Still believe the hostages weren’t missionaries? Read this Chosun Ilbo (English) piece. And I’ll assume that you’ve already seen this.
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Aid Workers, My Ass
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on September 3, 2007 at 12:44 pm, filed under Asides, Korea in the War on Terror. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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23 Comments
religious missionary work is aid.
Subjectively, of course. But, even arguably, objectively, aid it is.
Giving free food is aid.
Giving free food with the gospel is not aid?
Giving bandages is aid.
Giving bandages with the gospel is not aid?
Giving toys is aid.
Giving toys with the gospel is not aid?
Come on, now.
these people spent their money or someone else’s donated money, which could have entitled them to a nice vacation in Europe, US, or some exotic resort.
Instead, they went on this “church tourism” where they did not sleep in 1st class hotels, ate food that is not 1st class, lived without heat, air conditioning, bus boys, cab boys, waiters, etc.
what I fantastic way to tour the world.
Pay way overboard and suffer thru bad conditions.
they were motivated by a sense of righteousness and some sense of self satisfaction.
They spent their time learning various Afghan languages and getting medical and education training. Somebody should go to jail for that.
Jesus. Not everything is so black and white, Bob. I know missionaries. And I’ll tell you the stuff they do does not in the least consist of shoving gospel down people’s throats, and instead usually consists of helping build houses and manual-labor shit.
Besides, the article is addressing the response of the church involved. It doesn’t describe the nature of the work thes
*nature of the work the missionaries were doing. I don’t believe anyone was confused about the fact that the group were in Afghanistan as “missionaries,” though their church were denying it.
I find this really funny:
“In a sermon on Aug. 12, he suggested the abduction of the church members might be “a revelation of God” and the blood of the two hostages killed by Taliban kidnappers was “not spilled in vain” but would “bear religious fruit some day,” according to a Protestant online newspaper. ”
Of course! There’s no such thing as a simple “oops, my stupidity cost two friends their lives…” in this god-think.
So what? At the time they went to Afghanistan, there was no Korean law or regulation prohibiting overseas travel — even to Afghanistan — for missionary activity. There still isn’t, by the way.
They’re flogging something (belief in Jesus) they sincerely believe is good for you. At worst, they’re like Marin County New Age dips, asking you to irrigate your colon for health.
What about their visas for Afghanistan? I wonder if they had the appropriate stamp for the kind of activities they were engaged in at the time.
#5
Of course, popular opinion shouldn’t make an act right or wrong. And at the end of the day, neither should laws. But I think there is sufficient room for individual judgment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocPVnI_veOM
was food and toys still passed out to those parrots?
then, it is aid.
aid with strings attached, but still aid.
aid with something extra they consider to be aid, but still aid.
Where was Mohamed-clause ?
Why couldn’t he provide the aid?
I’m sure they could provide more aid, if they weren’t busy from Iran and Syria to export and smuggle bullets, rifles, bombs, and mortar shells, and perhaps even artiallary guns to kill fellow Muslims in Afghansitan and Iraq.
Now, be honest. This is aid as aid is from Iran and Syria’s perspective. This is their aid to Iraq.
And Afghanistan.
I’ll take the annoying door-to-door, anyday.
did you miss the aid from Damascus to Lebanon?
You must have missed it.
The world condemns Bush, but nay a word against Damascus, Teheran, Beijing, or Moscow.
Hypocrisy.
Probably not, considering that they were skulking around the countryside without having told the proper authorities… Of course, with them back in South Korea, I think it’s fairly safe to say that the Afghan government isn’t going to prosecute the visa violations.
a-letheia — How dare you link to such a clearly falsified video. abcdefg has already made it quite clear he knows missionaries, and the stuff they do does not in the least consist of shoving gospel down people’s throats.
#7 – Hilarious.
Got any video of Kennedy’s assassination and the grassy knoll?
The Daily Kos’ media department has a job for a person like you. Did you know that heat doesn’t melt steel?
And it’s such a heart-warming message the missionaries were bringing too. Jesus loves you…and fries Muslims in hell.
yeah, but from their viewpoint, they’re doing good by at least telling you. That’s all the NT demands. Let people make an informed choice.
Especially considering they are doing this not at gun-point like the Europeans did for centuries, what exactly is so wrong about this?
Is this some sort of retrospective white guilt over making colonies and abusing the natives with the pretext of religion?
I am not aware of any South Korean colonies blessed with the Korean Presbyterian Church’s mandate.
I seriously am not.
Objectively, this is as harmless as grass roots, door to door campaigning for a US Presidential Candidate.
No harm, no foul.
Don’t shoot the religion down, because whites and Arabs chose wars to black eye the religion. Koreans are clean on this matter.
Is not a colony a place where people go to a foreign country, clump together, speak their own language, eat their own food, engage in their distinctive economic activity and not follow the local laws? Have you never heard of Los Angeles, California?
I seem to be losing count… is this the fourth or the fifth thread in which WJK used the ‘it’s okay that X is being assholes, because whitey did worse in the past’ reasoning?
yeah, I heard of Los Angeles, or Na Sung, but that’s not a real colony.
Plus, like I said elsewhere or here, people under 40 years old and immigrating learn the local English language, even pick up on Spanish and do a pretty good job fitting into greater America.
about the only leechers I can think of are old Koreans who came strictly via family invites, hardly worked a day in the US, and manage to collect welfare and medicare, although they hardly worked for either, but their sons and daughters claim they worked their butts off to deserve their parents to get it. But, I disagree. But, that’s just me.\
But, come on, Mr. Carr. That’s not a Korean colony. ROK govt has no power over it.
I agree with wjk, that’s not a Korean colony anymore than Yongsan is a US colony.
Re the other point - ask any Korean in Fairfax VA and they’ll tell you there is an awful lot of welfare fraud in the Korean community, i.e. employed people claiming welfare, as is perhaps to be expected when so many people are working semi-formally in family/clan businesses. Which is not to say that they are scamming Uncle Sam any more than another ethnicity, but still.
To get back to the original point at issue: if I go somewhere to play golf, and I tip the caddy, I still did not go to the golf course to tip the caddy. And those missionaries did not go to Afghanistan to provide aid.
Technically yes but still practically there is intersection between the two. They are not in the latter sense mutually exclusive. I go to the golf course to tip the caddy, but in the process play many rounds of golf. What’s important? The technical label (”caddy tipper”) or the actual activity? Also, nobody - save perhaps that church - describes these fools as “aid workers.” They’ve been known as “Korean missionaries” the world over and even “missionary” is ambiguous enough these days. — I don’t suppose it means the Korean missionaries starved and whipped Afghanis into a room and had them sing happy songs in Korean lyrics? Seolma! No way that’s been on youtube!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi.....973021.stm
bbc news.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/.....newssearch
cnn news.
“Christian Aid Workers.”
Yong San is different. It is a US colony, oops, base, um, that was under more US govt control than ROK control, and defended with arms. It took over a Japanese colonial military base to keep Seoul in check.
I’m sure wjk is right on here, and when life ends, you’ll be saying
wjk was right.
I’m just kidding.
there’s no way those Afghan kids were starved to parrot.
more likely induced with goodies.
Goodies that Iran couldn’t provide.
Iran provides bullets, but not kiddie goodies.
I’ve been inside Yong San to learn English from US Army Lt’s. It was a warp to the United States. Everything from miguk cars, miguk stop signs, miguk chips and pop, you name it.
More like Mr. Carr’s definition of a colony than Los Angeles is to the ROK.
Not all of Los Angeles, just part of it. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which part.