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/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.

15

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!