Battleangel

As noted many times before, religious denominations invariably use misery and natural disasters to pacify, proselytize and boost their numbers in ways that are nothing less than shameful. Christians and Scientologists are by far the most common perpetrators of this sort of nonsense and their activities are in most cases directly linked to the callous power play of the US government, where it is viewed as a White Man’s Burden and a way of making non-integrating areas integrate.

The latest chapter in a long, sad history of proselytizing comes from Thailand, where mostly American protestant denominations have, in the wake of last year’s Tsunami, abused and intimidated children to get their parents to convert to Christianity. It seems that much of the “aid” offered by these faith based organizations is indeed conditional upon conversion. If the needy don’t convert, then apparently “God” cannot help them. Those that do convert can expect clothes, new homes and food in exchange. Others are simply scorned.

In an even more shocking revelation, the same Christian predators have also targeted orphaned children with “generous” t-shirt offerings bearing Christian slogans like “God loves you” and “Jesus is the way and the truth” and messages akin to that. Sinister and exploitative, especially when there is a very serious effort to care for these children locally that needs resources, not proselytizing and designer t-shirts made in America (metaphorically speaking, in reality they were made in sweatshops just to add insult to injury).

[Still looking for an English source for the data. Here is a Swedish article with pictures nevertheless. Expect a full statement to be launched by Unicef and Save the Children shortly. See also: Duang Prateep Foundation; Rotjana Phraesrithong.]

SR International also reported this in brief: Christianity Condition for Tsunami Aid