‘God, I don’t want to die,’ U.S. missionary wrote before he was killed by remote tribe on Indian island

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Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,147
4,847
136
Chau is a dickhead. Those peoples have no immunity to a lot of diseases he carries, contact from him could kill a lot of them.
Also it's just plain rude to rock up on someones island when you aren't wanted and start preaching at them!
Too bad he couldn't be bothered to read his bible which tells him to respect others and obey their laws.
 
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kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
28,744
40,186
136
Has there been any shock or complaints? Everyone I've spoken to about it and every report I've read has been on the "Jeeze what an idiot" spectrum.


You don't live in the States, do you?

Have you gotten that reaction from evangelicals? I haven't.
 

R0H1T

Platinum Member
Jan 12, 2013
2,582
162
106
In the race toward the future, who wins? The Amish or Amtrak?
If they're on the same track, literally, I won't bet on the Amish.
Has there been any shock or complaints? Everyone I've spoken to about it and every report I've read has been on the "Jeeze what an idiot" spectrum.
Except the International Christian Concern, none of the major (influential) organisations or even news outlets have expressed the kind of outrage we usually see. Some hardcore fundamentalists may have different ideas though, let's hope they put their God given duty in the cold storage for this particular case.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
31,441
9,343
136
You don't live in the States, do you?

Have you gotten that reaction from evangelicals? I haven't.
I live in the UK. I'm sure that we probably have a few evangelicals lurking around but they are rare enough that you don't hear from them.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,244
10,817
136
He had to have known that he could carry pathogens to which they had no immunity that could wipe all of them out. But he did the "Christian" thing anyways?
This is how missionaries have always worked. Spread disease that wipes out half the population, then blame Satan and tell them if they believe in God they'll be saved.

I can't believe in modern society "missionary" is still an acceptable word to use to describe yourself. The amount of genocide done at the hands of missionaries is unreal and they have caused entire populations to vanish.
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
28,744
40,186
136
I live in the UK. I'm sure that we probably have a few evangelicals lurking around but they are rare enough that you don't hear from them.

Well that would be the issue then; you're 'questioning the volume/theme of the concert, from a town some distance away.' Over here evangelicals are numerous culture warriors and victimized snowflakes of the highest order. Quite outspoken regarding the strange resistance some show to their Bronze Age beliefs . I think if you were to visit and hear these fools in person you'd immediately understand it's not just badgers we do differently over here. (Hume thread reference, pic in case you missed it)

hiro-hirorwar-american-badgers-look-like-theyre-about-to-drag-34146378.png
 
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kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
28,744
40,186
136
No lie: I saw an amish dude and his son on an Amtrak train the other day. My world was shattered.

Hey, when thy buggy is in yone shoppe, but you still need to head into Mennonite country to kick some ass, what are you gonna do?
 
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VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
7,017
8,545
136
Too bad he couldn't be bothered to read his bible which tells him to respect others and obey their laws.

I think we was shot in the ass the first time. Perhaps he felt compelled to follow the biblical imperative to turn the other cheek.
 

Mai72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2012
11,562
1,741
126
His friend is saying that he wanted to help the tribes people. Lol, what a delusional fool. Stay away. They don't want your help.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
70,208
28,910
136
Well that would be the issue then; you're 'questioning the volume/theme of the concert, from a town some distance away.' Over here evangelicals are numerous culture warriors and victimized snowflakes of the highest order. Quite outspoken regarding the strange resistance some show to their Bronze Age beliefs . I think if you were to visit and hear these fools in person you'd immediately understand it's not just badgers we do differently over here. (Hume thread reference, pic in case you missed it)

hiro-hirorwar-american-badgers-look-like-theyre-about-to-drag-34146378.png
Meh, Ulster Unionists are like American evangelicals on bath salts.
 

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,264
3,840
136
Hey, when thy buggy is in yone shoppe, but you still need to head into Mennonite country to kick some ass, what are you gonna do?

And remember, if you see an Amish farmer with his arm up a horse's ass...

He's a mechanic.:cool:
 
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Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
34,004
8,040
136
Honestly... we're talking bow and arrow. There are ways to protect yourself from those.
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,436
1,567
126
He was wearing the armor of his god. The armor of Kevlar would have served him better.
Along with a few Armored plates inside the pockets. Wouldn't sharp arrows cut through the Kevlar? Or least light body armor?
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
28,744
40,186
136
And remember, if you see an Amish farmer with his arm up a horse's ass...

My thought was "..it's Monday?"

Heh. In jest of course, I actually have a lot of respect for Amish. They are one of the few religious sects that "walk the talk" IMO, and I've long admired their mastery of carpentry and skill with horses.
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,436
1,567
126
Absolutely, there's no excuse to break the law by going there in the first place.
Zealots quite often engage in risky behaviors that not only endanger themselves but also other people as well.

Did he not understand that he could wiped the tribe out by exposing them to diseases?
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
31,441
9,343
136
Absolutely, there's no excuse to break the law by going there in the first place.
Yeah. I don't really understand what the guy was going to achieve. He didn't speak their language, they didn't speak his, they certainly couldn't read that book of his and they made it plenty clear that they wanted him to fuck the fuck off!
I'd go out on a limb and say that his problem was mental illness rather than religion but I don't know any other American evangelicals to compare him to!
 

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,264
3,840
136
I stand corrected. Send in S.E.A.L. team 6. They'll bring the pain..

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/25/asia...-north-sentinel-island-sentinelese/index.html

Indian authorities struggle to retrieve US missionary feared killed on remote island

Authorities have started the arduous task of trying to retrieve a US missionary feared killed on a remote Indian island, careful not to trigger conflict with the islanders.
John Allen Chau was last seen last week when he traveled to the forbidden North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal to try to convert the island's residents to Christianity. The Sentinelese, as they are known, have a decades-long history of repelling outsiders, a fact that is near certain to make the journey to find Chau a treacherous one.
Indian authorities along with the fishermen who reported seeing Chau's body last week, went near the island on Friday and Saturday in an effort to figure out how to recover the body.
181121184638-03-john-allen-chau-exlarge-169.jpg


John Chau
"We have mapped the area with the help of these fishermen. We have not spotted the body yet but we roughly know the area where he is believed to be buried," said Dependra Pathak, a top police official in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Pathak said the group spotted several tribe members carrying bows and arrows and walking around the area where the fishermen said they saw Chau's body being dragged and buried.
"The mission was done from a distance to avoid any potential conflict with the tribespeople as it's a sensitive zone," he said. "We are discussing with anthropologists and psychologists about the nature of the Sentinelese."
Pathak said there are a lot of things to consider before they enter the island, including the psychology of its residents.
"There are legal requirements as well which we need to keep in mind while carrying out the operation. We are also studying the 2006 case where two local fishermen were killed. The bodies were recovered then," he said.
The Sentinelese: World's most isolated tribe
The Sentinelese have lived in complete isolation on the remote North Sentinel Island for tens of thousands of years. The island, which is part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory, is roughly as large as Manhattan.
India has protected the island for decades to prevent the Sentinelese from contracting modern illnesses and to keep outsiders alive.

People are not allowed to go within five nautical miles of the island by Indian law and the Indian Navy patrols it day and night.
And while its residents have no contact with the outside world, they aren't too far from other civilizations.
The island is only about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Port Blair, the territory's capital known to tourists for its stunning emerald beaches, history and water sports.
At least 15 Sentinelese could be living on the island, according to India's census estimates from 2011.
He returned to his boat twice before vanishing
Traveling on a tourist visa, Chau arrived to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in October with one mission: preach to the Sentinelese.
Indian authorities say Chau was 27, but Mat Staver, founder of a Christian ministry that Chau was involved with as a college student, gave Chau's age as 26.
He had traveled to the remote island years ago and returned knowing that his mission was illegal and risky. Still, he wanted to get to know the islanders' way of life. He hoped to eventually share the gospel and perhaps translate the Bible, said a friend, John Middleton Ramsey.
181125071402-04-john-allen-chau-exlarge-169.jpg


John Allen Chau, right, was in Cape Town days before he traveled to North Sentinel Island.
He asked a local friend, an electronic engineer, to get a boat and also recruit others -- several fishermen and a water sports expert -- who could help him.
He carefully planned his expedition and used a 13-page long journal to write his strategy, the steps he would take to reach the island and, later, some of his memories.
After he paid the fishermen around $350, police said, the group boarded "a wooded boat fitted with motors" and headed to the island on the night of November 15.
They stopped a little less than half a mile away and waited in the dark. At some point in the morning, Chau "used a canoe to reach the shore of the island," Pathak said.
He returned later that day with arrow injuries, police said.


American missionary believed killed by isolated tribe knew the risks, friends say

But that did not discourage him.
He returned to the island the following day. It's unclear what happened but "the (tribespeople) broke his canoe" and he had no other option than to swim back to the boat.
On the third attempt of his mission, he didn't come back.
The fishermen said they later saw the tribespeople dragging his body around but police haven't been able to independently verify Chau's death. Authorities believe he was killed.
All seven locals who facilitated the trip have been arrested.
His diary reveals his last days
In excerpts from his journal, Chau described his time on the island and the challenges he faced. A tribesman shot at him with a bow and arrow, piercing a Bible he was carrying, he wrote in his diary, pages of which were shared by his mother with the Washington Post.
"I hollered, 'My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,'" he wrote. Shortly after, a young member of the tribe shot at him, according to his account.


'You guys might think I'm crazy': Diary of US 'missionary' reveals last days in remote island

In pages left with the fishermen who facilitated his trip to the island, his musings are a clear indication of his desire to convert the tribe.
"Lord, is this island Satan's last stronghold where none have heard or even had the chance to hear your name?" he wrote.
His notes indicate that he knew the trip was illegal, describing how the small fishing vessel transported him to the isolated island under cover of darkness, evading patrols.
Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed
John Chau in a letter to his family​
"God Himself was hiding us from the Coast Guard and many patrols," he wrote.
Before he left the boat for the last time, Chau wrote one final note to his family and gave it to the fishermen.
"You guys might think I'm crazy in all this but I think it's worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people," it said. "God, I don't want to die."
"Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed -- rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever He has called you to and I will see you again when you pass through the veil."
He loved Jesus
Raised in Vancouver, Washington, Chau was first drawn to the outdoors after discovering a rcopy of "Robinson Crusoe" while in elementary school, he said in an article several years ago in The Outbound Collective, a website and app that helps people discover the outdoors.
He and his brother would paint their faces with wild blackberry juice and run around their backyard with bows and spears made from sticks, according to the article.
181121184539-02-john-allen-chau-exlarge-169.jpg


Chau graduated from Oral Roberts University, where he got involved with Covenant Journey, the Christian ministry that takes college students on immersion trips to Israel, according to Staver, who is the group's chairman.
Chau traveled to Israel with Covenant Journey, and to South Africa on missions with a group at Oral Roberts, Staver said.
"John loved people, and he loved Jesus. He was willing to give his life to share Jesus with the people on North Sentinel island," Staver said in a press release. "Ever since high school, John wanted to go to North Sentinel to share Jesus with this indigenous people."
In the Outward Collective article, Chau spoke of his earlier adventures, including hiking Table Mountain in Washington state on Christmas break while in college.
Chau said going back to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was on the top of his adventure to-do list, the article said.
He's not the first one killed on the island
Chau is not the first person to fall victim to the Sentinelese after intruding on their island, which is illegal for outsiders to land on.
In 2006, members of the tribe killed two poachers who had been illegally fishing in the waters surrounding North Sentinel Island after their boat drifted ashore, according to Survival International.
181122161618-sentinelese-tribesman-bow-and-arrow-exlarge-169.jpg


An image of a Sentinelese tribesman aiming a bow and arrow at a helicopter in 2004, following the Indian Ocean tsunami.
In the wake of the ruinous 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, a member of the group was photographed on a beach on the island, firing arrows at a helicopter sent to check on their welfare.
First contact was made by the British in the late 1800s, when, despite their attempts to hide, six individuals from the tribe were captured and taken to the main island of the Andaman Island archipelago. Two captured adults died of illness while the four children were returned -- perhaps also infected with illnesses that the islanders' immune systems were unequipped to deal with.
Anthropological expeditions were made to tribal groups in the island chain in the 1980s and 1990s, and "gift-dropping trips" continued until the mid-90s, but now all contact has ceased.
The Indian government has adopted an "'eyes-on and hands-off' policy to ensure that no poachers enter (North Sentinel Island)," according to India's Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Tribe encounters are usually violent
The Andaman Island tribe is one of the last remaining isolated groups in the world.
Jonathan Mazower of Survival International, which campaigns for the protection of isolated tribes, says there are around 100 such tribes around the world. Most are found in the Amazon rainforest but there are many in New Guinea as well as in forests and islands elsewhere.


Six isolated tribe encounters: The results are usually violent

When contact does occur, it can prove fatal -- tribespeople frequently attack intruders, and can also fall victim to common diseases like the flu, for which they have no immunity. "Often, they are very fearful of outsiders -- with very good reason," Mazower said.
"Sometimes they will have in their collective memory a massacre, a violent incident, or a disease or epidemic -- so very often, there are well-founded reasons for these tribes to not want to have anything to do" with the outside world, Mazower told CNN.
While the Sentinelese are protected by Indian laws which make it illegal to intrude on their island, most uncontacted people do not have the same fortune, their habitats instead being encroached upon by unwelcome outsiders.
"The most important challenge, by far, is to protect their land," Mazower said. "That is the absolute essential. If their lands are protected, which is their right under international law, then there is actually no reason they should not continue to survive and thrive.
 
Nov 25, 2013
32,083
11,718
136
Zealots quite often engage in risky behaviors that not only endanger themselves but also other people as well.

Did he not understand that he could wiped the tribe out by exposing them to diseases?

He quite obviously did not care. In fact, I doubt it ever occurred to him. He was on a 'mission for God' and that's all that mattered.
 

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,347
2,709
136
Well that would be the issue then; you're 'questioning the volume/theme of the concert, from a town some distance away.' Over here evangelicals are numerous culture warriors and victimized snowflakes of the highest order. Quite outspoken regarding the strange resistance some show to their Bronze Age beliefs . I think if you were to visit and hear these fools in person you'd immediately understand it's not just badgers we do differently over here. (Hume thread reference, pic in case you missed it)

hiro-hirorwar-american-badgers-look-like-theyre-about-to-drag-34146378.png
they forgot the honey badger, which is everything the american badger is and more.

I'd like to see an american badger shrug off getting bitten by a black mamba.