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Why the death of missionary John Allen Chau on an isolated Indian island is so troubling for Christians. Uncategorized Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest [ad_1] Why a Rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue still has hope This congressional candidate who hired a fake rabbi for a sub event certainly annoyed a lot of Jewish voters How Mormon women responded to the Church's request to leave social media for 10 days In January 1956, five young American missionaries decided to make contact with a small tribe of natives of eastern Ecuador, with the aim of converting them to Christianity. Only days after their first direct contact with the group, they were massacred on a secluded beach. The news of missionary death spread quickly in the United States. Life magazine devoted 10 pages to the story of "five pious men who sought to convey the word of God to a fierce tribe of Stone Age savages." The reverence of missionaries went even further in Christian circles, where believers saw men as martyrs killed for their faith. Earlier this month, a 26-year-old Christian missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed on an isolated Indian island in circumstances remarkably similar to those of men in Ecuador. Chau dreamed of converting members of an isolated tribe of North Sentinel Island, renowned for their aggressive resistance to contact with strangers. He tried to prepare to do it, but he did not speak the language. At one point, he wrote to his mother to approach the water of a group of North Sentinelese and "yelled," I call myself John, I t? love and Jesus love you. "Chau was killed, apparently by bows and arrows, the next day on the beach. The reaction of the public to Chau's death was very different from that of the men of Ecuador 60 years ago. Major media outlets have published opinion articles accusing Chau of "cultural imperialism and insane arrogance," for example; On social networks he was described as " asshole ", " failed colonizer " and " American Dickhead ." Many critics pointed out that Chau's expedition was a violation of Indian law, which forbids foreigners from even approaching the island. It was also an epidemiological risk for the North Sentinelese, who have not yet acquired immunity against many common diseases, including influenza. And even if new germs did not hurt North Sentinels, contact with strangers could irreversibly change their lives and their culture. For many, it seemed that Chau was approaching the island with a caricatural Western boaster style . Traveling to a group of "unaffected" people, Chau acted as one of the most important imperatives of evangelical Christianity. – and the most expensive stories. "Evangelical and missionary circles have the impression that one of the most effective things you can do is take the gospel to a group that has never heard it," said author Kathryn Long a forthcoming book on the 1956 mission in Ecuador. For many evangelicals, this is the most dramatic version of the realization of Jesus' Great Commission, in which he told his disciples to "make disciples of all nations." However, even Christians have not welcomed Chau as a well-defined hero of faith. "Not only did Chau's waterfall have no chance of success, but it was also going to cause sickness and death to this tribe," wrote conservative Christian writer Rod Dreher last week. "How could a Christian justify that?" Dreher was among those who said that Chau's death had provoked a regional reaction that could make life more difficult for the minority Christian population in India, not to mention Christian workers and long-serving missionaries. One of the reasons why Chau's story provoked a brutal reaction among Christians and lay observers is that he seemed to be approaching the island with a caricatural Western boastfulness. In his diary, some of whose parts were made public by his family, he wrote about his attempt to make friends with the islanders with scissors and safety pins and singing "Christian songs of worship". "Evangelical missiology has undergone such a change. over the past 50 years on the danger of cultural imperialism, "said Thomas Kidd, a historian of Baylor University, who wrote an article on media reactions to Chau's death. "There is much more sensitivity among the evangelicals than in the time of [the missionaries in Ecuador’s] death. " If Chau had acted as a perverse agent, his mistakes would be easier to dismiss for Christians as an aberration unrelated to traditional missionary work. This is what appeared in the story of his death: he had visited the island on his own, and it was unclear whether he was affiliated with an agency specializing in logistics and logistics. the ethics of intercultural missionary work. However, Chau had actually received training and support from a number of US evangelical mission groups. One of them was All Nations, an interdenominational organization based in Missouri. "John Chau was not reckless," said Pam Arlund, a member of All Nations' international leadership team, by e-mail. "All Nations believes John was ready to contact the North Sentinelese." About two years ago, Chau contacted the Kansas City-based agency with the goal of visiting the island "to share the news." Jesus' love with them, "said Arlund. that he had been working on this project since the age of 18, even going so far as to choose his major at Oral Roberts University (health, exercise science and medicine). sport) taking into account his trip. He spent a summer in language training with another well-established Christian organization, SIL International, to prepare to acquire the North Sentinel language once he arrived there. He also participated in a training program of all nations for potential missionaries and continued his internship online. All nations have had contact with Chau as recently as October 18th. In a recent interview with Christianity Today, another All Nations leader described Chau as "meticulous and meticulous in his preparation" and said he was quarantined for a while. long before approaching the island to try to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Arlund said not all nations had provided specific logistical advice on Chau's mission, but he was well prepared. The apparent fact that Chau did not act impulsively or independently will make his case more troubling for many evangelicals. "There is a delicate act that evangelicals have to face," said Kidd. "To outside observers, they would say of course that it is cultural imperialism, you are imposing your culture. Evangelicals say that we can put aside culture and summarize it to the gospel. An idea that would not have been imagined by the five men of Ecuador who have been the subject of hagiographic books and films since their death, including the drama of 2006 End of the Spear . (In an evangelical college in the late '90s, I lived for two years in a dormitory named in honor of one of the men.) Kathryn Long points out that the dead in Ecuador came at a critical time for the evangelicals as they began to see. themselves as a separate cohort. The influential magazine Christianity Today was founded in 1956. Billy Graham's evangelical "crusade" took Madison Square Garden for 16 weeks in 1957. At that time, the five missionaries "symbolized what the evangelicals wanted to be," said Long. John Allen Chau could become the symbol of the opposite. 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