MK forum

Wow, that's quite a story.

And yes, it certainly has a familiar ring.

I suspect most people enter a religious "ministry" out of the best of motives. Their fall from grace may often be a gradual one. Several small immoral decisions lead to larger ones.

There does seem to be an increasing amount of information coming out that reveals that some religious do-gooders have a very dark, even evil, side. I hope this will cause people to become more skeptical and perceptive.

That is my hope, anyway.

And then there's this:

"A missionary with links to the controversial US-based New Tribes Mission (NTM) has been accused of keeping nearly 100 Amazon Indians in shocking conditions “analogous to slavery.”

Between 2010 and 2012, 96 Zo’é Indians were reportedly forced to work in the lucrative Brazil nut trade, collecting nuts in the forest in return for old clothes, pans, and other industrial goods. Public prosecutors brought the case, which is now being considered by a local court.

The prosecutors’ report states that the “Indians were camped in shelters made of tarpaulins and straw… food was lacking and they were visibly thin, and some of them were ill.”

The missionary, Luiz Carlos Ferreira, and the Brazil nut trader, Manoel Ferreira de Oliveira, were both allegedly members of the NTM, who illegally contacted the then-uncontacted Zo’é in 1987.

One quarter of the Zo’é were subsequently wiped out by disease. The Brazilian authorities expelled the NTM missionaries in 1991, and Brazil’s Supreme Court banned them from returning.

But Luiz Carlos Ferreira established a base on Manoel Ferreira de Oliveira’s land, near the Zo’é’s territory, apparently to lure them off their land in order to evangelize them.

Although contacted over 30 years ago, the Zo’é – who today number around 260 – are still highly vulnerable to diseases transmitted by outsiders.

Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable societies on the planet. Whole populations can be wiped out by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance."


Here is the link:

Is there any truth to these allegations? I remember Survival International being talked about in the 80's and the rebuttal of their media releases then.

"I think the Earl Grey case is doing it Raz."

Not my cup of tea.

Question:

On the NTM USA website the first thing visible is an opportunity to give to the Nepal earthquake relief fund, via NTM.

But NTM as far as I know doesn't operate in Nepal. So how is it going to "work with local and international aid agencies"? Am I overly suspicious in thinking that the Nepal crisis is being used to promote NTM or worse have funds come through that hopefully will get to the right place?

Having lived through an earthquake and seen relief efforts and aid pouring in, it doesn't take long for the unscrupulous to get involved and start siphoning off what they can. It happens over and over, wherever large amounts of money are accumulating.
My advice to NTM is if you are genuinely raising money for Nepal, make sure you have very good records that every cent collected goes to help Nepalese people. And it does so without strings attached or buying loyalties.

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
Bertrand Russell