Lottie Moon
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Charlotte Digges "Lottie" Moon (December 12, 1840 – December 24, 1912) was a
Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ...
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
to China with the Foreign Mission Board who spent nearly 40 years (1873–1912) living and working in China. As a teacher and evangelist she laid a foundation for traditionally solid support for missions among Southern Baptists, especially through its
Woman's Missionary Union Woman's Missionary Union (WMU) is an auxiliary of the Southern Baptist Convention that was founded in 1888. It is the largest Protestant missions organization for women in the world. History Origins During the meeting of the Southern Bap ...
.


Virginia plantation roots

Moon was born to affluent parents who were staunch Baptists, Anna Maria Barclay and Edward Harris Moon. She grew up on the family's ancestral tobacco
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
called Viewmont, near
Scottsville, Virginia Scottsville is a town in Albemarle, Buckingham and Fluvanna counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 566 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area. History According tScottsville's ...
. Lottie was fourth in a family of five girls and two boys. Lottie was only thirteen when her father died in a riverboat accident. The Moon family valued education, and at age fourteen Lottie went to school at the Baptist-affiliated Virginia Female Seminary (high school, later
Hollins University Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States ...
) and Albemarle Female Institute in
Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...
, Virginia. In 1861 Moon received one of the first Master of Arts degrees awarded to a woman by a southern institution. She learned Latin, Greek, French, and Italian. Later, she would become an expert at
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
.


Spiritual awakening

A spirited and outspoken girl, Lottie was indifferent to her Christian upbringing until her early teens. She underwent a spiritual awakening after a series of
revival meeting A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held to inspire active members of a church body to gain new converts and to call sinners to repent. Nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "Many blessings may come ...
s on the college campus.
John Broadus John Albert Broadus (January 24, 1827 – March 16, 1895) was an American Baptist Church, Baptist pastor and President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Early life Born in 1827 in Culpeper County, Virginia, Broadus was educated at hom ...
, one of the founders of the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at ...
, led the revival meeting in 1858 where Moon experienced this awakening. Although educated females in the mid-19th century generally had few career opportunities, her older sister Orianna became a physician and served as a Confederate Army doctor during the American Civil War. Lottie helped her mother maintain the family estate during the war, and afterward began a teaching career. She taught at female academies, first in
Danville, Kentucky Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes ...
. In
Cartersville, Georgia Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States; it is located within the northwest edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,187. Cartersville is the county seat of Bartow Coun ...
, Moon and her friend, Anna Safford, opened Cartersville Female High School in 1871. Moon also joined the First Baptist Church and ministered to the impoverished families of
Bartow County, Georgia Bartow County is located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 108,901, up from 100,157 in 2010. The county seat is Cartersville. Traditionally considered part of northwest Georgia, B ...
. To the family's surprise, Lottie's younger sister Edmonia accepted a call to go to North China as the first single woman Baptist missionary in 1872. By this time the
Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...
had relaxed its policy against sending single women into the mission field, and Lottie soon felt called to follow her sister to China. On July 7, 1873, the Foreign Mission Board officially appointed 32-year-old Lottie as a missionary to China.


Missionary work in China


Early years in China (1873–1885)

Lottie joined her sister Edmonia at the North China Mission Station in the treaty port of
Dengzhou Dengzhou (), formerly Deng County (), is a city in Nanyang, Henan, China. It has an area of and a population of 1,500,000. The urban area is 35 km², and the urban population is 300,000. The city is located in the southwest of Henan provin ...
, in Shandong, (see Penglai, Prefecture City
Yantai Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...
) and began her ministry by teaching in a boys school. (Edmonia had to return home a short time later for health reasons.) While accompanying some of the seasoned missionary wives on "country visits" to outlying villages, Lottie discovered her passion: direct evangelism. Most mission work at that time was done by married men, but the wives of China missionaries
Tarleton Perry Crawford Tarleton Perry Crawford (May 8, 1821 – April 7, 1902) was a Baptist missionary to Shandong, China for 50 years with his wife. Early life and education Crawford was born in Warren County, Kentucky. He was the fourth son of John and Lucretia Cr ...
and Landrum Holmes had discovered an important reality: Only women could reach Chinese women. Lottie soon became frustrated, convinced that her talent was being wasted and could be better put to use in evangelism and church planting. She had come to
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to "go out among the millions" as an evangelist, only to find herself relegated to teaching a school of forty "unstudious" children. She felt chained down, and came to view herself as part of an oppressed class - single women missionaries. Her writings were an appeal on behalf of all those who were facing similar situations in their ministries. In an article titled "The Woman's Question Again," published in 1883, Lottie wrote: Lottie waged a slow but relentless campaign to give women missionaries the freedom to minister and have an equal voice in mission proceedings. A prolific writer, she corresponded frequently with H. A. Tupper, head of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, informing him of the realities of mission work and the desperate need for more workers—both women and men.


Expanded work (1885–1894)

In 1885, at the age of 45, Moon gave up teaching and moved into the interior to evangelize full-time in the areas of P'ingtu and Hwangshien. Her converts numbered in the hundreds. Continuing a prolific writing campaign, Moon's letters and articles poignantly described the life of a missionary and pleaded the "desperate need" for more missionaries, which the poorly funded board could not provide. She encouraged Southern Baptist women to organize mission societies in the local churches to help support additional missionary candidates, and to consider coming themselves. Many of her letters appeared as articles in denominational publications. Then, in 1887, Moon wrote to the ''Foreign Mission Journal'' and proposed that the week before Christmas be established as a time of giving to foreign missions. Catching her vision, Southern Baptist women organized local Women's Missionary Societies and even Sunbeam Bands for children to promote missions and collect funds to support missions. Moon was instrumental in the founding of The Woman's Missionary Union, an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, in 1888. The first "Christmas offering for missions" in 1888 collected over $3,315, enough to send three new missionaries to China. In 1892, Moon took a much needed furlough in the US, and did so again in 1902. She was very concerned that her fellow missionaries were burning out from lack of rest and renewal and going to early graves. The mindset back home was "go to the mission field, die on the mission field." Many never expected to see their friends and families again. Moon argued that regular furloughs every ten years would extend the lives and effectiveness of seasoned missionaries.


War, conflict and scarcity (1894–1912)

Throughout her missionary career, Moon faced plague, famine, revolution, and war. The
First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...
(1894), the
Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
(1900) and the
Chinese Nationalist Chinese nationalism () is a form of nationalism in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China) and the Republic of China on Taiwan which asserts that the Chinese people are a nation and promotes the cultural and national unity of all Chin ...
uprising (which overthrew the
Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
in 1911) all profoundly affected mission work. Famine and disease took their toll, as well. When Moon returned from her second furlough in 1904, she was deeply struck by the suffering of the people who were literally starving to death all around her. She pleaded for more money and more resources, but the mission board was heavily in debt and could send nothing. Mission salaries were voluntarily cut. Unknown to her fellow missionaries, Moon shared her personal finances and food with anyone in need around her, severely affecting both her physical and mental health. In 1912, she only weighed 50 pounds. Alarmed, fellow missionaries arranged for her to be sent back home to the United States with a missionary companion. However, Moon died en route at the age of 72, on December 24, 1912, in the harbor of
Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Her body was cremated and the remains returned to her family in
Crewe, Virginia Crewe is a town in Nottoway County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,326 at the 2010 census. History Crewe was founded in 1888 as a central location to house steam locomotive repair shops for the Norfolk & Western Railroad (now call ...
, for burial.


Relationship with Crawford Howell Toy

Rumors characterize Moon's relationship with
Crawford Howell Toy Crawford Howell Toy (23 March 183612 May 1919), United States, American Hebrew language, Hebrew scholar, was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856, and studied at the University of Berlin from 1866 to 1868. ...
, a former teacher who became a controversial figure among Southern Baptists in the late 19th century, as romantic. Moon first met Toy at the Albemarle Female Institute. Lottie—who previously learned Latin, Greek, French, Italian and Spanish and would become the one of the first women to earn a master's degree in languages—studied Hebrew and English grammar under Toy's tutelage. Toy wrote of Moon, "She writes the best English I have ever been privileged to read." While some contend Toy proposed to Moon before the Civil War, her mention of a marriage proposal from Toy dates from 1881. In the interim, Toy supported the Confederacy and became a professor of Old Testament studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, while Moon aided her mother on their Virginia estate. However, following controversies concerning
Darwinism Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...
and Toy's criticism of some Baptists' Christological Old Testament interpretations, Toy submitted his resignation from Southern in 1879. Moon's 1881 correspondence with FMB secretary H. A. Tupper, mentions her plans for a spring wedding with Toy, who was by then teaching Old Testament and religion at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. However, the engagement was broken and their marriage never occurred, with vague mentions of religious reasons. Toy's controversial new beliefs regarding the Bible, as well as Moon's commitment to remain in China doing mission work for Southern Baptists seem involved. Toy ultimately broke his affiliation with Southern Baptists and became a Unitarian.


Modern legacy

Lottie Moon has come to personify the missionary spirit for Southern Baptists and many other Christians as well. The annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions has raised a total of $1.5 billion for missions since 1888, and finances half the international missions budget of the Southern Baptist Convention every year. In terms of feminist historiography, Regina Sullivan argues that the decision of the Southern Baptists to allow women to engage in foreign mission work fit in well with the Protestant expectation that women ought to be the most pious members of society, influencing men to lead moral lives. However Moon was impatient with the usual restraints, and deliberately moved her China mission out of reach of male authority. Furthermore, she went so far as to persuade Southern Baptist women to form their own missionary organizations. However, Moon's feminist leadership was not followed by women back home. The Women's Missionary Union made her appear a martyr to the Christian cause rather than a feminist voice within the Baptist Church. Sullivan emphasizes Moon was a pioneer for gender equality; as she wrote from China in 1893, "What women have a right to demand is perfect equality."Regina D. Sullivan 2009, "Myth, Memory, and the Making of Lottie Moon," in Jonathan Daniel Wells, and Sheila R. Phipps, eds. ''Entering the fray: gender, politics, and culture in the New South'' U of Missouri Press; pp 5, 11–41; quote p 11


See also

*
Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...
*
List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people This list List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people includes notable individuals who are or were members of a church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) or who are otherwise affiliated with the SBC. Presidents, pre ...
*
List of American Southern Baptist missionaries in China This is a list of notable Protestant missionaries in China by agency. Beginning with the arrival of Robert Morrison in 1807 and ending in 1953 with the departure of Arthur Matthews and Dr. Rupert Clark of the China Inland Mission, thousands of f ...
* Color Rendering of Lottie Moon


Notes


Further reading

* Allen, Catherine B. (1980). ''The New Lottie Moon Story.'' Nashville: Broadman Press
online free
* Flowers, Elizabeth. "The Contested Legacy of Lottie Moon: Southern Baptists, Women, and Partisan Protestantism." ''Fides et Historia'' 43.1 (2011): 112–44.
online ch 5
* Hyatt, Irwin T. (1976). ''Our Ordered Lives Confess: Three Nineteenth-Century American Missionaries in East Shantung.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. * Lawrence, Una Roberts. ''Lottie Moon''. Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1927; very widely used biography, filled with details from six years of interviews with Moon. * Monsell, Helen Albee. ''Her Own Way: The Story of Lottie Moon'' (1958). for middle school students * Robert, Dana L. "The influence of American missionary women on the world back home." ''Religion and American Culture'' 12.1 (2002): 59–89
online
* Sorrill, Bobbie. "The History of the Week of Prayer for Foreign Missions" ''Baptist History & Heritage'' (1980), 15#4 pp 28–35, covers 1888 to 1979. * Sullivan, Regina D. ''Lottie Moon: A Southern Baptist Missionary to China in History and Legend.'' Baton Rouge : LSU Press. 2011; a major scholarly biography and analysis
online
* Sullivan, Regina D. "Myth, Memory, and the Making of Lottie Moon," in Jonathan Daniel Wells, and Sheila R. Phipps, eds. ''Entering the fray: gender, politics, and culture in the New South]'' (U of Missouri Press; 2009) pp 11–41
excerpt


Primary sources

* Harper, Keith, ed. (2002). ''Send the Light: Lottie Moon's Letters and Other Writings.'' Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press; 458pp; designing the book for specialists, the editor provides minimal context


External links


More Info from Int'l Missionary BoardBiographical Sketch of Lottie Moon
An Audio message by Dr. Tom Nettles.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Lottie 1840 births 1912 deaths Baptist missionaries in China Southern Baptists Baptist missionaries from the United States Missionary educators Female Christian missionaries Christian humanists American humanitarians Women humanitarians People from Albemarle County, Virginia People from Danville, Kentucky Hollins University alumni American expatriates in China Kentucky women in education Baptists from Virginia Baptists from Kentucky American evangelicals