This time we’re talking about a recent incident. A man named John Chau went to North Sentinel. He intended to talk to people whose language he didn’t know in order to bring them to Christ. He ended up dead. This is bringing up all sorts of ethical questions about missionaries working overseas.
We talk about how Robert Barclay’s theological assertion about universal redemption fits in.
God, in and by this light and seed, invites, calls, exhorts, and strives with every man, in order to save him. If this light is received and not resisted, it works the salvation of all, even of those who are ignorant of the death and sufferings of Christ, and of Adam’s fall.
When you believe a person is doomed to Hell for not hearing about Jesus, you end up with a different take on this than someone who thinks knowing Jesus’ story isn’t strictly necessary. We talked more about this in our episode on the Church visible and invisible.
Another topic we touch on is where missionary energy should be directed. This guy was focused on people who’d had no contact with Christianity before. How does that compare to focusing on people who are lapsed?
We also talk about the dangers outsiders pose. Despite media coverage saying the island is “uncontacted,” they have had some contact. The first known contact was really traumatic and during the lives of the current inhabitants’ grandparents. More recent contact has been by anthropologists, and they gave opinions on how to form relationships rather than just charging in. It builds up to language acquisition (though some of us do believe the Holy Spirit can miraculously provide language skills when needed).
And then a detour onto climate change. We need to figure out what guest we want for that.
References
* Johan Maurer’s blog post
* New York Times coverage
* Bartolomé de las Casas
* Twitter thread on the history of North Sentinel
* Romans 10:14–18
* The Nativity Story
* The Passion of the Christ (…made by an antisemite, so this is not an endorsement)
* Dogma
* Luke 17:21
* Chabad
Transcript
Speaker 1: Welcome to Quaker Faith and Podcast where we will explore traditional Quaker beliefs and variety of Quaker beliefs found today.
Mackenzie: Welcome back to Quaker Faith and Podcast with your hosts, Mackenzie and Micah. This time we’re going to be talking about a recent news story, or we’re inspired by a recent news story of a guy named John, went to an island in the Indian Ocean and attempted to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. He did not survive this encounter and there’s a little bit of history regarding this island and outsiders, which probably plays it well, surely plays into this, but it has resulted in a whole bunch of sort of moral debates.
Micah: Yeah. I mean, there are several questions that I think people of a variety of religious and cultural and philosophical backgrounds can have. It was illegal for this man to go to this island because the Indian government had cordoned it off to preserve them from contact. Was it wrong to break Indian law to go to this islan...
