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The Missionary: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Through extensive study, evangelicals have concluded that the best-equipped people to carry the gospel to remote parts of the world are Caucasian midwesterners with strong regional accents."''
{{quote|''Oh, the missionary man, he's got God on his side''
''He's got the saints and apostles backin' up from behind''
''Black-eyed looks from those Bible books''
''He's a man with a mission, got a serious mind''
|'''[[Eurythmics]]''', ''Missionary Man''}}
To go with the more simple definition,
Just about any historical figure who founded a religion could be called a missionary, because they would have had to spread "The Word" to increase the numbers of the believers. The Apostle Paul in the Bible was most well known for his travels throughout the Roman Empire.
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{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Rambo]]'': In the fourth film a bunch of Christian missionaries were pretty much the [[MacGuffin]] for Rambo to go do his thing.▼
* Graham Greene's ''A Burnt-out Case'' had Christian missionary work as a sneering sort of background to the overall story. ▼
* Allan Quatermain's father was a Christian missionary in South Africa. ▼
* ''Shogun'' had a Protestant protagonist going up against Catholic missionaries. The main character of ''Shogun'' himself went very local though, and was never a missionary. He was just a dude who happened to be Protestant. ▼
* Chinua Achebe's ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' is partly about the conflict between missionaries and the native Africans they're trying to convert. There are two missionaries present in the narrative: the respectful and fairly well-liked Mr. Brown, who builds a school and hospital and respects the Igbo beliefs, and the harsh Reverend James Smith, who forces his beliefs on others and incites conflict between his congregation and the non-believers. Missionaries are not shown to be simply good or bad, it just depends on the sort of person they are.▼
* Mormon filmmakers have made several fictional films based on missionary experiences:▼
** ''The Best Two Years'' ▼
*** The sequel ''God's Army: States Of Grace'' ▼
* [[The Other Side of Heaven]] was about the [[Real Life]] story (mostly—some of the more spiritual parts of [[The Film of the Book|the original book]] were dumbed down in order to appeal to a wider audience) of a Mormon missionary in Tonga.▼
* [[Jack Chick]] wrote a tract in which some white missionaries who had done charitable work in Darkest Africa end up going to Hell... because they didn't preach enough.
** They went to hell because they didn't personally accept [[Power Glows|glowy]] [[The Faceless|no-face]] [[Pure Energy]] Jesus.
* Nathan Price from ''[[The Poisonwood Bible]]'', with a dash of heavily subverted [[Mighty Whitey]]. ▼
== [[Film]] ==
* The ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Starvin' Marvin In Space" was a satirical version of missionaries in Africa. ▼
▲* ''[[Rambo]]'': In the fourth film a bunch of Christian missionaries were pretty much the [[MacGuffin]] for Rambo to go do his thing.
* ''[[Black Robe]]'', a 1991 film about Jesuit missionary Father LaForgue who sought to evangelize the indigenous peoples of 17th century interior Canada.
* The Azadi Apostles in ''Dreamfall'' mix this with Church Militant. ▼
*
* ''[[End of the Spear]]'', a 2005 American drama about "Operation Auca", which sent five American Christian missionaries into the rain forests of eastern Ecuador in an attempt to evangelize the native people there.
* [[Jules Verne]] had a lone French missionary in ''Five Weeks in a Balloon''. Not a large part, but a sympathetic portrayal. ▼
▲* Mormon filmmakers have made several fictional films based on missionary experiences. Among them:
* Played with in ''Missionaries'' (by Lyubov and Yevgeny Lukin). Caravels show up in Oceania, and there's missionaries in addition to adventurers. [[The Dung Ages|Not quite nice or cool people]]. Only, there's a catch. A few nerdy guys found a portal into the past (turned out to be [[Alternate Universe]] instead) and tried to stop European colonization... via giving to-be-colonized [[Noble Savage|savages]] a "[[Bamboo Technology|better fighting chance]]"... but local development [[He Who Fights Monsters|overdid it]].▼
▲** ''[[The Best Two Years]]''
▲* ''[[The Other Side of Heaven]]'' was about the [[Real Life]] story (mostly—some of the more spiritual parts of [[The Film of the Book|the original book]] were dumbed down in order to appeal to a wider audience) of a Mormon missionary in Tonga.
* Michael Palin's 1982 comedy ''[[The Missionary (1982 film)|The Missionary]]'', about an Anglican priest, newly returned from Africa, who opens up a mission in London's Docklands to try to save the prostitutes who work the area.
* The 1919 film ''[[Broken Blossoms]]'' features a Buddhist missionary working in a Western country... it [[Tear Jerker|does not end well.]]
* Eric Liddel in ''[[Chariots of Fire]]''.▼
* One appears in the first ''[[Once Upon a Time in China]]'' movie. He appears to just be a background character up until he proves to be the ''only'' man in the entire community with the courage to testify against the criminals that Wong Fei-Hung is try to take down in court.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''Black Robe'', the 1985 novel by Brian Moore, on which the 1991 film of the same name was based.
▲* Graham Greene's 1960 novel ''[[A Burnt-out Case]]'' had Christian missionary work as a sneering sort of background to the overall story.
▲* ''[[King Solomon's Mines]]'': Allan Quatermain's father was a Christian missionary in South Africa.
▲* The novel ''Shogun'' (from James Clavell's ''[[Asian Saga]]'') had a Protestant protagonist going up against Catholic missionaries. The main character of ''Shogun'' himself went very local though, and was never a missionary. He was just a dude who happened to be Protestant.
▲* Chinua Achebe's ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' is partly about the conflict between missionaries and the native Africans they're trying to convert. There are two missionaries present in the narrative: the respectful and fairly well-liked Mr. Brown, who builds a school and hospital and respects the Igbo beliefs, and the harsh Reverend James Smith, who forces his beliefs on others and incites conflict between his congregation and the non-believers. Missionaries are not shown to be simply good or bad, it just depends on the sort of person they are.
▲* Nathan Price from ''[[The Poisonwood Bible]]'', with a dash of heavily subverted [[Mighty Whitey]].
▲* [[Jules Verne]] had a lone French missionary in ''[[Five Weeks in a Balloon]]''. Not a large part, but a sympathetic portrayal.
▲* Played with in the ''[[Missionaries Trilogy]]''
* Mightily Oats, at the end of [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Carpe Jugulum]]'', sets out to be this in Uberwald. In the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Unseen Academicals]]'', we learn that he succeeded.
** Sort of, he seems to be much more focused on fighting evil and righting wrongs then gaining converts.
*** In a place like Uberwald, what's the best way of gaining converts? Nutt was "born again" after meeting him.
* [[Jane Eyre]]'s cousin St John aspires to be this.
▲* Eric Liddel in [[Chariots of Fire]].
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "The Hyborian Age", the [[Backstory]] to [[Conan]], Arus.
{{quote|''he determined to go into the western wilderness and modify the rude ways of the heathen by the introduction of the gentle worship of Mitra. He was not daunted by the grisly tales of what had happened to traders and explorers before him, and by some whim of fate he came among the people he sought, alone and unarmed, and was not instantly speared.''}}
* In [[Rick Cook]]'s ''[[Limbo System]]'', Father Simon starts to do this accidentally, while not thinking himself authorized.
▲* One appears in the first ''[[Once Upon a Time in China]]'' movie. He appears to just be a background character up until he proves to be the ''only'' man in the entire community with the courage to testify against the criminals that Wong Fei-Hung is try to take down in court.
== [[Music]] ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnSIHArdfJU "Missionary Man"] by [[Eurythmics]] uses a depiction of a missionary to, according composer [[Annie Lennox]], act as a warning about people seeking power over other people.
== [[Video Games]] ==
▲* The Azadi Apostles in ''[[Dreamfall: The Longest Journey]]'' mix this with [[Church Militant]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
▲* The ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Starvin' Marvin In Space" was a satirical version of missionaries in Africa.
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Missionary: Impossible" when Reverend Lovejoy tricks Homer into becoming a missionary for a South Pacific island.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Religion Tropes]]
[[Category:Western Characters]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Missionary, The}}
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