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American Missionary Killed by Indigenous Tribe


FullOfGravy

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Kind of reminds me of Jim Elliot-- he tried to proselytize to a very remote, violent indigenous tribe in Ecuador who was deemed to be very dangerous t outsiders. He tried to contact them by flying over them in an airplane and using a loudspeaker. He was speared to death when he got on the ground. Like-- these people are so remote that they don't even know how to use money, and suddenly a voice is speaking to them from the sky? They're freaked out, they suspect danger, they're going to defend themselves.

I'm going to say people like Jim Elliot and this guy deserve Darwin awards, but you know they didn't believe in evolution.

Sorry if I' being harsh here, but these people piss me off.

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33 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

He may have been stupid and egotistical but he didn't deserve to die. 

The tribe don't deserve any illness or disease he may have passed to them. Their children don't deserve possibly seeing their future wiped out because of stupid people trying to 'save' them. 

God is looking after them I reckon, by allowing them to live on their island in peace. 

Edited by Gobsmacked
Missed a word
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had he succeeded he would have committed genocide( the destruction of an entire race/community who have existed for thousands of years) in order to introduce people( with whom he had no way to communicate with)  to his imaginary friend.

Given the only sustained contact these tribes had with the outside world involved 6 tribes people being kidnapped, 2 dying and the other 4 being returned and likely spreading  disease which deciminated the population of course they acted to protect themselves.

He endangered an entire tribe and all those who helped him in order to get his jollies as a martyr,  I don't normally get angry or namecall but what a dickhead!

Edited by byzant
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I was wondering which church this moron belonged to. Surely he was proselytising for someone? 

I also wonder if his family knew what he was planning on doing, and if they had encouraged him in this insane and illegal stupidity. 

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23 minutes ago, PopRox said:

I'm going to say people like Jim Elliot and this guy deserve Darwin awards, but you know they didn't believe in evolution.

:clap: :pb_lol: Love this.

This guy was such an idiot. How did he think he’d even tell them about Jesus if they let him? Does he think everyone speaks English?

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8 hours ago, Lisafer said:

I wonder if perhaps some kind of mental illness played into it? It does sound very suicidal.

I don't think suicidal as much as he could have had a martyr complex.

Those tribes, and there are a few of them around the world, need to be left alone.  I had not heard of this tribe before this. I feel sorry for his family but I also think he probably learned his belief system at home.  At the very least, he was idealistic.  But I think he was also probably the type of "Christian" who thinks that they have to save the world. Anybody who thinks differently must be backward and in need of the right kind of teaching.

It is not surprising at all that he died.  I am glad that the fishermen who got him to the island are also facing consequences.

8 hours ago, Pianokeeper said:

He HAD to know he could wipe them out entirely, single-handedly, by his exposing them to germs they've not encountered in 60,000 years. Nobody makes to the Sentinel Islands without at least superficial research. 

What a wretched, wretched, self-serving excuse for a human being.

He may not have cared, or he may not have actually had a clue that he could kill them all.  The "true believer" mindset doesn't necessarily think things through - or believe the things that they should.

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46 minutes ago, HarryPotterFan said:

:clap: :pb_lol: Love this.

This guy was such an idiot. How did he think he’d even tell them about Jesus if they let him? Does he think everyone speaks English?

I wondered about that, too.  Reading his journal or possibly it was the letter to his parents, he called out his name in English and talked to them in English and seemed surprised they didn't understand him. He sounds like such an ignorant, extremely sheltered, fill-in-the-blank-type of stupid.

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He probably thought God would make them magically understand him. 

I really hope those poor people don't get sick. 

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This is why I think he had to have been delusional and suicidal. Even I knew about this remote tribe and how people are not allowed to visit them. Perhaps he was suicidal and had to have wanted to die as some sort of martyr. Anyone who has tried to contact these people has been speared to death which is why it’s illegal to get near them. I don’t know why the Persecution ministry is trying to say this is India’s fault. Still, delusional or egotistical, I can’t help but feel bad for him and his family. I don’t think he made it that far to infect anyone there because it sounds like he was speared as soon as he got to the shore.

I’m certain that he wanted to die like Jim Elliot. He had to have had a delusional fantasy.

Edited by luv2laugh
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1 hour ago, HarryPotterFan said:

This guy was such an idiot. How did he think he’d even tell them about Jesus if they let him? Does he think everyone speaks English?

 

28 minutes ago, Briefly said:

I wondered about that, too.  Reading his journal or possibly it was the letter to his parents, he called out his name in English and talked to them in English and seemed surprised they didn't understand him. He sounds like such an ignorant, extremely sheltered, fill-in-the-blank-type of stupid.

 

Jesus H. Christ.  30 seconds of googling told me that next to nothing is known about the Sentinelese language, except that it's an isolate - not related to any other known language, and because the tribe itself has no outside contact, they won't know anything about outside languages.  Meaning two things:

1) There is absolutely no one who can translate between their language and any other language on earth.

2) You can't even learn a closely related language and hope to get by on cognates and gestures.

He either didn't think to scroll down even a teeny bit on Wikipedia to find this out, or assumed that God would open their hearts and ears and make them magically understand English just so he could preach at them.

Edited by FullOfGravy
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20 minutes ago, anjulibai said:

He probably thought God would make them magically understand him. 

I really hope those poor people don't get sick. 

 

10 minutes ago, FullOfGravy said:

sumed that God would open their hearts and ears and make them magically understand English just so he could preach at them.

Maybe he was hoping for a moment like in Pocahontus where the wind/Disney Magic would make them understand and speak fluent English

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I hate to say this but I hope they charge the heck out of everyone who helped him. They need to make these guys an example so no one tries to help another stupid Christian Saviour from doing this again. 

 

I just hope they dont get anything from his body. Sounds mean, but being the cause of a cultures genocide is much worse.

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21 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

I can’t help but feel bad for him

He engaged in illegal behavior that he had to have known put the entire group at risk of death. It wasn't just his life he was willing to risk, it was also the life and culture of this tribe. Did illegal stuff where he lucked out and didn't commit genocide doesn't earn him any pity in my book.

IMO he did this not because he is suicidal or even because he wanted to die a martyr, but because he truly believed it was worth killing these people by introducing germs if he at least converted one. Risk everything for one soul type thing. And usually missionaries(unless you are John) can convert at least one person. He probably thought that his missionary zeal would protect him like a Daniel in the lion's den. That he could easily decimate the entire tribe was almost certainly not a concern to him. Also not learning the language. Hell, John has been in Zambia for how many years and has never bothered to learn any native languages. It is up to the people to learn English when it comes to these sorts of missionaries. 

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Yeah, reading his journals, he seemed genuinely shocked they fired at him and chased after him. He didn't want to die, he was just so delusional that he believed he'd be protected and would "save" them. 

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I honestly think he had to have been delusional and not capable of rational thought. Crazy people do stupid things and I still feel bad for crazy people but yes, I am more concerned for the well-being of the tribe. I now read that the tribe was seen dragging the body around and I didn’t know he made it that far onto the island. The tribe does not know better and thought he came in to attack and take over. He had to have researched this and the prior attempts or was so delusional that he was determined to die like Jim Elliot. We have to hope that his suicide mission didn’t cause genocide. I don’t think there will be anyway to recover the body and I don’t know how they could safely do that. There just is no way they will be able to.

I can’t understand why he returned to the island after being shot with arrows for bringing a gift. He had to be literally out of his mind and delusional, trying to die. He did a stupid thing and I think he didn’t even realize he was jeopardizing the tribe’s health by bringing pathogens in. He was just “not with it” and wanted to die.

Please don’t misunderstand what I meant. I don’t believe crazy people or any people deserve to die. He needed to be put in jail or a mental hospital, yes but I just don’t like to hear of anybody, even people I hate, die. I am also upset that he basically could kill people in the tribe by bringing over disease. There is no way they can expect to get his body. I will be mad if the family or US make an attempt.

Edited by luv2laugh
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2 hours ago, luv2laugh said:

He may have been stupid and egotistical but he didn't deserve to die. 

Actually he did.

1.He knew the area was off limits.

2. There is a fear that HIS germs will kill the inhabitants

3. The inhabitants shot at him with arrows to keep him away

4. The inhabitants broke his canoe.

What other signs do you need ?

Edited by snarkopolis
their should be there
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35 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

This is why I think he had to have been delusional and suicidal. Even I knew about this remote tribe and how people are not allowed to visit them. Perhaps he was suicidal and had to have wanted to die as some sort of martyr. Anyone who has tried to contact these people has been speared to death which is why it’s illegal to get near them. I don’t know why the Persecution ministry is trying to say this is India’s fault. Still, delusional or egotistical, I can’t help but feel bad for him and his family. I don’t think he made it that far to infect anyone there because it sounds like he was speared as soon as he got to the shore.

I’m certain that he wanted to die like Jim Elliot. He had to have had a delusional fantasy.

Ehhh, not sure about that.  I think he had a delusional fantasy all right, but I doubt it was suicide - more likely, it involved magically being able to communicate with the Sentinelese and converting them all to whichever brand of Christianity he believed in.

It's unfortunate that he was killed, and yes, I do feel badly for his family (although if they do something like insist on an expedition to retrieve his body and/or carry on his mission, I'll reconsider that part).

He doesn't have to have made prolonged contact while alive to bring disease.  Some germs are spread by coughing, talking, or even just breathing near others.  Some can be caught from contact with dead bodies, or from touching someone's clothes.  We have no idea which, if any, of "our" germs the Sentinelese have encountered.  Even if Chau himself wasn't ill, he had no idea what he might have been carrying, or what the people on his flights, in his hotels, or in the streets he walked might have had.  It's not 100% guaranteed that he'd have brought some catastrophic disease, but it was stupid and criminally irresponsible of him to take that risk - especially for someone who claimed he wanted to (in his opinion) benefit these people.

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31 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

I honestly think he had to have been delusional and not capable of rational thought.

He was delusional the way Ted Bundy was delusional. He was also rational enough to lie about his visa, and to try not once but twice to hire locals to take him to a locale he KNEW full well was off-limits to any outsiders, including himself. IOW, like Ted Bundy, he knew exactly what he was doing and he *wanted* to do it. 

There are very few people who "deserve" to die but that doesn't mean that this jerk deserves any sympathy for what happened to him. I just hope that he didn't have any communicable diseases that could spread on that island.

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36 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

He was delusional the way Ted Bundy was delusional. He was also rational enough to lie about his visa, and to try not once but twice to hire locals to take him to a locale he KNEW full well was off-limits to any outsiders, including himself. IOW, like Ted Bundy, he knew exactly what he was doing and he *wanted* to do it. 

There are very few people who "deserve" to die but that doesn't mean that this jerk deserves any sympathy for what happened to him. I just hope that he didn't have any communicable diseases that could spread on that island.

Yes, he was but I didn’t believe in death penalty for Ted Bundy because I don’t support death penalty.

I admit when I am wrong. This past year, I have been sensitive to death and when I heard he died I thought “idiot must have been crazy” but I still couldn’t help feeling sympathetic for him and his family, spending Thanksgiving grieving the death of their son. I admit that I (naively) didn’t even realize at first that he put the tribe at risk for bringing over pathogens that they’re not immune to. I now read how he lied and jumped through illegal hoops to get there.

I am mad and furious that Christian media is painting him out to be a martyr when he committed a crime and unknowingly or not may have committed genocide.

Edited by luv2laugh
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I’m finding it hard to feel any sympathy for this missionary fathead. I have only not nice things to say so I’m just gonna stfu.

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On 11/22/2018 at 12:50 AM, luv2laugh said:

I honestly think he had to have been delusional and not capable of rational thought. Crazy people do stupid things and I still feel bad for crazy people but yes, I am more concerned for the well-being of the tribe. I now read that the tribe was seen dragging the body around and I didn’t know he made it that far onto the island. The tribe does not know better and thought he came in to attack and take over. He had to have researched this and the prior attempts or was so delusional that he was determined to die like Jim Elliot. We have to hope that his suicide mission didn’t cause genocide. I don’t think there will be anyway to recover the body and I don’t know how they could safely do that. There just is no way they will be able to.

I can’t understand why he returned to the island after being shot with arrows for bringing a gift. He had to be literally out of his mind and delusional, trying to die. He did a stupid thing and I think he didn’t even realize he was jeopardizing the tribe’s health by bringing pathogens in. He was just “not with it” and wanted to die.

Please don’t misunderstand what I meant. I don’t believe crazy people or any people deserve to die. He needed to be put in jail or a mental hospital, yes but I just don’t like to hear of anybody, even people I hate, die. I am also upset that he basically could kill people in the tribe by bringing over disease. There is no way they can expect to get his body. I will be mad if the family or US make an attempt.

I find the first underlined statement somewhat condescending.  The tribe did know better and sought to keep themselves safe.  He did go over there to take over and spread his christianity.

Re the second underlined statement...there's a fine line between mental illness and belief in god(I know this isn't a popular view with a lot of people here and, THB, that I'm not absolutely sure where I stand.  But, if god exists I really hate 95% of what he/she/it has done.  I continue to maintain that god is most likely a man-made construct with the goal being to control people).

I've read several articles about this guy's life and death, one of which stated he knew he could be bringing death to the entire tribe if he had contact with them but he felt their need to know god was more important than their lives.  What an arrogant ass.

He also complained that he couldn't understand why they were being mean to him as he met them no harm and brought them "nice gifts".  Talk about cultural stupidity...

ETA, luv2laugh, I post this before reading your last post.  Thanks for clarifying your earlier post.

Edited by Jellybean
Added underline to your second point (in italics)
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