I've spent a fair amount of time with a Maasai village in Kenya. The only accessible schools for their children are missionary run. They insist the children take a Christian name for use at school and dictate that they wear western clothes instead of their traditional clothing when in class or they are sent home. They seek an education and greater opportunities for their futures, and that is the trade they have to make to obtain it. Not surprisingly, it pisses me off to no end to watch it... these children come home from school and the first thing they do is put their traditional clothes back on and grab their panga and set out to be with the cows in the bush.
I've said this before, if you're helping someone expecting something in return, you're doing business, not kindness. And when you try to manipulate vulnerable people into thinking your business is kindness, I see nothing but red.

This is an old, old story. Look at the history of indigenous peoples in the US and Canada for example. Total disrespect for their way of life, their land, their resources. Dehumanization on the basis that they are "primitive" or "savage". In fact it is Christian missionaries (mostly Catholic in Canada, more diverse in the US) who would take indigenous children from their parents, put them in "Indian schools", forbid them to speak their native tongue, force them to adopt western clothing and custom, and often as not, abuse them in various ways, including sexually. I used to live in Arizona, next to one of the reservations there -- descendants of the Apaches -- and they have huge problems with depression, obesity, and diabetes which is what happens when you take a nomadic people, deprive them of their range and lifestyle, destroy their identity.

Any reasonably educated person in the West should know all this by now, but again, the magic of special pleading intervenes. Because of the "good news" (the gospel), because of its asserted importance to their eternal destiny, despite all past experience, it's not only okay but imperative to insert themselves into these indigenous tribes and make them understand and accept our beliefs.

A similar alchemy is underway in the US and elsewhere, rationalizing authoritarianism, fascism, excusing lying, cheating, sexual predation (including against minors), misogyny, and a bunch of other evils, in the name of temporal power, is what Christian fundamentalism is all about. So long as they get their desired judges and impose more and more stealth theocracy on the general public, they are okay with it all. Because advancing "the kingdom of god" trumps everything.

Being a missionary is like the US trying to bring democracy to another country.

I was a Mormon missionary before I became enlightened. I am embarrassed now for having pushed my superstitions onto others. It would be a better world if superstitions were kept private, and science were elevated onto the highest pedestal of human thought.

I agree it is white supremacy and is used as a prelude to colonization in many cases. They do think they are superior but in reality could learn a lot more useful things from people who have survived for centuries where they are.