Time in a Bottle, when did we start thinking that was OK?

This whole thing about preserving
the primitive cultures seems very odd, although I assume there must be some
large questions on both sides of the debate. How can Jesus be announced without
introducing a whole new way of life? It doesn’t seem
possible.

Preserving the primitives probably says 2 things about us
that are not too admirable. First, that the primitives need to be “studied” by
the advanced, while as the article points out, the primitives are dying for lack
of simple health care. Second, the infatuation some have with thinking that
primitive somehow means pure. That is just not the case. I can’t imagine that
God prefers us to be hunter-gatherers so as better to be his children.

We who live in today’s Christian culture (really culture within a
culture) are standing upon the shoulders of great past developments and true
advancements. As Christians, it is a great time to be alive. God has done
wonderful things for his kids as He promised.

Those that live in
today’s pagan or atheistic cultures perhaps do not see things as so great, but
depend upon tomorrow to make it all better, mainly by allowing them to
physically live longer.

Missionaries have always done the most
important first thing in bringing salvation. The receiving culture must stand on
its own merits and durability.

Today's missionaries should stop working "under the covers".

Unlike Portuguese conquerors five centuries ago, the new proselytizers say they aim to help with medical and social services more than to convert the animist tribes to Christianity.

But they often lack the permission of Brazil's government, which is now trying to regain control of the activity. Many anthropologists fear the missionaries will harm indigenous people by weakening native culture and religion and by exposing them to new germs and illnesses.

Many offer services like dental and health care. While they say they don't try to convert Indians to Christianity, they often expose Indians to Christian teachings, sometimes even translating the Bible into native languages.

But critics say a weak Brazilian state has left the 215 known tribes vulnerable to the outreach efforts of evangelicals, however well-intentioned they may be. They fear oral history, origin myths and native religions will be lost.

"The Surui no longer worship shamans because missionaries told them it was bad. That's a terrible, immense cultural loss," said Ivaneide Cardozo, a board member at Kaninde, a nonreligious group in Rondonia state.

and on a lighter note, there
is this...

ONE of the world's last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean.

The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range.

They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and appear to have survived the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The men killed, Sunder Raj, 48, and Pandit Tiwari, 52, were fishing illegally for mud crabs off North Sentinel Island, a speck of land in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago.
Fellow fishermen said they dropped anchor for the night on January 25 but fell into a deep sleep, probably helped by large amounts of alcohol. During the night their anchor, a rock tied to a rope, failed to hold their open-topped boat against the currents and they drifted towards the island.

"As day broke, fellow fishermen say they tried to shout at the men and warn them they were in danger," said Samir Acharya, the head of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, an environmental organisation. "However they did not respond - they were probably drunk - and the boat drifted into the shallows where they were attacked and killed."
The Indian coast guard tried to recover the bodies using a helicopter but was met by a hail of arrows.

Photographs shot from the helicopter show the near-naked tribesmen rushing to fire. But the downdraught from its rotors exposed the two fishermen buried in shallow graves and not roasted and eaten, as local rumour suggested.