Holy Blasphemy

That’s right folks. It’s too difficult to spread the word of God at home – people are too content, too happy. They don’t need anything. How are you supposed to help someone when they won’t recognize that they need help! Leave the white folk to their imminent destruction, and give God a helping hand by converting infidels. (Obviously, God doesn’t care enough about them to take care of them, or to send them their own cultural manifestion of the divine, but that doesn’t mean he won’t appreciate your Good Efforts and give you a thicker slice of pie in heaven.)

The article also suggest joining the Peace Corps. Yuck! I’m not opposed to trying to help people. Evangelicalism stems from a willing desire to do Good in the world, and I applaud the relative selflessness of the entrepreneur who goes abroad to save souls. That being said – in my experience Christians have an escalated theory of purpose which they cannot live up to. Many of the Christians I know are alcoholics and sexual deviants. They get upset easily. They can be violent. But they mean well.

I’m also living abroad. I run into missionaries and evangelicals, and lots of just darn good people who try and spread the message of Jesus Christ. And there are plenty of locals who want to do business or make friends with foreigners, who convert to Christianity because they think it’s the “Western Thing to Do”.

Is it a bad thing? Not exactly. The PC ultimatum of religious tolerance or social exclusion demands that I am tolerant of religious practice – and I am. However, this cannot be true for Christians. You cannot both be religious and tolerant unless there is a protocol for tolerance within your religion. Christianity is an exclusivist religion. You’re either in or out. The limit of Christian tolerance is “I accept your decision to be a bad person, refuse God and go to Hell for eternal punishment.” And yet this form of tolerance clashes violently against the love and charity promoted by Christianity. The only thing for a good Christian to do is always preach, always inform, and always save: an attitude of religious toleration is unacceptable.

However, in every country where Christianity takes root, it will grow until all other forms of spiritual practice are destroyed. That is it’s nature; it cannot co-exist with other competing religious traditions. It either spreads or dies.

What concerns me the most is that the “Truth” given by evangelicals is a horrifically untrue, false and distorted world view based on a fabricated historical precedent. It is a fictional history with no basis on fact and a faith that is challenged on every side by reality, practical experience and rational inquiry; it can only lead to either uncertainty or righteousness.

For a person who truly believes in religious tolerance, allowing Christianity to continue its viral contamination of the world is unacceptable. Christianity has historically been spread through warfare, violence and conquest. It has spread through disease and epidemics. It has spread through commerce, trade and financial transactions. And right now, it is being spread through kindness – but in secret. Evangelicals won’t just go about praising the lord. They will “set up a tent”, a shop, a business. They will cultivate relationships and wait…until the right moment to plant the seed. Often I’ve seen missionaries get a teenager alone in the corner of a room, away from their peers, and introduce them to Christ. I’ve seen them use their positions as English teachers to preach Jesus in secular classrooms. I’ve even watched a missionary lead a whole class in a ‘repeat after me’ prayer, having them pray to Jesus without even knowing what they’re saying.