In this post I wrote, following, Professor Makau Mutua, that indigenous religions should be protected against the proselytizing religions, that is, Christianity and Islam.
Those of you who don’t live under rocks have heard about the missionary, John Chau, who met a not very good fate when he went to spread the not so good news of chesus to guys who were not interested.
Maybe had my ancestors meted the same treatment to early missionaries, the profile of our world would be different. If the missionaries believe their god is everywhere and can perform miracles, I would suggest they pray and fast, while at home, and ask the gods they pray to to convert whoever it is they are interested in saving from a death that meets us all.
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He insisted on going where he was plainly not to go, & dragged others into being arrested. Yes, a young man is dead, but he should have paid attention to the laws. Religion is not above the law, no matter if they think they are.
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He should have let the villagers be
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$Amen$ I agree. Missionaries should stay at home, pray, and let their invisible god do the converting. Far less trouble that way.
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You know. I don’t know why they have never thought of this easy way of spreading the message of chesus
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Right. Very odd, that.
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Whenever I encounter a missionary, it’s my standard policy to inform them they’re doing the devil’s work.
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They don’t offer t pray for you?
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They don’t get the change, they’re too busy to figure I why am saying that their hero is actually a ploy of the devil.
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Hahaha. The look on their faces must be priceless
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Seriously, they don’t nor can’t understand why one could say their saviour is an agent of the devil. All what I do, is reverse what christians say of other religions being the devil’s work. Anyway, the greatest issue with the average christian missionary, is that i am a far better preacher than they are…
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You can say this about any average believer. They believe because they have been told
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I find it intriguing that the “missionary position” has the missionaries on top.
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Because it is the position recommended by the missionaries to be close to godliness, no wonder they come on top
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A very insightful post that I agree wholeheartedly. As the overwhelming majority of the missionaries were *NOT* invited by any of the people they tried to convert, a fitting end to their premature assumptions. Naked hugs!
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It is Ingersoll who said the missionaries should have stayed at home and I agree
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Absolutely, O Exalted Holiness! Stayed at home and diligently practiced the lessons they tried to instill in others! Naked hugs!
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Reblogged this on Confessions Of A YEC and commented:
Sometimes a short post is all that’s needed to convey a deep thought. And Makagutu’s posts is both.
While I do side with him on his thoughts, my own position on the matter is a little bit more complicated.
Firstly the easy bit. It think the Christian Missionary culture brought with it much that is bad. They ravaged local cultures and customs and forced those living in the lands they invade to convert to their doctrines. The side affect of this is that those who followed found it easy to pillage the occupied lands and take the wealth back to their own nation. Leaving those who knew and loved the lands worse off. I think that is a terrible legacy that is yet to be redressed.
I am a product of that which I condemn. I grew up in Zambia and spent many of my formative years cocooned within the missionary environment there. I have benefitted from it. Emotionally I love Zambia as a country, it is beautiful and those who live there are beautiful. Humans and other animals, all of them are beautiful.
It’s been more years than I care to admit since I visited and I miss the country still. I miss the dust and the smell of rain and the many sounds and the fabulous food.
Yet, much of what I love is tainted by the knowledge of injustice that took me there. Injustice that I once supported. Injustice that I once thought was godly and right. Injustice that in some small way was carried out by my own family line. it is done, it is past and I can do nothing about that. Sometimes that knowledge hurts.
Without that, I could never have seen some of the wonders I have seen. I would not have the memories that lead me to call the Victoria Falls my favourite place on earth. A name that itself is a product of that culture.
I was taught that those who died making first contact in the spread of the gospel were heroes and martyrs. There are Christians today who still think that.
I can only shake my head in disbelief, tainted with a small amount of shame.
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I see why your position is a little complicated.
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“the Sentinelese, estimated to number between 50 and 100, have always been hostile to visitors”
Hmm… Sounds like a bunch of racist xenophobes who oppose open borders and multicultural diversity. And now they’ve killed a person of color for expressing different religious beliefs.These people are literal Nazis. 🙂
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Haha Ron!
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“I tried to save all their souls,” he said.
“You fool, you’ve yet to save yourself,” said the Voice.
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How appropriate! I like this line, Eric
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I thought about writing a post myself about this incident, but there really isn’t much to say. I feel very little sympathy for this person. And while I know this is a result of religious indoctrination and ultimately our anger should be aimed at the religion itself, the fact is that whether or not he believed God would protect him, he felt like there was some prize for converting these 50-100 “savages” who had never been tamed by Jesus before. If he was really interested in converting people he could have dedicated his life to more humanitarian efforts elsewhere, he would have had a better success rate.
While I share your sentiment that your ancestors perhaps should have reacted more violently…remember that in most cases the soldiers came first and the missionaries later. Not to mention just the rapid population decline from influenza and small pox. There was perhaps good reason to fear people so technologically advanced and who seemed immune to the pestilence that was wiping them out. A lone unarmed missionary full of blind optimism is much less of a challenge. But the hubris that brought this missionary there is the same one that brought missionaries to Africa, the Americas, and Australia. If there was a God, I would have hoped he punished such hubris more often than He did.
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If there was a god, she should have devised a better way to spread the good news and see that such injustices do not occur
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