Missionaries

Speaking of missionaries (yesterday's post), there's actual data from a Harvard paper showing that missionaries have had an unexpected effect on history:

"Conversionary" Protestants (CPs) were a crucial catalyst that initiated the development and spread of religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations and most major colonial reforms. In short, CPs helped create conditions that made stable democracy more likely – regardless of whether many people converted to Protestantism."

Everyone, believer or not, should be able to appreciate that missionaries helped bring about the modern world.