{"id":2643,"date":"2018-12-05T20:09:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T20:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2018-12-05T20:09:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T20:09:49","slug":"americans-death-revives-evangelical-debate-over-extreme-missionary-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/12\/05\/americans-death-revives-evangelical-debate-over-extreme-missionary-work\/","title":{"rendered":"American\u2019s Death Revives Evangelical Debate Over Extreme Missionary Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"css-u5vfum StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-4w7y5l\">\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">The recent killing of an American missionary who tried to contact an isolated tribe on a remote Indian island has revived a debate within the evangelical movement over the extreme lengths that some missionaries are willing to go to in hopes of spreading their faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">In the time leading up to his fatal mission last month, John Allen Chau was surrounded by like-minded people who believed he was on a divine mission, called by God to minister to uncontacted people. The group that trained Mr. Chau for his mission and others have defended his actions and even hailed him as a martyr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">But other evangelicals argue that his push to contact the tribe on North Sentinel island, a group protected by Indian law, was reckless and unjustifiable. Some religious scholars, including evangelicals, are uncomfortable with Mr. Chau\u2019s approach. Scott Moreau, a professor at Wheaton College Graduate School in Illinois, is one of them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cI\u2019m appalled by the na\u00efvet\u00e9 of thinking you go on a beach, you throw a fish at some people, you holler at them, and then you come back and spend the night and everything is going to be fine,\u201d Mr. Moreau said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t show much sensitivity, and it doesn\u2019t show much common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-1m2ozyi\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"story-ad-1-wrapper\" class=\"css-1r07izm\">\n<div id=\"story-ad-1-slug\" class=\"css-l9onyx\">\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Mr. Moreau was referring to Mr. Chau\u2019s account of his interaction with the Sentinelese in\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/int.nyt.com\/data\/documenthelper\/502-chau-journal-entries\/7de864403d564f03e200\/optimized\/full.pdf#page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">notes, recovered after his death, which described\u00a0<\/a>what happened when he approached the island for the first time on Nov. 15. By Nov. 16, he was dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">A central tenet of Christianity is sharing the faith, and churches have adopted varied approaches to evangelizing. Some encourage short-term missions abroad while others focus on recruiting and financially supporting missionaries who embed for years in one community or culture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Mission work can be done around the world or around the block, by handing out tracts and knocking on doors, like the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. For evangelical Christians \u2014 Protestants who emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus, a \u201cborn again\u201d conversion experience and reading the Bible as God\u2019s word \u2014 spreading the Gospel is a way of life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">From a young age, Mr. Chau became fixated on the idea of traveling to faraway lands and sharing his Christian faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">A few weeks ago, he set out for North Sentinel island with the aid of a local fisherman. An initial attempt to approach alone by kayak ended in the islanders\u2019 firing arrows at him, but he returned the next day, determined to make contact. By the following afternoon, the fisherman who returned to pick him up saw the islanders on a beach guarding an area where Mr. Chau\u2019s body was believed to be buried.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Such actions play into a myth of the \u201cmissionary hero,\u201d Mr. Moreau said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cPart of the framing for the broader evangelical world is people have, for as long as history goes back, been willing to die to communicate their faith,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether he did it well is a second question which is critical, and I don\u2019t think he did it well at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">But Mr. Chau\u2019s missionary friends were quick to praise the young man on social media, calling him an inspiration and a martyr for their shared cause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there were an estimated\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gordonconwell.edu\/ockenga\/research\/documents\/StatusofGlobalChristianity2018.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">440,000 Christian missionaries working abroad in 2018<\/a>. And while Mr. Chau\u2019s case is rare, the idea of martyrdom is not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Kathryn Long, an expert in the history of American Christianity and also a professor at Wheaton College, called it the idea of being a \u201crisk-taker for God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">The concept goes back generations, she said, citing Jim Elliot\u2019s account of missionary work in the 20th century. Mr. Elliot, an American, died in 1956 along with four missionaries when they tried to make contact with a tribe in Ecuador.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cThey felt most evangelicals were too complacent in their faith, and they were looking for ways to trust God\u201d that went beyond the normal, Ms. Long said. \u201cBut the problem is: How do you know when you are taking a risk it\u2019s because God is leading you, or because you are crazy?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-u5vfum StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-4w7y5l\">\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Many missionaries are inspired by a passage in the Bible in which Jesus tells his disciples to spread his teachings across the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cI think that the people who come out of this tradition are not just fools or reckless colonialists,\u201d Ms. Long said. \u201cIt\u2019s more complicated than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">The tribe on North Sentinel had shunned attempts at contact in the past, which experts say was in part because\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/22\/world\/asia\/andaman-sentinelese-missionary.html?module=inline\">interactions with outsiders had resulted in violence and disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Pam Arlund, the director of training for All Nations, the missionary group that Mr. Chau trained with, said she had worked with him before his journey to the island. While All Nations did not offer logistical support to get him there, it offered linguistics training and spiritual support, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cWe made it very clear the scope of the help that we could give him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Arlund said she felt that Mr. Chau had the appropriate preparation for his journey through his linguistics, wilderness and emergency first-aid training. She cited his numerous vaccinations and self-imposed quarantine ahead of his trip as a sign that he was considering the concerns of the tribe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cJohn was not reckless or extreme at all, and he had put together a very responsible plan,\u201d she said. \u201cHe had counted the costs and knew that he might lose his life. But he had also put plans in place to protect the North Sentinelese. That\u2019s because he loved them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Some former missionaries say there is a broader problem with recklessness, though.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Corey Pigg, who has a podcast and a blog titled \u201cFailed Missionary,\u201d spent years working for Youth With a Mission, an organization with links to All Nations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-1m2ozyi\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"story-ad-4-wrapper\" class=\"css-1r07izm\">\n<div id=\"story-ad-4-slug\" class=\"css-l9onyx\">\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">Mr. Pigg was based in Germany and regularly conducted short-term missions to China, overseeing a group of young people. He said they often entered the country illegally, and he felt that the group was put at risk by an absence of appropriate oversight and the glorification of those who were persecuted for their faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cThe more martyr-complex tales you can send, the better \u2014 because that drives funding,\u201d he said, adding that part of the draw of China for him was that it was a difficult place to be a missionary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk e2kc3sl0\">\u201cI wanted to go to China because it was closed,\u201d he said, \u201cand I was programmed to think it was very noble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent killing of an American missionary who tried to contact an isolated tribe on a remote Indian island has revived a debate within the evangelical movement over the extreme lengths that some missionaries are willing to go to in hopes of spreading their faith. In the time leading up to his fatal mission last month, John Allen Chau was&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/12\/05\/americans-death-revives-evangelical-debate-over-extreme-missionary-work\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post","tag-ny-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2644,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions\/2644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}