The death of an American christian missionary John Allen Chau on an isolated Indian island has cast a rare and unwelcome spotlight on the Sentinelese, thought to be the world’s most reclusive hunter-gatherer tribe despite the fact that researchers have long warned that any contact with outsiders could devastate the reclusive tribe as they likely have no immunity to many modern diseases.
The murder also cast a spotlight on Chau himself who now it turns out four years ago went on a sabbatical with Liberty Counsel hate group leader Mat Staver, who is also the founder and chairman of Covenant Journey, a program that takes college students on tours of Israel.
USA Today reports:
P.C. Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University who has studied the islands, said the isolated tribe has little resistance to diseases and could die from contact with outsiders.
Chau had wanted ever since high school to go to North Sentinel to share Jesus with the indigenous people, said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Covenant Journey, a program that takes college students on tours of Israel to affirm their Christian faith. Chau went through that program in 2015.
“He didn’t go there for just adventure. I have no question it was to bring the gospel of Jesus to them,” Staver said. Staver said Chau’s last notes to his family on Nov. 16 told them that they might think he was crazy but that he felt it was worth it and asked that they not be angry if he was killed.
Staver the disgusting human being that he is, is already using Chau’s death for Liberty Counsel propaganda and publicity.
Via press release from hate group leader Mat Staver:
John Allen Chau, a Covenant Journey alumni, was martyred on November 17, 2018 by the Sentinelese tribal people on the island of North Sentinel. In its effort to preserve the distinctness of the indigenous Sentinelese, the Indian government has granted extreme autonomy – even to the point of allowing the senseless murder of outsiders.
This is not right. His family deserves to bring John’s body back home where he can be buried. Human life is a universal inalienable right. John was seeking to bring them peace and the Prince of Peace. May his sacrifice bring about change and new life to many in North Sentinel and around the world.
He wanted to befriend the Sentinelese to share Jesus with them. He loved Jesus more than life. John was a courageous martyr for Jesus. John’s life and his love for Jesus, to the point of giving his own life to bring the gospel to others, will be remembered and will echo throughout eternity. I know that God will bring good out this loss
Perhaps Staver should get the body by himself and bring a big box of smallpox infected blankets to spread Jesus’ love with.