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SAY "NO!" TO THE EVANGELISTS
- a personal testimony by Ven. Piyasilo -
I. COLONIALISM AND EVANGELISM
PREAMBLESince our prehistory, human beings have tried toconquer and dominate one another. With the rise ofreligion—which began as an attempt to understandforces beyond our control (such as pain, disease,and death)—people then try to conquer one an-other’s
mind,
but without understanding their own.Those religions and cults that in some way attemptto dominate others have one common historicalfeature: they were born amidst violence, and sadlycontinue to use emotionally violent and physicallyviolent means of converting others, or punishingand getting rid of those “who are not with us”.The idea is that
if you are not with us, you areagainst us
. There is no middle ground of walkinghumbly with one’s God, or simply walking at peacewith oneself. When such a mental attitude domin-ates a society, its intolerance becomes destructiveand stifles emotional and spiritual growth. Mindssimply become mass-produced from the samemould; any misfit would be destroyed or, at best,mercifully marginalized.When such an evangelical attitude reaches a globaldimension, the disasters and pains are global andprotracted. The early 21
st
century is characterizedby suicide bombings and mass destruction in thename of religion. Religious war and hatred, andevangelically motivated politics are still well andalive even today. Not surprisingly, such a legacyhas deep roots.1. THE INCA TRAGEDYWhen the European conquerors started coming tothe East and the Americas around the 16th century,it was not for the good of the natives, but for"gospel, glory and gold". With the rise of population,power and knowledge in the West, the Europeanadventurers vied with one another to claim foreignlands and heathen peoples in the name of theirChristian rulers.In the Americas, the natives were horribly unfortun-ate. One of the most tragic and dastardly episodesof human history is perhaps the Spanish conquestof the Incas. In 1530 Francisco Pizarro landed with200 men on the Peruvian coast. He had planned tomake an easy conquest of the Inca empire as hiscountryman Hernando Cortez had done—Cortezhad seized the Aztec emperor Montezuma and thisconquest in due course led to the annihilation of theAztec civilization.When the Inca (ruler)
Atahualpa
and his escortappeared in the square of Cajamarca, they found itdeserted, for Pizarro had concealed his men insome large buildings opening onto the square. Inother words, once the Indians entered the square,they had no avenue of escape. At a signal fromPizarro his soldiers, supported by cavalry andartillery, rushed forward to kill hundreds of terrifiedIndians and take the Inca Atahualpa prisoner.(2) TREACHERYThe chaos that led to panic amongst the Indianswas due to the following reasons: (a) the Indianswere practically unarmed; (b) they had no chanceat all against the Spanish firearms (the Indians didnot have any such weapon then); and (c) they hadnever seen a horse (the initial sight of a man on ahorse terrified them). The result of the fateful meet-ng was a glorious massacre. The only Spaniardhurt in the massacre that day was Pizarro himselfwho sustained a minor wound on his hand receivedfrom one of his own men!In an attempt to gain his freedom; Atahualpa offer-ed to fill his spacious prison cell with gold as highas a man could reach. Pizarro accepted the offer;but when the room had been filled accordingly, hetold the Inca that he was to remain in "protectivecustody". Later on, however, Pizarro was convinc-ed that Atahualpa was organizing a resistancemovement. After a farcical trial, a Spanish courtfound the Inca “guilty” of polygamy, idolatry, andthe murder of his brother Huascar. Atahualpa wascondemned by the court to be burnt at the stake;but the sentence was, out of Christian compassion,commuted to strangling when he accepted baptism![W H Prescott, "The Conquest of Peru", rev V Wvon Hagen, New American Library, 1961:bk 3 chs5-7; Encyclopaedia Britannica Macro 10: 693c](3) GALILEOThere is a very important reason that the sad storyof the Incas opens this "answer to the evangelists.”The significance for this will be explained at theend of this pamphlet. One further commenthowever is in order here. The cruelty of theevangelists are not exclusively reserved for theheathen; even their own kind who dare to thinkdifferently suffer a cruel fate. The classic case isthat of the famous Italian scientist
Galileo Galilei
 who was cruelly threatened with torture forbelieving in and writing that the sun was the centreof the solar system (while the Church believed thatthe earth was the centre). As a result of thisinfamous holy crime against free thought, the hubof scientific learning shifted to northern Europewhere there was more tolerance.Some evangelists may argue that they are not"Catholic" as those Spaniards were. Catholic ornot, the above examples, illustrate whatevangelists with power are capable of. If the earlyProtestants (and most contemporary evangelists)had enough power, they would have committedsimilar atrocities against non-believers and thelocal natives. Power tends to corrupt and, with thepromise of "gospel, glory and gold", absolutepower corrupts absolutely.
 
Say "NO!" to the Evangelists
2
Indeed it is quite clear that the evils of colonialismare due to the biblical injunction to "go forth andmultiply" and "have dominion over" others that onepractically never meets a Christian who "turns theother cheek". One native African writer lamentedthat when the missionaries came, the missionarieshad the Bible in their hand and the natives had theirland. Then, one day, when the natives had the Biblein their hands, they discovered that their land wasin the hands of the missionaries!The worst expression of colonialism, both politicaland religious, is denoted by the term WASP—"WhiteAnglo-Saxon Protestant". Thanks to the independ-ence of our nation and the security of our Constitu-tion, we today are not only free to choose and prac-tise our own religion (or none), but we are also notso easily harassed by the evangelists.II. PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BYEVANGELISM(4) GOSPEL OF FEARWhen an evangelist lacks political power, he usesthe weapon of subterfuge or fear. Some evangelistsbefriend others, especially those in universities andcolleges, and under the guise of “surveys” and “dis-cussions,” subtly apply their hidden agenda, tryingto the “superiority” of the faith above all others.As regards the use of
fear,
a classic case inpoint is that of John Wesley, the 19th centuryfounder of Methodism. In his conversion technique,Wesley would first of all create high emotionaltension in his potential converts. He found it easy toconvince large audiences of his time that a failureto achieve salvation would necessarily condemnthem to hellfire for ever and ever.Wesley learned in time that to capture an audiencehe had first to gauge its intellectual and emotionalcapacity. For the simple folk, his favourite approachwas the subject of death and judgment on which hewould preach with fire. It is reported that John Nel-son (one of Wesley's most able lieutenants) wasconverted in this manner:"As soon as he [Wesley] went upon his stand, hestroked back his hair, and turned his face towardsme where I stood, and I thought fixed his eyes uponme. His countenance struck such an awful dreadupon me, before I heard him speak, that it made myheart beat like the pendulum of a clock; and whenhe did speak, I thought his whole discourse wasaimed at me.” [Recorded by
R A Knox, "Enthusi-asm: A Chapter in Religious History
," OUP, 1950]Indeed, so effective was Wesley's method thatsome members of his audience would be "trembling,weeping and swooning away, till every appearanceof life was gone, and the extremities of the bodyassumed the coldness of a corpse. At one meetingnot less than a thousand persons fell to the groundapparently without sense or motion”. (A witness ac-count by R A Knox, op cit).Knox says further: "When attacked by the jerks, thevictims of enthusiasm sometimes leaped like frogsand. exhibited every grotesque and hideous contor-tion of the face and limbs. The barks consisted ingetting down on all fours, growling, snapping theteeth, and barking like dogs.... These last [whobarked like dogs] were particularly gifted in pro-phecies, trances, dreams, rhapsodies, visions ofangels, of heaven, and of the holy city”. [Quoted by
W Sargant, "Battle for the Mind,"
Pan Books,1959: 115](5) IMMUNIZING ONESELFThe best way to avoid conversion, possession andsimilar conditions is to avoid getting emotionallyinvolved in the proceedings or give a cold shoulderto any advance from an evangelist. I remember aneyewitness account of an encounter with acharismatic group that "spoke in tongues." Some ofthe schoolboys, lured to the meeting refused toparticipate. Indeed, they found the proceeding sobizarre and amusing, that they could not helpgiggling.The uninvolved behaviour of the schoolboys dis-tracted the whole proceeding—indeed no one wasconverted pr “healed” that day. The infuriated pas-tor’s threat of "The devil's everywhere and he cantake any form!" and his cajoling of "Believe!" onlytickled them further until they had to be thrown out!(6) BEWARE OF GUILT!Too fierce an anger or contempt for the evangelistsis also unhealthy. For if one goes on condemningthem, there may come a time when one feels veryguilty about it all, and like Saul on the road toDamascus, one’s guilt would transmogrify intohallucinatory "visions" which may compel one to join them after all. In the 1970s, a well knownMelaka (Malaysia) Buddhist temple, a couple ofactive Sunday School members used to fend offevery evangelist advance with adolescent enthusi-asm. But both of them were converted during theirspell of studies overseas and became activeevangelists. The contributory factor here, however,was that the Buddhist group they were involved indid not put proper Buddhist instructions or practiceon a high priority.On the bright side, we have the example of aninter-religious forum (in Singapore), chaired by aBuddhist monk. Most of the major religions wererepresented. The various evangelists spoke fierilyof their faiths almost with the hellfire tone ofWesley's. When the monk’s turn came, he spoke socalmly and happily that the audience was actuallyshaken by the contrast—from the fire of insecurereligiosity and triumphalism to the inner peace ofspirituality expressed! The population of thecampus Buddhist society which sponsored theforum doubled after that event!
 
Say "NO!" to the Evangelists
3
(7) WHY THE HIPPIES?In the 1960s
the hippies
arose in the West inprotest against the establishment. The hippies werea counter-culture of long-haired young people whoindulged in marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs,rock music, and communal life-styles. This socialexplosion that fragmented the younger generationsof the West was a reaction against social uniformitydictated by Industrialization—and the rule of theChurch in their private lives. But the roots of thehippies, one might say, go way back to the Rena-scance, short of the introduction of Christianity intothe West.
Renascence
is the name for a rich cultural period inEuropean history tasting from the 14th to the 17thcenturies. It was a period of universal learning forthe scholars, and great discoveries of new landsand wealth for the powerful—it was the birth ofWestern imperialism. Yet for the truth-seeker then,it was, consciously or unconsciously, a turning pointaway from the Church which vehemently denouncedanything—even Science—If it were perceived asgoing against the Bible. If the coffin of Christianitywas made during the Renascence, its nails werehammered tight in during the Age of Science.While the Renascence widely opened the doors ofknowledge to the West, it also led to the IndustrialRevolution in Britain. British imperialism fed itsfactories and mills with Malayan rubber, Indianspices and Kenyan copper. When the popularity ofChinese tea incurred a heavy deficit on the British,they dumped opium in China to get Chinese silver(which later led to
the Opium Wars
). Indeed, at theheight Western imperialism—concurrent with theVictorian period of British history—Christianity wasalready deeply entrenched in most of Westernsociety. But it was also the age of the duel betweenReligion and Science.(8) RELIGION AND SCIENCEScientific progress and industrial advancement ledto higher standards of living, a booming populationand urbanization—which made the world "smaller".The improved communication system and massmedia further reduced the "size" of world with radio,motion pictures, television, national magazines, re-cord companies and universal advertising.The result of this new wealth was a growing culturaluniformity throughout the country that wiped outethnic and regional differences and concentrated onthe creation and preservation of "high culture"—literature, the fine arts, classical music and opera,philosophy and social thought—to a small, educatedelite. The Church too had become very wealthy,though less powerful, but nonetheless determinedto win souls.Invoking its ancient roots in the mediaeval universi-ties and armed with these modern social expres-sions (printing, music, etc), the Church casts its netof
missionary school education
on foreign shores.What better way to evangelize the heathens than toteach them Western languages and culture, andChristian morals. Indeed the missionaries were sosuccessful that their influence practically reachedthe highest levels of power right down to the priva-cy of the converts’ homes with their "missionaryposition"!
III. SOCIAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BYEVANGELISM
(9) THE MISSION SCHOOLOne of the greatest Asian tragedies is
the missionschool
. Those who think highly of missionary edu-cation fail to realize that all the good things that itoffers—language, morals, health and culture—are just as good, if not, better given in our own verna-cular. At least, we excel in what is really ours andare free to choose to learn whatever else we wishto. It is interesting to note that the average personwho goes to a Chinese school (or any vernacularschool for that matter) is generally more rooted inhis or her own culture and more disciplined thanthe average mission school graduate.I had two childhood Chinese friends: one camefrom a family that regularly attends the Wesleychurch; the other attended a convent. The WesleyChurch friend went on to marry an English girl andmigrated to England. The convent girl, on the otherhand, was in the habit of claiming that the mothersuperior (head nun) at her convent school was"better than my own mother," which might well bein some ways, but the statement was made incontempt. She later converted and married a Scot.I am not against mixed marriages out of love; butthe point here is that the mission school is themain cause of our culture shock, generation gap,not to say, family fragmentation. There was a timewhen missionary school students had to studyLatin, Bible Knowledge and attend chapel—overand above secular subjects. The pupils' own reli-gion and culture were almost completely neglected.The true purpose traditional mission school systemis not to so much to educate its students, as it is toput into them an agenda of evangelical or colonialvalues. Had the mission schools been trulysuccessful we would have lost much if not all of ourculture and religious freedom.The same applies to Christian
“social work” and“world vision”
: the idea is to make sheep andfishes of men (and women and children) to beherded and harvested for the evangelist’s diningtable. An evangelical “people-helper” does not real-ly help anyone (not even themselves), insofar astheir real aim is to skew their helpees’ minds to be-come like their. When the blind lead the blind, theygrow in confidence, thinking they would not fall intoany ditches (when they are actually already ruttedin big ditch themselves!) There is no true uncondi-tional love in a Bible-thumping evangelist: it is real-ly a selfish zest (conscious or unconscious) motiv-ated by the desire to dominate. He has createdGod in his own image.
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