Posted by Christopher Coen on December 29, 2011
According to the Global Frontiers Missions website, they are a Christian missionary group targeting those whom they call “THUMB people” – so-called “Tribal” people, Hindus, nonreligious people (the so-called ”Unreligious”), Muslims, and Buddhists (apparently they see little value in other people’s cultures, although I suspect they enjoy foreign foods). The organization seeks to “multiply”, that is, to evangelize and “discipline” refugees and immigrants to the point that they can “go back” and “spread” — among their own people – the group’s brand of faith. The organization recently branched out to target refugees, immigrants and international students in Houston and Clarkston, GA, but also operates in Jacksonville, Los Angeles, New York City, and the Twin Cities. They find that young people’s minds are apparently more pliable for religious conversion, and that they can use children to get at the parents. OneNewsNow has the story:
A missionary organization is focusing on spreading the gospel in two communities in the United States that are very diverse.
Houston, Texas has drawn immigrants from many countries, and according to Grant Haynes of Global Frontiers Missions(GFM), Clarkston, Georgia has done likewise…
…“We help teach English. We help run an Internet café where people can learn typing skills and take the job skills that they have in their countries to come up with a resume that helps make sense in this country and [helps] them with job placement,” Haynes details. “We help their kids with after-school programs.”
He adds that GFM has found that the younger set especially is becoming bilingual, and many are open to the gospel… Read more here
and
Nathan Harper has moved to the Atlanta area to join Global Frontier Missions in ministering to a large concentration of immigrants and refugees…
…The ministry will also be reaching out to children, which Harper says is a good avenue to reach the parents. Global Frontier Missions has a similar project in Houston and is hoping to utilize the same approach to present the gospel to immigrants elsewhere in the United States… Read more here
Posted in Atlanta, Buddhist, children, Christian, churches, converting refugees, faith-based, Hindu, Houston, Islamic | Tagged: Clarkston, cultural imperialism, Global Frontiers Missions, missionaries, Nathan Harper, neocolonial, refugees, religious conversion, resettlement, Sugar Land | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 14, 2011
I submitted a question for George Rupp, president and CEO of the IRC, for his interview today by the PRM’s Assistant Secretary Eric Schwartz.
“Why does the IRC partner with local churches in their attempts to convert Bhutanese refugees to Christianity, for example, IRC’s partnership with The Word at Southern Hills church in Abilene, Texas?”
Unfortunately this comment seems to have magically disappeared from the list of submitted questions (funny how that works). Yet, I base the question on a news article from Abilene that I linked to in January. Personally I think that these refugees’ Hindu and Buddhist beliefs are serving them just fine and I don’t understand why our government and its contractors, therefore we as a society, are partnering to give these new Americans a new religion, which they haven’t requested.
So then I submitted another question, which this time they actually posted:
“A 2007 State Department PRM monitoring report for the IRC office in Baltimore indicates that the IRC and another resettlement contractor frequently placed refugees into an East Baltimore apartment complex that had evidence of questionable maintenance and security standards (housing that is safe, sanitary, and in good repair is supposedly a State Department refugee contract requirement). Monitors also noted that the IRC had failed to give a three-member Meskhetian Turk refugee family a crib and other supplies for their infant son. I note, again, that these items are listed as “minimum” required items in the State Department contracts. Why does the IRC fail to meet so-called “minimum requirements” of their obligations to refugees in the public/private partnership?”
The State Department did not select this question for use in the interview — of course — yet this question was also based on a document – one of the State Department’s own monitoring reports – so it’s not like I just make this stuff up. Again the State Department doesn’t want to discuss the issue.
I think there’s an obvious problem here when our government feels free to filter out substantive questions that it may not feel comfortable with, or which may not convey the message it wishes to control, but isn’t the supposed intent of our constitutional democracy to allow public input? I think we need to be concerned when a part of our US Department of State feels free to disregard that fundamental principle.
Posted in Abilene, Assistant Secretary of the PRM, Baltimore, Buddhist, children, Christian, churches, Eric P. Schwartz (former Asst Sec.), furnishings, lack of, Hindu, household items, missing or broken, housing, substandard, Meskhetian Turks (Ahiska
Turk), neglect, Nepali Bhutanese, openess and transparency in government, PRM, public/private partnership, State Department | Tagged: Abilene, Assistant Secretary of Population Refugees and Migration, Baltimore, Buddhist, censorship, Christian, constitution democracy, Conversations with America, conversion, Eric Schwartz, George Rupp, Hindu, International Rescue Committee, IRC, Meskhetian Turk, monitoring report, Population Refugees and Migration, PRM, public/private partnership, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, State Department, The Word at Southern Hills | 4 Comments »
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