Spiritually speaking... do the gospel spreaders consider R&S...?

Question

more dangerous territory than live Africa? through the history of christianity, the most respected preachers were those who went into savage territories, to find their martyrdom and possibly some new sould for the god.

bonus> would R&S become a more prosperous community if these fierce atheist and g*y converters switched their attention to some real life, terrain work in Africa?

disclaimer> replace the Africa with whatever country in need of building up the schools and hard labour. No offence intented.

ps. for some unknown reason Yamster wanted this to sports>hockey

Answer 1

I'm sure they do, if only for the reason that we're harder to convert, and there's a real chance that they could lose THEIR faith if they're exposed to us for too long. I've seen it happen. My R&S "sister" started out as a Christian when she first started coming here. Now, she's staunchly atheist.

Bonus question answer: R&S might prosper, but Africa would suffer, and they've already got it hard enough. Do we really want more crazy missionaries going over to that AIDS ravaged continent telling uneducated people that contraception is evil? Do we want more dangerous superstitions being spread that causes tragedies like this? -

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/13/a...

Africa deserves a break. Let the Christians stay here and duke it out with us. I don't mind. h**l, it's half the fun of this board!

P.S. - It's always about hockey :P

Answer 2

I was for 23 years in rural Africa

and now for the last 10 in rural Mexico

And have come to realize that the most dangerous places

are civilization

where respect for ones elders ,

politeness for ones fellow man,

have died

And where crime rules the waves.

In the sticks tribal law flourishes ,and one will think twice

about angering a crowd with committing a crime

death very often is the result.

So peace and courtesy ,prevails instead.

the biggest Danger appears to be ,

where the religion is the strongest

Answer 3

There is no logical import behind the silly and trite phrase which all intelligent persons avoid using: "spiritually speaking". There's nothing spiritual about your question or the answer.

And frankly, I don't give a d**n if they fear R&S the same, less or more than Africa.  I couldn't care less about retarded missionaries whose sole purpose is to destroy indigenous cultures and faiths and replace with a culture and faith that is ten times more retarded.

This is easy to prove: examine the faith of the Navajo or Sioux against the retarded ideology of Christianity. There's no comparison. I could be a Sioux or Navajo or Cherokee or a Kahuna Medicine man, but never the effeminate, brain-dead philosophy of Christianity.

Answer 4

The only danger here is that of being reported for no reason at all.  Hardly the same thing as Martyrdom.

Answer 5

I actually find the serious answers challenging and faith building, even those I disagree with.  The ignorant rants and proof-texting by those that are looking for evidence of preconceived ideas do get on my nerves so I tend to ignore them.

Answer 6

Dear all

As a missionary in Africa in Malawi - one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, I can tell you that sharing my faith is far easier here than in the UK or America. People here believe in the supernatural and so we have a common ground before I speak to them.

By day (as well as running a discipleship program) I help with nursery school programs, business development, women's economic empowerment, adult literacy and youth development programs. And when I say I help with this I don't mean from an office but in the field. We don't all just hand out tracts to our co-workers you know...

Regarding the sharing of my faith I believe that God create a diverse world full of the colour of many cultures and tribes. This should be preserved as much as the cultures and tribes want to preserve it after they understand the good news of Christ. Fantastical rituals might be fun for a tourist to watch but if they are not true but a lie then what is the purpose of keeping them? For a view of what I believe the responsibility of a missionary abroad is please see my answer to this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Spiritually I agree with RAPTOR that R&S is more dangerous territory than Africa - far more to make me question and challenge my religious convictions here than in Africa.

However regarding RAPTOR's comment on AIDS/HIV I hope you know that giving people condoms isn't the answer...?

Aside from the fact that they cost money which a person earning less than $1 a day doesn't have, they are not available in villages and getting the bus to the nearest town where they can be purchased generally costs more than they earn in a day anyway. In addition, given the level of education here I will share two wonderful stories that tell us how damaging relying on condoms can be:

1) A mail-out was done by a large charitable organisation to promote the use of condoms. Letters were hand delivered to many village residents and a condom was attached. The letter advocated how using such things as condoms could prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce AIDS/HIV spread. All good until you notice that the condom had been stapled to the letter!

2) Health professionals teaching on how to use condoms noted that many men were complaining that they were ineffective. When they examined why this was the case they found that men thought if the condom was placed on the finger during s*x (using a condom was demonstrated in this way) then they would not get pregnant - wrong again.

So in short, it is not that condoms are wrong, only that they are a poor solution not only morally (after all they don't prevent the harmful cultural practices which include teaching young girls that they need their daily doses of vitamin K which can only be found in sperm...) but also financially and educationally. The best and cheapest solution to slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS is teaching abstinence outside of marriage. That is the ONLY thing that is guaranteed to have a lasting impact on the rapid spread of the disease. That and improved health education and care to prevent transmission to children during pregnancy and breast-feeding and advocating condom use between couples after proper HIV testing.

RAPTOR - sorry for the rant... I'm sure that's not what you were getting at so please don't consider this totally directed at you more at the notion that 'condoms are the answer'. Actually as a missionary here I have met many 'short-term' missionaries with teams from the US who I truly wish hadn't come as I'm sure they do more harm than good... It's just that some of us are truly trying to be an effective change for good in a continent that to many seems beyond help...

I read the article that you linked to - the same happens here. People are quick to believe bad gossip and react in ways that seem brutal. A recent news article told of a funeral in a village for a young boy who had been struck by lightning and died. At the funeral someone pointed to an old woman in the village and yelled "that's her, she's the witch who did this" and the crowd promptly beat her to death there and then. This sort of reaction though (here at least) has not grown because of missionaries here but because of true beliefs in the spiritual and the evil of witches who are not the appointed village representative.

Answer 7

The gospel spreaders who cry persecution when they're asked to keep their Chick tracts off their co-workers desks wouldn't survive two minutes in a mission like that.