"Jesus Christ will protect me from future tsunamis. Buddhism makes no such promises."

[Bozita]

Those are the words of a homeless Thai fisherman.

The Christian missionaries are active in coastal Thailand.

One tsunami-decimated village was promised a new village complete with school. The catch: Everybody in the village must convert to Christianity.

The story is shocking (to me, at least). CBC News reported it on tonight's "National." You can find it here:
http://www.cbc.ca/national/

The report begins at roughly the 30 minute mark. Button is on the right side under the photo of Peter Mansbridge.

It's a 15 minute long magazine piece.

[enki23]

1. onward christian scavengers...er... soldiers. i mean "missionaries"

.

[roguevalley]

25. they aren't christians. they are religious mercenaries without a soul

[Richard D]

2. I've been in villages in South America . . .

. . . where the missionaries come in, build a health clinic, and offer free medical care to the villagers.

As long as they convert.

Assholes.

[Warpy]

3. Who was protecting all those European tourists, many of them

Christian? Who was looking out for all the little kids who hadn't had time to know what the were yet?

These are the things people who survive disasters and credit a god for their survival never ask.

[pitohui]

4. wait until someone tells him about katrina

sorry, mr thai fisherman dude, this bud is for you and all that, but that thing about the rainbow and how god would never again destroy the world by flood -- well i've got some bad news

he lied and he lied to christians just as good as he lied to you

[Beregond2]

5. Christians

It's particularly heinous because Christianity teaches no such thing. They are lying to attract converts.

[pitohui]

6. it does teach such a thing

the story of noah, taught as one of the most famous of the bible stories, concludes with a little homily about how the rainbow was put in the sky as a sign from god that he would never flood the earth again

the bible itself includes the lie or fable or whatever we like to call it

considering that we've had more than a few major flood events since noah did his thing 6,000 years ago, i don't know why the story isn't buried as the embarrassment that it is, but it's actually one of the favorite tales

you may say it's meant as a parable but many bible thumpers believe (or pretend to believe) that the bible is the literal word of truth and so that this really happened and this promise was really made

[rockymountaindem]

7. God promised never to flood the *entire* earth again

or, to put it bluntly, wipe out the population and start again mostly from scratch. There's no guarantee about individual disasters, unfortunately.

[NutmegYankee]

9. Well, not flood the whole world... Your region on the other hand...

Well, hope you got a boat.

[Goblinmonger]

29. Noah wasn't a Christian. n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

30. that's some stretch from destroying the WORLD with a flood

to a regional event like a tsunami

GEN 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."

That was the covenant...nothing close to what you CLAIM was the covenant. Maybe you should read the text prior to attempting to apply it to a situation.

sP

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Interesting

The speaker appears to have an attachment to worldly life.

[BlooInBloo]

10. (shrug) Such is the nature of evangelism...

... They'll use anything against you to get their grimy little mitts on your soul.

[varkam]

11. Very sad.

Predatory, IMO.

[alfredo]

12. That will ensure they will die from the next tsunami. They will rely on

Jesus when they should be heading for the hills.

[albert johnson]

13. ACTUALLY THE BIBLE SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT,I THINK,1 THIRD OF ALL BOATS

will be destroyed in the end times, if thats the case it would probably take a tsunami to do it.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. If it's really the "end times", what the fuck good will the other 2/3 of all boats be?

:shrug:

[alfredo]

19. I hope they first go after those sport boats that are driven by

thoughtless assholes who don't care what damage they inflict with their wakes.

[Swamp Rat]

14. "My god is stronger!"

[Kitty Herder]

15. Bribery, plain and simple. Disgusting. nt

[Richard Steele]

17. My God can beat up your God!

Dumbasses. :puke:

[YankeyMCC]

18. Good example of a false belief doing real harm nt

[krabigirl]

20. Yikes.

[opihimoimoi]

21. The END TIMES is MAN MADE.....nuff said

[malaise]

26. And so are all gods n/t

[LeftinOH]

22. I would be tempted to give insincere lip-service to get something free...

..if some suckers were willing to give it.

[IronLionZion]

23. For a new village with a school? Sure, I'd say I was Christian too

and still privately believe what I want to believe. Whities often think that's how I became Christian anyway. Rice Christian!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_Christian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_India

[noonwitch]

24. Jeebus, help me! (The Simpsons episode)

This does make me think of the episode where Homer gets sent as a missionary to the south seas, and ends up teaching all the natives to gamble and drink.

[kineneb]

27. incorrect reading of NT. wishfull thinking and propaganda

poor guy will be gone with the next tsunami, along with the village.

Promises, promises.

Best to use one's own mind. Buddha was right on that.

[walldude]

28. Somehow I don't think that Jeebus wanted his followers

to blackmail people into becoming Christians.

[Dukkha]

31. Darwin overrides any deity's "protection"

and makes sure you pay for your foolish devotion, either by wiping you off the Earth or destroying your village when you rebuild again right on the same flood drenched land