A computer, a radio, a drone and a shotgun’: how missionaries are reaching out to Brazil’s isolated peoples
Despite laws protecting uncontacted communities, evangelical Christian missions employ many methods to spread their message, including on secret audio devices left in the forest.
“I am sure that God is a god of love; therefore, if he is a god of love, he will take me to heaven when I die, so that does not worry me. I would like to remind you of something, since you have forgotten one of the most important aspects of life – death – and the fact of being acceptable in the eyes of God. Let me explain it,” is one of the messages the device carries.
Similar devices, called the Messenger, have been used to spread religious messages, despite proselytising being prohibited among uncontacted and recently contacted peoples, according to Brazilian law. Messenger devices are distributed by the US Baptist organisation In Touch Ministries, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Groups such as the New Tribes Mission and Youth With A Mission (YWAM) have long been active in the region, some employing covert methods such as secret audio devices and unauthorised visits to spread their faith. Recent incidents include an unauthorised missionary interacting with local people and building a church near an isolated Indigenous group along the Maia creek.
Missionary activity now threatens 13 of the 29 isolated peoples that Brazil officially recognises as definitively confirmed, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.
Marcos Pepe Mayuruna was converted and “trained” to be a pastor in Atalaia do Norte by US religious leaders. He says YWAM has a strong presence in the region.
Marubo says the cultural impact of white people’s beliefs impoverishes the reality of Indigenous peoples. “I fear that in future, our peoples will be like a book with a cover that’s missing its contents,” she says.
Mayá, the Korubo leader who now has the In Touch Messenger audio bible, was more blunt. “I don’t want missionaries to come to our village. If they do, we will club them.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-devel...ed-peoples
Despite laws protecting uncontacted communities, evangelical Christian missions employ many methods to spread their message, including on secret audio devices left in the forest.
“I am sure that God is a god of love; therefore, if he is a god of love, he will take me to heaven when I die, so that does not worry me. I would like to remind you of something, since you have forgotten one of the most important aspects of life – death – and the fact of being acceptable in the eyes of God. Let me explain it,” is one of the messages the device carries.
Similar devices, called the Messenger, have been used to spread religious messages, despite proselytising being prohibited among uncontacted and recently contacted peoples, according to Brazilian law. Messenger devices are distributed by the US Baptist organisation In Touch Ministries, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Groups such as the New Tribes Mission and Youth With A Mission (YWAM) have long been active in the region, some employing covert methods such as secret audio devices and unauthorised visits to spread their faith. Recent incidents include an unauthorised missionary interacting with local people and building a church near an isolated Indigenous group along the Maia creek.
Missionary activity now threatens 13 of the 29 isolated peoples that Brazil officially recognises as definitively confirmed, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.
Marcos Pepe Mayuruna was converted and “trained” to be a pastor in Atalaia do Norte by US religious leaders. He says YWAM has a strong presence in the region.
Marubo says the cultural impact of white people’s beliefs impoverishes the reality of Indigenous peoples. “I fear that in future, our peoples will be like a book with a cover that’s missing its contents,” she says.
Mayá, the Korubo leader who now has the In Touch Messenger audio bible, was more blunt. “I don’t want missionaries to come to our village. If they do, we will club them.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-devel...ed-peoples
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"