Privilege and Responsibility 4A

 The Mission of Mangalwadi

part one 

In this series of articles, we have first looked at Joseph Needham’s quest. Starting from the history of science and technology in China, we discovered several key factors that contributed to the scientific revolution in Western Europe. Then, we followed Jared Diamond’s explorations in historical geography to find some of the unequal distribution in global resources that contributed to the fact that ‘white man got most of the cargo.’ In the third article we learned from historian Tom Holland, who discovered that our (especially western) way of looking at the world and its people has been (and still is) greatly shaped by the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. 

Tom Holland was not the first to discover this. Twenty years ago, for instance, sociology professor Alvin J. Schmidt published his “How Christianity Changed the World.” 1  Dr. Moberg writes about this (printed on the back cover), “If Jesus had never lived, the world would be a very different place. Whatever beliefs you hold about him, there is no denying his impact. But how far and deep his influence actually extends may surprise you. Setting Christianity in the context of history and culture, (this book) reveals the full, radiant nature of the Christian faith as a shaping force. (By reading it,) you’ll learn how it has knit the moral fabric and inspired the highest achievements of Western civilization with untold benefits to the entire world.” 

Fourteen years ago, Dinesh D’Souza published “What’s so Great about Christianity”,2  in which he not only explains the blessings from Christianity but also exposes the distortions and contradictions of popular atheism. 

Ten years ago, Indian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi published his “The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization.”3  In it, he ‘reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible and (then) systematically illustrates how its precepts became the framework for societal structure throughout the last millennium. From politics and science, to academia and technology, the Bible’s sacred copy became the key that unlocked the western mind. Through Mangalwadi’s wide-ranging and fascinating investigation, you’ll discover: 

• What triggered the West’s passion for scientific, medical, and technological advancement 

• How the biblical notion of human dignity informs the West’s social structure… 

• How the Bible created a fertile ground for women to find social and economic empowerment 

• How the Bible has uniquely equipped the West to cultivate compassion, human rights, prosperity and strong families 

• The role of the Bible in the transformation of education 

• How the modern literary notion of a hero has been shaped by the Bible’s archetypal protagonist 

Journey with Mangalwadi as he examines the origins of a civilization’s greatness and the misguided beliefs that threaten to unravel its progress…” After looking at Vishal’s spiritual journey and his discovery how his country was blessed by the Bible and its teaching, I want to focus on three specific areas of blessing: 

• women and family, 

• morality and economy, and 

• science and technology. 

Vishal’s spiritual pilgrimage 4

Vishal confesses that, at a young age, he had started a life of stealing and lying. The lying was, of course, necessary to create excuses when people would suspect or accuse him of stealing. At first, he was surprised that his father did not appreciate his ‘vivid imagination’ when confronted with an apparent case of stealing. 

Yet, although the regular occasions of theft and deceit did not yet bother Vishal, it was his obvious lack of willpower and self-control for his own words and actions that began to greatly bother him. Although he would often come up with new resolutions to live in peace with friends and family by respecting what was theirs and proving to be reliable in what he said, he loathed his obvious failure in his efforts at self-reform.

Realizing and accepting this ‘bad news’, he was made ready to recognized the “Good News” of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. This realization empowered him to revisit his victims, offer restitution and ask for their forgiveness. “Jesus became the most precious person in my life.” 

During his university years, however, his faith was challenged a number of times. One of these events was a university debate on “truth”. Is the human mind (through observation and rational processing) capable of knowing truth, or do we also need revelation from a spiritual source? 

It became clear that none of the professors believed that (only) reason could lead human beings to truth. Yet, in spite of this ignorance, they appeared quite knowledgeable, and this made Vishal wonder: If these ‘experts professed their ignorance of the truth, how could shepherds, fishermen, and tentmakers who wrote the Bible be so certain?’ On the other hand, if he would doubt the Bible, what was there left to build his life on? 

The humanist Descartes and the Buddha, like Vishal’s professors, maintained that the human mind is unable not discover ultimate truth. Yet, somehow, the professors seemed to be sure that their Creator was not capable of communicating with humankind, either by spoken or by written words. How could it be that they were able to communicate effectively, while their creator could not? Some of his friends argued that the Bible was written by common people, and therefore it could not be the Word of God. When Vishal tried to read the other scared Scriptures, he learned that the Hindu Vedas were ‘too difficult to understand’. They were never written to teach truth, but rather to be memorized and to be chanted in very particular ways. Also, the Qur’an was not available in the local languages, for it should be read in Arabic only. And, somehow, that was an obstacle too great for him. Mangalwadi writes, “I was fortunate that my parents, my eldest sister, and several friends encouraged me to read the Bible (again). Yet, deciding to examine the Bible required courage. I had to go against my university’s environment.” 

When Vishal was taking a psychology course, he was surprised to note that human beings were effectively reduced to “psycho-chemical machines determined by environment, chemistry, chance, and cultural conditioning.” So, when Vishal returned to studying the Bible, he could really relate to the Creation account’s description of human identity in relation to other creatures. It was this identity that must have enabled humankind to be creating creatures, to be observers and students of the created world, while they were also part of that same reality. 

Although Vishal found the early chapters of Genesis exciting, when he came to the recorded history of Israel’s kings, he began to lose interest. Just as he was contemplating closing the Bible, however, he realized a peculiar pattern. Since historical records are typically written for the nations’ rulers, they invariably portray these rulers as powerful, successful, and benevolent for their citizens. Yet, the Bible is very different, for it is quite critical about most of the kings’ accomplishments. When he considered the possibility that critical prophets or priests had written these accounts, he noted that even many of them were criticized in the Scriptures. This is when Vishal began to reconsider the option that it must have been God Himself, who, through inspired human authors, had compiled these books to bless the people created in his image. 

And it was then that he began to see that it was not Greek philosophers who had ‘invented’ science and democracy. Greek philosophers despised experimental science, as repetitive experiments were considered the inferior work of slaves. And, Greek ‘democracy’ (as Tom Holland discovered) was not a democracy as we know it. It gave only rights to one sector of the population; slaves, foreigners, and women had no share in it. So, he began to realize that many blessings, even for a country like India came from the teachings of the Word of God. 

Blessings from the Bible: In India 

Mangalwadi saw this especially exemplified in the life and work of William Carey. 5 This man of God went illegally as missionary to India, supported by a small but dedicated group of prayer warriors in England. And, although his zeal for God’s Kingdom remained his primary objective, he worked very hard in seeking the blessings for India and her people. Even as Christianity is suppressed in today’s India, Carey’s legacy is still greatly appreciated. Carey was a very committed and hard-working man whose contributions covered many areas of India’s culture. Here is an overview of some of his accomplishments: 6

• Carey pioneered the education of Indian natives, Christian ministers, and Indian women and girls; in 1818, the missionaries founded Serampore College. 

• These missionaries campaigned against caste, infanticide, and suttee (widow-burning). 

• He translated the scriptures and Indian literature, and published Bibles, grammars, and dictionaries in such Indian languages as Bengali, Sanskrit, Hindi, Oriya, Marathi, and Punjabi, all of which he had printed. 

• From 1801-1830, Carey was professor of Bengali, Sanskrit, and Marathi at Fort William College, Calcutta. Carey taught botany, zoology, geology, and geography at Serampore College, founded for the purpose of teaching Indian literature and western science. 

• He was an accomplished botanist and scientist. A lifelong collector of insects, birds, rocks, shells, fauna, and flora, Carey also wrote and published works on botany. 

• Carey established the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India in 1820 and India’s first periodical, The Friend of India. 

• Carey and his colleagues helped to originate Indian industrialization in the form of the paper mill at Serampore (producer of famous ant-resistant paper), steam engines, and the Serampore Mission Press, run by his colleague William Ward. 

As Mangalwadi points out, all of these initiatives were the direct result of the biblical worldview of Carey and his partners, and -although the British themselves brought at best a mixed blessing to the country- the impact of the biblical teaching served to be a great blessing to India and her people. 

Women and the Family 

Mangalwadi offers several stories about family life in India. I will summarize two of them that relate to this topic. 

First the story of Sheelah.7 In 1976, Vishal and his wife Ruth left urban India to live among the rural poor. Ruth decided she should visit every family in the village Gatheora. When she met a ten-year-old girl from a low-caste family, she asked her how many siblings she had. The girl hesitated in her response; actually, she had four siblings, but her eighteen-month-old sister was almost dead. When Ruth visited the family, she discovered that the little girl looked like a living skeleton. Her mother seemed rather callous about the situation. She claimed, the girl would not eat or drink, and she would throw up whatever was offered. Yet, she refused to bring her to the clinic, citing lack of money and time as reasons. Ruth thought it was a cruel thing to do, but the village people thought Ruth had some crazy notions. 

Ruth and Vishal saw every child as a precious gift of God, but the villagers saw children either as assets or liabilities, conveniences or burdens. And, since Sheelah happened to be a major liability, they did what they thought was best for her. In the Hindu worldview, there is the model of the goddess Kali, who -after she delivered her baby- proceeded to eat her newborn child. Also, in the Buddhist worldview, life is empty and individuality as well as the natural world are considered an illusion. 

Perhaps, post-Christian countries are shifting into a decreasing respect for human life. In Canada, for instance, there is no law to protect the children not yet born- regardless of their level of development. Even when unwanted babies survive, they are not to be saved from death.8  In a culture that has been deconstructing its Christian roots, we should not be surprised that human dignity is quickly fading and human rights are no longer as self-evident as they used to be. 

Second, the story of the ‘immoral’ Christians.9 The first project Vishal and Ruth started in Gatheora was the training of Village Health workers. As the villagers would not permit women to attend these classes, they started by training young men. After a few months of training, a mutual trust relationship developed, and at that the time trainees expressed their view on Christian living: “You Christians are very immoral.” When they were asked what they based this on, they explained, “You walk with your wives holding hands, while our wives walk at least three metres behind us.” “You take your sister-in-law to the market on your scooter, while our wives are much more modest- they cover their faces in front of all male relatives.”

Vishal did not know how to reply, but his older brother had lived their longer and knew the culture better. So, he replied: “What? It’s the opposite! You guys do not allow your wives to show their faces to your male relatives, because you do not trust them with your wives. And I allow my wife to go to the market with my brother, because I can trust both of them. We can treat our women as equals, because we have higher moral standards, while you imprison your wives in your kitchens and behind veils, because you are immoral men.” To Vishal’s great surprise, all of the trainees agreed with this assessment. This allowed him to understand the connections between morality with freedom, freedom with the status of women, and the status of women with the strength of a society. He writes, “I should have known better because our village was less than thirty kilometers from Khajuraho, where every imaginable sexual act had been carved in stone to adorn Hindu temples. My ancestors’ religion of ‘sacred sex’ had enslaved our women just as it did pre-Christian Greco-Roman civilization.” 

Mary Eberstadt 10 argues that the sexual revolution in the West has led to numerous destructive trends. Men assume they have no responsibility in sexual relations when this results in many single women to be “with child”. The increased availability of contraceptives, inadvertently led to an increase of abortions. Women were supposed to be liberated, but while most women reportedly still love to have a stable family with children, this has become much harder to achieve as most men have different desires. Furthermore, sexual harassment, predation, and assault have become much more rampant in the last half century, resulting in the massive exploitation of women. Which, again, seems to suggest that post-Christian society and culture must witness an increasing loss of many blessings of biblical teaching. 

Blessings from the Bible: In the Roman Empire 

The early church, while it was growing in the Roman Empire, stood out -among other things- for its strict norms on sexual activity. God’s revelation through ‘the Law and the Prophets’ had been quite specific on the concept of ‘immorality’,11 but as God’s self-revelation became greater through Jesus and his Spirit,12 it only got more restricted. By the mouth of Nathan, God had earlier said to David: ‘I have given you (your master’s) wives (into your arms)…, and if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.’ (On the other hand, the fact that he ‘stole’ the attractive wife from his faithful servant and the subsequent murder of this man to cover up his own shameful act was a very serious crime against God and his people.) Later, Jesus -the Son of David- insisted that God’s design and purpose had always been: the covenantal commitment between one man and a woman as husband and wife. (1 Cor. 7:2; Matthew 19: 3-6) In the Old Testament, conquered girls were seen as slaves (where forced servitude was the only alternative to death), and therefore they could be forced into marriage 13  (which is still the practice among some Middle-Eastern people groups), but in the early church having sex with slaves was considered ‘porneia’, or immorality. Indeed, it appears quite clear for those who are willing to see it, that in Paul’s time, all extramarital sex was considered ‘immorality’. 

Rodney Stark notes that “Amid contemporary denunciations of Christianity as patriarchal and sexist, it is easily forgotten that the early church was … especially attractive to women…” Although some classical writers claimed that women were easy prey for any “foreign superstition’, most recognized that Christianity was unusually appealing because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large. In that culture, it was common to practice abortion and infanticide on girls, while Christian doctrines prohibited such practices. 

“In the Roman Empire”, Mangalwadi writes, “Religious and aristocratic promotion of extramarital sex had colossal consequences, for easy availability of sex without commitment took away men’s motivation to be married (and this was detrimental to the prospering of the Empire).” “(Nevertheless,) the Christian’s commitment to marriage (in obedience to biblical teaching), resulted in more secure women and a high fertility rate. Likewise, their opposition to infanticide and abortion resulted in a lower mortality rate. These two factors together caused the Christian population to grow faster than that of Rome’s pagans.” 

With reference to, for instance, Ephesians 5: 22-33, Tom Holland notes that “The Reformation … had served … to place (a great) premium on the sacral quality of marriage. As the church was to Christ, so a woman was to her husband. The man who treated his wife brutally, forcing himself on her, paying no attention to her pleasure, treating her as he (men) might a prostitute, dishonored God. Mutual respect was all. Sex between a married couple should be ‘an holy kind of rejoicing and solacing themselves’.19  Isn’t it interesting that the agnostic Holland sees the beauty of this, while so many deconstructing churches and Christians refuse to.   

Blessings of the Bible: In the Western World 

Four decades after the failed French Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French magistrate, came to America on an official visit. He used this occasion to make a personal investigation into the success of American democracy. He published his findings in a two-volume classic: Democracy in America. He concludes his findings with the conclusion that the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of the country was the superiority of their women. In Protestant circles, he noted that women were more independent, and especially in America, this independence led to a “heroic strength that showed itself in submission, sacrifice, and endurance”. Although the apostolic teaching on the women’s roles was often seen as oppressive, Tocqueville maintained that the derived “qualities became the source of women’s liberty and national strength.” 

Vishal Mangalwadi notices that America today is heading in the opposite direction. As it has abandoned their God and His Word, they are doomed to return to a culture without the blessings it has taken for granted. Only by returning to the Truth can they continue to prosper in God’s blessings. Only in this way, we can prevent “the sun to set on the West”.20

Footnotes:

1. Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World. (Zondervan, Grand Rapids: 2001, 2004) 

2. Dinesh D’Souza, What’s so Great about Christianity? (Tyndale House, 2008) 

3. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Changed Your World - How the Bible created the soul of Western Civilization (Nashville, 2011)

4. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. Nashville, 2011.chapters 3 and 4.

5. Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi, The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture. Crossway Books, 1999 

6. The Legacy of William Carey. CAREY: The William Carey University Magazine. Spring 2011. www.wmcarey.edu 

7. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. page 60. 

8. https://thelifeinstitute.net/blog/2019/in-canada-babies-are-born-alive-and-die-after-abortions-150-in-2018 

9. Idem. page 276. 

10. for instance, in: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution, YouTube, October 3, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vjxrCW5WjA&ab_channel=LoveandFidelityNetwork 

11. porneia 

12. through the Holy Spirit 

13. When such female slaves were later rejected as wives-with-status, they had to be given the status of free people. Deuteronomy 21:14. 

14. Kyle Harper (2012). “Porneia: The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm.” Journal of Biblical Literature 131/2, 363-383. 

15. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity. Princeton, 1996. p. 95. 

16. Idem, quoting 3 sources. 

17. Mary Eberstadt recognizes that our culture is going the same way, today. 

18. Ironically, Paul’s message to the husband was most shocking in the Roman Empire. That women should submit to their husbands was nothing new, but that -in the Christian family- this was to be balanced with a Christ-like sacrificial love was unheard of. In today’s deconstructing church, the latter is not well understood, either. If the church would discipline Christian husbands, who do not show servant-leadership and are not willing to sacrifice their personal desires if and when this would disrespect or harm their wives, then the oppression or abuse of wives in church should be controlled. In such a godly relationship, wives would be safe and should not find it oppressive to voluntarily submit to and serve their loving husbands, like the apostles who introduced themselves as (voluntary) servants, yes slaves, of their Lord Jesus Christ. 

19. Tom Holland, Dominion, quoting William Perkins, 1609. p. 525.

20. https://www.revelationmovement.com/bio/vishal-mangalwadi-a-brief-biography/ Vishal Mangalwadi, Must the Sun set on the West?, a series of lectures, lectures, recorded at the University of Minnesota, available on dvd and on YouTube.