An 'encounter' with foreign missionaries
Newindpress.com
CHENNAI: It was around 8.30 a.m. on a working day morning. Almost all the houses in the Kellys locality were abuzz with activity. That’s when two aged foreign women – one extremely old and short of breath and another one in a bulkier frame with an assertive face – landed at my house.
Being a journalist, I was enjoying my morning cuppa with newspapers when they wished me “good morning.” I greeted them in return, all the time wondering what these fair-skinned women were upto.
Both stood near my gate for some time, as if contemplating something. I felt a bit uneasy about making them stand in the hot morning sun. But I had no other option because I have no chairs at my small house in Purasawalkam, where I had moved in just the day before. Not that they seemed to care, anyway.
One of them suddenly fired a question at me: “Brother, are you aware of the things happening around the world?” It did not take me much time to realise what they were up to, so ‘early’ that morning. That was a typical question, repeated time and again by those who wanted to get their point across and capture the attention of the unassuming audience on their strong belief in God and His powers to change things that you are already ‘aware’ of or are going to learn.
I first preferred to smile back rather than answer in the negative. But they mistook my smile for the ignorance of an innocent lamb and unleashed horrible prophecies for the future: “You know that the world is going to suffer. The end of the world is very near.
Everything has been going wrong. People are paying the price for neglecting God and acting according to the words of Satan. Only God can save us. Bible had predicted this centuries ago and it’s going to happen if you do not follow the path of God.” The lecture just went on.
With animated energy, the stout woman - a British citizen who had been staying in Chennai for some years - ‘acted’ out the horrible incidents in store for the mankind.
I could not sit for long with that smile on my face. I interrupted and started arguing. I had to recall what Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Canterbury Tales in the 14th century, where he talked about all-round social degradation, including the clergy, T S Eliot’s Wasteland in the early 20th century, where he almost wrote off hope on Mother Earth due to political and social degeneration. I told them that this was our ‘glorified’ past. The present, for human beings, is always a crisis.
They just switched over the arguments to the value of Bible and the reason why God punished Adam. I also had a few arguments with them on that. They no more talked of disaster and bad things in store for humankind. They were more keen on saying why the Bible should be followed, or rather, why you should become a Christian – to live a ‘safe’ life. They wrote my name in a diary they were carrying and left immediately.
”How can these missionaries scare people with these baseless stories? They target people from the lower strata of society, a majority of whom are illiterate and blind to scientific facts?” I heard my room-mate mutter inside.
Did someone say a loud YES?
CHENNAI: It was around 8.30 a.m. on a working day morning. Almost all the houses in the Kellys locality were abuzz with activity. That’s when two aged foreign women – one extremely old and short of breath and another one in a bulkier frame with an assertive face – landed at my house.
Being a journalist, I was enjoying my morning cuppa with newspapers when they wished me “good morning.” I greeted them in return, all the time wondering what these fair-skinned women were upto.
Both stood near my gate for some time, as if contemplating something. I felt a bit uneasy about making them stand in the hot morning sun. But I had no other option because I have no chairs at my small house in Purasawalkam, where I had moved in just the day before. Not that they seemed to care, anyway.
One of them suddenly fired a question at me: “Brother, are you aware of the things happening around the world?” It did not take me much time to realise what they were up to, so ‘early’ that morning. That was a typical question, repeated time and again by those who wanted to get their point across and capture the attention of the unassuming audience on their strong belief in God and His powers to change things that you are already ‘aware’ of or are going to learn.
I first preferred to smile back rather than answer in the negative. But they mistook my smile for the ignorance of an innocent lamb and unleashed horrible prophecies for the future: “You know that the world is going to suffer. The end of the world is very near.
Everything has been going wrong. People are paying the price for neglecting God and acting according to the words of Satan. Only God can save us. Bible had predicted this centuries ago and it’s going to happen if you do not follow the path of God.” The lecture just went on.
With animated energy, the stout woman - a British citizen who had been staying in Chennai for some years - ‘acted’ out the horrible incidents in store for the mankind.
I could not sit for long with that smile on my face. I interrupted and started arguing. I had to recall what Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Canterbury Tales in the 14th century, where he talked about all-round social degradation, including the clergy, T S Eliot’s Wasteland in the early 20th century, where he almost wrote off hope on Mother Earth due to political and social degeneration. I told them that this was our ‘glorified’ past. The present, for human beings, is always a crisis.
They just switched over the arguments to the value of Bible and the reason why God punished Adam. I also had a few arguments with them on that. They no more talked of disaster and bad things in store for humankind. They were more keen on saying why the Bible should be followed, or rather, why you should become a Christian – to live a ‘safe’ life. They wrote my name in a diary they were carrying and left immediately.
”How can these missionaries scare people with these baseless stories? They target people from the lower strata of society, a majority of whom are illiterate and blind to scientific facts?” I heard my room-mate mutter inside.
Did someone say a loud YES?
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