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efforts to conquer the faiths of others.                                          sneaky way to confuse the minds of the target group.


               Their areas of activities may be broadly divided into three:                      In  Sri  Lanka,  the Tamil Tigers  received  support  from  some
                                                                                             Western  governments  as well  as NGOs. Christian  missionaries
               l.  Direct  missionary activities  such as training  missionaries,            from Norway, a country that mediated for peace between the rival
           establishing churches, running radio and TV stations and controlling              parties, were seen streaming into the Buddhist island-state.
           and manipulating mass media for propagation
                                                                                                 In Russia, US Christian missionaries were spending an
               2. Carrying out missionary activities under the guise of poverty              estimated  annual budget of US$ l00 million  for the  purpose of
           eradication, health care, education, and community development.                   converting the orthodox Christians into their form of Christianity.


               3. Suppressing local governments in the name of human rights,                     According to a recent report in the World Christian Database,
           acting as human rights groups to support underground Christian                    every year Christian churches (in US) spend over US$ 1.1 billion to
           movements and sabotaging local governments.                                       canvas for new members. 227 million copies of Bibles were placed
                                                                                             in non-Christian countries.
               These organizations are financially and organisationally strong
           and powerful, and are usually supported by Western governments.                       Christian workers can now easily target any port in the world
           Armed with these advantages, they are able to wage a large scale                  with at least 3 of the 45 varieties of effective evangelism.  By 2017,
           war of conversion in non-Christion lands. In India, there are 25,000              there will be enough evangelism in the world for every person to
           NGOs, which received annual aids amounting to US$ 1 billion per                   hear a 1 hour presentation of the Christian gospel every day all
           year. 60% of these NGOs are Christian-based. There are 23 major                   year long. The same report mentioned that it costs US$ 349,000 to
           terrorist groups in northern India, all receiving aids from Christian             baptise a person in year 2005, but will cost US$ 650,000 by year
           NGOs. According to a BBC broadcast, Christian churches planned                    2O25.
           to erect a church in every village in India.
                                                                                                 Could this large scale, military-like, and politically-motivated
               George Bush, during his presidency, announced a new policy:                   missionary activity be just a simple act of spreading the Christian
           all aids to third world countries shall be channelled through Christian           gospels? People in some of the countries mentioned above have
           NGOs. The International Justice Mission thus received US$ 750,000,                reacted vehemently to such heavy handed evangelical tactics. In
           to carry out “soul-saving” missions amongst the indigenous people                 India, some states like Tamil Naidu and Orissa have enacted laws
           of Thailand. In Burma, Christian NGOs established the Metta Trust                 prohibiting unethical conversion. In Sri Lanka, similar attempts are
           for Children to carry out conversion programs along the Burma-                    being made. Some monks have even contested in election with the
           Thai border. The use of the Buddhist term Metta is obviously a                    main  objective  of  preventing  further  unethical  conversion.  Why



           080    Applied Buddhism                                                                                                         Applied Buddhism   081
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