In many places in the world, the only modern medical care available is provided by Christian missionaries. Thus, the main people fighting the Ebola epidemic in Africa are missionaries and the hospitals they operate. Some of these missionaries are themselves getting Ebola. And yet they don’t stop serving.
Of course, we shouldn’t forget the service of other religions that present themselves as being compassionate–Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism–as well as atheists, with their benevolence and humanism. Oh, wait. They don’t do any of this. It’s just the Christians.
UPDATE: A thousand apologies to those of other religions and no religions who also have ministries of mercy of one kind or another! Thank you commenters and Friendly Atheist for setting the record straight.
For their trouble and their self-sacrifice for others, missionaries are getting criticized. People here are worried that missionaries (such as the two who have been cured and just released from an Atlanta hospital) will bring Ebola to this country. Others are criticizing them for using medicine that could go to Africans. Others are complaining about their evangelism and even their over-all benevolence.
For an especially harsh attack on missionaries, see the conservative firebrand Ann Coulter. See also Peter Wehner’s answer to her column.
The Washington Post has published a feature on the work of the missionaries, detailing both their good works and the controversy. Here is part of the conclusion, from Brady Dennis, Ebola crisis provides glimpse into Samaritan’s Purse, SIM – The Washington Post:
Smart Money magazine has named Samaritan’s Purse the most efficient religious charity numerous times, and the group maintains a reputation of being among the first to combat the worst public health crises around the world.
“Given the remote and hard-to-reach areas they work in, there’s been many instances in the past where we’ve first heard of specific suspected clusters of illnesses through them,” Rima Khabbaz, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, said of NGOs such as Samaritan’s Purse. “They are no doubt very important partners in our global public health work. Not infrequently, [the] first unconfirmed reports reach the public health community through them.”
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in many parts of the world, groups such as Samaritan’s Purse and Doctors Without Borders “are the safety net for global health.” He added: “They are the ones in the areas of war and civil unrest.”
On Capitol Hill this month, Isaacs reiterated that role and criticized the slow international response to the recent outbreak.
“The Ebola crisis was not a surprise to us at Samaritan’s Purse. We saw it coming back in April,” he said, adding: “The international response to the disease has been a failure. . . . If there was any one thing that needed to demonstrate a lack of attention of the international community on this crisis, which has now become an epidemic, it was the fact the international community was comfortable in allowing two relief agencies to provide all of the clinical care for Ebola victims in three countries. . . . It was not until July 26th, when Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were confirmed positive, that the world sat up and paid attention.”
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