"For people who believe that everyone should be reached and that this life is short and fleeting and ephemeral and that the most important thing is a person's eternal destiny, the mandate makes sense," Kidd says. Kidd nevertheless emphasizes the importance of showing some respect for Chau's evangelical efforts. But if it is true that was just setting out on his own and patently breaking the law, I think most Christians would say, this is not the right way to go about missionary work." "You see examples of that with Paul in the New Testament. "You certainly have cases in Christian history where people basically went out alone," says Thomas Kidd, a historian of religion at Baylor University. The story of Chau's killing has been widely discussed on Christian blogs and in evangelical circles. "We knew John Chau was extremely well-prepared to face risk and that he was a very calm and stable person with a good head on his shoulders and very good common sense," Ho said. "We trained him to share the message of the love of God in a culturally relevant and honoring manner."Īsked repeatedly whether the agency knew of Chau's specific plans, approved of them and felt comfortable with his intent to go alone to North Sentinel, Ho declined to answer.
"We trained him to do things like honor cultures and culture shock," Ho said. Ho did not describe any training Chau may have gotten that would have equipped him to deal with a hostile population whose language he did not understand without interpreters, a local guide or assistance of any kind. It was his life's mission to go to the island and share the goodness of Jesus Christ." "He got himself trained as a wilderness EMT and was trained in linguistics and cultural anthropology. "He was preparing for this mission to North Sentinel since he was about 18 years old, and he started even before he came to All Nations," says Mary Ho, the agency's international executive leader. Indian police authorities have concluded, for now, that it is impossible to retrieve the body, given the risk of a confrontation with the Sentinelese people.Ĭhau was partly supported in his venture by All Nations, a Christian missions agency based in Kansas City, Mo., though the extent of his connection to the group is not clear. The next day the fishermen saw the islanders dragging Chau's body along the beach and then burying it. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed." "You guys might think I'm crazy in all this," he said, "but I think it's worth it to declare Jesus to these people. 16, Chau left instructions with the fishermen for contacting friends, family and colleagues. "Lord," he wrote, "is this island Satan's last stronghold, where none have heard or even had a chance to hear your name?" He dared go no closer, but in journal entries he described how he went back later with gifts to offer, only to retreat again when a young man shot an arrow at him. Jesus Christ gave me authority to come to you." "My name is John!" he hollered when he spotted some Sentinelese men onshore.
He hired local fishermen to take him near the island and then ventured closer in a kayak, disregarding local laws that prohibited outsiders from visiting the island. How on earth could he have witnessed to them?" "Chau could not have preached to these people," Dreher wrote. "Even though I share his faith, Chau had no business going to those people," wrote Rod Dreher, a Christian writer whose blog in The American Conservative is widely read. As a result, any intrusion by outsiders, Chau included, could bring communicable diseases against which the islanders had no immunity.
For centuries, the Sentinelese have resisted all contact with the outside world, sometimes violently. The island is inhabited by a few hundred people whose ancestors are believed to have migrated to the Andaman archipelago from Africa more than 50,000 years ago. via ReutersĬhristians who are killed while on a mission to spread the Gospel are often considered martyrs and treated as heroes of the faith.īut there has been little celebration for John Allen Chau, the 26-year-old American missionary who was killed by indigenous people this month after sneaking onto North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal. Listen John Allen Chau, an American self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary, was killed and buried by a tribe of hunter-gatherers on a remote island in the Indian Ocean where he had gone to proselytize, according to local law enforcement officials.
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