader pattern.
Ernest and Eula Mathews, 1954, who demonstrated the faith and commitment that sustained lifelong mission
aries (RG 360).
Like the earlier longtermers, effective mis read Rice s memoir carefully. Even then, it was not
sionaries from the interwar years were typically so until several years later, when I was revising the
busy (and sometimes so modest) that they rarely dissertation for publication, that I fully appreciated
published detailed accounts about their experienc Rice's difficulties and disappointment and the ad
es. More problematic for my thesis, their relative justments mission field reality forced him to make.
acceptance and toleration of cultural differences "We all had to make the best of it," he wrote, but
became so much a part of their lives that many "we could learn from one another. I found much to
of them may have felt little need to share those admire in the [Latter-day] Saints."31
important experiences with posterity Moreover, In the same year that I picked up Rice's mem
like their nineteenth-century predecessors, some oir, my father, accompanying my mother who was
of them may have been reluctant to share views a commissioner at the General Assembly in Atlanta,
that would potentially disturb their benefac acquired an autographed copy ofjohn Coventry
tors back home. Nonetheless, the few published Smith's From Colonialism to World Community: The
memoirs of mid-twentieth-century missionar Church's Pilgrimage. Smith recounted his experiences
ies that I have read give credence to my general as a Presbyterian missionary to the Far East from
thesis. One example, Clayton Rice's Ambassador to the 1920s to World War II and his role in leading
the Saints (1965), I discovered by chance in a Salt mainstream Protestant churches to a "new era in
Lake City used book store in 1983. Ironically, at missions" after the war through the 1980s. The lat
the time I was so preoccupied with researching ter, this "ecumenical statesman" wrote, could be as
the nineteenth-century portion of my dissertation "rewarding" as the earlier, more celebrated chapter
that I set aside the memoirs of this man who spent in mission history if the church could "enlarge its
much of the first half of the twentieth century vision and find its place in the common task of
as a Presbyterian-Congregationalist missionary the world Christian community."32 I discovered
in Utah. Only later, as I wrote the dissertation's this book in Dad's collection after returning to
concluding chapter and began to glimpse ever so Tennessee following his death in 1986. By then the
dimly the premise about missionaries and diversity dissertation was completed, but Smith's wisdom
that is at the heart of this paper, did I take time to and faith confirmed key tenets of my evolving un
mexico mexico mexico mexico mexico
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We greet you at Christmas with a tiny bouquet of flouers
from Mexico, wishing for you the beauty and inspiration of
this season in which we remember Him whose coming will
always be "good news of great joy to all people." 1 -s UT TAL UK1* 1CHKELE/ML JAJAL DIO* =
Sincerely,
lEu/a and Ernest latAews
Calle 58 A, No. 510 il h ti il h il h h m m h n il il h h il h h n m n n n N n h n m m n tt u 11 n m m ii h it u ti m m h ii ii n it n
Mirida, Yucatan, México " AB?JL ANC 2—NUMERO 6 1949 " f*

U. IHIIIIIIII»IIMMIMIIIH»lll»l»l»l»llllltlllllJHI*IIITHIIrtl«l»lllflllinilHM|llimil»H»« -A -
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Christmas greetings from the Mathews in Yucatan, Mexico, Newsletter produced by Eula Mathews, April 1949 (RG 360).
1974 (RG 360).
derstanding of the missionary experience. dividuals who both engaged in and benefited from
The other reason for my certainty is my good missionary endeavors. One of my favorite persons
fortune in being acquainted personally with indi was the Reverend Alfonso Esquibel, a 1936 Menaul
viduals who lived stories and experiences like those graduate and long time Hispanic Presbyterian
that I have shared in this essay. For example, several minister. I became acquainted with Mr. Esquibel
visits as a young adult in the 1970s with Ernest and through his grandchildren who were enrolled
Eula Mathews in Yucatan reacquainted me with at Menaul and his honest, insightful autobiogra
friends from my youth. I learned firsthand about the phy, Vaquero to Dominie: The Nine Lives of Alfonso
faith and commitment that sustained lifelong mis Esquibel. As I researched the dissertation, I was for
sionaries, how they truly loved the Mayan people, tunate to visit on many occasions with Mr. Esquibel
and how much this love was returned to them. and his wonderful wife, Ada, at the Plaza del Monte
My experiences at Warren Wilson College retirement home in Santa Fe and to learn firsthand
and Menaul School also placed me in contact about their revealing cross-cultural experiences.
with individuals whose lives revealed much about Like the first New Mexico Hispanic Presbyterian
missionary experiences. For example, Dr. Gordon ministers of a generation before, Alfonso man
Mahy, a beloved professor at Warren Wilson, aged to bridge the Hispano-Catholic and Anglo
had been a home missionary in Appalachian Protestant cultural-religious divide with agility. For
Kentucky in the 1920s and served two decades example, from his days as a Menaul student in the
as missionary to China and Japan before becom 1920s, he recalled that the school had three "rigidly
ing an English professor at Warren Wilson in enforced" rules: "no smoking, no drinking, and no
the 1950s. Dr. Mahy talked about his missionary Spanish." He had "no problem" with the first two
career only if asked; indeed it was only through strictures, but he made no apologies about regularly
the campus rumor mill that I learned that he had violating the last one. By the time his grandchildren
been held captive briefly by the Communists and I were at Menaul in the 1970s, it had become
during the Chinese Civil War. What I knew for a model for bilingual, multicultural education. Mr.
sure as an undergraduate was that Gordon Mahy Esquibel was justly proud of what he and his fellow
truly loved his students. His concern for Warren Hispanos had taught us Presbyterians and of the rich
Wilson's large number of international students, cultural syncretism that distinguishes his mission
and particularly those from Asian nations, was school alma mater.34
obvious and genuine. However, I only later came Fortuitous circumstances over the years allowed
to realize that the quiet self-assurance that made me to make friends with other persons whose expe
him so accepting of others was rooted in his mis riences affirm the thesis developed in this essay. For
sion field experiences.33 example, in the summer of 1985 during nearly three
During my eleven years in New Mexico, I had weeks of research at Philadelphia's Presbyterian
similar opportunities to become acquainted with in Historical Society, tight finances led me to secure a
room and meals at Prentice House, a Presbyterian
retirement home. Many Prentice House residents
were retired missionaries who had served around
the globe during the waning years of the missionary
crusade. Of these, I became best acquainted with
Grace Reifsnyder, who with her husband served
more than thirty years in mission stations through
out Latin America. Grace was primarily a teacher,
and in 1956 she served on an international commit
tee that prepared a new Spanish Sunday school cur
riculum. The authors of the new curriculum were
primarily Latinos, reflecting the important changes
in Presbyterian outlook described in John Coventry
Smith's memoirs. These changes, Grace assured me
thirty years later, were both appropriate and wise.
Extended mission tours had made Grace and many
of her Prentice House friends unabashed interna
tionalists. Their appreciation of cultural diversity
coexisted in relative harmony with a deep personal
faith. Later, when Prentice House closed, Grace
moved to Plaza del Monte in Santa Fe, where my
wife, daughter, and I visited regularly with her, the
Esquibels, and many other Presbyterian retirees. At
Plaza del Monte, which was constructed on the site
of a mission school where Presbyterians had once
attempted to culturally transform New Mexican Grace Reifsnyder, who with her husband served for more
señoritas, I began to learn that the cultural encoun than 30 years as a missionary throughout Latin America
ter between missionaries and "target populations" (RG360).
was far more complex than those early missionaries,
most observers (from inside and outside the church), experiences with Navajo students at Menaul, I in
or I imagined.35 quired, in rather stilted and academic parlance, what
Honesty again compels me to admit that I did had most positively influenced her Navajo experi
not recognize this until I had completed most of ence. With a look that conveyed both exasperation
the research for my dissertation. Only as I began and delight, she slowly responded: "Son . . . All I
to record this story on the written page did I begin know ... is that I love them . . . and they love me."
to glimpse, and then ever so dimly, what I now In the years since that fortuitous conversa
believe is the most important, and certainly the tion, many missionaries that I have had the good
least appreciated, consequence of the Presbyterian fortune to know—via long forgotten letters and
missionary endeavor. Lest critics conclude that I diaries, personal memoirs, and wonderful friend
have, since childhood, found what I was looking ships—have collectively said a loud amen! To be
for, or was especially attuned to notice, I offer one sure, not all missionaries had experiences like those
more story—this one from a non-Presbyterian that are the focus of my work. This, however, does
source. Surely this story confirms this essay's essen not mean that the stories of those who were trans
tial premise about the surprising consequences that formed by their work or their contributions to our
may come from serving others. understanding of diversity are less important or less
During my research jaunt in the summer of deserving of our attention. Clearly scholars need to
1985, I flew from Albuquerque to D.C. and then probe more deeply the era of missionary "retreat"
to Philadelphia. During a long layover at the St. to test my hypotheses. One important means of
Louis airport, I found myself seated beside a Roman doing this, of course, is oral history. Like other
Catholic nun in full habit. She soon revealed that members of Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation,"
she was returning to a longtime mission station on retired missionaries can share stories and insights
the Navajo reservation. After sharing some of my into developments that we of the 1960s genera
tion are only now beginning to appreciate. And broader historical contexts. As befits an ego-driven
we only have a short time to capture those stories society that has raised individualism to cult status,
before they are lost.36 we often think we are the first generation to experi
ence whatever problems currently beset us. Truly
Transcending Malaise one of the greatest benefits from studying history is
that we learn that our woes are rarely unique; mis
in concluding, I will reiterate the major thesis ery does, indeed "love company!" The Spring 2000
of this essay: a fuller, more accurate understand issue of The Journal of Presbyterian History should
ing of our church's encounters with diversity as be required reading for ALL members of today's
seen in our mission history can help us present-day PC (USA) and those who have defected from it (for
Presbyterians move beyond our current doldrums. whatever reason) in recent decades. This volume
These difficulties, I believe, are rooted in an ar contains six essays that focus on discord over a host
ray of developments from the late 1960s and early of issues (e.g., revivalism, slavery, fundamentalism,
1970s, most notably the civil rights movement, the and McCarthyism) since the eighteenth century.
Vietnam War, and the rebellion of the counter These essays should disabuse anyone who sup
culture.37 These traumatic events are so recent and poses that our current rancor is unprecedented.
so personal that they still blind us. Their legacies The consensus from these selections echoes Lefferts
reverberate down to the present, leaving distinct Loetscher's The Broadening Church. Writing about
imprints and divisions on those of us who came of controversy in our denomination from the rela
age in that era and our social institutions, includ tively peaceful vantage point of 1954, Loetcher
ing our Presbyterian Church. The Lilly-Louisville suggested that when we Presbyterians are "at our
project and several more recent studies illumine best" we agree that we can disagree on all but the
many facets of our "Presbyterian Predicament," and most essential issues. With a few notable exceptions,
membership statistics reveal in black and white its this tradition has saved our church from the types
most concrete manifestation. For a variety of reasons of fragmentation that characterize other Protestant
that defy simple explanations, the PC (USA) has lost denominations and that doomsayers currently an
both members and prestige. Some have defected ticipate for our own. Presbyterians today need to
from our ranks to join more conservative denomi know this story.40
nations because they believe the PC (USA) is too This essay has explored one controversial is
liberal. Others departed charging our church is too sue that divides Presbyterians. Other concerns,
conservative and out of step with developments that such as abortion and gay and lesbian issues, gain
have transformed modern culture. Perhaps the larg greater attention from the press and generate more
est number, including many baby boomer defectors, heated debate, but I maintain that future genera
have left the Presbyterian Church for religious non tions will consider our response to diversity the
affiliation and secular pursuits.38 most essential issue facing our church and society
Today s Presbyterian predicament is also pain in our present historical chapter. The urgency and
fully evident among those of us who remain within volatility of the other concerns (like many of the
our denominational confines. A casual observer of issues examined the in the Spring 2000 issue of
our General Assemblies throughout the 1990s or the JPH) will diminish with the passage of time.
one who only occasionally peruses our denomina On the other hand, our attitude toward "others" is
tional publications knows that internecine rancor is foundational. It determines how we respond to the
a hallmark of our contemporary church. The mat broader world and how we define our denomina
ters that divide Presbyterians today, including a host tion. And it reveals how much (or how little) we
of sexuality-related issues, questions of social justice, understand our Master's essential message that
and multiculturalism, originated in the aforemen finding faults in others is a convenient and deceit
tioned upheavals of the 1960s. Some observers ex ful ploy that conceals our own shortcomings.
pect that our currently fragmented church will soon Indeed, if we use the term diversity in its very
become fractured.39 broadest sense, all of the issues that divide mem
One unfortunate consequence of the histori bers of our church today can be subsumed into this
al amnesia that besets early-twenty-first-century jne concern.
Americans, including many Presbyterians, is that we Ironically, as I have already suggested, our
do not see our present situation in the light of our church in the mid-1960s had a fleeting opportu
nity to stake out common ground for productive history, many liberal minded intellectuals (includ
dialog on the diversity issue. The nearly coinciden ing many associated with historically Presbyterian
tal retreat from missionary triumphalism and the colleges) have abandoned the Protestant main
manifold aftershocks of the civil rights movement stream to the "religious right."41 Their departure
and cultural revolution came from the same social ironically makes the charge that "the church is too
ferment. More importantly, they forged new un conservative" ever more plausible. Several percep
derstandings of diversity that, if not identical, raised tive observers from outside the church, including
similar questions about traditional American (and Washington Post columnist William Raspberry
Presbyterian) attitudes toward pluralism. For a vari and Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech
ety of reasons, this opportunity was missed. Rather Republic, have lamented the ominous consequenc
than dialog, division took hold and then deepened es, for the church and the broader American soci
over the next generation. Presbyterians split into ety, of liberals' defection from organized religion.
adversarial camps: liberals and conservatives, older Mainstream church leaders and those who have
versus younger generations, multiculturahsts versus defected would be wise to consider their thought
advocates of the melting pot, etc. For those of us ful words.42
who have experienced the past three decades and Finally I assert that the little-known mis
watched our church push perilously close to self sionary stories explored in this essay have value
destruction, this latest chapter in our history seems for Americans of the left, middle, and right and
interminable. However, a more promising prospect both those in and outside of our churches. The
appears when we consider our era in broader con cross-cultural encounters that occurred in many
texts. Indeed, our failure to find common ground mission fields reveal that a complex, two-way
is only surprising when removed from its broader dynamic of selective acculturation fostered a plu
historical and cultural contours. ralism that refuses to melt away. Awareness of this
As we begin a new century and millennium, can lead us all to a more accurate and productive
our historical responsibility is to move beyond understanding of the American encounter with
today's internecine rancor. An honest understand diversity than either the long unquestioned melt
ing of our mainstream Protestant missions story ing pot paradigm or the more recently fashion
can help us meet this challenge. The missionar able multiculturalism.
ies' experiences call the church's more traditional Lessons from the missionary story are most rel
critics, including many who have left our ranks evant for those of us who remain in the church and
for "more conservative" churches, to a deeper un strive to heal our self-inflicted wounds. What mis
derstanding of the fundamentals of the Christian sionaries learned in the mission fields about diversi
faith. Stories from the mission field reveal that ty surely applies to the ideological issues that divide
when we confine God to our own personal, reli Presbyterians today. 2002 General Assembly mod
gious, and cultural inheritances, we demean God's erator Fahed Abu-Akel and his fellow moderates
other children, fail to see our common humanity, can surely find example and encouragement from
diminish the rich diversity of God's creation, and missionaries who learned that those who are com
fail to see universal truths. mitted to and consumed with "the Lord's work"
Revisionist understandings of the missionary often find other matters less essential and less
experience offer equally important lessons to those worthy of their energy and attention. Fortunately
who charge that the church's responses to the is we early-twenty-first-century Presbyterians have
sues of modernity make it "irrelevant." As this a wonderful means of celebrating these lessons and
essay has demonstrated, mainstream missionaries for sharing them with others. Singing "new songs
were among the first wave of foot soldiers who unto the Lord" from our new hymnal can make us
promoted a more inclusive response to diversity. mindful of our rich past and help us transcend our
Unaware of and apparently uninterested in this current malaise. '|p
Notes
' The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual provided by Ida J. Smith-Williams of Presbyterian Research
Songs (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), 7. Services in an e-mail dated 11 July 2000. For more insight
Information about adoption and use of the new hymnal was into this provocative new hymnal, see Linda Jo H. McKim,
The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion (Louisville: Westminster/ 1991).
John Knox Press, 1993). 8 For statistics about missionary longevity see Tables 5
2 The following are some of scholars I shared ideas and 6 in my Presbyterian Missions and Cultural Interaction, 111—
with as my own thinking on the field evolved: Randi Jones 12. "Words from Workers—New Mexico," Home Mission
Walker, Cheryl Foote, Bruce Taylor, Norman Bender, Ted Monthly, July 1893, 209.
C. Hinckley, Susan Yohn, Bonnie Sue Lewis, Helen Lewis, 9 See Banker, "Presbyterian Missionary Activity in the
and P. David Searles. My good friend and mentor at the Southwest: The Careers of John and James Menaul," The
University of New Mexico, Ferenc M. Szasz, aided me in Journal of the West 23 (January 1984): 55—61. Minnie Cook,
making many of these connections. Two recent provocative Apostle to the Pirnas (Tiburón, Cal.: Omega Books, 1976).
studies that suggest that the missionary thesis presented herein The observation from the Pima field is recorded in William
has implications well beyond this essay's concerns with main Meyer to Sheldon Jackson, 11 May 1881, Sheldon Jackson
stream Protestant missions in the nineteenth and twentieth Correspondence Collection, Presbyterian Historical Society,
centuries are Charles E. Ronan and Bonnie Oh, eds., East Philadelphia. Menaul commented regularly on his work at
Meets West: The Jesuits in China, 1582—1773 (Chicago: Loyola Laguna. See, for example, Menaul, "1877 Annual Report,"
University Press, 1988) and Gerald McDermott, Jonathan Rocky Mountain Presbyterian 6 (October 1877) and "Laguna
Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Pueblo Annual Report," Presbyterian Home Missions 10
Religion, and Non-Christian Faiths (New York: Oxford (January 1881): 219-29.
University Press, 2000). luMcLoughlin's Champions of the Cherokees, along with
3 At the time of his death in 1992, William G. many of the other works cited herein, reveal that practical
McLoughlin was Willard Prescott and Annie McLelland efforts by Menaul and Cook were not unique.
Smith Professor of History and Religion Emeritus at Brown 11 Carrie Pond, "Words from Workers—New Mexico,"
University. He was the author of many books on American Home Mission Monthly, December 1889, 38.
religious history. His works that are most relevant to this es 12 General works that address women and church work
say are Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789-1839 (New Haven: include Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood,"
Yale University Press, 1984); Champions of the Cherokees: American Quarterly 18 (1996), and Rosemary Keller,
Evan and John B.Jones (Princeton: Princeton University Press, "Laywomen in the Protestant Tradition" in Women and
1990); Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic (Princeton: Religion in America: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods,
Princeton University Press, 1986); and the posthumously pub ed. Rosemary Radford Ruether and Rosemary Keller
lished (edited by William H. Cosner, Jr.) The Cherokees and (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981). Notable works
Christianity, 1794—1870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural on Presbyterian women include Lois Boyd and Douglas
Persistence (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994). The Brackenridge. Presbyterian Women in America: Tivo Centuries of
quote is from his essay "Native American Responses to a Quest for Status (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983);
Christian Missions," which was published in The Cherokees and Florence Hayes, Daughters of Dorcas: The Story of Women's
Christianity, 32. Work for Home Missions Since 1802 (New York: Presbyterian
4 Indeed I often jokingly referred to the evolving Board of National Missions, 1952); Elizabeth Howell
dissertation as "Pagans, Papists, Polygamists, and Pious Verdesi, In But Still Out: Women in the Church (Philadelphia:
Presbyterians." In 1993 the University of Illinois Press pub Westminster Press, 1985); Frederick J. Heuser, Jr., " Woman's
lished a revised and refined version of the dissertation under Work for Woman, Cultural Change, and the Foreign
the more pedestrian title Presbyterian Missions and Cultural Missionary Movement," The Journal of Presbyterian History 75
Interaction in the Far Southwest, 1850—1950. Since then I have (Summer 1997): 119—30; Janet H. Penfield, "Women in the
wondered if they might have sold a few more copies under Presbyterian Church: An Historical Overview," The Journal
my alternative title. of Presbyterian History 55 (Summer 1977): 107—23.
5 William Hutchinson, Errand to the World: American 13 Susan Yohn, A Contest of Faiths: Missionary Women and
Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions (Chicago: University Pluralism in the American Southwest (Ithaca: Cornell University
of Chicago Press, 1987). Press, 1995); Cheryl J. Foote, "Alice Blake of Trementina:
6 Louis Luzbetak coined the term "triumphalism" in Mission Teacher of the Southwest," The Journal of Presbyterian
"Two Centuries of Cultural Adaptation in American Church History 60 (Fall 1982): 228—32. Kay Stockdale kindly
Action" in American Missions in Bicentennial Perspective, ed. R. shared with the author portions of her unpublished Ph.D.
Pierce Beaver (South Pasadena, Cal.: William Carey Library, (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) dissertation on
1977), 337. the life and career of Elizabeth Williams.
Julie Roy Jeffrey, Converting the West: A Biography of 14 For an introduction and overview see R. Pierce
Narcissa Whitman (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, Beaver, American Protestant Women in World Mission: A
History of the First Feminist Movement in North America (Grand Widder, Battle for the Soul: Métis Children Encounter Evangelical
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1968). Two works particularly Protestants at Mackinaw Mission, 1823—37 (East Lansing:
relevant to the thesis offered in this essay are Patricia Hill, Michigan State University Press, 1993).
The World Their Household: The American Women's Foreign "Henry S. Randolph, "The Asheville Farm School:
Mission Movement and Cultural Transformation, 1870—1920 Pioneers in Educational Method," Mountain Life and Work,
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1985) and Jane October 1932, 16.
Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility: American Women Missionaries 23 Banker, Presbyterian Missions and Cultural Interaction,
in Turn-of-the-Century China (New Haven: Yale University 162-63.
Press, 1984). Also see the special issue on Women in 24Ibid„ 146.
Mission, American Presbyterians: Journal of Presbyterian History, 25 Bradley Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy:
65 (Spring 1987). Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates (New York: Oxford
15 Banker, Toward Frontiers Yet Unknown: A 90th University Press, 1991).
Anniversary History of Warren Wilson College (Asheville, N.C., 26John R. Fitzmier and Randall Balmer. "A Poultice for
1984), 21-39. After leaving Farm School, Randolph con the Bite of the Cobra: The Hocking Report and Presbyterian
tinued under the Board of National Missions in a variety of Missions in the Middle Decades of the Twentieth Century,"
capacities, including a short stint as superintendent of Cook in The Diversity of Discipleship: Presbyterians and Twentieth -
School in Tucson near the end of his career. I particularly Century Christian Witness, ed. Milton J Coalter, Louis B.
appreciate correspondence and information received from Weeks, and John M. Mulder (Louisville: Westminster/John
several of Dr. Randolph's sons and daughters. Knox Press, 1991), 105—25.
16 Ruth K. Barber and Edith Agnew, Sowers Went Forth: 27 Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy, 201; Fitzmier
The Story of Presbyterian Missions in New Mexico and Colorado and Balmer, "Hocking Report," 109—11.
(Albuquerque: Menaul Historical Library of the Southwest, 28 Fitzmier and Balmer, "Hocking Report," 113.
1981), 114. Also see Banker, Presbyterian Missions and Cultural 29 For an insightful analysis of mainstream
Interaction, 192. Protestantism's struggles during the post—World War II era,
17 Alice Hysom, "Hindrances to Overcome," Home see Mark Hulsether, Building a Protestant Left: Christianity
Mission Monthly, November 1890, 13; Leva Granger, and Crisis Magazine, Í94Í—Í993 (Knoxville: University of
"Mistakes in Judging Mexicans," Home Mission Monthly, Tennessee Press, 1999). Also see James F. Findlay, Jr., Church
November 1901, 7—8; Granger, "Mexican Work," Home People in the Struggle: The National Council oj Churches and the
Mission Monthly, July 1903, 213—14; Home Mission Monthly, Black Freedom Movement, Í950—1970 (New York: Oxford
November 1904, 2. University Press, 1993) and Michael B. Friedland, Lift Up
18 Banker, Presbyterian Missions and Cultural Interaction, Your Voice Like a Trumpet: White Clergy and the Civil Rights
196-97. and Antiwar Movements, Í954—Í973 (Chapel Hill: University
19 McLoughlin developed and emphasized this theme of North Carolina Press, 1998).
in all of his works on Cherokee-missionary encounters (see 311 These statistics are drawn from Table 4.1 in the ap
note 3). Also see John Finger, "Cherokee Accommodation pendix of Fitzmier and Balmer, "Hocking Report," 124—25.
and Persistence in the Southern Appalachians," in Mary They gathered their information from annual reports of the
Beth Pudup, Dwight B. Billings, and Altina L. Waller, eds. foreign missions boards of the various Presbyterian de
Appalachia in the Making: The Mountain South in the Nineteenth nominations. Daniel J. Adams, "From Colonialism to World
Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Citizen: Changing Patterns of Presbyterian Mission," American
1995), 25-49. These emphases are also prominently developed Presbyterians: Journal of Presbyterian Flistory 65 (Summer 1987):
in the essays in the special issue on Presbyterians and Native 147—56, provides an excellent overview of the changing face
Americans, The Journal of Presbyterian History 11 (Fall 1999). of Presbyterian missions in the post-World War II era.
2,1 See Rendon's autobiography (with Edith Agnew) Hand 31 Clayton Rice, Ambassador to the Saints (Boston:
on My Shoulder (New York: Board of National Missions, Christopher Publishing House, 1965), 105.
1952); Banker, "Missionary to His Own People: Jose Ynes 32John Coventry Smith, From Colonialism to World
Perea and Hispanic Presbyterianism in New Mexico," in Community: The Church's Pilgrimage (Philadelphia: Geneva
Religion and Society in the American West, ed. Carl Guarneri and Press, 1982), 10. Also see Adams, "From Colonialism to
David Alvarez (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, World Citizen."
1987); and Yohn's insightful analysis in A Contest of Faiths. 33 Appreciation goes to Dr. Mahy's widow, Helen, and
21 Lian Xi, The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in their daughter, Carol, who shared with me much infor
American Protestant Missions in China, 1907—1932 (University mation about his life, and to the staff of the Presbyterian
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997); Keith R. Historical Society, who provided me with information from
his file in the records of Boards of Foreign and National lications, including Presbyterian Outlook, Presbyterian News
Missions. Briefs, and The Presbyterian Layman.
34 Alfonso Esquibel, Vaquero to Dominie: The Nine Lives of 40 Presbyterians in Times of Controversy, special
Alfonso Esquibel, as told to J. A. Shufle (Santa Fe: Rydal Press, issue of The Journal of Presbyterian History 78 (Spring
1978). 2000); Lefferts Loetcher, The Broadening Church: A Study
351 gathered information about Grace Reifsnyder's ca of Theological Issues in the Presbyterian Church Since 1869
reer from conversations with Grace and a phone conversation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1957).
with her daughter. The staff of the Presbyterian Historical 41 For an overview of developments in historically
Society provided me with information from her file in the Presbyterian-related colleges, see Bradley Longfield and
records of Boards of Foreign Missions. Plaza del Monte was George Marsden, "Presbyterian Colleges in Twentieth
constructed on the site of the former Allison-James School Century America," in Milton Coulter, John Mulder, and
for Mexican Girls. Louis Weeks, eds., The Pluralistic Vision: Presbyterians and
36 Several years ago, the Presbyterian Historical Society Mainstream Protestant Education and Leadership (Louisville:
initiated an oral history project to record the stories of Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), 99—125. At my own
retired missionaries. This program was discontinued for alma mater, Warren Wilson College, a relatively large
budgetary reasons. percentage of faculty maintain institutional religious ties.
37 Undoubtedly the most prominent Presbyterian voice However, a greater number appear to be affdiated with
in the turbulent 1960s was Stated Clerk Eugene Carson "alternative" traditions (e.g., Quakers, Unitarianism, Baha'i)
Blake. For a solid biography, see R. Douglas Brackenridge, than with the Warren Wilson College Presbyterian Church
Eugene Carson Blake: Prophet with Portfolio (New York: and Chapel. From my perspective, the more serious problem
Seabury Press, 1978). Brackenridge and others contributed is that few faculty and students at the college today appear
to a special issue of The Journal of Presbyterian History focusing aware that their Presbyterian forebears planted and nurtured
on Blake's career: Vol. 76 (Winter 1998). Hulsether's Building the seeds for the commitments to multiculturalism, com
a Protestant Left, Findlay's Church People in the Struggle, and munity, and service to others that make Warren Wilson a
Friedland's Lift Up Your Voice all provide valuable insights distinctive alternative on the college market today.
into this important era. 42 Raspberry explores these themes in "Intellectuals
38 For insightful analyses of mainstream and Presbyterian Abandon Religion to the Right," Knoxville News-Sentinel,
woes of recent years, see Milton J Coalter, John M. 8 July 1994, and "What Does Politics Offer the Religious?"
Mulder, and Louis B. Weeks, eds., The Mainstream Protestant Knoxville News-Sentinel, 21 February 1996. Vaclav Havel
"Decline": The Presbyterian Pattern (Louisville: Westminster/ visited the United States in 1994, and his concerns about
John Knox Press, 1990). the role of religion in American life were recounted in
39Commentary on current concerns in the PC(USA) several articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer on 5 and 6 July
can be found regularly in an array of church-related pub 1994.
102 • Missionaries, Multicuituralism, and Mainstream Malaise

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Of Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise: Reflections on the

Of Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and

Although mainstream Protestant missionaries were among the first institu

hardly a subject of consensus, for Where Have All the

Protestants in general, and Louisville Presbyterian Seminary

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003 • 77

Presbyterian Church SPIRITUAL SONGS

United Presbyterian Church of North America

Reformed Church in America

78 • Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

examined the same mission fields as I,

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

toral student at the University of New

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

82 • Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

concludes that Whitman's inability to "free her

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003 • 83

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

historians reveal that such practical and tolerant

outspoken Carrie Pond was hardly atypical. Indeed

Journal of Presbyterian History I Summer 2003 • 85

For example, Asheville Farm School under

86 • Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History I Summer 2003 • 87

In front of the school house, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico,

New insights also help observers better under

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History I Summer 2003 • 89

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

92 • Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

Mirida, Yucatan, México " AB?JL ANC 2—NUMERO 6 1949 " f*

\ J U K'AYIL KA'PUT KUXTALIL V I \

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

100 • Missionaries, Multiculturalism, and Mainstream Malaise

Journal of Presbyterian History | Summer 2003

102 • Missionaries, Multicuituralism, and Mainstream Malaise

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