"Nightline" examines a battle between missionaries and secular anthropologists.
Fans of the classic "Star Trek" television series will be well aware of the Prime Directive, which prohibited Starfleet personnel from interfering in the alien cultures and societies they met. It was an immoral, unworkable rule, however, and Captain Kirk disobeyed it regularly, rarely losing sleep over his decision to do the right thing. Today anthropologists in South America seemingly have their own prime directive: no interfering in native cultures, even when those societies apparently practice infanticide. Christian missionaries, however, are playing the role of Captain Kirk.
Tonight "Nightline explores one such dispute. It involves Youth With A Mission workers who say "the Brazilian government is turning a blind eye to the killing of babies born with birth defects, many of which are treatable by Western medicine" and the Brazilian Department of Indian Affairs, which "is accusing the evangelicals of enslaving Indians and disguising their intent to evangelize." The story is centered on "a girl named Hakani, a member of the Suruwaha Indian tribe, who has been adopted by evangelical missionaries Marcia and Edson Suzuki."
Of course, missionaries have long stood not just for evangelism, but for defending the powerless from injustice. To cite just one example, William Carey, who has come to be known as the father of modern missions, led the fight against the ungodly practice of sati, or widow-burning, in India two centuries ago.
The program is scheduled for 10:35 Central Time on ABC.
Update: The program is scheduled for Wednesday night at 10:35 Central.
Posted by Stan Guthrie on September 23, 2008 3:56PM
Comments
The US uses Economically Enforced Genocide to make poor people have abortions. The US is a barely disguised Fascist society on the road to dictatorship, The Presidents of Venzuuala and Brazil and many other nations are right in that the Bail Out is immoral, and that the United States needs a New Constitution, to replace the one the Very Rich have Ruined.
Posted by: Xeno77777 at September 29, 2008
What is, "the bail out," Xeno, and what does any of this have to do with US politics?
Posted by: Chris (Jesdisciple) at October 2, 2008
Wow, what a distorted column. William Carey led the fight against sati? Really? It wasn't the Buddhist Siddhartha, or Buddhist emperor Ashoka, or Islamic Moghul emperors, or Sikh pandits, or Hindu reformers? Actually William Carey took the practice of sati, an occultic one, and popularized it in the West, saying that "Look, this is what those primitive Indians practice." This distorted argument was then used as a justification for colonialism. Sati, in fact, was an occultic practice, and hardly representative of the religions in India. Despite being illegal for centuries before English colonization, it was practiced, and is still occasionally practiced today. The question here isn't about a single child's life, but if we are setting the groundwork for another distorted power relationship between Christians and Brazil's indigeneous people. Millions of indigeneous people were slaughtered by Christian colonists centuries ago because Christians assumed absolute power over their indigeneous subordinates. As we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely. As a Trekker, I know that Krik would have stood against those in power, but would have worked with the indigeneous people to try and convince them that their practices are no longer valid, and that their children can be treated.
Posted by: John at October 15, 2008
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