How RC is remembered today
82 years ago today, RC died at a hospital in Mosul after being shot in his family home in Duhok.
His ministry in the 1920s and 30s received both praise and strong opposition. His legacy is also a sensitive one. I shall refer to him just by initials for that reason.
Thankfully, recently, at outline of his life has appeared on English Wikipedia. In this article I have the modest goal of simply surveying his legacy and how different people perceive the man.
- His house is sometimes regarded as the oldest house in Duhok. It was built in around 1930. They call it his qesr, which means palace. It must have been something of a qesr in his day, though I think it was more functionally well-thought-through than palatial.
- Some remember admiringly his great feat of bringing spring water into Duhok. Indeed a kind man at his house took the time to point out from his roof the now dried-up spring in the valley to the east from where water was piped to his vicinity.
- He was actually a Californian, but many think he was British. This is understandable given that there were many officials of the British Protectorate working in Iraq up to independence in 1932.
- Some think he worked for the American or British government. He was in fact a Presbyterian missionary, working under the auspices of the United Mission to Mesopotamia (UMM) but locals do not well understand the concept of the separation of church and state.
- It is partly from a long Kurdish folk song that many know RC’s story (note, he is referred to as Kemberlan/کەمبەرلان, a slight corruption of his surname) . The name of the folk singer escapes me and I have now lost the mp3 of this dengbêj telling his story at great length and with a screechy melody that sits uneasily in the Western ear.
- People say the killer also shot his dog as he fled out of the house. He did shoot the servant Musa, and the C family did have a dog- I’ve seen photos- but this story may come from the song since it’s not mentioned in his wife’s letter or any other reports. Anyone else able to verify either way?
- In about 2019 a cafe was opened in Duhok called, if I remember rightly, Kafê Kemberlan. The worker at the cafe told me they used his name because he is a famous figure from Duhok’s past, rather than out of any great appreciation of his labours in evangelising the town. Because the building was demolished, the cafe had to go. But I was glad to visit once. Interestingly, they displayed a framed photo of the man who killed RC alongside many other notable figures. But there was no intention to salute this man, who was later executed for subsequent murder or murders. I asked why they did not have a photo of RC, and he replied that they didn’t have one. It was a curious omission in the charming folkloric decor, and it spoke to me of how inaccessible to the local people a basic knowledge of the man still is.
- Locals often still talk about RC. There was a long newspaper article about his house in early 2019 I think and a Facebook article was written in March 2020 in Kurdish, with grainy photos of both him and his killer.
- I have heard about a documentary being made about him by someone related to the killer.
- One older man I talked to a while ago said that RC got what he deserved, because he was leading people away from the majority faith. This attitude is fairly rare. However, many people know the official line on apostasy and those who aid it. So for them to commend RC or publicly defend him is to challenge the historic view that he was doing a very bad thing in making disciples of Christ.
- I can personally relate that his legacy has spread far and wide. I used to tell workers at a kebab house in Oxford, UK about Jesus Christ and one young man from Duhok who gave me pushback for my message told me simply to go find out about Kemberlan. He felt tied not just ideologically but by ties of blood to the man who had ‘stopped RC [literally] in his tracks’. I had never heard of him, but later I understood who he was referring to in that greasy joint just off the Cowley Road!
- Moving to Christian appraisals of his work, the most significant published appraisal of his work is to be found in a book called Ethnic Realities and the Church, now available on Kindle. RC’s resourcefulness and courage is saluted and the key elements of his life and work are covered there.
- He is also mentioned in an important Missiology PhD thesis. In this survey of Western Protestant mission in the Middle East, he is described as a ‘maverick’, though in admiring tones. Though the analysis is short, it does helpfully set RC in his context, one in which the ‘preach and convert’ model was being widely challenged by a more liberal approach to mission which concentrated on medical and educational work to the detriment of gospel preaching and making disciples.
- After his death, fellow-students of his raised money which was set aside for Bible translation. Fifty years later, the door opened for that money to be used.
- RC’s determination to avoid some of the missionary trends of his day is seen in what is I think his only published work, a short missiological portrait of the Kurds. Note that the link on Wikipedia suggests that you must pay to view the article. Given that copyright expired in 2018 (70 years after his death), this link can legitimately be used to read the piece: a stirring call to hope for the conversion of the Kurds such that they will take their place as people of influence within the Middle East. At the end, he lays hope for their salvation not on schools and hospitals, and many modern gospel workers who emphasise the sovereign power of God working through the word sown in weakness will salute him at this point:
“approaches” and “methods” will never
save them; here, as in all things, our confidence must
be in Him who said, “Other sheep I have, which are not
of this fold; them also must I bring, and there shall be
one fold, one shepherd.”
Kurdology 