A Texas church is involved with the unethical practice of proselytizing in the tsunami ravaged areas of Sri Lanka. Members of Antioch Community Church have been exploiting the trauma faced by survivors of the devastation by trying to convert Buddhists and others while offering humanitarian aid. Their web site has declared Sri Lanka “ripe for Jesus” and called the tsunami “an opportunity.”
"(Sri Lanka) has been closed for five years and the missionaries in Indonesia consider it the most militant and difficult place for ministry. The door is wide open and the people are hungry,” read one posting on their site that was reported on by The New York Times.
According to the article: “Older Christian aid groups like Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief and others with religious affiliations say that they do not proselytize and that they abide by Red Cross guidelines that humanitarian aid not be used to further political or religious purposes. Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, said that over the last 20 years there has been an increase in smaller Christian evangelical groups providing humanitarian aid in the wake of disaster.”
The people of Antioch Community Church appear to be engaged in some of the most exploitive behavior possible for Christians. Antioch’s missionaries concealed their identities, according to the Times, as church workers and pretended to be part of a non-governmental organization when they arrived in Sri Lanka and offered to assist in the recovery. Their actions are giving Christians a bad name, hurting interfaith relations, and making relief efforts more difficult.
