On Jan 16, 1:24*pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:11:25 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:



On Jan 16, 10:34 am, "H :) K" wrote:
Tim wrote:
Burt then again, you're not running a forien coutry, and they have had
missionaries there for years. There's probably more mission run
clinics there in Haiti then any thing supplied by any government
inside, or outside

I'm aware of that, as I have fundie relatives by marriage who have
served stints as missionaries in Central and South America. The primary
goal of fundamentalist missionaries is to spread "the faith," no matter
what else they are doing in those underdeveloped countries. That was the
primary goal of my southern baptist "relatives," one of whom worked as a
nurse at a clinic and the other who worked as a teacher in a little
school. The sickening part was they were working to convert Catholics
into protestants.

Did they help *improve peoples health? Did they teach kids to read?
I think that's a bit better than living in desease and ignorance.

Now I could agree with your conversion thoughts if the missionaries
method of "converting" *was forced. * I really doubt there was any
"forcing" going on. But if you wish to disagree, it's always your
right to be critical.

All too often missionary groups have committed a form of cultural
genocide by suppressing native languages and customs, all in the name
of education and western morality of course. * We were given a first
hand view of this in Alaska last year. * Several different native
Alaskans that we spoke to remembered very well their days as children
in missionary schools, and the memories are not exactly positive to
say the least. *It was apparently common place for the children to be
beaten for any use of their native language or display of native
customs. *Parents were coerced into sending their children to the
schools under various threats. *There are also many reports of this
sort of thing from Hawaii and other south Pacific islands. *The
medical services and educational opportunities always seem to come
with strings attached.

Granted, Wayne, I have heard of that. and IMO that is deplorable. I
have a brother who is a missionary in Panama, and I know of several
missionaries we support not only in south America and Haiti, Papua
New Guinea Africa and India, and I have never heard of that happening
with my churches groups. if it was, it would not be tolorated.

For example. about 20 years ago, some people in our missions groups
had some suspicions with a church supported mission in S. Korea after
hearing pleas that not enough money was coming into the orphanage etc,
attached with a lot of odd requests to take care of some 45 kids and
something just didn't seem right.

Some people went there on a surprise visit and found that the lady
entrusted with the orphanage had embezzled several thousand dollars.
The 15 (not 45 kids as reported) were reasonable well fed, but poorly
clothed.

Legally there wasn't anything to do concerning her theft, but she was
fired on the spot. Then the orphanage was re-evaluated and regrouped
with more trustworthy overseers put into place.

We are fully aware that these things do happen but this is an isolated
case. With modern communications there are ways of observing what goes
on and using better scrutiny than ever.