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The Akha:
The
Mission Agenda
The Mission Agenda:The Missionary Cold War
How missions work and affect the lives and
independence of the Akha and their freedom to their own religion and
culture. How the villages are broken and converted.
***
The involvement and structure of the mission system in north Thailand
is very important to understand, but of greatest importance is to understand
that the Akha as a people have a right to their own tradition and culture
under international law, and this right is certainly not being protected.
It is one thing to say that the Church has a question of character and
morality in this matter, but ultimately the failure to protect the Akha
and their culture must fall in part both on the Thai government and
International organizations and the Missions. The missions, since they
are the perpetrators, are the chief defendant in the matter.
The history of missions is long, through the centuries, from crusades
to the new world, a political order that always claimed it wasn't. Always
converting and eliminating tribal cultures and often tribal peoples,
subjegating smaller groups into the larger ones, assisting colonialization
and assimilization. A growth industry on the back of others, following
close to the exploitation of resources and lands that the indigenous
live on. This parallel situation is very hard for missionaries to admit
to. They are woefully ignorant of anything but the polished, carefully
selected version of their conquest history. It is quite amazing that
anyone denies this political role and goal of missions does not exist,
but quite a few still do make this denial.
In Thailand there is functioning both the Catholic Church and the Protestant
Church. They both work with the Akha. The Catholic Church is under one
structure, while the protestant efforts are under many structures. There
are a few umbrella organizations that house many of the individual organizations
of the protestants, but this certainly does not cover them all. Since
the protestants do not organize a visible central structure, though
they often work in such a way quietly, they can claim security from
appeal to any such organization. Their makeup of many missions, churches,
individuals, all claiming to be unaffiliated makes bringing them to
justice for their crimes that much more difficult.
They are here for a reason. We are not sure what all those reasons are,
but it certainly appears to be based on inherant needs of the individuals
in these organizations and not much on the needs of the people whom
they work with, in this case the Akha.
The need of the missionary individual is to stay out of hell, and they
feel that in order to ensure this, they must also keep a few other people
out of hell by converting them to the same fear paradym. This is the
driving force of the missionaries, you won't meet one that wants to
talk the Bible or the details and justifications of all this. At best,
rather than logic and blow by blow discussion you will encounter rhetoric
and quotations. Obviously these people are very insecure, very unsure
of themselves, and really are quite afraid to think for themselves.
Many of them have their lives, years and years, buried in such ventures
and if it were inspected now, the validity, well, might be more than
they could handle, that they had wasted much time and years. Or had
just been wrong.
We don't mind that people believe different than we do but we wonder
why they can't even argue their own belief system? For instance, say
if we said we agreed that it is good to keep people out of hell. We
might add that we believe that for the sake of argument because we also
believe that it is good to try and prevent bad things from happening
to people, much in the same way the Thai highway department is installing
guard rails in the mountains along the side of steep roads. So then
we would ask the missions, that if saving people from harm is the point,
then why is not the money focused to do the most good, water, medical
care, human rights, etc rather than build big church buildings?
But they are not so interested in such things. Many Christians make
careful distinctions before giving away money. One is that they are
around to save souls only, the costly church buildings are for this
reason, and they aren't allowed to spend for saving from other things.
Ok, saved from snake bites but not malaria. Odd support system they
do have indeed.
This explains their casual disregard of the living and human rights
conditions of the Akha. It is just much easier to build a church and
claim success. When you need more to do, and when you need to show how
compassionate missionaries are in helping others where the Buddhists
won't then you can cross the line and borrow one or two human needs
also, to show how much you care for these poor folk. But, the real goal
is evangelization, and the rest is borrowed for additional kudos.
For this same reason, having supplied a village with a church, the missionaries
feel no guilt at going home and living and eating well in Chiangrai,
Chiangmai or elsewhere, because they have done their job. This is a
very careful good news, or "gospel" as they are so fond of calling it.
This is the purpose of their work, to spread the "good news" the gospel.
However, the good part of the news is very limited. When this is pointed
out, the missions must refer to their mission packet for working with
the Akha. In this mission packet, built, embellished upon, and added
to as the years go buy, are the standard protective answers that they
have for being basically racist bigots that they are. "Oh, the Akha
are bound in the spirit of bondage, that is why they must suffer and
die till they come out of it and think like us." And so goes the thinking
and the neighborhood.
The missionaries can not cope with the fact of how good they all live,
compared to the Akha they claim to help. In only one or two situations
are missionaries living in the villages and this is for the sole purpose
of putting a complete end to the culture and converting them all to
be good American style mindless evangelicals.
Goals of the missions and why we have a problem:
The chief effect of the missions is to deny the Akha their right to
be who they are, keep their own culture and traditions. The missionaries
wish to impose a different one, one of the west, on these people. This
is made easier by the poverty, another reason that the missions do not
fight the poverty in the villages. To fight the poverty would make them
less able to succeed in forcing their religion on the Akha.
The missionaries lie and go to great length to deny that this is what
they are doing, taking away the Akha right to freedom to their own religion
and culture. These people are criminal by every measure of international
law guaranteeing the Akha the right to be who they are, religiously
and culturally. Further the missionaries seldom speak the language and
have little clue to the culture of the Akha. It isn't like their own
so it is wrong. That is all.
We would like to point out the fact that the missions are not here in
any limited kind of way. They are not here to convert a maximum of ten
villages. They feel compelled due to their belief system, no matter
how filled with contradictions it is, that they must convert the entire
earth to their way of thinking. They must have proof that they are succeeding
and this need for proof brings many errors and ills with it also.
But it must be constantly pointed out, that this is their belief system,
that they, number one, not only feel they must do and impose, they also
in a self fulfilling way, feel that it must be their right to convert
all to believe like them, or they are not having religious freedom.
They say nothing about the right of the other people whom they wish
to convert to be left alone, to practice their own culture.
Further, there is no unified theory of what their own religion is, so
every individual and group comes with a different definition, within
the greater pool. The greater effort accepts this based on the idea
that at least everyone will be converted to some form of social Christianity.
We say social Christianity because if you ask these people what it means
to be a Christian, they will say that in reality many people are not
"true Christians", are only church goers. But they try to at least convert
villagers to this first status, in order to increase the second, but
would deny they are related. So we convert an Akha village to be Christian,
but are they all Christians, don't know, ok.
So one of our cases against these people is that they are converting
the villages to an acceptable form of evangelical american style religious
culture first of all and that this does not have anything to do with
what their own Bible even claims to be about, mass social movements
not really being the focus of the Bible.
So how does this spell out for the Akha?
Since there are no limits to what the missions want, we can assume that
their goals at conversion want it all. For the Akha, this means they
want all Akha villages converted, their culture put an end to. It really
doesn't matter if there is later on inner strife with two and three
churches sprouting up. They have been converted first off and the details
can be sorted out later. That the Akha were not allowed to be who they
wished to be is not of a matter.
So the goal is to convert all the Akha, to take over by force of outside
pressure, all Akha villages in Thailand, Burma, Laos and China.
None of the missions involved will discuss the specific problems involved
in this, though they do admit problems exist. In many cases, due to
many efforts on my part to expose this missionary campaign, they are
going to length to mask their true efforts by pretending to care for
the culture of the Akha. They are liars.
Over the past 80 years the missions have destroyed much of Akha culture,
displaced the youth, abandoned the youth would be better to say, converting
them out of being Akha into being nothing with no place at all unless
it is the church, which hardly matches the knowlegde and past they came
from.
In Akha.org you will see many photos and additional commentary on this
process that they have brought about in the mountains.
Current situation:
We would now like to go on to mention the current situation with the
Akha and what the missions are doing to them.
Currently the mission, numbering in the scores, are working to break
the last of the traditional Akha villages and strenthen their grip on
the existing villages. This is a political colonization. Surely the
US embassy and the Thai government are aware of it and in agreement
that it can go on, or law would be used to stop it.
Most of the missions are from the US.
We have numerous villages now that are being split or under pressure
to split. The missions involved are known, who they are, how they are
working, who they are paying to do the dirty work.
Requests to the UN for assistance in the matter go unheeded.
The traditional elders are pushed aside and given no choice. Though
it is illegal for people who don't follow the Akha way to live in the
village, these new converts that have been converted in the villages,
insist on staying and building a church and defying the leadership of
the village. In the past they used to seperate to another village, fine
enough. They no longer do, insisting that it is easier just to break
the whole village. Christians say that they are suppose to obey those
in authority. Missionaries deny this. They have a way of breaking every
rule that they themselves say they believe in.
Once pushed aside, not only are the elders reduced, when there are enough
converts in the village who have taken control, then they will be pushed
to claim the village as a Christian village, against the wishes of the
elders, and then they forbid all Akha religion in the village, taking
the village over and then forbidding the village the same religious
freedom they insisted upon.
This is a war, a cold war of religious and political terrorism being
waged against the Akha in the mountains. No bullets, just lots of force.
Many people comment that the Akha must agree to this or it wouldn't
happen. This is not at all the case. Well paid Akha are sent to force
a conversion, step by step on the new village. The intruder does not
work, does not farm and is not from that village. They are paid insurgents,
paid trouble makers. They find the weakest point in the village, some
family with a problem with the existing leadership, and then the power
battle is on. Divide and conquer.
*** (This being the biggest ploy of the
protestant dominated US). So the excesses of the Catholic structure
could be made to look like they had been done away with, while still
retaining in full the nasty habits of the lesser character of humanity
when combined with the power excesses of religion.
Where as the Catholic church was centralized and powerful, the protestant
church is decentralized and less powerful. If it was a reformation movement,
it was only briefly so. The final result of the movement was many little
units of the church which have basically no oversight or accountability,
and definitely will not answer questions, the most notable part of any
religious authority or government. The failure to answer questions they
don't like which would expose corruption, human rights abuses and the
very lack of freedom of religion, as in freedom from their religion.)
I advise that you contact the American Embassy in Thailand, the Thai
Embassy closest to you, the Thai government, The UN and your federal
representatives in your respective countries and insist that IMMEDIATE
ENFORCEMENT of Thai and International occur, and that there is an immediate
moratorium on church building and prosyletization in Akha villages.
The number of Akha villages that have been over run bring the situation
for the remaining villages to a crisis level, and they stand alone,
no justice for these people.
Two nights ago at Mae Chan Luang Village behind Doi Maesalong we attended
a meeting where the headman asked the outside Akha pastor to quit coming
to the village and trying to split it. He has currently split off 11
families.
He is sponsored from Joh Seh Thai Akha village on the Mae Chan to Thatong
Highway, and by the Taiwanese who are behind that in alliance with a
church in the Town of Huai Krai. This is a different mission, but the
same town from which the German Missionary comes from which harrasses
Huuh Mah Akha, has placed an outside Akha missionary in that village
as well.
You may gladly protest loudly to all Taiwanese Embassies.
In many ways the missions are like the communist collectivization of
the Kulaks in Russia that drove them into starvation by probably the
millions as mentioned extensively by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.
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