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

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

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

A man from Washington state traveled to India to convert an isolated tribe.

By Joanna Slater and Annie Gowen
November 21 at 10:35 PM

NEW DELHI — An American missionary trying to meet and convert one of the most isolated hunter-and-gatherer tribes in the world offered them fish and other small gifts before the tribesmen killed him and buried his body on the beach, journals and emails show.

John Allen Chau, 26, of Vancouver, Wash., an Instagram adventurer who also led missionary trips abroad, traveled to the Andaman Islands — an Indian territory in the Bay of Bengal — this month to make contact with members of the tiny Sentinelese tribe, police said. The tribe, which has remained isolated for centuries, rejects contact with the wider world and reacts with hostility and violence to attempts at interaction by outsiders. The island is off-limits to visitors under Indian law.

Chau’s riveting journal of his last days, shared with The Washington Post by his mother, shows a treacherous journey by dark in a small fishing boat to the area where the small tribe lived in huts. The men — about 5 feet 5 inches tall with yellow paste on their faces, Chau wrote — reacted angrily as he tried to attempt to speak their language and sing “worship songs” to them, he wrote.

“I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,’ ” he wrote in his journal. One of the juveniles shot at him with an arrow, which pierced his waterproof Bible, he wrote.

“You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people,” he wrote in a last note to his family on Nov. 16, shortly before he left the safety of the fishing boat to meet the tribesmen on the island. “God, I don’t want to die,” he wrote

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/11/21/american-believed-dead-after-encounter-with-remote-indian-tribe-hostile-outsiders/

[mr_lebowski]

1. Yep, dude ... you were pretty much crazy ...

Though I admire your tenacity and even your bravery ... it's a fine line as they say ...

Hope it was quick ...

[Major Nikon]

2. Play stupid games, get stupid prizes

[ck4829]

3. This island is their world. It'd be like us finding an alien that was mindlessly saying words in

English and screaming/singing.

Somebody would shoot the alien with a gun, and there's a chance we wouldn't mourn too much over it.

[nocoincidences]

4. If you were not invited and are not wanted.....

Don't Go There.

This isn't exactly one of Life's harder lessons, is it? I'm pretty sure I figured it out in Elementary School.

[MineralMan]

5. And yet, knowing that those people are hostile to outsiders,

and knowing that it was illegal to go there, he went, nonetheless.

His deity did not protect him, which can be taken as some sort of sign of something, I think.

Mr. Chau was not a bright fellow, it seems.

Perhaps the deity or deities worshiped by the people on that island has told them to kill strangers who preach of other deities. Certainly, the deity that Chau worships has done that plenty of times. For evidence, browse through the Old Testament. Killing outsiders seems to be part of many religions. Odd, isn't it?

[comradebillyboy]

6. John Allen Chau wins Darwin Award for his efforts.

[shanny]

7. what an arrogant idiot

[Tribalceltic]

8. seems a fair price to pay

[hlthe2b]

9. I'm sorry he was killed, but as with isolated protected tribes of the Amazon, these missionaries

NEED to leave them alone.

Justifying breaching their protected status and chosen isolation in the name of (ones own) "religion" is not something I will ever condone--not in the past two centuries and certainly not now. He may not have been directly responsible for his own very unfortunate murder, but his arrogance certainly played a role.

He was a true "believer" it appears, so perhaps he will find his "reward" in heaven. His family and friends, however, will only be left to mourn and surely question his actions.

[Pope George Ringo II]

10. These people are not sane.

https://nypost.com/video/rattlesnake-attacks-pastor-who-thought-jesus-would-save-him/?fbclid=IwAR1BHIV3bRftbm9Ihskt_1v0ID2CmaIBaBD8VYJkeSWlsz_pSuyT8ErZsCU&utm_content=buffer9f7dd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[The Genealogist]

11. Sad and unnecesaary

This person behaved stupidly, and had to pay the ultimate price for it. I suppose he piled up a slew of crowns in heaven, or whatever swag it is that today's Christians think they get when they go live on a cloud with Jesus. I'm sure Jesus will love his arrogance and stupidity.

I worked in a doctor's office for a few years, and the worst patients were always the missionaries. My town is headquarters for a kooky Evangelical denomination, so there are lots of missionaries. They would wait until the last minute to get their overseas shots, then ds,and to be seen immediately for them. They'd pitch a fit until they got what they wanted, and acted like assholes to the nurses and the front desk staff the whole time they were there. I've little love for them for this, not to mention their lust to destroy other cultures.

[MineralMan]

12. Sadly, Christians don't get virgins when they die.

Christianity isn't very fond of sex, I guess. I never got the appeal of the whole virgin thing, though. That's for teenagers, it seems to me, rather than adults.

[The Genealogist]

13. Oh, I don't know

Jimmy Swaggart and Jim "Food Buckets" Bakker seemed to enjoy it, almost as much as grifting.

[MineralMan]

14. I think they probably lacked confidence in themselves, and

maybe wanted to ensure that they weren't exposed to STDs. But mainly, they preyed on young, inexperienced girls and women because they didn't know what they should expect. It made those evangelists' shortcomings less obvious, perhaps.

I've never really understood adults who are attracted to adolescents. I mean, I was, but only when they were my peers. Fumbling around was fun when it was all a new thing. Once I was an adult, I couldn't see the attraction.

[qazplm135]

15. And God replied...

then you probably shouldn't have come on to this island...I gave you free will and logic for a reason dummy.

Didn't you get the message when I said you reap what you sow?

[Act_of_Reparation]

16. I see a lot of responses criticizing Chau for his stupidity.

It's hard to lay this entirely at his feet, however. It is clear the man was brainwashed.