Attitudes of Foreign Students Toward Missions

<p>In 1969 research was conducted by Professor Betty Stirling of the Department of Sociology at Loma Linda University on the attitudes of SDA college students in North America and Australia toward missions. This research was directed primarily to Western students--students who were considered prospective missionaries and on whom the future of missions rested. My research continued this theme, but it was concerned with the attitudes of those individuals to whom the mission program was directed, nationals of all the world mission fields, toward missions.</p> <p>This population was limited to include foreign students enrolled at Loma Linda University. A random sample of foreign students was selected and to those students were mailed a 37-item questionnaire. Responses were subjected to an item analysis. Comparison was also made with the responses to 18 items from the previous study which were similar to my study.</p> <p>The findings of this exploratory study indicated that nationalism as a world force among peoples of developing or non-Western countries also appeared to be prevalent in the attitudes of foreign students enrolled at Loma Linda University, especially when such attitudes were concerned with missions. Traditional forms of missionizing were questioned by foreign students particularly in the area of leadership in their home countries. Foreign students appeared to favor national leadership over Western leadership. Where financial support from the West was concerned, foreign students felt that if such support were to be cut off, the work of missions would somehow be carried on by national or indigenous effort.</p> <p>Western students on the other hand tended to maintain traditional concepts and interpretations of missions and missionaries. In spite of this, some of them felt that nationals should be allowed to shoulder more responsibility of mission work in their own countries.</p> <p>A variety of attitudes expressed by foreign students and Western students toward missions were explored. In summary, it could be stated that the process of analysis showed two distinct viewpoints--traditional and national. Despite the differences in viewpoint, however, foreign students and Western students are inclined to agree that missions and missionaries are still needed today.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology, Anthropology

Year

1973

Author dc:creator

• Roy, Donald R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Betty R. Stirling
• John W. Elick
• William A. Loveless

• Sociology
• Missions; Church and social problems -- Seventh-day Adventists.

Statement dc:rights

• This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/758

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsrepository.llu.edu:etd-1865