Rice Christian

The expression rice Christian is a term used to describe someone who has formally converted to Christianity for material benefits rather than for religious reasons.

Quotes

• As to the Converts these people have made, I have been credibly informed that they are chiefly of the very poor people; and that in the scarce times, their alms of rice have converted more than their preaching; and as to those also have been converted, as they call it, that is, to beads and new images, and belief in the Pope, they have fallen off again, as Rice grew plentiful, and would no longer be Christians than while the Priests administered food to them.
  • On the efforts of Christian Missionaries in Tonquin, from the book Voyages and descriptions (1699), William Dampier

• We're very conscious of making ‘rice Christians'. Our organisation is purely a religious organisation.... We don't even teach English here, so if they want to become a Jehovah's Witness, it's because they want to become a Jehovah's Witness, not because they're getting any material benefit out of it.
  • Vernon Elvish, a Jehovah's Witnesses missionary in Cambodia, as quoted in "Proselytising amid the poverty". The Phnom Penh Post. 03 September 2008.