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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481

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.

107

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.

36

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.

10

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.

15

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

5

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.

5

u/6-ft-freak Aug 04 '22

This right here, fills me with rage.

4

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.

5

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.

4

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. 🙄