"Tsunami one of the greatest opportunities God has given us"

[Bluebear]

......Most of the religious players, including the Red Cross, the American Jewish World Service, and Lutheran World Relief, have rules against proselytizing.

At the same time, though, evangelical groups active in Asia, including the Southern Baptists' International Mission Board, Gospel for Asia, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance, say the Bible always impels them to create converts to the faith.

"This is one of the greatest opportunities God has given us to share his love with people," said K.P. Yohannan, president of the Texas-based Gospel for Asia. In an interview, Yohannan said his 14,500 "native missionaries" in India, Sri Lanka, and the Andaman Islands are giving survivors Bibles and booklets about "how to find hope in this time through the word of God."

In Krabi, Thailand, a Southern Baptist church had been "praying for a way to make inroads" with a particular ethnic group of fisherman, according to Southern Baptist relief coordinator Pat Julian. Then came the tsunami, "a phenomenal opportunity" to provide ministry and care, Julian told the Baptist Press news service.

In Andhra Pradesh, India, a plan is developing to build "Christian communities" to replace destroyed seashore villages. In a dispatch that the evangelical group Focus on the Family posted on its Family.org Web site, James Rebbavarapu of India Christian Ministries said a team of U.S. engineers had agreed to help design villages of up to 400 homes each, "with a church building in the center of them."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10598841.htm?1c

[punpirate]

1. Why does this strike me as...

... smacking of opportunism? Guess it's just me. :shrug:

[aquart]

2. "Opportunity'?

What complete and utter creeps.

[tridim]

3. Keep your religion to yourselves.. Jerks.

The people don't need a new religion, they need help.

[Bluebear]

18. hey tridim

everything OK re: the puppy vaccine?

[tridim]

26. Thanks for the concern..

I'm still alive! Actually poison control said not to worry about it as only live virus vaccines can be dangerous, and even then only if it's something humans can get. Most dog viruses aren't transmittable to humans.

[Bluebear]

29. Thanks for the update

:)

[wildwww2]

36. I`ll second that motion.

Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[rooboy]

4. Gee, I hope they try that shit in Aceh...

they'll come back in body bags if they do.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Gotta tell 'em about the New World Order

[Seldona]

6. This is why many christians annoy me.

They have absolutely no respect for another person's religion and/or culture. These people are simply ignorant savages to these narcissists.

Going in to help these people with ulterior motives is beyond reprehensible. Who do they think they are?

As an in touch with his past 'native american', I can tell you attitudes like this really make me see red. :mad:

[elshiva]

7. Build schools not churches,

That is the best way to spread your faith by living it out not handing out Bibles. Jesus did not hand out scrolls of the Old Testament, he distributed loaves and fishes to the needing. Stop misrepresenting him as an excuse for imperialism.

[neweurope]

8. All these people have a very fine functioning faith. They don't need

preaching Americans. It's absolutely sickening to call this great human tragedy a "God given opportunity". It's even more disgusting to couple the help that these people need so much with forcing bibles on them.

The best help we all can provide is working with the UN.


-------------------

Remember Fallujah!

Bush to The Hague

[Bluebear]

10. Oh but it's not the "right" faith, you see

"God given opportunity." What a sick, sick, sick premise. This "Texas-based" group is obviously emboldened and think that they have the duty/right to *Crusade* worldwide, calamity or none.

[laheina]

9. These people have the ethics of ambulance chasers. nt

[RadicalMom]

13. God help the victims. May he spare them from the "religious." n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

11. just sick!

The fact that they would view a disaster of that magnitude as a great opportunity is certifiable! They have NO shame, NONE! Imagine the outrage if Muslims sent missionaries to Florida during the hurricanes and proclaimed that is was a "blessing from Allah to lead the infidels away from their greedy religion." There would be all kinds of outrage and calls for more crusades! These people are SICK!

[anarchy1999]

16. Thank you for saying it so well. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

and thank you again.

Where is the outrage? I know where mine is, it is making me crazy, as in delusional and insane. Thank god.

[Bluebear]

28. Thank you. kick.

[Az]

12. Its a very effective means of propogation

A religion survives based on its ability to propogate. Religions which are tribal in nature do not spread very well and depend on the hardiness of the particular tribe it exits in. Some religions spread by claims of higher wisdom. Thus drawing those that are seeking such things. And then there are the aggressive evangelistic religions. They survive by seeking new converts and then holding them and their families in the belief.

Disasters present an opportunity for such aggressive religions. The trama of the event leaves the victims in a vulnerable state in regards to beliefs. Their world typically has been shocked. Their creduality in their beliefs can be shaken at such a time.

It is not so much a matter of deliberate predation on such individuals. Rather it is a case of evolution. The religions that take advantage of such events prosper and overtake those that fail to. If the sects are in competition with one another the more succesful sect will survive while the other whiters.

Thus traditions of charity and aid to those in need become a standard of the more aggressive sects. And this fits in with our own natural sense of community and social connectivity.

[Bluebear]

14. The Southern Baptists are not a 'dying breed'

What is their danger in not propogating at this point in time? Why should a religion "prosper and overtake" others anyhow? And why on earth would they openly thank God for this "gift" of opportunity?

P.S., you wrote "while the other one whiters" ...pun not intended I'm sure!

[Az]

33. Its not a question of should

Think of religions and similar social structures as organic. Not sentient. But alive in a virtual sense. They need to propogate of fade away. Although need is perhaps too strong a word. They propogate of they fade away. Thus through a form of social evolution the stronger tactics for propogation become dominant.

Its not a deliberate salicious tactic. It is merely one that has proven effective therefor the religion that uses it prospers and spreads.

As to the openly thanking God consider the mind set. It creates an opportunity to save people in their mind. If the survivors struggled on without the help of there evangelical charity they may never have found their way to God and would thus suffer for all eternity. A little suffering as a gateway to God is surely in the long term a good thing.

Thats the problem with a belief system that claims that what happens after you die is superior to what happens while you are alive. It inverts the world. The Inquisition was based on the idea that torturing Jews and heretics may seem cruel but it was to save their souls. Thus it was a holy calling.

[anarchy1999]

15. Okay, I promise, please don't ban me. I'm losing it here.

JUST WTF? This can't be happening, please. Someone please tell me this isn't happening.

We are here to help you because you need to accept Jesus? All of this devastation came about because you all had not "believed". I am sick with the pain of this outrageous bullshit.

Someone go look up "Focus on the Family" Dobson and his "unholy alliance" with the Good Reverend Moon.


here is the link to part one:

http://www.rense.com/general20/unholy.htm

[Bluebear]

17. Dobson/Moon and the Dominionists are alive and well

and active in influencing this government.

[Deja Q]

19. Anybody else remember that twit in Iraq who pranced around,

putting up Christmas wreaths everywhere before she was killed by the indigenous people? (who were as much Muslim as she was Christian? Or maybe Xian because of how obtuse and disobservant she was...)

These arrogant Xian snots (they are not Christians, not by any true measure) are only asking for trouble.

And, you know what? If America suffered a huge ecological crisis or two; how would we like it if a gaggle of friendly Muslim or Hindu or whatever clerics showed up with their religious bag of tricks while proposing help? Perspective.

Sorry, true selfless help comes with no price tag. Their phony excuse of a religion they're trying to thrust down everybody else's throats is a pure, unfettered example that they're far less than benevolent.

[matcom]

20. fuckers

want this case of water? read our bible first

:argh:

[Deja Q]

21. Not just read. Obey.

These Xians are a depraved lot...

[blindpig]

22. missionaries are obnoxious and should stay home

I think Oscar Wilde said something like that. Such arrogance! Part and parcel of a hardheaded, simpleminded monotheism.

[Buns_of_Fire]

23. I trust they'll be leaving Fred Phelps at home

They probably feel that God has shared enough love with them for one lifetime, thank you very much. Some food, water, and medicine would be nice, though.

"Opportunities," indeed. Sick.

[Bluebear]

32. .

[rucky]

24. who cares as long as they're there & helping

I'm not. are you?

[Bluebear]

25. That's a little cryptic for me.

You seem to be saying I shouldn't post this topic since I am not over there, but I will tell you if I could be there 'helping' it would be for humanitarian purposes, not because I have some agenda.

[anarchy1999]

27. Who cares? As long as someone is there?

I don't know who you are but you are wrong.

How dare you? and how did you ever last this long at DU?

[Behind the Aegis]

30. I care!

I think it reprehensible that their charity comes with a price! Charity should be about betterment, not making quota! Would you be as understanding if you were in a disaster, mourning the loss of all your possessions, your loved ones, your livelihood and have your helpers say: "Want this food....praise Allah!" Who want a new house? Who is your messiah?!" I bet your attitude would change!

[Bluebear]

31. Thank you. nt

[MikeH]

34. The Survivors of the Tsunami Are Most Fortunate

According to the missionaries, the survivors of the tsunami are very fortunate to have this disaster happen so the missionaries could come and tell them about Christ, so that they may be "saved". If the disaster had not happened, the missionaries would not have come and the people would not be "saved" and would end up going to hell.

However, the people whose lives were lost in the disaster are out of luck, and they will end up going to hell.

So being "saved", or not "saved", for some people, is a matter of being fortunate enough to have some disaster happen, then surviving it, and then having some vulture missionaries come and tell all about the Jesus of THEIR (the missionaries') religion.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. FYI: The Philadelphia Inquirer made a small mistake about the Red Cross

it is not a religious organisation - it just has a symbol that is sometimes interpreted as one.

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_315_,00.html

The British Red Cross has been criticised because it forbids its volunteers putting nativity scenes in its shops at Christmas - it's taht religiously neutral:

We can’t let down people in need by compromising our neutrality. That is why we do not align ourselves with any particular political cause or religious creed anywhere in the world. And that is why we do not sell or display religious items, of any faith, in our shops.

For many of us, Christmas is a holy time – and we respect that. However, as an organisation, the Red Cross cannot be seen to be religious or political because to do so might jeopardise the access we have to people in need.

http://www.redcross.org.uk/news_release.asp?id=39986

[pschoeb]

37. Red Cross is not a religous organization

nt

[opihimoimoi]

38. The old movie RETURN TO PARADISE with Gary Cooper tells

a story of how a Christian missionary came to a Pacific Island Paradise...to fuck it all up.

In the end, the Missionary had lost the Island but in the real world, much of Oceania has been Chrisatianized and we see this everywhere. Sad when taken into the realm of the OVERVIEW