Good actions by Christian missionaries (Was: Harry Potter and God)

[Carol]

Ali:
<snip>
> 
> When I was in middle school, there were people who were outside after school giving out little bibles (though I never saw this practice in elementary/high school).

Carol responds:

Ah, yes. the Gideons. I forgot about them. They're the same people who make sure that every American hotel or motel room has a Bible in the nightstand drawer. The little Bibles are actually the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs (King James version). I always take one out of politeness, so I have three or four green-covered ones and two bright orange ones (I liked the green ones better!). Haven't gotten any new ones since I started working at home, but they used to give them out on the University of Arizona campus.
 
> Ali:
> I completely agree with all your points here, but can I bother to ask you to cite literature about the Christian missionaries and
> foot-binding?  I ask because that was something I studied in college and never learned about the involvement of missionaries wiping out these particular practices, so I want to read up on this.

Carol responds:
Oh, dear. My poor old memory isn't what it used to be. I can't remember where I read about the foot-binding being stopped by missionaries, but the twin infanticide thing is mentioned in Chinua Achebe's fact-based novel, "Things Fall Apart" which I no longer own so I can't quote. Wikipedia has an article on infanticide that mentions the killing of twins and other forms of infanticide in Africa and the Christian opposition to infanticide since ancient times, but it doesn't put the two together. Here's one that mentions Christian opposition to female infanticide in China:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-selective_abortion_and_female_infanticide

Another Wikipedia article mentions the opposition of missionaries (it doesn't specify Christian, but I'm sure that's what it means) to foot-binding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding

I'm sure there are better online sources, but I don't really have time to look.
> 
> ~Ali, who quite agrees that this thread is definitely no longer about Harry Potter and God and has not been in a while

Carol:
I changed it, but maybe you can think of something better!

Carol, who feels that her memory is worsening by the minute