PIRACY VS EVANGELISM

In the next few days I am finally going to weigh in on some events and issues that have been percolating in my fertile brain. Like the Wisconsin “showdown” and the latest from the pirates of the Indian ocean. They seem undeterred by the menacing presence of warships. They seem not afraid to “duke it out” with the biggest navy in the world, - To a tragic ending: four people killed, two pirates dead, and the question: will they learn the lesson that the world will not tolerate these random, careless and stupid acts of terror? That's the party line. There's more.

Look at the previous high-jacking of a 54 foot private yacht with four people aboard. Those hostages are now somewhere in the anarchy of Somalia, and the U.S. State department is making noises of outrage, as if that will daunt these outlaws. But, is it possible that the hijacking of that yacht, speaks to more than anarchy and chaos.

I have no time for the pirates who kidnap helpless people and hold them for ransom, sometimes torturing, even killing them. You try to understand the genesis of the piracy. It began as a revolt against world indifference. It began because the already marginal fisherman who worked the coast of Somalia found their fish stock poisoned. Thousands of tons of toxic garbage has for many year been dropped in the sea off the coast of Somalia. The Somalis having no working government and not much concern from the rest of the world, were powerless to stop rogue contractors who carted tons of toxic waste from "developed" countries and dumped it in their waters. The countries and companies who turned a blind eye to what was happening to their garbage are very much to blame. The world community is very much to blame. Doing what has been done to Somalia and letting it happen would be like not noticing that BP was ruining the G7ulf of Mexico and depriving thousands of fisherman of a living. (Remember too that BP already has terrible safety record. Remember the chemical explosion just a couple of years back?)

It took acts of blatant terror, high-seas piracy, to mobilize resources to do what? To stop the reckless disposal of toxic trash off the coast of a country with no government to defend it? No. They mobilized naval vessels to attack the pirates. The U.S. State Department will be very much involved in the repatriation of this unfortunate couple.

The “righteous” pirates have turned into thugs. I am sure that most of them have no memory of what started it all. They are not fighting for justice, they are criminals.

There is another side to this latest story. It is a tale of religious hubris. It is a couple, well-intentioned perhaps, who see it as their mission to “civilize” the non-believers. Their “mission” was not to travel the world in search of peace and some adventure for themselves. It was to preach the gospel to the “un-saved.” The gratuitous and thoughtless propagation of a religion that is not only foreign, but detested by the very people who are being given these Bibles. And you can be sure that the Bibles are not simply the Old Testament, but the New Testament, with its salvation through Jesus.

Believe what you will, but stop the missionary work. You insult people. You degrade their beliefs as unworthy. You are a throwback to the old colonial days where the new Masters confronted the pagan savages with the “Book” in one hand, and the rifle in the other.

There is no longer any legitimacy to Somali piracy. Just as there is no longer legitimacy to the wanton preaching of a gospel that is alien to millions of people.