ELL: Re: Waiver

[Henry Szymonik]

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Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 08:00:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Henry Szymonik <heszy at jetcity.com>
To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Subject: Re: ELL: Re: Waiver
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>
> I think Matthew has fairly well put his point that evangelism is
> inherently abusive.

But is it inherently abusive?  The Jehovah's Witnesses come to mind with
their going door-to-door trying to spread the word of God.  Intrusive,
yes, but no more so than door-to-door salespeople or phone solicitors.
Forced converstion and forced suppression of native culture is not
inherent to evangelism, and is counter to the Christian values evangelists
claim to uphold.  If all Christians were so abusive and forceful, it would
seem that the world would be all Christian by now.

People also have ignored the non-Christian examples of religious
extremist.  No one commented on my example of the destruction of the
mosque in India by radical Hindus.  What about Saudi Arabia where it is
ILLEGAL to practice any religion other than Wahhabi Islam [remember during
the Gulf war how even our troops were forbidden to carry any
Christian/Jewish symbols or openly conduct any Christian/Jewish
ceremonies].  Look at what the Taliban is doing in Afghanistan.  Forcing
men to grow beards, forbidding woman to go school, and punishing woman who
go unveiled are not policies of a white Jesus.  Even Matthew mentions
"Chinese Baptists" in Thailand.  Speaking of China, look at their recent
violent suppression of that sect [the name escapes me now] or their
efforts to suppress Tibetan Buddhism, by hand-picking their own Panchan
Lama and flooding Tibet with Han Chinese in order to dilute Tibetan
culture and language.

Those in power can be abusive regardless of race.

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