The Law And Missionary Work

[Groo the Wanderer]

where did the whole colonization thing come from? This was about preaching the Gospel. One guy said something about disease..I said they could be vaccinated (didn't say forcefully) and suddenly we are invading Brazil to steal their rubber trees....

[Don John of Austria]

[quote name='Groo the Wanderer' timestamp='1304957975' post='2239101']
where did the whole colonization thing come from? This was about preaching the Gospel. One guy said something about disease..I said they could be vaccinated (didn't say forcefully) and suddenly we are invading Brazil to steal their rubber trees....

[/quote]


Yup, aparantly, that how we roll.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Don John of Austria

[CatherineM]

Violating the Prime Directive is a biggie. I'll have to think on that one.

[philothea]

There absolutely is a moral obligation to share the gospel with those tribes, regardless of laws.

How to go about it, I have no idea. Not going to be simple. Surely there are Jesuits who can figure it out.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='philothea' timestamp='1304959567' post='2239136']Surely there are Jesuits who can figure it out.
[/quote]
The trickiest part would be figuring how to drive their Mercedes through the Amazon.

[BigJon16]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1304959684' post='2239138']
The trickiest part would be figuring how to drive their Mercedes through the Amazon.
[/quote]


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[Socrates]

[quote name='Era Might' timestamp='1304953900' post='2239071']
And so it begins. First we go there with the intention of proclaiming the name of Christ. But, of course, it never stops there. After the proclamation of the Gospel comes vaccines. And it won't stop there. Then comes "charity workers" and hospitals. Then we will claim an obligation to "educate" them, so in comes school teachers and schools. Then we will claim the need to connect them with the rest of the "global village," so in comes computers. Meanwhile, we destroy their subsistence culture as we did throughout the rest of Latin America, and replace it with our institutionalized society where there are no problems an institution can't fix.

A missionary should not go into these areas unless he is ready to become one of them (which means renouncing his own culture). A missionary can't proclaim anything unless he first knows how to be silent and listen. If you are there to proclaim the name of Christ, then don't proclaim anything other than Christ. If you are there to be a colonizer and to impose your cultural ideology on others, then at least leave the pure name of Christ out of your bloody enterprise.

Never trust a man with good intentions. Never trust your own good intentions. Before you go around trying to vaccinate people who don't live in the 21st century, remember that there's only one savior of the world. And it ain't you.
[/quote]
Sorry, but fashionable far-left hatred of Western civilization and "imperialism" should never impede obeying Christ's apostolic command to go and make disciples of all nations.

And there's nothing in the teaching of Christ nor of His Church which demands that a missionary of Christ must completely renounce his own culture. That's leftist hooey.
And there's nothing wrong in themselves with vaccines and hospitals.
Obviously, a missionary should make reasonable attempts to respect and accommodate himself and teaching methods to the culture being evangelized, so long as those aspects of the culture do not conflict with the Faith. However, there's no reason to renounce and refuse to spread what is good in one's own culture.

And, yes, contrary to leftist ideals, there is indeed much that is good in traditional Christian Western civilization (I'm speaking of the Judeao-Christian/classical Western civilization, not our current apostate and decadent modern culture.)

The idea that "primitive" or "aboriginal" cultures are intrinsically pure and good, and Western civilization is intrinsically bad, and that people in primitive aboriginal societies must be carefully shielded from any and all outside influence, while fashionable in lefty academic circles, is pure nonsense.

Throughout history, different cultures have met, mingled, and been changed, often for the better.
My own remote ancestors belonged to various pagan Germanic, Celtic, and American Indian tribes, yet I think Classical-Christian civilization has improved and greatly benifitted all of those cultures.

Jungle natives need to be treated as human beings like ourselves, with intelligence and free will, and as Christians, we also need to see them as souls in need of Christ.
They should not be treated like some kind of rare peculiar museum specimens which need to be preserved from all "contamination" from the rest of us.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Socrates

[Lil Red]

i thought the law was more about keeping that genetic tribe/culture pure and not tainted from other influences and that genetic line dying out?

[Socrates]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1304964524' post='2239199']
i thought the law was more about keeping that genetic tribe/culture pure and not tainted from other influences and that genetic line dying out?
[/quote]
The law should concern itself with keeping tribes genetically pure?


[i]Seig heil![/i]

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Socrates' timestamp='1304964922' post='2239202']
The law should concern itself with keeping tribes genetically pure?


[i]Seig heil![/i]
[/quote]
i didn't say it was right. i have read this kind of thinking in the places you'd expect, National Geographic and the like.

[Groo the Wanderer]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1304964524' post='2239199']
i thought the law was more about keeping that genetic tribe/culture pure and not tainted from other influences and that genetic line dying out?
[/quote]


Ah! Government-imposed inbreeding. At least Arkansas does it by choice....










j/k all you Arkansans....











i think......

[4588686]

[quote name='Groo the Wanderer' timestamp='1304952412' post='2239054']
Think eternally, not temporally. Is it better to lose one's soul or one's life? [/quote]


Since you believe that firmly enough to risk a native's life on it, why don't you go bring Christ to the Chechens?

[CatherineM]

I'd be more impressed with those countries being concerned about the natives welfare if they weren't allowing the massive conversion of their forest habitat into grazing land for cows destined for American fast food.

[Groo the Wanderer]

[quote name='Hasan' timestamp='1304966109' post='2239208']
Since you believe that firmly enough to risk a native's life on it, why don't you go bring Christ to the Chechens?
[/quote]


Is that somewhere near Abilene?

[Don John of Austria]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1304959531' post='2239135']
Violating the Prime Directive is a biggie. I'll have to think on that one.
[/quote]

Well I am sure Starfleet will get over it.