Deaf Baptists embrace unreached Deaf peoples

jillio said:
Then why are they engaging in missionary work?

Sharing is diadic. Preaching is not.
Click to expand...
Because all Christians have been called by Christ to go into the world and spread the Gospel.
 
Aleser said:
I specifically mentioned foreign missionaries as the article mentions that these people were in fact going on foreign missions.

Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push - NYTimes.com - not spreading any hate, huh? And there's lots of behavior like this to go around.

Christianity is a plague in African countries. To call it anything else is to insult the religious divisiveness that foreign missionaries spread.

Missionaries ANYWHERE, but ESPECIALLY missionaries which seek to convert poor people, people in 3rd world countries, or people previously unexposed to Christianity, are a plague.

Unreached populations are becoming rarer and rarer every day, because of the threat of religious missionaries seeking to infect their "message" to everyone on earth. Unique social structures, cultures, and lifestyles are being eroded with the words, looks, actions, and enticements of missionaries.

Some of the most vulnerable populations in the world are being destroyed because the first film in their language is a film about the Christian view of Jesus, or because the person giving them medical care is also a Christian.

Mission work, at its core, is so much more disgusting than just "spreading the word of XYZ deity." It is about infecting cultures, imposing standards, and bringing about change so that more people are -like you-. It is bad at its core, if its done door to door in America or in a refugee camp in an African country, if it is done on a sidewalk in NYC or in an orphanage in a South American country.

But it is ESPECIALLY awful when it is specifically targeted to vulnerable populations. It is ESPECIALLY awful when it is targeted to groups considered "unreached" by the mission's religion because of language, poverty, or geography.

To say it is "just about" spreading XYZ religion is to close your eyes and cover your ears and deny that it is a much bigger, much dirtier issue.
Click to expand...

In short, prosthelytizing is a viral meme.
 
KarissaMann05 said:
Well, to be fair, I love my Christian friends, yes. But not to another Christians because they already begin to see me a sort of "evil figure" when I left Christianity because it seems they think I am a Satanist after they asked me if I believe in Satanism. I already got a few notes and PMs from at FB and at dA, they and I made a few small arguments and debates. I also got kicked out of one pro-life group at FB because I am not a Christian anymore and they suddenly think I am a pro-choice when I AM NOT.

I just wish Christians could be just open to anybody and respect their beliefs... but hey, I am not saying Christians are "horrible" people or something (Funny, non-Christians did think I was a "terrible" Christian for not share same views as theirs.). I am sorry to say this... I don't agree what Deaf Baptists do, because they, seemingly, impose their beliefs on non-Christians...

So this post is only my last comment, since this thread is already turned in a hot debate, anyway.
Click to expand...

I was Wiccan at one time and my own mother thought I lied to her when I told her that I had very little interest in Satan.
 
Thought I'd share an interesting tidbit that I read in a book (forgot the name of the book right now, I can find out later when I go home).

A long time ago, missionaries came to villages in Africa. A large number of people in the villages converted to Christianity. The missionaries gave them things that they thought would help the villagers (paper, pencils, clothes and so on). They also noticed that every day, the women must make a long walk to retrieve water from the nearest river. The missionaries decided to give them bikes to get water faster. However, the men did not allow women to ride bikes, so they ride the bikes themselves and retrieved water. The missionaries often commented that they helped equalize the housework between the husband and wife (wives), because now the men are doing the retrieving of the water.

What the missionaries didn't know was that the walk to the water was the only time of the day that the women had away from their husbands. They were able to talk freely to each other and do/say whatever they want. Ever since the bikes were introduced in the village, the women were forced to stay inside their homes or with their families all day doing housework. The women became miserable due to a lack of free social contact with other women.

Not sure if the knowing word of God makes up for it....
 
jillio said:
It is ethnocentrism at it's most disturbing. Does anyone remember Manifest Destiny?
Click to expand...
Yes, I know about Manifest Destiny. It has nothing to do with Christians taking the Gospel to all parts of the world. We want to spread the Gospel, pure and simple. We prefer that national Christians carry on the work within their own countries wherever possible. That's why we have Polish missionaries serving in Poland, Micronesian missionaries serving in Micronesia, German missionaries serving in Germany, Peruvian missionaries in Peru, etc. They are citizens in their own countries, they speak the language, they know the culture, and they have no interest in Manifest Destiny.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Thought I'd share an interesting tidbit that I read in a book (forgot the name of the book right now, I can find out later when I go home).

A long time ago, missionaries came to villages in Africa. A large number of people in the villages converted to Christianity. The missionaries gave them things that they thought would help the villagers (paper, pencils, clothes and so on). They also noticed that every day, the women must make a long walk to retrieve water from the nearest river. The missionaries decided to give them bikes to get water faster. However, the men did not allow women to ride bikes, so they ride the bikes themselves and retrieved water. The missionaries often commented that they helped equalize the housework between the husband and wife (wives), because now the men are doing the retrieving of the water.

What the missionaries didn't know was that the walk to the water was the only time of the day that the women had away from their husbands. They were able to talk freely to each other and do/say whatever they want. Ever since the bikes were introduced in the village, the women were forced to stay inside their homes or with their families all day doing housework. The women became miserable due to a lack of free social contact with other women.

Not sure if the knowing word of God makes up for it....
Click to expand...
When did this happen?

Who were the missionaries?

Once they figured out the problem, what did they do about it? (Apparently someone figured it out since it was written in a book.)
 
Reba said:
In America, most can, yes. I have met Deaf adults who cannot read. Most hearing people can read, too, but not all. So?


Local Christian churches reach out to local Deaf populations. In our church we have interpreters for signing Deaf, and FM systems for hard of hearing. Christians are supposed to witness to people in their local areas AND around the world.
Click to expand...

So, preaching in order for the Deaf to learn about Jesus is not necessary. They are capable of reading the Bible on their own. Preaching is only necessary to promote a specific doctrine.

Some do, most don't. Who says they are supposed to? Where exactly is that requirement and rule written?
 
deafskeptic said:
In short, prosthelytizing is a viral meme.
Click to expand...
Not hardly. :lol:

Salvation is normally a slow, one-on-one process. Sometimes it takes years for even for person in a community to accept Jesus as Savior.

If it were viral, the missionaries' work would be done by now.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Thought I'd share an interesting tidbit that I read in a book (forgot the name of the book right now, I can find out later when I go home).

A long time ago, missionaries came to villages in Africa. A large number of people in the villages converted to Christianity. The missionaries gave them things that they thought would help the villagers (paper, pencils, clothes and so on). They also noticed that every day, the women must make a long walk to retrieve water from the nearest river. The missionaries decided to give them bikes to get water faster. However, the men did not allow women to ride bikes, so they ride the bikes themselves and retrieved water. The missionaries often commented that they helped equalize the housework between the husband and wife (wives), because now the men are doing the retrieving of the water.

What the missionaries didn't know was that the walk to the water was the only time of the day that the women had away from their husbands. They were able to talk freely to each other and do/say whatever they want. Ever since the bikes were introduced in the village, the women were forced to stay inside their homes or with their families all day doing housework. The women became miserable due to a lack of free social contact with other women.

Not sure if the knowing word of God makes up for it....
Click to expand...

I read the same thing in a cultural anthropolgy text. It was used as an illustration on the dangers of ethnocentrism in cultural contact.
 
Reba said:
Yes, I know about Manifest Destiny. It has nothing to do with Christians taking the Gospel to all parts of the world. We want to spread the Gospel, pure and simple. We prefer that national Christians carry on the work within their own countries wherever possible. That's why we have Polish missionaries serving in Poland, Micronesian missionaries serving in Micronesia, German missionaries serving in Germany, Peruvian missionaries in Peru, etc. They are citizens in their own countries, they speak the language, they know the culture, and they have no interest in Manifest Destiny.
Click to expand...

So, you know about Manifest Destiny, and still don't see a problem with uninvited missionaries invading the geographical territories to which they have not been invited not their preaching requested? Interesting.:hmm:
 
Reba said:
Because all Christians have been called by Christ to go into the world and spread the Gospel.
Click to expand...

Really? Leave Bibles in motel rooms like the Gideons then. Don't invade remote areas with so called saving grace of missionary work. Then you allow choice of the individual.
 
Aleser said:
There are very few people left in the world genuinely "unreached" by the idea of Christian ideology.

These people are not trying to "introduce" Christianity to anyone. Missionaries that work in poor countries, especially with vulnerable populations, trade "godly" lessons like intolerance and violence in exchange for the provision of food, goods, and companionship.

There's nothing good about what they do.
Click to expand...

That is quite an elaborate ruse (that sneak attack on people of faith).
 
Reba said:
When did this happen?

Who were the missionaries?

Once they figured out the problem, what did they do about it? (Apparently someone figured it out since it was written in a book.)
Click to expand...

I can find out later when I go home. Meanwhile, let me ask you this. Why are you asking those questions? Curiosity? Or if I say something like "They were Methodist missionaries", are you going to say "Oh well, they were Methodist, I am Baptist, I cannot be responsible for what they do. We are careful about what we do."

Or if I say "They didn't do anything about it. They just left it as it is. They just went home after they spent several months there. The book was written by someone else outside of the missionary and interviewed both the villagers and the missionaries." What would you say? That the person who found out still didn't do anything and wrote a book about it? That at least the missionaries tried to spread the Gospel and the author just made a profit out of it?

I wouldn't know how those questions do anything about how the well intended missionaries inadvertently changed their way of life for the worse (in one aspect at least). The damage is done. What are they going to do about it? Take away the bikes? Force them to have a "woman's only" time?
 
Aleser said:
I specifically mentioned foreign missionaries as the article mentions that these people were in fact going on foreign missions.

Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push - NYTimes.com - not spreading any hate, huh? And there's lots of behavior like this to go around.

Christianity is a plague in African countries. To call it anything else is to insult the religious divisiveness that foreign missionaries spread.

Missionaries ANYWHERE, but ESPECIALLY missionaries which seek to convert poor people, people in 3rd world countries, or people previously unexposed to Christianity, are a plague.

Unreached populations are becoming rarer and rarer every day, because of the threat of religious missionaries seeking to infect their "message" to everyone on earth. Unique social structures, cultures, and lifestyles are being eroded with the words, looks, actions, and enticements of missionaries.

Some of the most vulnerable populations in the world are being destroyed because the first film in their language is a film about the Christian view of Jesus, or because the person giving them medical care is also a Christian.

Mission work, at its core, is so much more disgusting than just "spreading the word of XYZ deity." It is about infecting cultures, imposing standards, and bringing about change so that more people are -like you-. It is bad at its core, if its done door to door in America or in a refugee camp in an African country, if it is done on a sidewalk in NYC or in an orphanage in a South American country.

But it is ESPECIALLY awful when it is specifically targeted to vulnerable populations. It is ESPECIALLY awful when it is targeted to groups considered "unreached" by the mission's religion because of language, poverty, or geography.

To say it is "just about" spreading XYZ religion is to close your eyes and cover your ears and deny that it is a much bigger, much dirtier issue.
Click to expand...

Anti-gay push?

Why does a difference in opinion equate to hatred? Seems like propaganda to me....:roll:
 
jillio said:
I find the whole concept behind this article a bit disturbing. Saving the souls of the Deaf was one of the major justifications for the origins of Oralism.
Click to expand...

Where the hell do you get your disinfo from? Oralism was based on teaching the deaf to SPEAK, not saving their souls .... MY GAWD!!!!
 
Back
Top