Friday, May 11, 2007

Oh how we misunderstand!

This blog of a fellow traveler in Asia, Chad Mast's World Race for Jesus demonstrates how some people can still go to a new place distant in culture and space, filled with beauty and an ancient spiritual tradition, completely misunderstand it and attempt to destroy it.

This activity has been labeled as "religious terrorism" by a friend of a friend.

Unfortunately, his view is one that is shared by millions of Americans...

4 comments:

Unknown said...

what do they mean by planting tracts?

michael smith said...

Dictionary definition number 2 for tract: "A tract is a short treatise in pamphlet form, typically on a religious subject."

"Planting tracts" refers to a Christian missionary practice where one leaves the tracts in various places to be found and read later by whoever finds it. Usually the modern evangelical Christian tract will begin by detailing the horrors of hell, the result of a life lived in sin, separated from God and his son Jesus Christ. They ask the reader if they have "accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts as their personal Lord and Savior," and remind them that if they don't they are destined for the Lake of Fire after death, quoting a variety of Bible verses. They usually provide contact information at the end for a Christian community that they can join in order "grow in faith."

The fact that our friend Chad actually referred to his practice of nighttime covert planting of tracts as "tract bombing" could illustrate the motivation of the practice: to reach a lot of people in a destructive way.

Unknown said...

oh so those are called tracts. received a couple of those from close friends. handwritten.. personalised versions...luckily, still managed to keep the friendships though I must admit the friendship ain't the same once I 'worked things out' with them.

hmm.... destructive to the local culture yes. perhaps in his eyes, it's more like mass explosive liberation

Anonymous said...

Be patient with them, they know not what they do.

Uncle Bill