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should people in these areas react so intensely? religion.
There are reasons for such intense reaction. Firstly, the Christianity is not hiding its objective of dominance. Pope
approaches taken to convert others are unethical. Some unethical John Paul II has mentioned it explicitly, saying that, “God wants all
means include inducement such as asking target group to pray people to be His children, to be with the organisation of Christ.
and have their prayers written on a paper and posting it over to The church must not be seen as an agent of social development
the preacher, who would then give the items they prayed for to the and welfare.” Alas, the so-called social welfare works have ulterior
target group; persuading people who are employed in Christian- motives.
owned corporations to convert; asking students or patients to pray
while attending classes or receiving medical treatments, and thereby Economic globalisation has aggravated the disparity between
converting them. Another unethical approach is to condemn and the rich and the poor, where richer states should by right shoulder
ridicule other religions, such as describing non-Christians as devil- some responsibilities of poverty in the poorer states. They are
worshipers or sinners, and abetting new converts to destroy Buddha morally obliged to assist the exploited poorer states. However,
images publicly. Some even made biscuits of the Buddha image and when churches, Christian NGOs and Western governments do so,
asked people to eat the “devil”. In Korea, burning down temples are their hidden agenda is to convert others to Christianity. This is
not infrequent affairs. Some Church leaders even openly commend immoral and unreasonable.
such actions.
The church has also adopted a relatively mild method in their
Secondly, such Christian conversion programs created social attempt to convert others. This method is called inter-religious
unrest in the societies as evidenced in history. The extreme methods dialogue. Pope John Paul II said in his article, “Establish unity,
and the disrespectful approach adopted by Christian missionaries forge solidarity, to work for peace, to have religious and cultural
have created adverse feelings amongst the local people, and hence dialogue, eliminate discrimination and gaining confidence are the
social unrest. When social unrest happens, transnational Christian major mission of the church.”
NGOs are quick to pressure the local government, in the name of
human rights. Before the coming of Christianity, these areas may be “The desire for dialogue, however, is not simply a strategy for
backward, but there were no social unrest. peaceful coexistence among peoples; it is an essential part of the
Church’s mission because it has its origin in the Father’s loving
Certainly this is not a simple case of preaching the gospel. This dialogue of salvation with humanity through the Son in the power
is well-organised, politically-motivated, religious imperialism. The of the Holy Spirit. Religious dialogue is not merely to promote
aim is to replace all other religions with Christianity. In the name mutual understanding; it is port of the church’s mission.”
of religious freedom, they preached, but their ultimate aim is to
eliminate religious freedom and to rule the world with a single “Only Christians who are deeply immersed in the mystery of
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