The blight of Asia : $b An account of the systematic extermination of Christian populations by Mohammedans and of the culpability of certain great powers; with the true story of the burning of SmyrnaHorton, George
History
The blight of Asia : $b An account of the systematic extermination of Christian populations by Mohammedans and of the culpability of certain great powers; with the true story of the burning of Smyrna
Horton, George
Christians -- Turkey; Fires -- Turkey -- İzmir; Greeks -- Turkey; Turkey; İzmir (Turkey) -- History
Some of our missionary schools and colleges in the Ottoman Empire are
open for business, and reports of the Mission Board describe them as
flourishing. They are either continuing or resuming operations after
having suffered their share of pillage and massacre. The Board of
Missions is making an earnest and vigorous campaign for raising more
American money to be sent into Turkey for their upkeep.
As a church member, as an ex-official who has been of service to those
institutions on many occasions, I am obliged to state that I have serious
doubts as to the wisdom of contributing further money to our religious
establishments in the Ottoman Empire under present conditions. Before
doing so the fact should be widely advertised in Turkey that their real
object and that of the men and women working in them, is, by hook or
crook, to convert the Turks to Christianity, which is considered to be
a religion superior to Mohammedanism. American church people should be
informed frankly that the prohibition of the teaching of Christianity
or the holding of Christian religious exercises has been accepted by the
Mission Board; and that no effort to convert Turks is countenanced by
the Ottoman Government. But this is really no new thing, as Christian
proselytizing in Turkey has never been possible; the understanding that
religious teaching is to be confined by the missionaries to the members
of their own families and to teachers already of the Christian faith, is
recent.
Soon after the entrance of the Khemalists into Smyrna a committee of
Moslems visited one of our schools and expressed the most friendly
sentiments to the teachers:
“We hope you will keep right on with your good work and we
promise you every support, only you understand that there is to
be no more religious teaching.”
When I mentioned this to Mr. Jacobs, of the Y. M. C. A., he replied:
“Where L—— is and C——” mentioning two missionaries, “Christ will be
taught somehow.” But, if that is so, the Turks ought to know it. Any
other course is not quite honest nor up to the standard of the old
time Christians who testified in heathen lands and suffered martyrdom.
Moreover, the Mohammedan’s contempt of the Christians is very easy to
arouse and it would be a sad thing should it enter the mind of the Turks
that some of the missionaries were willing to forego the teaching of
their faith to save their buildings and their jobs. Even though this is
not true, it would not be difficult to create this impression.
It seems hardly probable that the Mission Board would come out and
officially inform the contributing church members of the United States:
“We have no intention or desire, either immediate or ultimate,
of converting Mussulmans in Turkey. We are running secular
schools there with the hope of raising their general moral
standing and making Mohammedans of them.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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