One of my questions is about fact and evidence. In an episode, someone says she thinks Renee didn't graduate from high school. That is left hanging as fact, but according to NPR and The New Yorker, she did in fact graduate, in 2007. That seems like an easy thing to either verify, dispute, or take note of in the reporting. So I'm left to wonder about other, more complicated and weighty issues.
I listened to the first episode twice and am left with a lot more questions than answers, and some things I hope the podcast touches on in the future. Questions about evidence and facts, for example. And I hope to hear from Ugandan officials in the future and Uganda coworkers of Renee's. I also hope they dig into some of the history of foreigners here, colonial history, development, etc, and what are the current realities in Jinja in terms of healthcare, religious belief, etc. So some historical and cultural context, I guess. That's just the beginning of my thoughts here!
I am listening to the third podcast as I write this, and have many thoughts. In the interest of full disclosure - I'm a white woman. I grew up overseas in the developing world, started my career there as a public health nurse working in a woman's and children's hospital. Have lived and worked as an adult in Pakistan, Egypt, and Northern Iraq. Live in the U.S. now where I teach community health workers. I have read the comments with interest and appreciate this venue for discussion, non ad-hominem attacks, and serious dialogue about really important things. What I want to bring up in this comment is the role of the Western church in creating White Saviours. I think this has to be a part of the conversation. It also exists outside the church (Greg Mortenson and the accusations that he was stretching the truth in Three Cups of Tea) but for the purposes of this group - it's more important to look at the church and the idolatry of ministry and missions. We create the Renee's and then we trash them. The comment about the young women who all thought they did it right and everyone else did it wrong is a perfect example. My guess is that everyone of them were funded by donations. They didn't have to be accountable. No one would ever check to see if their stories were correct, because churches want to have heroes. In order to have heroes, we must have stories. To bring an 18 year old up on stage and hold her up as the one who didn't go to prom because the world was more important cannot help but go to their heads. It's unconscionable that a church would do that - yet the churches are not on trial. These young women have zero life experience and they are applauded as heroes of the faith and mission. The more difficult the circumstances, the more lives saved, the more heroic people become. What is it that creates a culture where people have to make things up in order to get money? As long as we have churches that create a star culture of missions, that don't recognize the need for accountability, and that don't see the need for the very highest training to go overseas, then we will continue having people who go overseas and think they are hot shit in a champagne glass.
But - along with that, comes this whole idea of working beyond training. Even with the best training, and I worked with doctors who had the very best training. With world class surgeons who would still say that in the developing world you will continually face things that are impossible situations and you with a good dose of humility and shaking hands intervene anyway. Every nurse I know who I've worked with overseas has worked above and beyond their license. We had a phrase in Pakistan that nursing students would be asked to stitch the person "from the fascia layer up." No one had ever learned that in nursing school. They learned because the surgeon had to move on to something else. Every community health worker that I work with in the U.S who has come from another country will tell you that they worked beyond their education at some point. Does that justify it? No - but for the westerner who has never lived in the developing world it's a really important point. I'll stop here.
I'm really curious to see the discussion that comes up over this podcast. As someone who was in Jinja at the time that some of this was happening, I've followed the case and what has always frustrated me is the way people are SO polarised. As you said, 'saint or predator', there hasn't really been an option in between, when in fact both sides have been dishonest and twisted facts to prove their own position. There is an in between option and it's where many of us sit. This podcast is the first time I have heard both sides being presented. However, I also find the lack of evidence frustrating, it's a lot of 'he said/she said' and both sides have unreliable witnesses.
I'm impatient for the next episode to be released!
As someone that works and serves in the Jinja area (post Renee) I have seen firsthand the negative impact that her actions have left in our community. It has created division amongst the missionary community, wounded Jinja's reputation and damaged our credibility as global workers. From a posture of humility and a deep desire to learn from mistakes, I look forward to honest, good, healthy conversations of how we can do good better. I do hope and pray that this conversation will steer away from re-scrutinizing and re-crucifying her (remembering that she is a fellow human being with a heart and a soul) and focus on what can we learn as we seek to do better to love and serve our communities. I look forward to learning more from you!
Rachel do you know if the podcast is just a group of individuals or do they represent a larger entity? In so many ways I find myself skeptical from the get go of just about any news source in terms of bias or motive. Including, or maybe especially, if they are just operating on their own...
I'm still listening through these podcasts, but one question at the top: Rachel, did you encounter or have to think through any of these tensions while writing about Annalena? She also ran medical facilities (or at least heavily helped), and treated TB patients (some who died), but was not a nurse... just a women who believed she also was called to serve the poor. Any insights learned/differences/similarities between these two situations (Renee and Annalena)?
I binged listened. The first one had me hooked and I HAD to know how the story unfolded. So. Many. Layers. So. Many. Questions. Is she unique? Is she just unstable? Or is this common. Do all missionaries or advocates struggle with this?
I have close- almost familial - connections with missionaries in South and Central America. In their personal lives I have never seen anything like this. In 30+ years of watching them and knowing insider information, I have always seen integrity and authenticity. Those who have worked with them have never reported anything that would raise questions.
And in years of sponsoring and interacting with missionaries in Europe through our denomination, (where there is training, education, cultural and lingual requirements, and accountability) I've never heard of this - though it may exist. And maybe that is why (subconsciously) we have never supported a missionary that we did not have substantial information on, and verified updates from.
It seems there is a fine line between serving and being an advocate for the widow, orphan and needy at the call of Jesus, and being self-serving with a white savior complex.
One of my questions is about fact and evidence. In an episode, someone says she thinks Renee didn't graduate from high school. That is left hanging as fact, but according to NPR and The New Yorker, she did in fact graduate, in 2007. That seems like an easy thing to either verify, dispute, or take note of in the reporting. So I'm left to wonder about other, more complicated and weighty issues.
I listened to the first episode twice and am left with a lot more questions than answers, and some things I hope the podcast touches on in the future. Questions about evidence and facts, for example. And I hope to hear from Ugandan officials in the future and Uganda coworkers of Renee's. I also hope they dig into some of the history of foreigners here, colonial history, development, etc, and what are the current realities in Jinja in terms of healthcare, religious belief, etc. So some historical and cultural context, I guess. That's just the beginning of my thoughts here!
I am listening to the third podcast as I write this, and have many thoughts. In the interest of full disclosure - I'm a white woman. I grew up overseas in the developing world, started my career there as a public health nurse working in a woman's and children's hospital. Have lived and worked as an adult in Pakistan, Egypt, and Northern Iraq. Live in the U.S. now where I teach community health workers. I have read the comments with interest and appreciate this venue for discussion, non ad-hominem attacks, and serious dialogue about really important things. What I want to bring up in this comment is the role of the Western church in creating White Saviours. I think this has to be a part of the conversation. It also exists outside the church (Greg Mortenson and the accusations that he was stretching the truth in Three Cups of Tea) but for the purposes of this group - it's more important to look at the church and the idolatry of ministry and missions. We create the Renee's and then we trash them. The comment about the young women who all thought they did it right and everyone else did it wrong is a perfect example. My guess is that everyone of them were funded by donations. They didn't have to be accountable. No one would ever check to see if their stories were correct, because churches want to have heroes. In order to have heroes, we must have stories. To bring an 18 year old up on stage and hold her up as the one who didn't go to prom because the world was more important cannot help but go to their heads. It's unconscionable that a church would do that - yet the churches are not on trial. These young women have zero life experience and they are applauded as heroes of the faith and mission. The more difficult the circumstances, the more lives saved, the more heroic people become. What is it that creates a culture where people have to make things up in order to get money? As long as we have churches that create a star culture of missions, that don't recognize the need for accountability, and that don't see the need for the very highest training to go overseas, then we will continue having people who go overseas and think they are hot shit in a champagne glass.
But - along with that, comes this whole idea of working beyond training. Even with the best training, and I worked with doctors who had the very best training. With world class surgeons who would still say that in the developing world you will continually face things that are impossible situations and you with a good dose of humility and shaking hands intervene anyway. Every nurse I know who I've worked with overseas has worked above and beyond their license. We had a phrase in Pakistan that nursing students would be asked to stitch the person "from the fascia layer up." No one had ever learned that in nursing school. They learned because the surgeon had to move on to something else. Every community health worker that I work with in the U.S who has come from another country will tell you that they worked beyond their education at some point. Does that justify it? No - but for the westerner who has never lived in the developing world it's a really important point. I'll stop here.
Thank you Rachel for allowing this venue.
I'm really curious to see the discussion that comes up over this podcast. As someone who was in Jinja at the time that some of this was happening, I've followed the case and what has always frustrated me is the way people are SO polarised. As you said, 'saint or predator', there hasn't really been an option in between, when in fact both sides have been dishonest and twisted facts to prove their own position. There is an in between option and it's where many of us sit. This podcast is the first time I have heard both sides being presented. However, I also find the lack of evidence frustrating, it's a lot of 'he said/she said' and both sides have unreliable witnesses.
I'm impatient for the next episode to be released!
As someone that works and serves in the Jinja area (post Renee) I have seen firsthand the negative impact that her actions have left in our community. It has created division amongst the missionary community, wounded Jinja's reputation and damaged our credibility as global workers. From a posture of humility and a deep desire to learn from mistakes, I look forward to honest, good, healthy conversations of how we can do good better. I do hope and pray that this conversation will steer away from re-scrutinizing and re-crucifying her (remembering that she is a fellow human being with a heart and a soul) and focus on what can we learn as we seek to do better to love and serve our communities. I look forward to learning more from you!
Rachel do you know if the podcast is just a group of individuals or do they represent a larger entity? In so many ways I find myself skeptical from the get go of just about any news source in terms of bias or motive. Including, or maybe especially, if they are just operating on their own...
I'm still listening through these podcasts, but one question at the top: Rachel, did you encounter or have to think through any of these tensions while writing about Annalena? She also ran medical facilities (or at least heavily helped), and treated TB patients (some who died), but was not a nurse... just a women who believed she also was called to serve the poor. Any insights learned/differences/similarities between these two situations (Renee and Annalena)?
I binged listened. The first one had me hooked and I HAD to know how the story unfolded. So. Many. Layers. So. Many. Questions. Is she unique? Is she just unstable? Or is this common. Do all missionaries or advocates struggle with this?
I have close- almost familial - connections with missionaries in South and Central America. In their personal lives I have never seen anything like this. In 30+ years of watching them and knowing insider information, I have always seen integrity and authenticity. Those who have worked with them have never reported anything that would raise questions.
And in years of sponsoring and interacting with missionaries in Europe through our denomination, (where there is training, education, cultural and lingual requirements, and accountability) I've never heard of this - though it may exist. And maybe that is why (subconsciously) we have never supported a missionary that we did not have substantial information on, and verified updates from.
It seems there is a fine line between serving and being an advocate for the widow, orphan and needy at the call of Jesus, and being self-serving with a white savior complex.