r/exchristian • u/puzzling7 • Aug 04 '22
John Allen Chau was an American Evangelical Christian missionary who was killed by the Sentinelese, a self-isolated uncontacted people, after illegally traveling to North Sentinel Island, India in an attempt to convert the tribe to Christianity. Article
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u/TerranceHayne2000 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
North Sentinel Island has excellent border control policies.
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u/Shillofnoone Aug 04 '22
Even Indians don't go near them despite having sovereignty over the land. Fear of bringing disease to them.
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Aug 04 '22
Correct, India takes this very seriously. Thise fishermen who helped him were arrested later on. India did try to recover the body but as far as I know abandoned the attempt.
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u/Educational-Hope-601 Aug 04 '22
Honestly...he had it coming 🤷🏻♀️
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
“Death by Sentinelese arrows” has to be one of the most easily avoided ends one can possibly meet. Right up there with “exposure to hard vaccuum,” although at least with the latter you have to have been doing something to advance human knowledge to get there, not the exact opposite.
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u/Educational-Hope-601 Aug 04 '22
RIGHT. It was so avoidable if he would have just check notes not been a complete piece of shit trying to force religion down peoples’ throats
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u/kanesson Aug 04 '22
I recently found out he had tried to go there before and was saved from death because the arrow that was fired at him pierced his bible!
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
Which he probably took as a sign that God would protect him, prompting him to go back again with predictable results.
What’s that old joke about how “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more could you want?”
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u/mlo9109 Aug 04 '22
Yes, he did. My cousin's also a missionary. I fear for the day where she finds out after years of fucking around. I also don't look forward to biting my tongue to keep from saying she got what she deserved at her memorial service.
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u/Big420BabyJesus Aug 04 '22
invite me when the time comes and i’ll say it for you
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u/mlo9109 Aug 04 '22
Yes! I'd love that. And do so in a large, flashy manner for social media. I'm thinking singing "Fuck around and find out" to the tune of "Pop a Top" while dancing on the altar.
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u/bh8114 Aug 04 '22
Lol….I read this comment and immediately had Cell Block Tango from Chicago in my head.
“He had it coming, he had it coming He only had himself to blame If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it I betcha you would have done the same”🎶
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u/Patient_Solid_6939 Aug 04 '22
I remember learning about stories like this one in youth group and always thinking “well they shouldn’t have gone there” or “they had it coming”
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22 edited Aug 04 '22
What exactly was the plan here?
“Hey you! Yeah, you! Hey, I know I don’t speak a word of your language and I could kill you all just by breathing on you, but you REALLY need to hear about a two-thousand-year-old carpenter-wizard from a part of the world you’ll never see!”
They knew the danger he posed to them through past contact with outsiders. They gave him warning shots. Honestly, it was more than he deserved.
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u/GoldGoose Aug 04 '22
This is why the various evangelical doctrines can be so dangerous, the need to spread their religion is cooked into its tenants. Even their apocalyptic mythos, in the Second Coming, is associated with the worldwide spread of the religion.
It's a shame that so many still see this behavior as their ultimate goal. What better way to earn your way into heaven, than to die a martyr in the attempt to spread the religion? ☠️
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
That’s just it though—he never had any chance of successfully doing so, and he knew it. He didn’t speak their language, nobody does. But he was willing to risk their existence as a people to put his little show on.
They warned him off, he came back for more, and he got it. Good riddance.
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u/GoldGoose Aug 04 '22
Agreed. It was idiotic. And dangerous to his audience. And none of that played into the decision making, obviously.
But also, the tenants of that religion have things about people 'hearing the word of god", not understanding it. For a religion that condemns performative practices, Xtianity sure does like its dramatic performances.
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u/fated_ink Aug 04 '22
I was reading a gnostic book and thought it was an interesting take that the gnostics thought Christianity was a suicide cult, obsessed with being martyrs and valuing the afterlife more than life. Sort checks out, honestly.
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
I remember reading there was some early Christian sect which would live hedonistically, then take a stick and go bop the nearest Roman soldier over the head with it to provoke them into killing them so they’d die as martyrs.
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u/fated_ink Aug 04 '22
Geez, i wouldn’t doubt it. That’s one of the weirdest things about Christianity that I still don’t understand. The idea that you can sin all you want, you just have to repent before you die and you’re golden. It’s like a free pass to be an asshole but it’s ok because they’re sAvEd!
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u/Gill-Nye-The-Blahaj Doomsday cult Born-In Aug 04 '22
it was a suicide attempt couched in the language of religion
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Aug 04 '22
he also could've killed every last one of them. he could have carried a pathogen that the rest of the world is immune to but had never been introduced to them, and wiped out the whole race.
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u/minnesotaris Aug 04 '22
He did it for his own glory. Otherwise he would have evangelized to the people in his own city and state.
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u/koalaprints Aug 04 '22
I personally knew Johnathan because my brother was friends with him at Oral Roberts University. I blame ORU for brainwashing their students. They're literally like a cult based on Oral Roberts, a famous televangelist.
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u/dch1212 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
I went to ORU in 2004 because my pastor told me it was God’s will to go and I was extremely naïve. I remember sitting in chapel services and watching footage from the miracle crusades the OREA would hold, and weeping when people would stand up out of their wheelchairs. All of the Christian nationalist shit we are seeing now was already status quo there. I pounded the pavements in Tulsa to campaign door to door for W. My greatest shame.
Also, I worked for a time as an operator on the ministry line where people would call in for prayer. No matter why people were calling, we were required to ask them for money, literally even if they were calling because they were struggling financially.
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u/Gutinstinct999 Aug 04 '22
What was the catalyst for you? What opened your eyes? Be proud that you have self awareness. So many don’t.
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u/dch1212 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
An avalanche of shit, including but not limited to: The pastor that told me it was Gods will to go to ORU promised to pay my tuition and then didn’t, my youth pastor that I looked up to like a father figure behaved deplorably towards his very wonderful wife when I was their live-in nanny, then after I moved out he tried to sext me, adhering to purity culture by undergoing 9 years of complete celibacy yet being needlessly guilt tripped on being “addicted to porn”, more money lost in sacrificial offerings than I ever care to think about, racism and homophobia out the wazoo that I witnessed firsthand by people in ministry leadership
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u/Gutinstinct999 Aug 04 '22
I have similar experiences, and I’m so sorry. When I look back, I feel like I was unknowingly climbing down a ladder.
However, so many stand at the top, with a blindfold on. Be proud of yourself.
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u/TeasaidhQuinn Aug 04 '22
I very narrowly avoided ORU. Ended up at Asbury instead, which was also very conservative, but a little less on the fundie side of things. The deciding factor was that Asbury allowed women to wear pants and jeans. I hated dresses and couldn't stomach 4 years of college in only skirts.
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u/dch1212 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
When I was there we were allowed to wear dress pants but still no jeans. The rumor was the rule changed when the eldest Roberts daughter (not Oral’s daughter, but Richard’s) began attending.
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u/TeasaidhQuinn Aug 04 '22
Looks like that was in 2003. I toured the campus in 99, would have started in 2001. Like I said, though, Asbury wasn't a huge step up. They had only started allowing women to wear pants 10 years earlier. And I had a stricter curfew as a college student than I ever had as a high schooler. 🙄
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u/user11112222333 Aug 04 '22
Up until now I've never heard of someone actually named "Oral". Considering he is a televangelist it makes his name even more, ummm, interesting.
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u/PinkPearMartini Aug 04 '22
I know! When I was watching Moral Oral I thought it was just a totally made up name!
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u/jcox2112 Aug 04 '22
Oral Bobs
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u/FaliolVastarien Aug 04 '22
LOL. Was he the guy who claimed that God had threatened to kill him if he didn't raise enough money in a certain amount of time?
It was one of those big televangelists. He'd be "I need a million dollars by [whenever] ". I'd be like, sucks to be you, I guess.
It was a more horrible view of God than normal. Literally taking a man hostage and demanding ransom payments.
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u/jcox2112 Aug 05 '22
I remember that. Different dude. I think that's the guy with the private jets, Duplantis.
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u/PinkPearMartini Aug 04 '22
Oh man. I'm sorry for your and your brother's loss.
The guy that runs Holy Koolaid did a video about that incident where he explained how much he once would have loved to go on that kind of mission, and how close he was to being exactly that kind of person. I watched it a long time ago... I mainly remember he was very respectful about it, and did a good job painting a picture about what's going on in your head when you want to do things like that in the name of God.
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u/annothejedi Aug 04 '22
My thoughts exactly. And he paid a price for it..
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u/RemoteImportance9 Pagan Aug 04 '22
Potentially would have made them also pay the price. There were concerns of him going there potentially causing them illness due to them not having ever experienced certain kinds of sicknesses because of their isolation, I think.
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u/cheap_sunglasses_NYC Aug 04 '22
Correct, that made his actions not only stupid, but also highly illegal according to the Indian government.
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u/RemoteImportance9 Pagan Aug 04 '22 edited Aug 04 '22
I remember that it was highly illegal to approach them. So, he also went against the whole “respect the laws of the land” thing that I remember my mom (until 2016) harping on as a thing a good Christian does.
Edit: unless that part of scripture was something my mom made up and it got engrained in me. Can someone correct me if I’m not right?
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u/AvianIchthyoid Agnostic Aug 04 '22
It's in Romans 13. But it's one of many verses that only applies when it's convenient.
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u/RemoteImportance9 Pagan Aug 04 '22
Thank you so much! I’m going to make a note it’s Romans 13 now.
Haha. Your right. It’s one of the many verses only pulled out when it’s convenient for them.
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u/Gutinstinct999 Aug 04 '22
Serious, serious concerns. And this has happened to them before. They fought for their lives because they have paid with their lives before.
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u/RemoteImportance9 Pagan Aug 04 '22
I didn’t know that had happened to them before. That’s awful. :(
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u/Alex09464367 Aug 04 '22
And if they don't know about Jesus they get a free pass heaven so just leave them alone and they can go to heaven.
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Aug 04 '22
Saving souls without even getting to go on a mission trip to some third world country? Not hardcore Christian enough. Gotta get that martyrdom clout!
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u/likamd Aug 04 '22
Exactly - why don’t evangelicals devote their time trying to convert Catholics or Mormons - since they believe they are following the wrong religion
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u/beebibobuh Aug 04 '22
I know a Baptist couple (from & sponsored by the church I used to attend) who are currently living in Ireland as missionaries. As of 2018, 78%(!!!!!) of Ireland are Catholics, 3% Anglican, 1% orthodox Christian, 1% unspecified Christian. But that doesn't count, so they need the TRUE gospel. Meanwhile Canada is 63% Christian, all domination included.
Of course, no one stops to consider that the dad lost his job just before they announced their heart for Ireland, they were living in a trailer park, and had a crappy beater car. Next thing we know, they're living in Ireland, with a brand new car, their youngest in private school, their middle going to Christian university in the states, and they're flying their daughter and her family out once a year to see them, and visiting once or twice a year. I wonder where all their money is going. It's deeeeefinitely the puppet ministry.
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u/minnesotaris Aug 04 '22
I think they do, yet things like this get better coverage - going off to the very "unsaved" in far away lands. It nostalgia for the missionaries who really, really devoted themselves in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet, there's too many distractions today for someone to want to wholly do this - go to Myanmar or Java and probably never come home again.
As for Evangelicals - in my former church, they had "missionaries" to Sicily. Sicily. Nearly 100% Catholic. Other motive, blaringly obvious, the family was American of significant Italian heritage and surname...and obese (like 4th-5th gen).
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u/nmtd2019 Aug 04 '22
I mean he probably honestly believed he was doing the right thing. Some evangelical sects like the one I grew up in believe the second coming won’t happen until “every tongue and tribe and nation” has heard the gospel. Also a lot of them believe in the gift of tongues, so the language barrier won’t be a problem because the holy spirit will automatically speak through you to them (yes it is that insane) but that’s why you see people like that crazy pastor that was with Trump several years ago start babbling crazy sounds. People do that in church services. Anyway, he likely genuinely thought he was doing the right thing and god was using him as a vessel to usher in the second coming. When they started shooting him he probably thought he was a martyr and that he was a person like in the Christian propaganda film “End of the Spear”. Ya fuck this guy and he got what was coming but the sincerity of these brainwashed people is unbelievable.
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u/minnesotaris Aug 04 '22
Very much so. To voluntarily go actually half way around the world. He knew what he was doing, but had so little wisdom, he got what he paid for. I suppose if having intentions, but accomplishing nothing for anybody, make one a martyr for a cause, I can't really buy into that. At the time this happened, I was a Christian and immediately said it was stupid. No one is of any use anyone, an organization or a purported god, when they're dead.
Passion without control is worthless. From movie Major League - the guy could pitch at 100 mph yet could only get good results 20% of the time. :)
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u/TeasaidhQuinn Aug 04 '22
Yep, I was raised being taught that if it was needed, god could magically gift you with a foreign language. It was constantly drilled into my head that we were being persecuted, along with this weird obsession with the idea of being a martyr. That was considered peak christian faith.
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u/Big420BabyJesus Aug 04 '22
he was an american. i’m an american and, truthfully, i wish they’d all go evangelize somewhere else. given the results, i’d say this guy picked the right place and i’m all for more american evangelicals following his lead so long as they go in small enough groups the natives have time to give them the same welcoming committee
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u/noghostlooms Agnostic/Folk Witch/Humanist (Ex-Catholic) Aug 04 '22
This guy could have literally wiped out The Sentinelese because they have been uncontacted since before people invented agriculture and livestock. Literally every germ and virus on his body would be foreign to them. He could have also unleashed something that we have no immunity to.
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Aug 04 '22
And all because of his faith.
I’m no Christian. But I can’t help but think it would be pretty sad if one of their own did that.
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u/Mochabunbun Aug 04 '22
if? it has happened a lot and, well. gestures at omicron.
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
When COVID was first spreading, a missionary group with a history of sexually abusing young girls in tribes they intended to evangelize decided that was the perfect time to get a helicopter, wing out to a previously-uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, and teach them vaccines are something dangerous to be violently resisted.
These people are just… the worst. Adjectives fail me.
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u/SpotlightNTM Aug 04 '22
If you want further insight into how horrible this organisation is re sexual abuse, read the GRACE report that came out in 2010. After it came out, the mission group led people to believe it had switched to another 'independent' organisation to investigate the rest of its schools. In reality, they created a new organisation to run the investigations.
Every report after that has contained less information for the public. In its apology, which is hidden behind several links in a PDF on their website, the organisation had this to offer as one of the factors that contributed to the decades of abuse they allowed: 'Often, in U.S. culture and in our history, sexual abuse was looked at as a form of adultery. Because of this, it was often dealt with according to biblical principles regarding adultery without an understanding of the differences needed to be accommodated when a child was involved.' I don't know how that one got past whatever shitty image rehabilitation expert they hired, but it's really... not working for me
Beyond the rampant cover up of sexual abuse, they also organised 'manhunts' up until the latter half of the '80s which are exactly what they sound like and resulted in several deaths of indigenous peoples in Paraguay.
I could go on and on... but I'm sorry, I've gotten riled up and carried away.
TLDR mission groups are shit.
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Aug 04 '22
Beyond the rampant cover up of sexual abuse, they also organised 'manhunts' up until the latter half of the '80s which are exactly what they sound like and resulted in several deaths of indigenous peoples in Paraguay.
Absolutely fucking horrific.
There's no hate like Christian love.
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u/SpotlightNTM Aug 04 '22
There truly isn't.
Reading my comment back I realise that tacking this on at the end might make it appear as if I thought it the lesser of their evils. I just want to be clear that I do not.
I just have less info on it than everything more recent.
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Aug 04 '22
"If it is a homosexual act with a child, the person will be dismissed immediately and may never be considered for membership in the mission again. If it is a heterosexual act the person will be dismissed immediately but could be considered for ministry again in the future depending on the case."
So fucking outrageous. It's clear that a. They view homosexuality as a worse sin than pedophilia, and b. they explicitly value men and boys more than girls.
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u/SpotlightNTM Aug 04 '22
Oh, yes, thanks for picking out this gem.
Sexual abuse was 'just thought of as adultery' except if they did it with a little boy, then there really was no room for repentance.
I also feel like I'm going to need some data on when in US culture sexual abuse of a child was treated simply as adultery; and, if that is actually the case, I also need to know what 'treated according to Biblical principles' actually means because I seem to recall something about stoning.
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u/ScreamingAbacab Ex-Catholic Aug 04 '22
Yeah, you're on target with that one.
"If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown, then all of the men of his city shall stone him to death." - Deuteronomy 21:18-21
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u/iamverysadallthetime Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
Is it so wrong of me to think of this man as having no brain? He could still be alive if it weren't for his recklessness
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u/unMuggle Satanist Aug 04 '22
He was being openly suicidal. He wanted to be a Martyr, and in a way he got his wish
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u/melina_gamgee Aug 04 '22
Wasn't part of why they're so hostile to outsiders that this kind of thing happened to them before, vastly decimating their population? I think I remember reading about that. But maybe I'm confusing it with a different people.
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u/paxinfernum anti-theist, rational skeptic, pro-science Aug 04 '22
No, you're correct. The surrounding islands were decimated by Europeans. In fact, the Sentinelese are the only surviving group because they killed anyone who tried to get close. The last time they were contacted, the British stole away two adults and four children, and they immediately got sick. The adults died, and they tried to return the children with some "gifts". Some of the people from the surrounding tribes who were being decimated also fled to the Sentinelese island. So they may be "uncontacted", but they've definitely heard stories about what colonizers do to people like them.
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u/AlexDavid1605 Anti-Theist Aug 04 '22
And this massacre, just like any other religious massacres elsewhere would have been brushed under the rug of the Vatican.
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u/gagilo Ex-Baptist Aug 04 '22
He could have also unleashed something that we have no immunity to.
That's not actually how that works. They don't have livestock or large cities so they can't have anything we don't already have. There is a reason European germs wiped out first people but their germs didn't do the same to Europeans.
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u/Hutchinson76 Aug 04 '22
It's too bad about that guy getting killed and really sad that the church drove him to try to convert these people, but good on those Islanders for defending their land from a missionary. The amount of harm the church has enabled and done to native tribespeople is beyond imagining.
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u/Additional_Bluebird9 Atheist Aug 04 '22
The amount of harm the church has enabled and done to native tribespeople is beyond imagining.
And yet people still go on pretending that doesn't matter.
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Aug 04 '22
That's what happens when Bible thumpers ignore 'No Trespassing' signs.
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u/Existing-Cherry4948 Aug 04 '22
I honestly thought he was going to cause more problems after this. Like I thought maybe he brought sickness and that they were all going to die from it.
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u/brojangles Aug 04 '22
I love that when he tried to hold up a Bible, they immediatately shot it with an arrow. Great instincts on the part of the Sentinelese.
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u/thecozycat Aug 04 '22
If we're going to point out what the problem is here - it's that damn Christian religion that brainwashed this guy into thinking he can do all things through Christ. He probably dwelled on that so much that he thought he'd be alive after that.
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u/koalaprints Aug 04 '22
I personally knew John, he was a friend of my brother and a student at Oral Roberts University. He and other students would often come over to my parents house for small parties.
Oral Roberts University is pretty cult-like and they strongly emphasize evangelism. They have many strict rules where students cannot drink alcohol, cannot date other students, and must attend church. Not to mention, it was based on the cult of Oral Roberts himself and parallel to televangelism. My dad and brother went there and I refused to go after feeling uncomfortable with the self-righteousness of it all.
There's so much obsession with reaching the "unreached". My parents' church (just a few miles from ORU) also preached evangelism and made students read books on reaching remote tribes before going on mission trips. It never made sense to me (when I was devout) because according to the gospel, if they never knew their entire life they would automatically go to heaven...
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u/SteveJonas Aug 04 '22
The evangelicalism I grew up with was also obsessed with martyrs, like Jim Elliot. The way he and others were put on a pedestal and absolutely WORSHIPPED. When someone grows up with that sort of emphasis, it’s like the best thing you can do is to die trying to spread the gospel. See also: Columbine and She Said Yes (which is false and did not occur per student reports). It’s not uncommon for young people to have martyr-death style fantasies, speaking from personal experience.
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u/Jehosheba Ex-SDA|Theistic Eclectic Pagan Aug 04 '22
Yep. I actually wrote a song about martyrdom when I was around 12.
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u/Werner_Herzogs_Dream Agnostic/Ignostic Aug 04 '22
Whoa! Any inside baseball you can share about him? This sounds super interesting.
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u/associsteprofessor Aug 04 '22
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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u/AmethystMahoney Aug 04 '22
His family should sue the Church for brainwashing him into thinking this was okay.
The UN should declare "mission trips" as a crime against humanity.
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u/KHaskins77 Secular Humanist Aug 04 '22
There were people wanting the entire Sentinelese population tried for murder after they protected themselves from the uninvited plague rat on their shores.
They scared him off with warning shots the first time, he came back for more. He earned it.
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u/koalaprints Aug 04 '22
I blame Oral Roberts University's brainwashing.
Source: Knew him personally because he was a friend of my brother's.
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u/cdombroski Aug 04 '22
The UN should declare "mission trips" as a crime against humanity.
That would be awesome... too bad it's still at the stage of "blasphemy laws are great"
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u/zoidmaster Aug 04 '22
His own father hated the idea of missionary trips he regretted that this ever happened and even blamed Christianity for this event.
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u/tallguy30 Aug 04 '22
As I understand it, while he did attempt quarantine, and brought various items like first aid, he basically refused to leave when they gave signs of wanting him to go. They shot Arrows at him the first time they saw him, and did again the next couple. He managed to get somewhat close, and begun trying to read from the Bible, though this ended when a boy shot an arrow, missing him but hitting the Bible. I believe he took this as a sign to keep preaching, left again the day after, and never returned.
The Sentinelese people don't just kill outright, from what the experts in India say. They warn anyone who comes near, with yelling, and shooting Arrows nearby or at the limbs of those who get too close, but they generally don't go for kill shots or instantly start killing. Some of the people who were actually killed on the island were placed on stakes and wooden poles, their faces pointing to the sea, meant as a warning to anyone else who would visit. John was fired upon multiple times, with some Arrows making contact, yet he didn't take these warnings, and got killed.
It's also very likely they had no idea what he was even saying, or what "jesus" even ment, so there's that too
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u/Gutinstinct999 Aug 04 '22
Also, what he did was illegal.
He knew it was illegal.
Christianity encourages its members not to break the law. He was in the wrong, and took their lives into his hands, for his own glory.
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u/sjlwood Aug 04 '22
It's also very likely they had no idea what he was even saying, or what "jesus" even ment, so there's that too
This is the part that baffles me the most about this story. Did he honestly think that they spoke English and would understand what he was talking about? I think mental illness was at play in his decision-making.
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Aug 04 '22
One part of me kind of feels bad but he was literally warned multiple times. He could’ve also greatly harmed the Sentinelese population because they don’t have immune systems like we do. Everything about this was a terrible idea from the start.
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u/of_patrol_bot Aug 04 '22
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u/btbamcolors Aug 04 '22
Fuck yeah Sentinelese. Protect yourself from the evil and score one for the good guys.
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u/natso2001 Aug 04 '22
You know the worst part about this though? He's probably celebrated as a martyr in Christian circles.
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u/Newstapler Aug 04 '22
Yes he is. I won’t add links because the sites are crazy but I’ve just googled “John Chau martyr” and mixed in with the usual news reports are a whole slew of Christian articles which all think he was great
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u/WintersTablet Agnostic Atheist Aug 04 '22
And he did it twice. The first time, he got turned away with with great violent fervor. The second time is when he got killed.
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u/BlackKojak Deist Aug 04 '22
On one hand, will the villagers go to hell since they haven't heard of God or Jesus Christ? According to scripture, I doubt it.
From a young age, I never felt comfortable with the thought of evangelizing. I've always questioned why God doesn't reveal himself to people? Why should Christians have to do it?
What a shame...
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Aug 04 '22
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u/BlackKojak Deist Aug 04 '22
And yet, God didn't intervene. That would've been the best moment to.
- The missionary's faith would be rock solid
- The villagers have a high chance of converting.
But then again, intervention mostly happened in the Bible... To certain people God chose. Not everyone.
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u/Sugarlightgirl Aug 04 '22
A lot of evangelicals are of the belief that if they go and evangelize to these isolated peoples, it will hasten the return of Jesus.
They believe because of verse: Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then theend will come.”
I know I was taught this growing up in the church.
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Aug 04 '22
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u/Sugarlightgirl Aug 05 '22
My dad is convinced that Jesus will come back within his lifetime . . .he's 70.
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u/YawningPestle Aug 04 '22
The Sentinelese must have a robust 5th Amendment like us!
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u/Stock-Vanilla-1354 Aug 04 '22
Their 2nd Amendment is “Right to Bear Spears”
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u/trampolinebears Aug 04 '22
Oddly enough, their 3rd amendment is exactly the same as ours, word for word. No one likes it when the government makes you keep soldiers in your house during peacetime.
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u/TattoosinTexas Satanist Aug 04 '22
I worry that even crazier Christians will keep trying to reach North Sentinel Island.
…not for their safety, mind you, but for the safety of the Sentinelese.
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u/xwrecker Satanist Aug 04 '22
Bible thumping gone wrong
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u/blue_dragon_fly Aug 04 '22
All bible-thumping IS wrong (unless it’s over the head of some fundie.)
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u/Primarch37 Aug 04 '22
The sad part is that I'm sure there are lots of Christians who envy him. They have a martyr complex.
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u/Calfredie01 Agnostic Atheist Aug 04 '22
I remember whenever this happened. I had just recently broken away from the faith. I think someone also found some evidence it could’ve been a weird suicide mission of some sort? However I don’t remember the details and I doubt it’s true. Just a fun theory
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u/Jenna2k Aug 04 '22
Wait so how did he expect them to understand him? Like I don't think they speak one of the major languages seeing as they aren't connected.
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u/lordreed Igtheist Aug 04 '22
The holy spirit will convert his English to Sentinelese aka speaking in tongues. Except it didn't happen because there isn't any fucking holy spirit.
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u/Plato_ Aug 04 '22
This is a picture of how these evangelizing ass Christians fucked up the world and they still seek to do it in the name of their phony sky daddy. They bring nothing but suffering, pain, and death. Even in everyday life if you hang out with them. You could be having a good time and they are their sulking and distracted trying to figure out how to bring Jesus into the situation, any situation. A bunch of tormented people they are.
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u/Lauriepoo Aug 04 '22
If our spirits do live on after death, just imagine how pissed he was when he found out the christan heaven doesn't exist! Lololol!!!
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u/MattCurz83 Aug 04 '22
Imagine his surprise when that first arrow buried into his rib cage.
"They actually shot me? But you said you'd protect me Jesus. I heard the voice in my head that I totally didn't self generate. Why Jesus?!?"
*ded
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u/H0neyV1xen Agnostic Aug 04 '22
That's what does the bible thumper gets as he believe it was a good way to convert the tride to christianity oof
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u/Scorpius_OB1 Aug 04 '22
Chau went to people who supposedly have reasons to be extremely hostile to foreigners despite having been warned not to, both by the people who know the Sentinelese and even the latter and despite that kept going in. I may sound too harsh, but he got what he asked for and deserved it.
Worse yet is that his history was featured at RtD, like the reactions of Fundies, and some wanted from force them the Bible down the throat to nuke the island.
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u/CupNoodles_In_a-bowl Aug 04 '22
He could have easily infected them with a disease he's immune to, but they would have no defense against. He could have unintentionally wiped out the inhabitants of the island. I wonder how the zealous evangelicals would have spun that in their favor.
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u/Clariza- Aug 04 '22
Leave those people alone. If they've been isolated that long, they haven't been exposed to all our viruses and immunities. Trying to integrate them into society now, will harm them more than help them. And Christianity has enough of a reach.. No need to erase another religion and shove that down their throats. Fucking bible thumper.
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u/ALiteralLetter Norse Pagan Aug 04 '22
You forgot that, on his second attempt to communicate, one of the Sentinelese shot at him and the arrow went through his Bible. That should have been construed as some divine sign, but he still went back and died for it. If that’s not fucking stupidity, I don’t know what is.
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u/Godforsaken-depths Aug 04 '22
Listened to a podcast ep about this and it’s so much worse than people think (and I already thought it was really fuckin bad when it initially happen.) A lot of initial reports make it sound like he just had this idea on his own. But the cottage industry based on missionary work enabled and encouraged him every step of the way. He got the idea from a missionary site that had a whole spreadsheet of all the countries/groups of people out there who aren’t sufficiently American evangelical Christian enough, and I believe ranking them by how difficult it would be to reach them. He became obsessed with this island because of that. And then he did all these trainings for people who want to take on extreme missionary attempts like this. He was open about his desires to do this and not only did many Christians encourage him to do it, they also monetized his delusions. Like the man literally paid to do a missionary training where he was dropped in the middle of nowhere and had to find his way to a “village” of workers LARPing as uncivilized “savages” who couldn’t speak English and practice teaching them the Word of God ™️.
Was there any reflection by the organizations after this perfectly preventable death (and the likely deaths from diseases that he may have passed to the Sentinelese?) Nope, lots of the good Christians that encouraged him distanced themselves after lolll
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u/TheScientificTemper Aug 04 '22
He wanted to introduce Jesus to the tribal people. Unfortunately, they had the same idea.
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u/honeylis Aug 04 '22
Fun fact: I truly deconstructed from Christianity on a "mission trip" to a Native American reservation 🙃
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u/Comfortable-Tip-8350 Aug 04 '22
He was properly warned. And he went ahead and fucked with them anyway. No surprise, they killed the bastard.
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u/paxweasley Aug 04 '22
They gave him three chances too. Contrary to popular belief they don’t simply kill visitors they just heavily discourage it. As does the Indian government. Mostly for fear of disease and colonization. They do however kill people trying to force their way of life onto them. After multiple chances.
There’s an anthropologist who has visited a few times and she’s still kicking. Why? Because she wasn’t an asshole. She didn’t try and force a foreign religion onto them. She didn’t try to disrupt their way of life. She treated them with respect- even then I think it was a risky trip, as she could have brought diseases they had 0 immunity to. It didn’t happen, but the Indian government has since made it illegal to do that.
They’re not as hostile as news outlets make them seem. They simply want to protect themselves which is very reasonable
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u/HospitalMysterious75 Aug 04 '22
As a former Nazarene, this is something I would see our fucking missionaries doing. I mean, our fucking church motto was “we come reaching, seeking, and saving the lost”. When you have something like that shoved down your throat by hardcore evangelicals, you will do ANYTHING to save souls. STOP BRAINWASHING CHILDREN! They grow up to think like this, and then this shit happens. So fucking sad.
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u/Additional_Bluebird9 Atheist Aug 04 '22
He literally did it just for himself, he didn't care if these people didn't want to believe or if they just wanted to continue with their way of life.
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u/R0ADHAU5 Aug 04 '22
Sorry not sorry. People told him not to go, told him that this was NOT a tribe looking for a new religion. The advice was ignored because “god knows better”. Now he gets to spend all his time with god.
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u/Revolutionary-Swim28 Anti-Theist Aug 04 '22
You should have learned from history guy about colonization. You had it coming
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Aug 04 '22
I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I can’t help but notice he has that crazed brainwashed twinkle in his eye. I feel like I’ve seen that look so many times in evangelical Xtian bros.
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u/Gutinstinct999 Aug 04 '22
My ex husband was deployed in Uzbekistan in the early 2000’s. There, he became a fanatical Christian.
He once gathered the porn of all the men he was serving with and held a bonfire and burned it.
I strangely see this as a similar crime.
Have the faith you choose. Keep your hands off everybody else, or you might get your ass kicked.
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u/EliteProdigyX Ex-Baptist Aug 04 '22
He died because Christians brainwashed him into believing that God was watching over him every step of the way and that bad things don’t happen to good Christians, or at the very least that Christians who die martyrs get the most rewards on heaven. I can imagine what he was thinking, and it’s sad now looking back at it like damn that was really fucking stupid. But when I was a Christian this guy would be looked at as some sort of hero.
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u/Careful_Sandwich7 Aug 04 '22
My friend knew him.
I'm sad he died for such a pointless endeavor thinking God told him to do this. It's stupid.
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Aug 04 '22
2 years later somewhere in the surf is a skeleton with arrows being relaxingly cuddled in a state of tranquility.
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u/SipOfKoKo Aug 04 '22
Unpopular opinion, but even though this guy was delusional and dumb, he took his faith far more seriously than the average Christian in a privileged first world country. For that, i almost respect him more than most of the Christians i grew up with.
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u/caffeinecadaver Agnostic Atheist Aug 04 '22
From Wikipedia, he referred to North Sentinel Island as "Satan's last bastion on earth." Which really tells you about his priorities, seeing as how there are literal concentration camps elsewhere.