Page 93 - Applied Buddhism
P. 93

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
   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98