“These vile people offered words of comfort and salvation in addition to food, clothing, and shelter, is there no end to their evil?”
Not just that. It’s calling priests vile for converting people in exchange for food and clothing and shelter, and then insisting that you shouldn’t send prayers to even the random churchgoers that were caught in the blast.
As much as I dislike religious people leveraging ‘charity’ to get unfortunate people to convert (charity shouldn’t have those kinds of conditions imo), what possessed this man to bring it up in relation to likely entirely unrelated people being blown up?
Yeah, it’s really fucked to be like “We’re the good guys, we’ll give you food and shelter in this time of horrific disaster, buuuuuut you gotta throw away all of your beliefs, culture, lifestyle, everything you’ve dedicated yourself to, and think what we tell you to think.” BUT it’s also super fucking disgusting to be like “Man, I’m the good guy, I really care about the unfortunate, about victims, about those targeted by horrific attacks, those who lost their lives or health or family to unspeakable cruelty, buuuuuut I saw some guys being turds one time so like… maybe we shouldn’t care about people.” Blue checkmark Andy is a dick.
That doesn’t happen and if it does it’s not the norm and they’re not A.) following the Bible or Christian teachings B.) they’re violating standard practices for pretty much every missionary organization.
The Bible states that taking care of peoples basic needs comes first. In fact it says in Romans “To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” doesn’t sound like converting is a pre-requisite for helping someone there. In fact in case there was any confusion it’s also in Proverbs “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,”
Or how about in Matthew “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” So according to Jesus helping the least of society is thought of as equal to helping Jesus himself. Again doesn’t say anything about but make sure they convert and become good Christians first.
The attitude of Christian missionaries is overwhelmingly how can you talk to people about the afterlife when they are starving here and now. This perception that missionaries go out and have church services where they dangle food out there for anyone that converts is complete fiction. It’s an episode of South Park and happens just as often as Ethiopians visit Marklar.
In reality it’s the opposite Christians go just to meet peoples needs, they go with food and emergency help…and people will beg them to pray for them and demand to hear about their faith. If you listen to actual missionaries they’ll tell you people will drag them blocks just to get them to pray for them or their families They get nothing personally out of people converting…it’s not like the poor people converting in places like Africa will suddenly be in the pews in America giving donations, they live on a different continent and don’t have anything to give. So really what’s happening is Christians go to take care of people in need, often getting there before governments or NGO’s like the Red Cross and people are so grateful and want to know more about the faith that brought the help to them and some end up converting…and this is somehow despicable unforgiveable behaviour that should lessen your sympathy when hundreds of Christians are slaughtered.
The Christian standard for converting people is literally just tell them about Jesus so they can decide for themselves…that’s it. And the fact that some people hear it and go hey that sounds good and give up what they used to believe in is somehow more of a problem than the one that’s perfectly fine spreading with violence and coercion.
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