Dead as dirt: 27-year-old John Allen Chau
This story is not meant to be funny, but it’s really hard for me to imagine anything more ridiculously stupid. From the Times of India:
An American man was killed on an island inhabited by a tribe known to resist outside contact in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. And, his body still lies there.
The American was identified as 27-year-old John Allen Chau, who sources said was a Christian missionary who wanted to convert the Sentinelese tribe that inhabits the island where he was killed.
The Sentinelese are billed as murderous cannibals, and perhaps that’s true. One flat fact is that the Sentinelese don’t venture forth to bother other peoples with their religious ideas.
What a shame that my people don’t learn the simple and beautiful etiquette of this noble tribe.
Chau decided that he needed to bring the gospel of Jesus to the Sentinelese; but, visiting their island is prohibited. Laws were made to be broken! He bribed some poor local fishermen to smuggle him just offshore. The fishermen dropped him off with some scissors and a bottle of Coca-Cola, which he was apparently taking as gifts to the tribe.
The fishermen later saw Chau being attacked with arrows. “He was attacked by arrows but he continued walking,” news agency AFP reported, quoting sources. Local fishermen also saw the Sentinelese tying Chu’s body to a rope and dragged it along the ground.
You don’t fuck around with the Sentinelese
While Chau got himself killed, he also got the fishermen he bribed arrested. They’re facing long prison sentences. The article doesn’t specify just how many lives he ruined, but I’d guess it’s never enough.
The Sentinelese are immune to prosecution, and protected by Indian law.
While hack pseudojournalists at the BBC and NY Times are describing the Sentinelese as savage negroes, who kill for sport, I find it easier to believe that the Sentinelese have made an educated decision to protect their society from the ravages of artificial food, Christianity and feminism.
Who is the real savage, anyway?
Ask yourselves why any society, no matter how supposedly primitive, should let an American visit? America is famous for certain things, and those things include sodomy and divorce courts.
The Sentinelese must suspect that it is not in their long-term interests to have contact with trash like us, and I sympathize.
First off I’d like to know which flavor of Christianity he was going to promote. The evangelical rainbow flag SJW type that isn’t Christianity or the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Second this isn’t the wild west of colonialism anymore. He didn’t go through the proper authorities to get the blessing to go to that island…(probably because the Engidan government would have said no, it’s prohibited and they’ll shoot you with arrows). So he tried the sneaky male way and was met with the demise. Sure he could of had the Engidan government tell him…sure, go ahead, your funeral…but at the very least he would of done it the right way.
There are funny ways people learn the lesson about trying to go around proper authorities because of their feels.
Though travel isn’t prohibited any longer .. it is restricted for a reason.
When I read this over coffee this morning .. I thought .. I beat he’s a Cali kid .. well I was close.
So .. he’s another Left Coast Looney. I blame his shit-lib parents. They probably encouraged his stupidity.
But more importantly .. why do Westerners think it’s their business to invade other sovereign nations and dictate terms of reform .. oh maybe because our (leftists / prog) governments do it all the time.
True .. this young-man got what he deserved.
These tribal human eaters allowed him to live and leave the first time. Of course .. and just like AntiFa .. he didn’t listen to the will of the people.
Sounds like they fired a warning shot and he failed to yield.
Now he’s an .. almost .. white meat snack.
More than what flavor of Christianity, I wonder about his past evangelism work. Any international evangelist who didn’t start with the “lost” among his own people, how much better is he going to do in a completely alien culture?
He’s probably Pentecostal Christian to judge from both his Asian (specifically Korean?) appearance and his naive optimism. I recall a similar story about five ordinary American guys who graduated from college and were convinced by “The Holy Spirit” to be the first evangelists to some South American cannibal tribe. They got eaten, of course, but then the story was popularized in ‘Murica about their “martyrdom” and the story ended with the tribe reportedly converting to Christianity. Maybe it was true but the context of conceited, naval-gazing Baby Boomers thinking America was the world’s Savior soured me on the story even at the time I heard it. Was there really no local evangelism to be done? “Local” meaning the North American Continent? And why would God solicit five white guys instead of fellow Paraguayans or whoever?
A few Baptist types have suggested that I (an obviously geeky math nerd at the time) would make a great missionary to Sub-Saharan Africa. When I pressed them on why they would think that, the reasons were I didn’t have kids and wasn’t credentialed as a pastor. “What else can you possibly do for Jesus?” Which says everything about the American Church.
In any event, the Great Commission has been completed thanks to the Internet. Everybody has heard about Christ except for deliberately ignorant cultures such as this one.
He could have been in Thailand getting his dick sucked. Instead, he was in some malaria-infested jungle looking to meet some primitive tribe.
Seems like the guy wanted to be a martyr or had a death wish or maybe a bit of both. Pretty sure the rest of us are better off without him.
The utter arrogance of this “missionary.” While I’m sure the Sentinelese weren’t protecting their culture from Western divorce courts, the knowledge has probably been passed down that outsiders bring disease and contact with one almost always means serious losses to things like the common flu.
Was there really no local evangelism to be done? .Local. meaning the North American Continent? And why would God solicit five white guys instead of fellow Paraguayans or whoever?
Aw, c’mon now. You know that duh hood and redneck trailer parks on the wrong side of town aren’t exotic enough for unlettered American evangelicals. Then there’s the lack of a language barrier at home* (unless you consider ebonics/jive to be a foreign language), which makes it too difficult find a gullible audience for your fractured theology. Nah, better (and more fun) to take a church-subsidized vacation abroad, even to some hostile shit hole.
(* if you want to “evangelize” to brown-skinned illiterate Spanish speakers, why not just go down to the border in SoCal, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas and greet them as they come crashing through the barriers as a horde?)
John Allen Chau: latest recipient of the Darwin Award.
He (i.e. Arrow to the “John Allen Chau” Head) probably got funding from family and friends to attempt this stupid stunt. Along with emotional / verbal encouragement from family and friends. Someone enabled this fool.
Which leads me to this enabled tool ..
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/beauty-queen-is-stripped-of-her-crown-after-pageant-organizers-find-out-she.s-a-divorced-mom/ar-BBNQU2y?ocid=ientp&ocid=HPCDHP
She gave false information to further her cause of male oppression. This has been her cause all along ..
I’m sure she has a gofundme ™ account .. I’ll not bother searching for it .. because I’m sure it’s full of simp money. Like our governments haven’t already fleeced us enough, over single divorced mums, at gun-point.
If we stopped enabling these tools then we would see an end to the graft.
Demand EQUALITY in money for men and wimmimz in shelters (etc) .. and see who complains the loudest. [1]
These bitches want it both ways .. They demand the old ways when it suits’em and they demand the new ways when it suits’em ..
Time for you parents (particularly Dads) treat th girlz like boyz [2] .. we laugh at young men when they do stupid chit and tell’em that’s what you get for doing stupid chit .. time for you DADs to do the same to your daughters .. before they grow up and slut themselves into modern day strong independent victim prostitutes.
You WEAK Dads are screwing up America .. heh!
[1] There’s money in victim-hood .. lots of free money lining the right peoples accounts / pockets .. ALL Non-Profits are money laundering enterprises .. Think about the disparity in Wimminz shelters (etc) money -vs the money spent on the homeless and victimized men around the country / world.
[2] I sure hope you Dads are raising your sons to be MEN .. and raising like girls.
Boxer .. the post in moderation is me .. I didn’t realize I was logged into wordpress.
Someone took my name and my wordpress account name is h0neyc0mb.
Thanks brother.
One of the reasons travel to the island is severely restricted is diseases that are only an annoyance to us are deadly to the Sentilese who have no immunity. Chau didn’t even have to be sick, he could have been carrying an infection which would devastate or even wipe out the entire population.
Guess I.m in the minority here as seeing him as a martyr though he wasn.t Catholic. I wouldn.t sneer at martyrs as that would put me up against God. The proof of Chau.s martyrdom will show in the form of Sentilese conversions (the blood of the martyrs etc) hopefully so maybe we.ll see..
Successful and effective missionaries have cultural knowledge and skills. They go prepared to where God has equipped them to go. They match the place they are going and are suited to their tasks. They have to make effective use of their money, because they don’t have a lot. This often means living in the place for a while.
By contrast those virtual signalling missionaries go wherever their feelings lead. For example, many churches send teenagers on work projects to foreign countries. They spend a lot of money doing so and the work that they do is often shoddy because they are unskilled laborers. In some cases it has to be redone.
Chau is no martyr. He was stupid. He thought he could just break the law, charge into a dangerous situation without any preparation, and everything would just be great. Someone’s church, family, and friends, failed to tell him that God is not a vending machine who will fix stupid.
Well from what I’ve read about martyrs…it usually takes more than one lone ranger to convert a country. And you’ll also need a group of people to bring the Gospel because it takes people bringing the message. Who knows if more people will try to either get Indian government permission or continue to break the Indian law to bring the Gospel to them.
I read recently about the martyrs trying to bring Christianity to Vietnam back in the day. The number martyred was certainly in the 100s.
So Derek, are stupid people precluded from being martyrs? Just fail to see how being stupid and unprepared disqualifies him. He gave his life didn.t he?
All martyrdoms look stupid, maybe that.s the point.
@He-man
All life is sacred and throwing it away is a waste. There is a difference between losing your life by no fault of your own and putting yourself into bad situations with almost no possibility of success. It’s a matter of wisdom, something that is apparently so sorely lacking that it needs to be explained. Being a Christian does not give you license to do whatever you want to do.
Chau very well could have brought disease that wiped out the entire people. This sort of behavior is actually criminal. We don’t make martyrs out of criminals, and we don’t reward those who recklessly endanger the lives of others. The ends do not justify the means. Both the ends and means must be justified.
If Chau was martyred for following Jesus, we could have a different discussion. Did he make any disciples? No, he failed. Did he love them? No, he risked their lives and harmed the smuggler and his family. Did he respect life? No, he carelessly threw his own life away. Did he have wisdom? No, he didn’t do the necessary preparation. Did he witness without sin? No, he broke numerous laws. Was he humble? No, he was arrogant, yelling at them in English and offering them tokens of American culture (a football).
I just prayed to him, Catholic style, asking for a difficult favor from Heaven. If it comes to pass you can be sure will report back to you bros (everyone actually).
Please correct me on how being stupid has anything to do with being a mission work.
Missionaires are needed here in the USofA .. so why didn’t he start here? Does his church not already support mission work? If so why didn’t he follow that official path? If not .. why did he do this in secret (i.e. outside church support)?
If stupid makes you a martyr .. we have a country full of futire martyrs.
Derek and Honeycomb:
How can you be so sure of your position, none of us knew his life or final moments. Bottom line I don.t know that he is and I don.t know that he isn.t a martyr and so I won.t sneer at his death and risk offending God.
And btw my main reason for uncertainty is that he wasn.t Catholic, not his being stupid.
He-Man ..
Brother .. I nor you can put GOD into somethong HE is not in .. and thusly .. we can’t take HIM out of something HE is in.
I appreciate your concern .. but from what I’ve read .. this young man didn’t have any official blessing .. from his local assembly or the local government .. we will soon know more.
One thing that Christians (also Muslims) never seem able to explain: If their God created the world and all that’s in it, why did he create all these godless heathens? It seems that either Christians see their God as too stupid to plan out his creation, so that all mankind would know His greatness, or their God is too weak to convert people like the Sentinelese without human help. In either case, this entails a bigger question… why any of us should worship such a God.
Personally, I find the nature of God easier to swallow if I accept Him as a sort of self-secluding mystery. I’m pretty sure He doesn’t exist, but I am sure that if He does exist, none of us has a clue what his actual qualities (primary or secondary) might be.
In any case, the Sentinelese have never come knocking at my door, pestering me to convert to their faith. They get bonus points from me for that. I’m not inclined to go bother people who want to be left alone, and I suspect that if there is a God, He’s on my side in this debate, just given His own remoteness and refusal to interact with the likes of us.
There are two facets to the answer to this question.
The first is that we are told that we will know Christians by the fruit they produce. We can examine the lives of people and see if they are living according to the right principles. This man did so many things wrong that we can only come to one conclusion.
The second is that perhaps this man did in fact have the leading of Christ. I can’t know, you can’t know. And it doesn’t matter. If he did what he had to do and it will lead to that island eventually turning to Christ (or whatever other grand plan God has), then so be it.
The second point does not change the first point. We are still right to tell people not to do things like that for they are unwise.
Successful and effective missionaries have cultural knowledge and skills. They go prepared to where God has equipped them to go. They match the place they are going and are suited to their tasks.
Exactly, which is why I have to believe that the failure rate among American missionaries abroad is extraordinarily high (I wonder if that tradcuck pollster George Barna keeps stats on this). I can only think of two of them I’ve ever known who were successful, and then only after they spent years in the field (one in Japan, the other in Jordan) gaining native fluency in the local language and a thorough understanding of the local culture, as well as the trust of the souls they sought to lead to Christ.
None of the other American evangelical missionaries I’ve ever met have been anything other than junketing dilettantes. Heck, they not only refused to learn the local languages, they even tried to start “English language clinics” for the locals as a prerequisite to sharing their (ostensible) reason for being there. Needless to say, they were clueless as to why they not only failed to lead a single soul to Christ, but were sometimes angrily chasted out of their field locations.
We are all godless heathens. Whether I am born to a Christian family or on a godless island makes no difference.
Because you are an unbeliever, I can’t, obviously, appeal to religious authority to answer your question. But if there is a god, then objective morality and objective truth are likely. I can thus appeal to intuition and logic to determine that truth.
Atheism can’t be true, for it is logically contradictory and violates our philosophical intuitions (e.g. free will). Agnosticism is even worse. There are a great many scientific, philosophical, sociological, and historical reasons to accept the existence of God. This must be accepted prior to answering your objection, or else what’s the point?
From both religion and intuition we know that there are grades of salvation. Some will just squeak in while others will be richly rewarded, according to his own deeds in life. The sole “unforgivable sin” is the willful, active, unambiguous hostility towards and rejection of God. Beyond that, God will accept all who seek him, whether consciously or unconsciously. This makes logical sense. If God is just, then he must either give everyone a fair shot in this one and only life, allow for reincarnation. or else have some sort of purgatory. The latter two are satisfactory answers to your objection, so I’ll only consider the first. All are logically possible.
You’ve presumed that God needs to convert the Sentinelese. You’ve bought the mistake that the RCC makes, that God must follow whatever method it decides God needs to follow. But intuition tells us that God will give everyone a fair shot, thus:
It’s not necessary to know. We can infer what we need to infer. For example, religion is nearly universal across time and space. It is compelling evidence against atheism and agnosticism. Religion is universal because it is true, because God exists. Each and every person has a spark of the divine inside them. They can intuit right and wrong, the very objective morality that I opened with. They can look at nature and see God’s handiwork, the objective truth of existence, all around them.
No one is required to listen and everyone will be judged according to what they know and do. For the Sentinelese, they have only natural law and their own intuitions to guide them, but this must be enough. For the rest of us, we have a lot more information and will be judged accordingly.
@feeriker
You’ve summarized it perfectly. Successful missionaries have to work: learn the language and culture and earn trust. This takes huge amounts of time and effort. The clueless and lazy are those who think that missionary service is literally just showing up.
My church does mission work in the Dominican Republic. The workers there live there full time and work to teach the natives. Through education they empower them to succeed. Part of this includes a school where they learn English. But unlike your very real example, this is not a prerequisite and has actually empowered them. Word has gotten out and there is a growing demand for the natives to be employed as English interpreters. The work to end poverty has been successful enough to merit expansion into other villages.
Derek ..
I disagree in one aspect (re: free will) of your response.
It is GOD that choses whom He will save and will not save. “Free Will” is a hoax if you believe in a Sovereign God.
The Bible is clear on this point .. your belief is given to you by our Creator.
How mighty a God could one have if you the enemy of God could sway His intentions or promises?
Could you ever trust His promises from the bible if He was not a Sovereign God?
We think we came to know God of our own “free will” .. but that would be our own hubris at work.
Though this is a minor point of your post .. I feel compelled to offer it to you .. I hope you receive it in the manornit was intended.
.. BREAK ..
Oh .. and I know others will ask .. Well then “your GOD sends people to hell” .. NONE OF US deserve Heaven .. none .. we all deserve hell before the gift of salvation provided by God in His Son Jesus Christ .. And GOD is justified if He saves just one. Remember .. you do nothing for this “gift” .. otherwise it wouldn’t be a gift.
I know .. what about Adam and Eve .. what about’em .. God knew his creation would fall from the beginning .. He already had the rem-eye-dee before even Adam set foot on earth. CHRIST is written of throughout the Old Testament for a reason.
Why do you think Jesus and Paul (and the others) quoted it so often.
Our GOD is the same as yesterday and today as tomorrow .. a ROCK .. and if not for His merciful lovekindness of life more abundant thru His Son Jesus .. we’d all be doomed .. I thank GOD every moment for His wisdom in the plan of salvation He created from the beginning of time.
.. BREAK ..
My guess is these remote tribes are like other remote tribes around the world .. PAGAN / ANIMISTS of some sort.
How does anyone think that would go? Scriptures depict what the Apostles went thru with a common language. The WORD of GOD inspires a large number humans to kill you. Even when you have GOD on your side.
This young man was delusional.
Dear Derek:
If you believe in this sort of equivalence, then why do missionary work at all?
1. ‘Atheism’ isn’t a proposition, so of course it can’t be true, but it can’t be false, either. Only propositions can carry truth-values. As a computer scientist who presumes to lecture me on logic, I stand all amazed that you don’t know this basic fact.
2. You’re assuming that your opinion on free will is the settled consensus of all right-thinking people. Robert Audi, Marilyn McCord Adams, Alvin Plantinga, and dozens of other folks (way brighter than either of us) disagree.
The rest of your reply is largely incoherent. It’s so full of contradictions that I honestly can’t understand what point you’re trying to make, if any. Even so, it is noted that you refused to address my main questions.
Best,
Boxer
Dear Honeycomb:
What you’re actually saying is that your God created the Sentinelese simply to roast them in the pits of Hell, for all eternity. Since they are doomed to die unsaved, that’s where they’ll go.
For that matter, your God also created a billion Muslims who are going to the same place.
Basically, your God created billions and billions of people that He knew would fall short. He knew before He created them that he was going to send them into eternal torment.
This doesn’t sound like a God that I’d take seriously, to be honest. Even if He did exist, I’d have a moral problem submitting to him. He sounds evil beyond belief.
Regards,
Boxer
Boxer ..
Who are we to question GOD?
Is it possible that when Christ descends down to Earth that many won’t come to believe?
How many does HE have to save to please the individuals that don’t believe in him?
Belief .. is an amazing thing .. what draws some to understand makes others feel left out.
We know that some were created unto honor and some onto dishonor .. we know that God said .. that He loved one and hated the other.
I don’t know how many are saved .. or will come to be saved .. no one knows.
I just know that some will and some will not receive His gift. Just like the virgins that hadn’t prepared for the bridesgroom. That was 50-50 (i.e. 5 did and 5 did not) .. so .. who knows.
He’s a righteous GOD even if He only saves one .. His world .. His rules .. how can the created demand the creator bend to their will .. that would be a God I would not trust.
I will add .. how can He be evil when He sent His own Son to be sacrificed for our sin debt. That’s mercy if you ask me.
My creator, whoever He is, stuffed my skull full of brain. I assume he expects …….
Why not ponder the real question: Why did HE create people, if he knew he was going to eternally torture those same people? Does this sound like a benevolent character to you?
Suppose Joe Blow started an animal shelter, and he spent all day devising new and terrible ways to torture the strays that fell into his hands. He’d put some of them in an oven, to slow bake. He’d fry paws in oil, and then laugh as the kitten tried to walk. He’d hook some poor dogs up to electrical wires and fry them with electricity.
Would Joe be someone you would respect? Or would you, sensibly, wonder about his mental health, as you were phoning police to get the place shut down.
If you wouldn’t respect Joe, why not? It seems GOD has done exactly this — only worse, since Joe couldn’t keep the animals suffering in horrible agony for eternity. Eventually they would croak. GOD has no such limitations.
FYI: I’d like to believe in GOD, but I have to believe that He has none of the depraved characteristics described to him in the book of Revelations.
Boxer
No matter my answers .. you’ve already made up your mind.
Which is perfectly acceptable.
Because .. frankly .. I can’t defend Joe Blow down by the river in a van torturing animals .. heh.
(1) Squeaking in isn’t ideal: we can do better.
(2) We are commanded to do so.
(3) Making converts should, ideally, improve outcomes in the here and now.
I see we are going to be distracted by the meanings of words again. Indeed, atheism is a proposition, or more accurately a set of various independent propositions. One such proposition is the following: “I know that there is no God.” There are others of various formulations, but those that can be distinguished from agnosticism are logically incoherent. Some are outright self-refuting. If you don’t find them to be such, I’ll just leave you to that.
I’m aware of my presumption. It’s one of the premises of my argument. I’m also aware that others disagree. Makes things more interesting.
It’s not at all clear what you would accept as a valid answer, given your presuppositions. I can only try to argue based on the constraints I’m operating under. Since that failed and you rejected (and/or didn’t understand) my informal argument, I can either try again or give up. But don’t mistake that for refusal to answer your question.
I reread what you wrote and wanted to add a comment. Let’s be clear on what the equivalence is. All men have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. This makes everyone, regardless of life circumstances, “heathen” at one point or another. The answer to why we have heathen at all is because of free will.* If we have free will and there are heathens, then the reason for doing missionary work is pretty obvious. Would you agree?
*If you deny free will, then we can have that discussion instead, but then you can’t really ask why we have heathen, for without free will, it isn’t a meaningful question.
Dear Derek:
This is an extremely poor straw-man, on your part. Linsky and Zalta give one quick counterexample (there are a near infinitude of others).
Click to access simple-qml.pdf
Their work is quite technical, but in simple terms, I can disbelieve in Derek’s God, while allowing for the possibility of a non-concrete, non-abstract god, which has a measure of existence.
No.
If we have free will, and there are heathens, then the following possibilities emerge:
1. Derek’s God is a sadist, who created people merely to torture them, in unimaginable agony, for eternity. As such he’s not worth worshipping. (I’d sooner pray to Satan, as the devil doesn’t stoop to such stuff.)
2. Derek’s God is too weak and impotent to convince heathens to give up their heathenry. As such he’s not worth worshipping.
3. Derek’s God’s qualities are not describable by Derek, and as such, Derek is talking out his ass when telling us what God is and what God wants.
4. Derek’s God simply is a creation of people like Derek, who want to scare their peers into obeying a set of rules which benefit people like Derek (and of course, those people should give Derek their money, too…)
Best,
Boxer
What about the one who took a scourging and crucifixion for our sins? Betrayed by one of his closest confidants for money and denied by his second in charge. Pilate didn’t even have the decently to tell the Jewish leaders off after he know they had no case against Christ.
You make it sound like God never went through torture or the hard stuff us humans have to go through. That’s Jesus in a nutshell.
The fall of man has led to a bunch of bad consequences on Earth. However Christ’s death and resurrection is the solution (not for this life, but the next).
So that was the problem ..
He brought the wrong gifts .. who knew ..
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/27/john-allen-chau-body-india-island-researcher-made-trip-decades-ago/2123942002/
Co-Co-Nuts and iron are the preferred gifts .. not american footballs ..
This researcher is right .. this young man had been given a chance to live .. but he pushed head first into arrows.
Maybe his friend has a ESP(n) ..
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7835035/john-chau-missionary-killed-tribe-may-still-be-alive/
Uh huh .. some friend .. a real friend would be there with him .. coward ….
Hypothetically speaking, if he was alive and managed to eventually convert the people, would this be because of the power of God working through Chau or despite Chau?