07-31-2006, 09:52 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In business, don't we often give freebies first to attract customers, and then provide another product or service, the ones which we really intend to sell? This method is indispensable in a competitive world, or your business is doomed. You don't try to be honest and tell your customers: look, we are giving away worthless freebies, so that you'll be fooled into buying our product. We take this for granted, every business in the world does this. It is impossible to survive without it. And we never ask awkward questions such as 'why can't we be upfront about the whole matter' and so forth.
So just think of what missionaries do as business. They're promoting a certain product/service, and they need to attract people by giving freebies, in this case, education, food etc. Everything in life is a business opportunity, so it's asking too much to work without expecting rewards, or without telling some lies every now and then. Such is life. This is not a perfect world.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Precisely! This is exactly what we are talking about. Here is one of my previous posts on the same thread:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The missionary apparatus, for all its sound-and-light effects, is a corporate organization, just like Hindustan Lever. It sells a brand of religion - an exclusivist monotheism at that - with the important advantage that it has enormous sums of money and a well-motivated cadre for its mission. It has deadlines, it has an advertising budget, it has competition, and it has to meet numbers, to give its financial backers (the richer set among the laity) a sense of achievement, and a sense of vindication that they or their ancestors made the right choice.
Notice how carefully the Church seeks to define its product as different from that of rival faiths? Notice how carefully the Church seeks to devalue the concept of works alone as a way to salvation and the concept of reaching God directly as a means of salvation, and instead lays emphasis on "faith" in this "Son of God"? Read here for the faith vs works debate. These are the systemic characteristics of a corporate organization, and attempt by the "Church" to justify its existence to the laity and the rest of the world.
[right][snapback]54248[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If your point is that this is life, and "all is fair in love and war", and we are supposed to "deal with it", then we actually are dealing with it, by showing
1: that the Christian mission is not a "saintly" organization with the welfare of the people as its objective.
2: that the Christian mission, beaing a corporatist entity, should be treated exactly like one. No specific advantage should be given to it, like trating it as a charitable organziation, or a minority religious organization.
3. that the monetary advantage that the church and mission have, is all that stands between themselves and other religions in the field.
So just think of what missionaries do as business. They're promoting a certain product/service, and they need to attract people by giving freebies, in this case, education, food etc. Everything in life is a business opportunity, so it's asking too much to work without expecting rewards, or without telling some lies every now and then. Such is life. This is not a perfect world.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Precisely! This is exactly what we are talking about. Here is one of my previous posts on the same thread:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The missionary apparatus, for all its sound-and-light effects, is a corporate organization, just like Hindustan Lever. It sells a brand of religion - an exclusivist monotheism at that - with the important advantage that it has enormous sums of money and a well-motivated cadre for its mission. It has deadlines, it has an advertising budget, it has competition, and it has to meet numbers, to give its financial backers (the richer set among the laity) a sense of achievement, and a sense of vindication that they or their ancestors made the right choice.
Notice how carefully the Church seeks to define its product as different from that of rival faiths? Notice how carefully the Church seeks to devalue the concept of works alone as a way to salvation and the concept of reaching God directly as a means of salvation, and instead lays emphasis on "faith" in this "Son of God"? Read here for the faith vs works debate. These are the systemic characteristics of a corporate organization, and attempt by the "Church" to justify its existence to the laity and the rest of the world.
[right][snapback]54248[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If your point is that this is life, and "all is fair in love and war", and we are supposed to "deal with it", then we actually are dealing with it, by showing
1: that the Christian mission is not a "saintly" organization with the welfare of the people as its objective.
2: that the Christian mission, beaing a corporatist entity, should be treated exactly like one. No specific advantage should be given to it, like trating it as a charitable organziation, or a minority religious organization.
3. that the monetary advantage that the church and mission have, is all that stands between themselves and other religions in the field.