Last week as part of my research I decided to watch the documentary The Mission. It’s about a young man named John Chau, raised on the west coast of the United States, who plans a secret mission to make contact with one of the most isolated indigenous peoples on North Sentinel Island and convert them to Christianity.
He becomes obsessed with this mission and creates his whole life around preparing for it. He is supported by the evangelical community and inspired by the mythology of exploration. He is shot wth arrows and killed by the tribespeople after he doesn’t heed their warnings to leave.
As I watched it I thought about my story and the obsession that must have driven Columba and his disciples as they landed on the west coast of Scotland. The certainty and hubris that it takes to tell others their way is meaningless. Unlike John in the movie Columba had a much softer landing with tolerance and acceptance from allies including the King of Dal Riata in Kintyre.
But it also made me reflect, not so favourably, on how much I’ve been guilty of missionary zeal in ways in my life. Not necessarily in religion, though heaven knows what we did as young Catholic children at school before we were old enough to understand. I wonder if a little hubris and zeal is a universal human fault? A fault that when it is tied to something larger, resourced, and powerful becomes dangerous. And I thought some more about how conversion and colonialism can never be separated.