At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Daniel 6:4 Daniel’s conduct was above reproach. Mary Slessor’s conduct, as far as I have been able to observe, was also above reproach. 1. This paper, posted by themickey costs $35 for access. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Making-of-a-Missionary-Icon:-Mary-Slessor-as-of-Breitenbach/a9d183ca54167e6f583deb30fd7384746b655256 I did not read this article. However, just reading the Abstract gave some interesting information about what would be discussed. The issue appears to be that Mary Slessor was simply an ordinary missionary and not worthy of all the recognition she has received and suggests that the historical reality is a different picture than how she is portrayed. This article contends that the shaping of Mary Slessor into an iconic female missionary exemplifies the ‘deliberate acts of invention’ involved in the creation of imperial heroes and heroines.And it aims to ‘deconstruct’ the myth of Mary Slessor, indicating the dissonance between myth and historical reality Since I have not read the article, it is difficult to know just what “deliberate acts of invention” and “myth” are that they are referring to. However, I think this sentence in the Abstract probably sums it up: It contends that there was little that was unique in her practice as a missionary. Now this is actually very encouraging, because it validates that Mary Slessor was not alone in her noble deeds, but her self-less conduct was commonly seen in the other missionaries as well. 2. The following three quotes are from this article which was also posted by themickey. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43863309 This next article was concerned with the unfounded claim that Mary Slessor was the most important dramatis personae in the campaign for the abolition of the killing of twins in Calabar. p139 The article goes into lengthy details of the various persons and events that led to the abolition of the killing of twins in the Calabar region. It then states that Mary travelled to a remote area where the practice of killing twins continued and she was the primary influence of the end of this practice in that location. What was interesting in reading through these 20 pages is the influence of such a long list of missionaries that worked to help the twins and mothers and teach the people not to fear the birth of twins. This also validates that Mary Slessor was not alone in giving of herself for the good of others, and once again, we see that her self-less conduct was commonly seen in the other missionaries as well. Among the missionaries and other Europeans who took an active part in the campaign for the abolition of twin-killing in Calabar before the coming of Miss Slessor in September, 1876 included Rev. E. W. Tarret (who saved twins at Ikotana), Rev. and Mrs. William Anderson, Samuel Edgerley, William Jameson, Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland, Mr. and Mrs. Newhall, Samuel Duncan, Mary Johnstone, Henry Hamilton, Rev. Zerub Baille, John Baillie, David Lewis, Marjory Barty and Euphemia Johnstone. The efforts of these people made twin-killing unpopular in Calabar and punishable by death long before the arrival of Mary Slessor.Pg 152 Mary is later attributed with saving twins from twin-killing among the Okoyong people: Mary Slessor realized that she would make little impact if she remained in the comfort zone of Calabar where Christian values were already imbibed, with some Efik sons serving as ordained ministers in some interior stations. She was therefore willing to take charge of any new station opened in the interior of Calabar. This became possible in the autumn of 1888 following the opening of a new station at Okoyong on August 4, 1888. Okoyong people are a brand of the Ododop group, which came from the Rumby Mountains, and drove people fromthe narrow strip of land between the Calabar and Cross Rivers, which lies behind Creek Town and Ikoneto. Goldie writes that “Mary Slessor found all the horrors of heathenism, witchcraft, the poison ordeal, twin murder, and hard drinking, in full swing at Okoyong.” Mary Slessor was able to selflessly and successfully fight against these practices in Okoyong. As Mrs. Waddell and Mrs. Goldie had achieved in Calabar, Slessor was able to convince people among the Okoyong to bring their twins and orphans, who in former times would have been killed, to her. Slessor then reared them with love and compassion. At the time the abolition of twin-killing was taking place, Okoyong was not a part of Calabar. Hence Slessor did play an important role, but not at Calabar where others had been responsible for the abolition of twin-killing. Pg 155 3. I’m not sure we know what Mary Slessor was referring to when she was overcome with grief at the loss of her family in Scotland and wrote that she had nobody to write her “nonsense” to. Perhaps she was trivializing the importance of the details she would write about to her family. She did recover from her grief and went on to become a judge for 15 years after writing this, so I think whatever she meant by it, that there is plenty of evidence of good that she did do, without relying on her own words alone for evidence. The quote is also found in the paragraph of another article. In this context, her choice of the word "nonsense" does not seem concerning to me. While in Africa, she received word that her mother and sister had died. Now Mary had no one close to her. She was overcome with loneliness. She wrote, “There is no one to write and tell my stories and troubles and nonsense to.” But she also found a sense of freedom, writing, “Heaven is now nearer to me than Britain, and no one will be anxious about me if I go upcountry.” So, in August of 1888, Mary went north to Okoyong the ‘up-country’ of West Africa. It was an area that had claimed the lives of missionaries in the past, but Mary was sure that pioneer work was best accomplished by women, who were less threatening to unreached tribes than men. For 15 years she stayed with the Okoyongs, teaching them, nursing them and being a peacemaker, they eventually made her a judge for the whole region. http://www.thetravelingteam.org/articles/mary-slessor 4. Descendants of her adopted family actually did come right out and make a statement that they desire to immortalize her. The spokesperson for their organization, Mr. Adim Gabriel, said, “The family thought that they cannot allow the effort of this woman to just go in that way, so we should just do something that will immortalized her , something that can bring back her ideas. Mary Slessor memorial and heritage foundation officially will be launch on the 12 of December 2019.” https://crossriverwatch.com/2019/12...ters-set-to-launch-foundation-partners-acroj/ Adopted Family Over the years, many children were welcomed into Mary’s home and rather than them just living there, she adopted them as her own, playing mother and missionary at the same time. They included Janie Annan Slessor, Mary Mitchell Slessor, Alice McCrindle Slessor, Susan Slessor, Maggie Cunningham Slessor, Daniel Henryson MacArthur Slessor, Madge White Slessor and William MacTavish Slessor. https://www.citylifedundee.com/2015/06/01/mary-slessor-mill-girl-missionary-and-mother/
studentofthemarkets said: "My life is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer." - Mary Slessor, missionary to Nigeria Mary Slessor was possibly indeed a great achiever and worthy of praise, but ".....one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed....." etc??? She was human like all heathen are human, no super powers, no answered prayers for physical health beyond what any heathen would receive. The problem I have is the recognition of bias. Place a placard around someone saying "I'm a Christian" and Christians will believe anything they say. Place a placard around someone saying "I'm a non-Christian" and Christians will disbelieve anything they say. That's because non believers are children of the devil according to your teachings.
You can't know that for sure. You are not her. Actually, I think I try to be very discerning with both Christians and non-Christians. As far as unbelievers being children of the devil, Jesus did use that phrase to describe those who don't believe in Him. Paul also said: 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’29 Therefore, since we are the descendants of God... Acts 17:27-29 Uh oh, now you have a contradiction that I'm sure you're not going to let slide, so I'll try to uncontradict it. Adam was called the son of God. So, my understanding is that we are all children of God by the fact that we were created by God. Our first parents were given the freedom to choose to leave God and they followed the Serpent's advice and in so doing left God and now there is a sense in which Satan and God are ruling over people. I think I'll stop here because explaining everything could become lengthy. One thing that is noteworthy is that God does seem to be interested in honoring man's desires, both to know Him and to reject Him. There are verses that support His desire for people to seek and find Him. There are verses that support the idea that people can harden their hearts and God will then let them go their own way, departing from Him. I personally believe that God seeks out every person that has ever existed, wanting them to be restored to Him and that if He finds one in the remotest places, He will be sure they hear the gospel and save them. This is just a personal belief I hold. It's backed up by a few verses that don't come right out and say it, but kind of hint at that thought.
Malaria in 1800s In 1876 when Mary first arrived in Calabar, it was not known that mosquito bites transmitted the parasites that cause malaria. Many missionaries and other Europeans died of the disease. Symptoms include, a high temperature, sweating and chills, headaches, vomiting and muscle pains. This was often the reason for missionaries dying or being sent home ill. Mosquitos breed in fresh or brackish water (salt water in estuaries and rivers) and so those living in mission houses near to the Calabar rivers were often at risk...... Furloughs Mary suffered from serious bouts of malaria and other tropical illnesses throughout her life in Africa. In June 1879 she was sent home to Dundee for her first furlough (leave of absence) following a particularly severe bout of malaria. The normal tour of duty as a missionary at that time was four years before being allowed to return home on leave. Mary was allowed home a year early for this first furlough. http://maryslessor.org/2014/04/her-extraordinary-impact/ ".......My life is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For physical health.... Yeah right. More bs.
You know what it kind of funny, in my mind, is that I actually partially composed a response in my reply to you last night that Mary did suffer from malaria 4 times and she was not claiming to be instantly healed from this. When I read her statement, I take it from the perspective of one whose background was in a church who believes, as I do, that God does intervene as He pleases, helping through sickness, providing, at times, medical doctors and medicine to help through sicknesses, and occasionally providing miraculous healings. Without reading name it and claim it theology into her statement, it's simply her testifying that God has, at times, provided her with physical healing. I have experienced some healing that I believe was orchestrated by God. I wrote about one of the experiences here on ET and I'm not going to go into the details of re-writing it. It was the way God brought me into contact with a doctor that had a little-known outside-the-box (yet practiced in other countries besides the USA), not at that time considered a safe treatment, so it was only experimental, and very few doctors knew of it. But it has helped and I continue to use that treatment to this day, and I was likely to die had I not received those instructions on treatment. In fact, I went back and told my regular medical doctor who was treating me, and he warned me strongly not to use this treatment, as it wasn't safe. The funny thing is that the doctor that gave me the new treatment instructions I was seeing for a totally unrelated issue. It only came up because I was having a difficult time in his office because of the problem. I know that all doesn't make sense, but I don't like sharing personal details of my physical problems. So, God has not "healed" me from my problem. But God most certainly did do a miracle that almost certainly saved my life and for sure has helped me to live as well as I am now, through a "chance" meeting with this doctor. What were the probabilities of me finding such a doctor in my area? I asked him for help in locating a doctor closer to my home who understands this treatment and he said he knew of no one, but that there was a nurse practitioner that does know about it, but he refused me to give me her name, without telling me why. Oh, and one more thing, I had been prayed for for several years for this problem by many Christians, and most recently, as things were headed downhill, had been prayed over by my elders about a month or so just before meeting this doctor that was so helpful. Say what you want, I believe God intervened in answer to prayer. Maybe He would have intervened without prayer too, but I am convinced that God helped provide that interaction. If there were no God, then I'd have random chance to thank for my current well-being. LOL. That is so funny to me, to think that the current treatment I use several times a day could possibly be due to random chance, just as evolutionists think randomness created all living things. I see design in creation and I see design in my life, not probabilities. I suppose that if everything in the universe is guided by random probabilities (instead of God) that I must be one of the luckiest people on this earth many thousands times over. I do not feel lucky. I rarely win at luck-of-the-draw type games. If we using trading as a test to see if I have any special "luck" then it shows that I do not have any luck, I am not a lucky person. If I enter randomly, without using a plan, I do not consistently win, time after time. But in real life, I do have very unlikely events that have happened very often which I believe are answers to prayer or just God directing my path. I don't see atheists claiming that their prayers are getting answered too. If prayers are answered by randomness for all people, then why do unbelievers claim God doesn't answer their prayers? Yet many Christians do get their prayers answered? I know you will say that you do not believe that Christians get their prayers answered.
Clarification: I do not mean that I am luckier than many others based on possessions, but based on having unlikely events happening very often to me, which I attribute to God, not chance.
I've been trying to find accounts of answered prayers that have independent documentation. I understand that just because I and others say we have these experiences, that our experiences aren't going to cause unbelievers to think God is doing it just based on what we say. At this link are 3 medical studies done on the effects of prayer. I don't actually agree with this type of study. It's a lot like "putting God to the test" which is something we are told not to do. I take that to mean that we aren't suppose to treat God like He is at our command, but rather that He gives His interventions according to how He wants to give them. However, I also think that if God wants to answer prayers in a designed study, that He can choose to do so. This site seems to show there were 2 medical studies that documented benefits to those who were prayed for by Christians. The third study they believe was designed wrong and did not show benefits. Just posting this link because it's interesting. https://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/prayer.html#n02 Obviously, science has demonstrated in three separate studies the efficacy of Christian prayer in medical studies. There is no "scientific" (non-spiritual) explanation for the cause of the medical effects demonstrated in these studies. The only logical, but not testable, explanation is that God exists and answers the prayers of Christians. No other religion has succeeded in scientifically demonstrating that prayer to their God has any efficacy in healing. In fact, studies that have used intercessors from multiple religious backgrounds have failed to prove the efficacy of prayer.6 The Bible declares that Jesus Christ has power over life and death and sickness and is able to heal us, both physically7 and spiritually.8 He gave this power to His disciples and those who follow Him.9 I also take issue with the idea that we continue with the power given to the disciples to heal. I believe God can and does heal as He chooses.
I've never said there's no God. God can be different things to different people. God to me is a type spiritual energy from the combined total mass of atoms in the universe working in harmony or disharmony. What I've said, Christianity has some benefit (many religions have community benefits) but Christianity is also full of bs and the bible is the word of man. The Holy bible is only 'holy' in your head. The Bible is a historical book written by man and tampered, altered, imperfect, manipulated, vague and contradicts with double meanings. One can use the bible and come up with whatever excuse suits the current narative. The bible is poetic but also full of shit, every parable and verse can make whatever story meaningful the way you wish to imagine.
Prayer is a hit and miss affair, coin toss. When answered, you'll hear about it. When not answered, some stupid excuse or dead silence. Christians, full of excuses, ducking, weaving, got an answer for everything.