my fundie mom sent me this email about the movie 'End of the Spear'

[mopaul]

This looks like an interesting and good movie!
Subject: Christian Movie
A major film, called End Of The Spear, will be launched January 20. I believe God will use it in a big way. It depicts the effects of the grace of God in very powerful and spectacular ways.

The story begins in 1956, when five Christian missionaries (Jim Elliot was among them) gave their lives in an Ecuadorian jungle, attempting to bring the gospel to the Waodani stone-age people. At that time they were the most violent tribe on Earth -- and yet they became the most loving and peaceful!

The missionaries made friendly contact, but something went terribly wrong. The Waodani speared them to death. A tragedy? Yes, but God turns everything to good, for the blessing of many and for His glory, and this was no exce! ption.

God used this tragedy to motivate more people to become missionaries than any other event in modern history -- perhaps ever. He also used two women to complete the work of the five martyred missionaries, bringing the Waodani to himself. So the deaths of those five men did more to advance the kingdom of God than their lives ever could.

God's ways are so great!

But the story doesn't end there. It seems God is about to use the tragedy that happened 50 years ago to help hundreds of thousands -- maybe millions -- to come to know Christ in our day, using The End Of The Spear. It is a major motion picture (production cost $12 million) that tells the story of God's grace from the perspective of the Waodoni.

Beginning January 20, End Of The Spear will be show! n in theaters across the United States. If it does well it will be accepted by many other theaters, but it must do well right from the start.

This is where you and I come in. We can make the film do well. Our prayers can make it prosper, and also we can do something to answer our own prayers. We can work together to get at least 100,000 people to see the film on January 20th.

How? Very simple. This e-mail is going to hundreds of addresses, many in America. Just about everyone else has American Christian friends. Our connections are endless! So, if each of us were to pass this e-mail on to just 10 others (some can share it with hundreds!), and each of them did the same, our goal of getting 100,000 people to see the film on January 20 would be reached easily -- and likely greatly surpassed! Just forw! ard this e-mail to 10 caring Christian friends.


Making it even easier, great resources are provided. A Google search for "End Of The Spear" will yield several excellent web sites, including www.endofthespear.com.

Then there is a special web site for Christians at http://www.daretomakecontact.com/. It offers lots of helps to help us promote the film and make it a huge success. You'll really get the flavor of the film by watching the trailer.

What a great opportunity to advance the kingdom of God in such an easy, non-offensive and effective way! Please forward this e-mail today.

By the way, the producers of End Of The Spear is Bearing Fruit Communications http://www.bearingfruit.org/About/. They have more plans in the works to advance the gospel through similar means. Find them on their web site.

First, let's make End Of The Spear a great success!

Thank you for your prayers and participation


--------i also saw several t.v. evangelists hawking this film as the second coming---

those awful stone age people were so violent! like christ's followers never were.

[Greyhound]

1. Sorry, I'm dense this morning, what's the point? n/t

[mopaul]

3. gosh, i guess there ain't one

[flyingfysh]

4. I'll avoid the bad joke here

about the point being at the end of the spear.

[EwokMyWeewok]

2. So?

Its a movie about preaching the gospel to natives. Been going on for a while now. Sometimes the word doesn't take off the bat, sometimes it takes after a while. You throw around *fundie* like its always a bad word. If the natives put together a movie called "behind the spear" then good for them.

[flyingfysh]

10. missionaries are destroying traces of ancient cultures

By visiting isolated tribes and getting them to abandon their traditional ways and religions, they are making it much harder for future scientists to visit the area to study traces of ancient Indian civilizations.

[mopaul]

11. ask the apaches

well meaning christians convereted them and wiped them out

[formernaderite]

43. You sound like your talking about a species that might become extinct

kind of creepy....Look I may not agree with missionaries, but these people arent' animals. We as westerners have no right to judge or decide that they'd be better off left alone. Human civilization has been one of contact, by isolating "certain" people, you are demeaning their merits. They may have much to share and teach. We may also have techniques to make their life easier...that is human history.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. You should mention that one of the leads, Chad Allen, is openly gay

D'oh!

[LostinVA]

9. You beat me by about two seconds!

[IndyOp]

6. People will die, but God's will is being done...

Or so says the unelected pResident of the US. They are death-eaters. :puke:

I am not against going to uncharted territory and 'helping' people who have asked for help, but how about "At the End of a Loaf of Bread" - now that is a movie I might go see. Feed people. It works like nothing else to open hearts and minds.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

19. Your phrase "death-eaters"

reminded me of the Mexica Goddess Tlazolteotl, or "Filth-Eater." It was she to whom the Mexica confessed their transgressions. She was a beloved goddess, also presiding over childbirth.

Sorry for the stream-of-conciousness, but couldn't resist sharing. Here she is:



Of course, "Christian" put her followers to "The Tip of the Spear"

[texastoast]

46. A little more current

Death eaters are the suckups and "evil dewers" for Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter. George Bush is a death eater for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney because he is too stupid for it to be the other way around.

[LostinVA]

7. The best thing is that Chad Allen is in it

Remember, he was fired from "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," when a tabloid outed him. It makes me giggle to think the Fundies will love this movie.... (actually, it sounds like an interesting story).

[Ian David]

8. It's White Man's Burden to Civilize darker people with Christ's message

Because nobody who believes in Christ ever becomes a tyrant or a murderer and all Christians are good, moral people. And all non-Christians are uncivilized murderous barbarians.

Sounds like a very Christian movie to me!

[mopaul]

13. manifest destiny: this land is my land, god gave this land to me

[Strawman]

12. Here's the cover of the soundtrack

Praise the Lord!

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. It looks like a comedy. n/t

[Strawman]

21. I'll bet it is

Unintentionally.

The Jack Van Impe show, for example, is a laugh out loud romp in my opinion.

[lapfog_1]

14. The world's most violent tribe?

And what about a few other violent "tribes"... Christians who put millions to death over the centuries???

All those forced conversions at "the tip of a spear".

[mopaul]

16. only jesus could take the violence out of the beasts, praise gawd

[in_cog_ni_to]

15. I say BOYCOTT "End of the Spear."

They will use this movie just like they used Mel Gibson's "christ" movie. Boycott it. Don't go see it and tell everyone you know to stay home...BAD REVIEWS.;)

[NYCGirl]

26. It's not like I'd actually go see it anyway. Nor will anyone I know.

Sounds like a lame movie.

[BushOut06]

36. Who really cares? If they want to make their movies, let them

It's a free country, people are free to make whatever movies they want. They're literally preaching to the choir with these movies.

[mzmolly]

18. I dunno, I've always had a twisted sense of humor, but should I be

laughing at this?

The story begins in 1956, when five Christian missionaries (Jim Elliot was among them) gave their lives in an Ecuadorian jungle, attempting to bring the gospel to the Waodani stone-age people. At that time they were the most violent tribe on Earth -- and yet they became the most loving and peaceful!

The missionaries made friendly contact, but something went terribly wrong. The Waodani speared them to death.

They go on to note: "God's ways are so great!"

:rofl:

Something about the manner this is written? I dunno ...

I'm not humored by the fact that anyone died, but the way these people think is beyond me.

[txindy]

25. Plus the fact that it goes on to say their deaths were worth more

Paraphrasing, but it says that their deaths were worth more than anything they might have done with their lives. :freak: Soooooooooo, the missionaries that were killed weren't worth sending to teach and proselytize? They are only worth something because they died and became 'martyrs'? :wtf: I'm sure they would've been warmed all over by that confidence and support. :eyes:

I'm sorry, but I can't help wondering if this is how the fundies view our troops, too. Do they believe that the troops are good people, but that their deaths in Iraq/Afghanistan serve an even 'higher purpose'? I suspect so. If that's the case, they need to learn the difference between their 'higher purpose' and selfish desires.

[mopaul]

27. it mirrors the situation in the middle east

the mighty christian america is coming to blast the love of jesus into the violent infidel heathen.

[txindy]

29. It makes me wonder about their missionary programs

If the 'martyrdom' of these five men truly did inspire a record number of missionaries to sign up, how many ill-trained and/or incompetent missionaries have they calculatingly sent to troubled areas of the world with the idea that, should those people be killed while proselytizing, many more would be inspired to replace them? This is sick. Truly sick.

And, yes, it certainly does mirror the current situation in the ME. No wonder the fundies scream so loudly against TV shows like 'The Book of Daniel', yet are virtually silent on the subject of inadequate/missing body armor for our troops: The lack of effective armor plays right into their plans.

I'm going to be ill.

[mzmolly]

34. I do believe they have the view you portray.

The ol "greater good" thing.

Sheesh, gimme a burning bush over 5 dead guys anyday.

[kiki]

37. I noticed that too...

"So the deaths of those five men did more to advance the kingdom of God than their lives ever could."

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what was going through their minds as they were impaled by those ungrateful heathens.

Or perhaps it was this, my favourite line: "God's ways are so great!"

"Gosh, God sure is super-neat and totally keen! It's worth seeing my own twitching entrails spread across the ground just to know that I'm part of His radical awesome plan!"

[Surya Gayatri]

20. OMG, mopaul,

I empathize completely. This resembles the kind of e-mail I'm likely to get from my rabid Repub mother (although more often about all the good we're doing in Iraq). Probably explains in part why you've become the upstanding liberal you are. SG

22. my aunt spent her life as a missionary

in South America in the 50s. She would talk in whispers about Jesus Christ. I always thought it was extremely weird. The church sends people out there though, and people follow the church.

[ugarte]

23. And I'm sure the profits are all going for a worthy cause

like someone's pocket. What a brilliant merchandising ploy: thousands of foot soldiers doing promo work for free so the investors get rich.

[DrRang]

30. Flipped past a fundie TV station last night and they were touting it. n/t

[Straight Shooter]

24. If the missionaries talked like Pat Robertson, no wonder they were killed.

Or Jerry Falwell. Or Oral Roberts. Any of those nutcases.

[Quixote1818]

28. Perhaps we should have sent Hitler in to Christianize the most

VIOLENT TRIBE IN THE WORLD!!! If not Hittler, perhaps Torquemada???? Those guys would have shown them a peaceful way!

[Richard D]

31. The reason this tribe was so violent . . .

. . . was "because the tribe had been left suspicious and fearful of outsiders following conflicts with whites during the "rubber boom" between the late 1800s and early 1900s, and during confrontations with oil companies, according to William Vickers, professor emeritus of anthropology at Florida International University in Miami.

"The Waodani were hunted by whites almost to the point of being exterminated," Vickers said. "The Waodani became aggressive toward any outsiders as a method of defending themselves."

[mopaul]

32. oh, terrorist insurgents eh?

[progressivebydesign]

41. Yep. To them, peddling Jesus is not different.

Why do christians think that they are SOOOO superior, that they can just trample all over the world trying to convert people? And expect to be treated like something other than snakeoil salespeople?

[zbdent]

33. You know what's likely

that a bunch of fundies will go just to see the nekid breasts of the Ecuadorans . . . and then claim that they did it to witness the works of the missionaries . . . :spank:

[MichaelHarris]

35. has it ever crossed anyone's mine that

missionaries may have crushed the one true religion? In the very least it crushed ancient cultural stories all over the world and in some instances if you didn't conform you died. These people did fine without Christianity long before Mormons and the like, now most of their stories are lost due to brain-washing, torture, and death.

I for one will never support a movie praising missionaries without showing the truth, the loss of a cultures history.

[Hard_Work]

39. What I've never understood is

if Jesus came to save the souls of ALL peoples, why did he never appear to indigenous peoples? Or Africans? Did he not care if they went to hell?

Maybe he got lost?

[MichaelHarris]

45. how do you know

he didn't come in the form of the wolf or the bear or even the eagle?

[SidDithers]

38. God's ways are so great!...

respond with "Allah Akhbar!"

Sid

[KyuzoGator]

40. I think this movie will make the Flying Spaghetti Monster very angry.

Please, mighty Flying Spaghetti Monster...bless these blasphemers with your right tomatoey forgiveness and beefy love.

Ramen.

[blindpig]

42. I might like to see it

just to see the missionaries get whacked.

Fuck the arrogance of missionaries, leave those people alone!

[baby_mouse]

44. Bearing Fruit Communications are a Smart Company.

I wonder how many of their staff are, in fact, Christians?