Christian Missionaries rouse Sri Lankan Buddhists' wrath

`Unethical' fundamentalist Christian sects, backed by copious American funding, have been targeting the poorer sections of Sri Lankan society

THE OBSERVER , LONDON
Friday, Nov 21, 2003,Page 5

Controversial missionary activities by fundamentalist Christian sects in Sri Lanka have inflamed passions among the predominantly Buddhist population to an extent that could rebound against older, established Christian groups such as the Catholics.

New evangelicals, often flush with American funding and eager to spread the fundamentalist gospel in the island, have been targeting the poorer sections of Sri Lankan society. Jehovah's Witnesses, the Assembly of God, Southern Baptists and several others sects have established churches in remote rural areas that have remained Buddhist through the centuries. They distribute food, clothes and other basic essentials and even cash to the deprived people, encouraging them to attend prayer sessions.

This has antagonized Buddhists, who have launched attacks on some of these churches and preachers. Many have called for a law prohibiting "unethical" religious conversion and demanded that evangelists set up shop in predominantly Christian, rather than Buddhist, areas.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/11/21/2003076678

I don't like missionaries! You believe what you want but leave other cultures alone! You've got plenty of room in the South and Utah to work!

this reminds me of the "free tibet" idiots who think buddhists actually want to be enslaved by capitalism.

Just an FYI. The "Free Tibet" movement does not have anything to do with capitalism. "Free Tibet" refers to freeing the country back to Tibetan rule from the Chinese government who took it by force in the 1950's and hold it by force to this day. Thus why the Dali Lama and the leaders of the Tibetan government live in exile in India rather than their homeland.

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Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Mission Statement
Free Tibet Campaign stands for the Tibetans' right to determine their own future. It campaigns for an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the Tibetans' fundamental human rights to be respected. It is independent of all governments and is funded by its members and supporters.
http://www.freetibet.org/aboutus/freetibet.html

A great book "In Exile From The Land of Snows" John F. Avedon - The first full account of the Dalai Lama and Tibet since the Chinese conquest.

In no matter what form it comes. This is a form of cultural genocide.

Fie! to these religious conquistadors.

Ozymandius

In the bible he clearly states his position. Enter the town offer the message, if they do not want to hear it leave and shake the dust from you sandals, surely God will be kinder to sodom and gomorrah than those cities. Let it forsooth be known my position anent Proselytising i repudiate it no loving person cannot. It's terrible and you dont want to know the things that goes on behind closed dorrs, I have authority to speak on this, they are condescending and view them as savages, i think the buddahists need to take serious action, because Christianity only wins converts due to the catholic invention of hell. By the way i am not a believer in hell. To me in the afterlife you are either closer or further from God. No fires no nothing. The being, the diety however you want to refer to HER.

has nothing to do with Jesus or what he taught. My guess is he'd be pretty surprised by what passes for christianity. I too loathe missionaaries and having grown up in the out posts of an old empire see them as no different from other imperialaists. I am particularly allergic to the ones who make house calls, all squeaky clean and pious to the nth degree. ugh!

A dear friend of mine is a Christian of the stripe that respects all faiths and spiritual paths. She believes that to achieve a state of grace in the afterlife, one does not necessarily have to embrace a carbon copy of her tenets. All one needs is to live honestly within societal mores, respect others' differences and leave them alone if that is what they wish.

to kill, mame and displace indiginous peoples all over the globe.

I have no beef with those who practice their faith or even try to make converts politely and peacefully, but history shows us it is often neither polite nor peaceful. Too often, it has been a ruse to destroy the current value and cultural systems of a people. That hasn't played so well abroad or here at home.

He told the Saxons, "Get baptized and you get to keep your head." Crude, but effective, if all you are looking for is body count.

The Saxons were pagans, who attacked merchants and caravans because that was the pagan way. Charlemagne was attempting to keep his nascent empire under control and tolerated this up to a point.

At the point where he couldn't take it anymore he sent his soldiers to all of the pagan villages and had the village leader's head impaled on a pole and placed in the center of the village.

This effectively ended the attacks and greatly facilitated the conversion to Christianity.

but then when were Christian fundamentalists are involved, its what I would expect. I wonder how they are getting along in Iraq. I understand we are sending missionaries there to convert folk away from ISLAM. That may well have fizzled out by now. Or has it? I agree. Leave the Buddhists alone.

and they are passing out food packets with bible passages on it. I'm just waiting for the major religions to wipe themselves out.

if a bunch of Buddhists went to poor parts of the USA and started handing out food and money to get people to go to their temples? Those Christians would be super mad! That will never happen, but it's kind of funny to think about.

a wrathful Buddhist. I've always thought of them as very peaceful. The fundie sects can get pretty in-your-face and shrill, so they must be especially obnoxious to make Buddhists that angry.

I was thinking the same thing. ;)

The article doesn't make it very clear how cohercive these christian sects are in pushing their religion. What is stressed is the good works these groups are attempting,ie: education, food, clothing, monitary assistance, etc. These are good things, and probably needed.

Whereas these things being offered without strings would be ideal, there is little wrong if they are offered and the choice to learn about the church's teachings is offered along with it. What would be wrong, is if the people being assisted HAD to become Baptists, Catholics, JW's, etc, before any help was given. This would be purely immoral.

If these people did not require the assistance, they would not be seeking it from these groups. Perhaps, before denying them the chance to feed their families at the expense of possibly being exposed to christanity, those who would remove these groups should find alternative methods of feeding and education.

Let's not toss out the baby with the bath water.

Are You The Victim of a Mind Control Cult? Test Yourself.
(Please answer the following questions honestly)

• Do you feel that no matter how hard you try, the ‘good deeds’ you perform for your group are never quite enough? As a result of this do you often feel plagued with feelings of guilt?

• What are you motivated by? Is it genuine love for God and the group etc., or is it fear of not meeting the desired standards.

• Is questioning the group, or the group leaders, discouraged or frowned upon?

• Does the group you belong to believe that it is an elite and exclusive organisation which alone has ‘the truth’ and answers to life’s questions?

• Does the group pour scorn upon, attack, and mock other religions and their teachings?

• Is reading any literature critical of the group discouraged? Many cults will warn members not to read anything critical of the group, especially if written by an ex-member (who are called names by the cult such as “apostate”, “hardened”, or “of the devil” etc.). This is a well known information control technique to stop the member from discovering the clear and documented errors of the cult. Members abilities to think for themselves is effectively disarmed in this way. Instead, they will think more and more as the rest of the group thinks.

• Take a look at the way the group looks and acts. Does everyone dress more or less the same, act the same, and talk the same? One observer, speaking of his particular involvement with a cult, said that the group encouraged its members “to do everything in exactly the same way - to pray the same, to look the same, to talk the same. This in psychology is a classic example of group conformity. Its purpose is to ensure that no-one tries to act differently or become dissident, thus nobody questions the status quo.” (Andrew Hart, Jan. 1999).

• Does the group discourage association with non-members (except, maybe, for the possibility of converting them to the group)?

• Does the group give you ‘black and white answers’? What the group agrees with is right and what the group disagrees with is wrong.

• Does everyone in the group believe exactly the same things (i.e. what the group leaders tell them to believe)? Is there no room for individual belief, or opinion even in minor areas?

• Does the group wear ‘two faces’? On the one hand, does it attempt to present itself, to potential converts and the public at large, as a group of people who are like one large family, who have love among themselves, where everyone is equal? But on the other hand, the reality is, that many members inwardly feel unfulfilled and emotionally exhausted?

• Have you attempted to disable your own critical thinking abilities by ‘shelving’ various doubts about the group or group’s teachings etc.

• Are others in the group, who do not conform to the requirements of the movement’s teaching, treated with suspicion, and treated like second class members?

• Does the group tend to withhold certain information from the potential convert? Are the more unusual doctrines of the group not discussed until an individual is more deeply involved in the movement?

• Do you feel fearful of leaving the group? Many cults use subtle fear tactics to stop members from leaving. For example, the group may imply that those who leave will be attacked by the Devil, have a nasty accident, or at least not prosper because they have left ‘the truth’.

If you answered “yes” to most of the questions above, the group that you are involved with is certainly using manipulative mind control techniques.

Yes, by the definitions of the Godless, many who actually believe in God are cultists or easily deceived.

Of course, we aren't, but that's just our opinion. We choose to believe in God. And if we spread that word to others and they ALSO CHOOSE, that is their choice as well.

,...there is an awful lot of it in this country!!! Who knew? :crazy:

It'll spook the horses.

are very thinly veiled. their services are not without a price.

anyone remember the episode of southpark with starvin marvin? "no, in god's language."

this is the same with "crisis centers." you have to watch anti-choice prop before you get your results. the free clothes, diapers, etc. are given only after you attend bible study classes.

i know more about PCCs than religious charities but does anyone remember the two gals that where arrested in afghanistan for trying to convert people. they new the laws, new the penalties, and still went. they were stupid and i dont feel sorry for them. they were also preying on the horrible situation to convert people.

its religious blackmail. preying on people's situations for your benefit. its disgusting and immoral.

Where every mission has its own little valley community staked out. Catholic communities, nice clapboard wooden homes built in SE Asian fashion (elevated from ground on poles, etc.); Evangelical communities, large brick and stone homes with echoing interiors built on the ground in Western fashion. Similar to the glory days in Nicaragua and Guatemala, where the almost invisible infrastructure of Liberation Theology was contrasted by fenced-in Evangelical housing tracts patrolled by death squads...

They distribute food, clothes and other basic essentials and even cash to the deprived people, encouraging them to attend prayer sessions.

Oh, the horror! Helping the needy! Feeding the hungry!

This has antagonized Buddhists, who have launched attacks on some of these churches and preachers.

Not suprising. Sinhalese Buddhists have displayed some extraordinarily bloodthirsty and non-Buddhist behavior over the past few decades.

Many have called for a law prohibiting "unethical" religious conversion and demanded that evangelists set up shop in predominantly Christian, rather than Buddhist, areas.

Dog, meet manger.

,...to live an impoverished yet spiritual life and have some faux righteousness shoved down your throat along with the food.

Buddhist 70%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%, Muslim 7% (1999)

Wouldn't that be an oxymoron? :shrug:

sarcasm off /

nt

missionaries will have more money to spend to hand out those bibles to infidels who need a handful of rice or some milk for their baby. I am not particularly thrilled to have to support Christian missions that I perceive as ego joyrides for people who do not respect the beliefs of others. I wonder who is getting paid for the printing of all of those bibles they hand out.

he is one I would not like to take anywhere.

are sent overseas for 2 years. They of all people should be the most respectful of people, cultures, the environment... but from the Mormons I know they are some of the most fascist unemotional people I've ever met. So it leads me to believe they are really brainwashed big time in the US Mormon MK-Ultra Program.

are spreading a religion in parts of Asia where proselytization of any kind is foreign.

In these countries (India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, etc.), proselytization is seen as an "insult" to local culture and religion by most natives.

the violence (which I totally abhor)...is a reaction against the aggressive and unfair practices of these missionaries.

Just take a look at this site:

http://www.jesusredeems.com/missionary_right.html

their mission:

"The first and the foremost aim of this ministry is that India should be won for Christ"

..These people (Remember Ross Perot and you people?) are under the bondage of Anemism and are slaves of drinking, adultery and dacoity. Till today more than 30,000 people of this tribe have accepted Christ in a very short period...