Page 86 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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at present receive enormous reinforcement from the scientific,

economic and political prestige of the West." 151

Thus, fighting vainly against other western influences

in the Kiddle East, the Mission entered the third quarter of

the twentieth century, where its various activities, in order

to support themselves and continue, either secularized and

adapted themselves to the need of the new affluent society

about them or withered away. Still having failed to convert

any appreciable number of Muslims since arriving in the Gulf
some seventy years ago, the Mission now turned to a new pas­

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toral role, that of ministering to the new expatriate com­
munities of Christians who had moved into the Gulf from the

outside. Thus, by 1973, the original evangelical mission goal

of 1889 had been abandoned. A significant chapter in the

continuing dialogue between the East and the West had come

to an end.

Unlike many East-West encounters, however, the Prot­

estant missionary experience seems to have been a beneficial

one for both parties and has left little rancour or ill-will

in its wake. It is tempting to compare the missionaries’

record with that of the Medieval Crusades which had also come

to the Middle East "for the greater glory of Christ." Where

the missionaries had used medicines and school books, the
crusaders had used fire and sword, and finding a hostile re­

ception, had proceeded to lay waste the countryside. Stephen
db
Runciman has made a convincing argument in fact that the Crus­

ades, far from advancing the cause of Christendom