Many missionaries who did venture forth into the "heathen colossus" did so insensitively. Wrote one missionary, "What other government has bestowed such privileges upon ministers of the gospel?" Missionary pride and Chinese anger shot up in 1899 when the Chinese government conferred official status on missionaries, making a bishop or superintendent the equal of a provincial governor, and ordinary foreigners the equivalent of district magistrates. One Canadian reported that a "gentle-spirited Norwegian" told him "that after being out here for a few years, he got into such a dulled spiritual condition that he would, on occasions, knock down or beat a Chinese." Too many missionaries (though hardly Hudson Taylor) adopted a "Shanghai mentality," which regarded the world beyond their enclave as a "heathen colossus." In some places, missionaries were more intimate with British authorities, more interested in playing soccer at the consulate with sailors. If a drunken sailor killed a prostitute or his captain set fire to a trading junk, they were protected by the extraterritoriality that is granted high-ranking diplomats. Worse, they swaggered through China knowing they could not be arrested for any crime. The English, Americans, French, Dutch, Spanish, German, and, the largest group, Japanese, had divided up the country as if they were playing the board game Risk. Since the 1840s, foreigners had forced China's hand in treaty after treaty, gaining control of large parts of the country. The causes of the uprising were many and complex, but the arrogance of foreigners is as good a summation as any. The uprising is called the Boxer Rebellion, and it dealt the modern Protestant missionary movement its most severe blow ever. Within six months, thousands of angry Chinese came screaming out of the villages of North China, twirling swords and chanting, "Burn, burn, burn! Kill, kill, kill!" They tore down chapels, cathedrals, orphanages, hospitals, and schools, and murdered missionaries and Chinese Christians. But if the British thought this would quell the rising Chinese resentment, they were wrong. British authorities acted swiftly two culprits were executed and an indemnity was demanded. They tortured him for hours and then murdered him. On the last day of 1899, Chinese reactionaries abducted Sidney Brooks, a 24-year-old missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
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