Obviously certain aid workers (assuming the story is true as presented) never bothered to read the tale of the Good Samaritan.  Idjits.

It figures. Leave it up to the crazy religious nutjobs to try to exploit a world trajedy to further their own gains.

As one of this sites token Christians, I would like to publicly disavow any relationship between my beliefs (and my God) and those of these people. These are the fringe of the fringe.

I can rattle off at least five major “big” rules/beliefs that such behavior violates, and can’t think of one that it supports.

My malicious side wouldn’t mind seeing others do unto them, as they have done unto others.

Calls to mind tales of the “saintly” mother Theresa who demanded baptism & conversion of orphans before they were admitted to her hostel.Christian behavior there! - Hey,if i’m seriosly mistaken and there is a god,at least that bitch will have been toasting her toes for awhile before me.Ha-ha.

This has been a problem in Africa for some time - you have Muslim families that are promised aid only if they convert to Christianity. Many devoted African muslims would rather die than change their faith.

Exploiting tragedy for personal gain isn’t limited to the religious nutjobs—you can find examples of this behavior in your inbox every day. As Neil points out, this is a problem among some missionary groups and has been for centuries, but it’s not representative of all of them and I wanted to make that clear in the entry.

I have no problems with folks lending other folks a helping hand because they believe their religious beliefs dictate that they should—in fact I think it’s one of the few positives that religious belief sometimes brings to people—but I do have a problem when it’s used as a means to an end in trying to gain new converts. It would be another thing if said conversions were the result of witnessing the compassion and charity of the folks giving the aid, but it’s entirely another when it’s brought about by using said aid as a bribe.

Then the only true response is “Yeah, we’ll convert. Just leave the the crate of bibles along with the food, water, and clothing.”

Then when they’ve gone, burn the crate for warmth. (Don’t use ‘em for cooking, though - they probably contain toxic chemicals in their jackets and ink).

Why aren’t the Catholics over their power trip by now?!?  They should be kicked out of the tsunami area altogether if they can’t even be good stewards of their own religion.  I wonder what the pope would say.  This is outrageous.

Like everything else in our society the bad always get the publicity.  There are people in every situation who take advantage.  All blacks do not get in trouble and all whites are not rich.
Polish people are not stupid and all gays do not have aids. I believe that we as a society also tend to excentuate the bad and ignor the good!  There must be some Christian groups who have done a wonderful job helping others and some have even sacrificed thier lives. Why don’t they get equal time?

The thing I find most disturbing is that these missionaries somehow believed they were doing the right thing.

According to other reports, this is not an isolated incident and these people have been exploited by Christians and Muslims from various sects.  The Christians even going so far as to view 200 orphans removed from a village as instruments to be used to gain a foothold in the area for proselytizing.

An interesting story in Ekklesia points out that the American Tract Society has created new pamphlets focusing on the disaster throughout history to be handed out to the victims.  Sick bastards.

You know, I have no problem with people picking and choosing to whom they give their charity.  It’s their choice.  But using it as a “convert or die” foil is dickless.

But this behavior is not at all surprising from the god-soaked freaks who become religious missionaries.  It never ceases to amaze me the complete hypocrisy of organized religion.  Even strict interpretations of christian doctrine would require christians to help all in need, regardless of their religious beliefs.

...but it’s still a reminder of why I oppose things such as Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

As a member of one the countries smallest minorities (Atheist, conservative, hawk, bush-supporter), I am (surprisingly perhaps) for the whole faith-based initiative thing.  Any measure that moves charity from government the private sector is a positive move, IMHO.  It also encourages those of us not in that mindless demographic to also step up and provide charitable programs as well. 

I do hope that if there is any public funding prodided to a private group, faith-based or other, they are required to provide services Irregardless of agenda.  We should all push for that.

“Then the only true response is “Yeah, we’ll convert. Just leave the the crate of bibles along with the food, water, and clothing.�?

Then when they’ve gone, burn the crate for warmth. (Don’t use ‘em for cooking, though - they probably contain toxic chemicals in their jackets and ink). “

Nahh… the paper can be used in the restroom.

I think you mean the charismatic movement darling, Mr Benny Hinn. What a freak. Making himself akin to Jesus and bashing his enemies is what this guy does best.

As a member of one the countries smallest minorities (Atheist, conservative, hawk, bush-supporter),

Damn, I thought I was the only one….....

The incident is an exception to concerted charity in a catastrophe that has left no one untouched.(ANI)

We may have gone slghtly too far here.  I am sure the overwhelming majority of aid heading to this area come with no strings attatched.  It is also VERY interesting that the aid workers in question are not identified in the story.  Surely someone got a license plate number.

But when the recyclers met the Revenue Department officials to get their solatium, they were told it would materialise only if they returned to MGR Nagar, where their deads and others have been buried. �?How can we walk on the graves of our kin. Once we were beggars; now we eke out a living recycling waste products. But we are treated inhumanly even by the dalits themselves. We did not even go to the relief camps after both dalits and Meenava chettiars told us we were not welcome,” says V Pichai,

just a small selection of an article about Hindu Aid Intolerance.  original can be found at

here

so sorry for triple posting les.

Christians have been doing this for years. Look at the Salvation Army. What do you think they do any different in the good ole USA?

Seriously, think about it, most Christians (or any other religion) believe what they do because their parents told them it was true. The only way they can grow is to force their religion on others. Either by having more children or “you can live if you adopt my beliefs and force it on your children”.

It’s a sad world when religion gets involved. They have perverted the instict for survival of the species to some religious dogma.

I cannot automatically believe this story to be true. I am true skeptic-I hardly believe ANYTHING! You know, none of what you read and only half of what you see. If it is true it is incredibly stupid to think this conversion would make any difference if it was forced. Then you’d be talking about a quota system. Perhaps the aid providers were really AMWAY distributors in disguise. Then again, the main reason Christianity flourished was from “lip service” conversions. The dark ages European kings that converted only did it for political power.

Raised a strict Christian, it hurts me when things like this happen, and believe me they do all over the world. I’ve been ousted from my own religion simply because I refused to fall to the hypocrytical masses. I believe in faith in something, yet, if that something tells you that you cannot deliver aid to those in need simply because of their personal religious beliefs, then as a human I think one needs to step back and re-evaluate their beliefs and the foundations thereof.

Jay-zus!

Ant, don’t start giving Amway any ideas!

This is slightly off track, but if you have quicktime enabled you might be interested with what Ken Kesey has to say over at The Edge.

I am a non-Christian that works for an organization that’s pretty much entirely Christian but in a very low-key way.  “Inter-denominational”, I like to call them.  We had a half-million meals (another two million slated by mid-February) and roughly forty tons of medical supplies and another twenty of miscellaneous household goods/clothing items to be sent to Indonesia.  The NGO (non-governmental organization) in Indonesia that was organized enough to distribute this quantity of aid had ties to Christian missionaries.  Good guys - I’ve met them all and they passed my bullshit-ometer - and, more importantly, had their act together better than even the Red Cross in that area.  These missionaries are humble, humble people who believe that “people will know our Christianity because of our good works and not our words”.  Nary a Bible to be seen; no preaching, nothing.  Just good works.

We were denied clearance to ship these items because it was “a vehicle of the Christian faith” because of our peripheral ties to the missionaries.

This makes me sick, on both sides of the fence.  The Christians who deny relief to the suffering people and Muslims (or whatever group - I’m not having a bash at Muslims in particular) who deny the acceptance of said relief.  It’s only the hard-line fundies on either side who take that stance, and they tend to make those decisions in a vacuum.

If everything I held dear was currently at the bottom of the ocean and someone offered me help, provided I accepted Christ?  I’d bake the communion wafers *myself*.  Wouldn’t believe in it, but I’d go through the motions.  If, say, I were a Canadian facing a plane full of Americans who were diverted after 9-11 you’d better believe I’d be the first in line with soup and mattresses.  Even if they were brown; even if they looked like Barbara Streisand.

I don’t think that faith in God has any place in the decision-making process of humanitarian aid distribution because if God were doing his job this shit wouldn’t have happened in the first place, and we wouldn’t have to be counting on mere mortals to pick up the slack.

If you don’t attend the service, you don’t get fed shit: this is the practice at every homeless mission in the country as best as I know.

For the sake of truth, news reporters should not even permit them to claim the mantle of Christianity. Refer to them as a faux-Christian relief organization.

If the KKK called itself a Christian ngo, would the journalists parrot that? Then why do they permit groups like these to wear a banner that promotes the opposite of what the religion does?

Stories like this are why I avoid donating money to any religious (or faith based, which is the ‘in’ term at the moment) charity these days unless I know exactly where it’s going. I don’t want my money being used to build churches or blackmail starving third world citizens into converting. I’m not even giving to the Salvos anymore, since lately they’re growing more and more open with their religious mission.

I’m giving as much as ever to charitible organisations, though now that I’m donating to secular groups which I’ve checked out beforehand and found to have no religious or political agenda, I know it’s doing good.

I have to agree, people over there are in position to refuse aid, I would take the wafer if it meant feeding my family, and just sack the religion off when the time was right.

Perhaps maybe these people want to hold a bit of integrity and don’t want to commit themselves to something they don’t believe in, but I suppose integrity and honesty are wasted when the other party are not being that way themselves.

I don’t remember a passage in the bible where it said, love thy neighbour if they believe in me. Christianity is all about selfless love, without an agenda. These missionaries certainly have one.

But I don’t think any favours are being made either side, the Muslims refusing aid to people who are desperate for it, and christians refusing aid (and denying their fundamental beiefs. A sad, modern tale of really what religion is all about. Power, greed, and monopoly. If all the money ploughed into churches and 3.5 million dollar homes for preachers were used to help the poor via secular organisations, the world would be a better place.