Invisible Children and Kony 2012 - Page 3 - Tree of Souls

auroraglacialis · #31 03-14-2012, 10:33 AM

Of course these missionaries DO help people. They do bring food into places and they build schools and spread clothing. And if the books in these schools then dont mention evolution that is a minor drawback, right? And of course next to the school there will be a church and it would be kind of rude to not go there on Sundays after all these people are doing, right? And then when you know about Jesus, you also think that it is a good idea to help others - with food and faith,... This whole charade is centuries old - People have always been bribed into converting to Christianity. Look at the European culture - the christian missionaries even accepted and incorporated local rituals and gods in the form of the christmas tree, the dates for christmas and easter, the easter symbolism of egg and rabbit instead of lamb, plenty of local saints that have "assignments" like being a "saint of safe travel". But without this adaptation plus bribery they would never have made most of Europe christian. Ok and then there is also the sword in more severe cases like the southern baltic states...

auroraglacialis · #32 03-14-2012, 11:27 AM

XD

txim_asawl · #33 03-14-2012, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Of course these missionaries DO help people. They do bring food into places and they build schools and spread clothing.

You know the saying about one bad apple fouling a whole bunch...? The parents of Sabine Kuegler were employed by a Christian mission, her father Klaus ("Klausu" among the Fayu, since all names there have to end on a vowel) being a linguist, studying the Fayu language and being the first person to do so in detail and her mother Doris, a fully-trained medical nurse... Sabine describes both as linguists and missionaries...

Even though they intruded into Fayu life, especially the Iyarike tribe, by showing Christian values (new-testament style) of love, forgiving and compassion and making them lose their original tribal custom of a vicious circle of blood feuds between tribal groups.

This is just one example, but a prime one, I think, to prove that there are indeed good people on a mission.

Just to cheer up, not all is lost.

Sabine Kuegler | Facebook

Wiggling bare toes, beaming a smile at Aurora - just 'cause,

~*Txim Asawl*~

**Moco Loco** · #34 03-14-2012, 01:43 PM

That could start an entirely new debate about whether or not it's ever morally just to intrude in the lives of people in other cultures because you think your culture's better.

auroraglacialis · #35 03-14-2012, 04:22 PM

Thats a tough one indeed, Moco. A term for that is "cultural relativism". Basically the choice is to leave other cultures alone even if they do things that we regard as horrible - or to intervene in favour of the value we hold dear. The problem of course is when to do what. If women are mistreated in some North African country because the present day culture tells men that they are the bosses and women are their slaves - it certainly feels like we should do something about it, give women the power to stand up, show them how it works in our culture. But of course the missionaries in the 18th century had the same idea when it came to almost the opposite - imposing their highly valued cultural morale on tribal people like "be fruitful and multiply" and some nonsense about subdueing the earth and all that. Christian missionaries are to a large part to blame for the overpopulation of Africa because of their intervention and by teaching the people that birth control is immoral. So it is hard to say - presently I think the values that I hold important are freedom, self-governance, equality, protection of minorities and peacefulness. But who knows - in 100 years people may find this idiotic.