Haiti = Thailand Missionary Lies

It seems like another life, back then in the late 90s when I was touring Thailand’s northern hill tribe areas with Matthew McDaniel and his legendary indestructible Jeep. Matthew McDaniel was the self-proclaimed savior and defender of the Akha. Matthew was arrested by Thai authorities in 2004 and kicked out of the country.

When I met Matthew the last time in Chiang Rai he had just fathered another – I think his second – girl with an Akha hill tribe woman. He was one of the Akha and his most bitter fight he fought against Christian missionaries threatening hell and promising heaven while distributing strange translations of the Bible. A fight Matthew’s pursuing to this day, even back in the U.S., his “exile.”

Matthews not cagey about his own belief. At the bottom of his Akha Heritage Foundation website you read: “The Choice – After considering the facts as a human rights activist, when it comes to choosing between following the teachings of Christianity or following Jesus Christ, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ.” So why is he all over those Idaho Baptist missionaries who tried to kidnap some 30 “orphans” in earthquake-devastated Haiti? Matthew draws parallels with missionary work in Thailand.

Listen to the whole thing – interesting the U.S. media lobbying …:

A lot of selfless missionary work is done along Thailand’s difficult borders. The government ignores the “stateless.” So others help. One may wish though more is done in the tradition of Matthew’s closing words on his website:

Jesus Christ offers full redemption, in all spheres of human life, justice, land, food and the rights to one’s own children. We should not ignore or overlook any aspect of human existence and fail to mention it in the redemption of the human condition. This includes the Akha and their need for security and the protection of rights. It does no good to claim that redemption only applies to the life here after, while ignoring the incredible suffering inflicted on these people. Individuals who claim that the great difficulties that the Akha face helps convert them, have distorted and deformed the Gospel.

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Comments

8 Responses to “Haiti = Thailand Missionary Lies”

Chdarat on February 11th, 2010 1:22 pm

Interesting points raised especially the last excerpt.

As Haiti still occupies center stage here, I’m wondering what will get us Thais to wake up to the plight of refugees here.

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Chunkton on February 11th, 2010 7:12 pm

Interesting, call yourself a missionary and you should be regarded as doing god’s work, why? Convert the heathens, hallelujah! Psycho muslims are also doing god’s work murdering at will though aren’t they?

Spare us from religious lunatics running their own agenda and claiming it is god’s work.

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Joe on February 12th, 2010 8:03 am

Jesus Christ had a lot to say about serving people in need and commands Christians to take care of the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed. There’s some lunatics here and there stealing orphans or what have you, but you can’t ignore the fact that the majority of relief work done in the world is done by Christians. Try reading the Bible and let Jesus Christ be your standard for judging how Christians should act, not some lunatics.

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uberVU - social comments on February 12th, 2010 8:32 am

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by BangkokDan: (BLOG) Haiti = Thailand Missionary Lies http://bit.ly/bceoJT...

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John L on February 12th, 2010 8:36 am

Nice post. Totally spot on. The bible-bashing baby snatchers are a curse. I’ve personally seen these scumbag baby snatchers at work – bag of rice in one hand, bible in the other, kids taken out of their villages and countries and supplied to adopting parents for large amounts of money.

Thailand couldn’t care less about the minorities. The way the hill tribes, the minorities and the oppressed are treated (neglected/abused) is a disgrace and shows Thailand is not a developed society.

Hill tribe trekking tours are generally exploitative, not beneficial to the communities. On the other hand, Doi Chaang coffee, I believe, has helped the Akha improve their lives. More projects such as this are needed – and less bible thumping, baby-snatching missionaries.

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Talen on February 12th, 2010 9:01 am

Personally I have never trusted anyone doing “God’s Work” because if their god is so great he would be doing it himself and not involving clueless humans.

There is a lot of work to be done along Thailand’s borders for those people living in limbo and the Thai government has treated these people and the situation as a whole in a very inadequate way.

Unfortunately Christian zealots out to save the world with god’s good book often have good intentions backed up by ass backward ideologies. Helping those in need is one thing and a commendable act but often times there is a secondary agenda of saving souls so the heathens don’t go to hell.

The good thing is you can still be a decent human being and help out these people without introducing fairy tales and messiah’s into the mix.

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Chdarat on February 12th, 2010 5:04 pm

Spot on Talen.

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Oneditorial on February 13th, 2010 5:23 am

I cannot help agreeing with many things Khun Talen has been saying recently. Everything, to me, seems very sensible. Sometimes I wonder why? It must be something.

(BD: Talen is a balanced voice of reason.)

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