RE: US tourist enters tribal area in Andaman island, to preach Christianity, killed
November 21, 2018 at 3:13 pm
I'm skeptical of the missionary motivation for his attempt to visit the island. Most of the reporting describes John Allen Chau as an adventure tourist. Chau's Instagram profile contains the following:
"The 27-year-old described himself on Instagram as a “Wilderness EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), “PADI Advanced Open Water Diver”, “Outbound Collective Explorer” and a “Snakebite Survivor”."
Missions are typically sponsored by a church or other faith based organization, but I cannot find any reference to an organization claiming affiliation. It's certainly possible that an organization would distance itself from someone that knowingly broke the law. I also understand that he could potentially be an independent prosthelytizer, but his adventure tourism seems to be more prevalent in what's being reported about his internet presence.
As far as locals claiming he was out to preach, I think it's much more likely that Chau used that as an excuse while trying to convince locals to break the law. Or the locals can simply be making it up to try to cover their own asses. While reading through the reporting I was reminded of a young woman that blew through a stop sign at a 'T' intersection and ran into a house. Although suspected of texting and not paying attention she claimed that she was praying with her eyes shut. As OakTree already mentioned, the language barrier makes the missionary aspect of this a bit of a stretch to begin with.
"The 27-year-old described himself on Instagram as a “Wilderness EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), “PADI Advanced Open Water Diver”, “Outbound Collective Explorer” and a “Snakebite Survivor”."
Missions are typically sponsored by a church or other faith based organization, but I cannot find any reference to an organization claiming affiliation. It's certainly possible that an organization would distance itself from someone that knowingly broke the law. I also understand that he could potentially be an independent prosthelytizer, but his adventure tourism seems to be more prevalent in what's being reported about his internet presence.
As far as locals claiming he was out to preach, I think it's much more likely that Chau used that as an excuse while trying to convince locals to break the law. Or the locals can simply be making it up to try to cover their own asses. While reading through the reporting I was reminded of a young woman that blew through a stop sign at a 'T' intersection and ran into a house. Although suspected of texting and not paying attention she claimed that she was praying with her eyes shut. As OakTree already mentioned, the language barrier makes the missionary aspect of this a bit of a stretch to begin with.
