Teaching English or evangelising in Morocco?

Guest Opinion from Mourad D, in Fez, Morocco.

Evangelising via English

Morocco has had a long history of religious tolerance and is unique in the Islamic world for its protection of religious minorities including its Jewish citizens. However there are laws in place protecting Moroccans from Christian evangelists hell-bent on converting (saving?) Muslims.

Over the years evangelists have tried all kinds of ways of getting into Morocco to "spread the word". Some methods have been plain stupid (smuggling bibles in the door panels of cars) and others, like setting up business fronts, quite sophisticated. In Fez, we have even seen houses purchased in order to set up prayer meetings.

Recently I came across the story of Jennifer Beck who spent five weeks in Morocco this summer traveling and teaching high school English. Now had this been all she was doing it would have been fine. And if she talked to people about her faith in her own time it would not be a problem. However, Jennifer returned home and talked to the University website; Whitworthian and what emerges is a disturbing picture

According to Ms Beck, she chose a Christian organisation called TeachOverseas as her program because it offered her an opportunity to teach in Africa during the summer months.

“I wanted to go through a Christian organization, but not one that was all about door-to-door evangelism. I liked that they chose to go out and represent Christ through teaching,” Beck said. “The organization works with countries that are ‘unreached’ groups where Christianity isn’t a part of the culture.”

Before leaving for Morocco, Beck met up with her three other female teaching teammates in Pasadena, Calif. There, they were taught cultural norms, taught how to teach English and make lesson plans. Even over a week of training, Beck said she was unsure of what Moroccan culture would be like.

One thing that continually surprised and confused Beck was how to interact with people of the opposite sex in Morocco’s predominantly male-dominated culture. The differences were compounded with the problem of combating the widely held belief in Morocco that U.S. women were promiscuous.

“In public, if a man says anything to a woman, a woman cannot reply or else it is seen as a sexual advance and for us, it was really odd to adjust to this,” Beck said. “We would be followed or stared at for very long periods of time.”As a resident of the Open Door theme house, Beck is no stranger to the concept of hospitality.

The members of the Open Door theme house make it their goal to keep their home available as a refuge for Whitworth students. At any time, students are encouraged to come over for a place to relax, do homework and fellowship together.

The theme house has a prayer room, where anyone can come and pray in a quiet location out of residence halls. Additionally, three nights a week, students can sign up to come over for free home-cooked meals.

The Moroccan locals also used food as a means of ministering to Beck and her fellow U.S. teachers. The school maids often invited the teaching team to their homes to learn how to prepare Moroccan food.

So what is this English Language teaching organisation?

According to their website:

TeachOverseas is a unique interdenominational ministry that offers you the wisdom of experience with a cutting edge sensibility. Since 1981, we have transformed lives in a dozen different countries through hundreds of summer and year-long programs teaching conversational English.

Each year, we train and send hundreds of Christians to teach English, Business and other subjects in: China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Vietnam. To date, over 100,000 students around the world have benefited from our teachers' commitment to excellent teaching and Christ-like service. We are an openly Christian organization and have developed an excellent reputation with national governments and local school administrations.

Teaching English is perhaps the best overseas opportunity for Christians. It deals with people face to face; leads to discussions that point to truth; and is needed everywhere in the world. — Ralph Winter

Teaching English as community service is a very worthwhile vocation, but using teaching of English as a way of evangelising is at best dubious, at worst subversive. It is hard to find anyone in the Moroccan Government who is aware of this program's Christian purpose. Christians are very welcome in Morocco - Evangelists not.


Here is a list of earlier stories on evangelical work in Morocco;

German Evangelist Flees

Evangelists Target Morocco

Smuggling Bibles

New Christian Crusade in Morocco