Wednesday, June 26, 2013

From Khmer440.com
Proselytism in the Provinces

 I've mentioned the issue about the controversy of missionaries in Cambodia in a post before.
In the interest of fairness, I should mention that you can't paint all missionaries with the same brush.  Some Christian groups are in Cambodia primarily to do development work and help the poor, and don't actively proselytise.  (I've met some people from the CRWRC in Cambodia, and they seem like good people, and to the best of my limited knowledge I think they're actually doing good work here.)

However there's no official governing body that determines missionary policy for all denominations, and some denominations are sending missionaries over here that are still hard core bent on transforming Cambodia from a Buddhist nation into a Christian nation.  (See this Youtube video here for a Christian missionary group laying out its vision for Cambodia.)  And it's not appreciated by everyone here.

In fact some of the folks have strong feelings about it--see this post: Missionaries Go Home: From Cambodia
and this website about missionaries in Cambodia: The US God Squad

My own views: I have a couple friends here in Cambodia who are engaged in mission work part time, and occasionally I'll get into debates with them.
I was talking to one of them, and I told him, "Look, I respect that you believe that you're saving souls from eternal damnation.  And I respect that you believe what is in the Gospel of Mark ("he that believeth not shall be damned" 16:16")  And I respect that you don't want these people to be damned, and you don't think it's a good thing that they're going to be damned, you're just operating under the rules of the cosmos as you understand it. 
"But here's what I don't understand: if you believe that the majority of the world's population is destined for an eternal damnation in hell, how can you go out to people and tell them you're preaching the "good news"?  If you believe that all of our Cambodian students are destined for an eternity of hellfire, that's not good news at all.
"I mean, I could understand if you believed in it, but lamented it.  But how can you tell me you're glad Christianity is true?  Shouldn't we be all be hoping it's not true?"

I never did get a good answer from him, but to me the issue stands.  Either you believe that the majority of the world is going to hell, or you believe that Christianity is "good news" but you can't have it both ways.

****************************************
On a completely different note:
The Five Stages of Living in a National Surveillance State

********************************************
And on yet a different note once again: RIP Richard Matheson.
Like a lot of writers, he's someone I've always been meaning to read more of, and never got around to.  But I do remember being struck by how delightfully eery I am Legend was.  It was from the 1950s, but I think it could hold it's own with any of the macabre horror stuff being published today.

No comments: