26-year-old American missionary John Chau was killed as he attempted to make contact with an Indigenous group off the coast of India, one of the last communities on the planet still living in isolation.
What are the boundaries of religious fervor? When do attempts at conversion cross over into unjustifiable intrusion into the personal life of another (or other society) without consent? These are the questions posed by the thought-provoking National Geographic documentary “The Mission.”
The narrative centers around John Chau, an Evangelical Christian and adventure-seeker who was killed by Sentinelese natives in 2018 at 26. The Sentinelese are an indigenous population in voluntary isolation from the rest of the world. As presented here, the story of John Chau is drawn from statements made by Patrick Chau, John’s father, and the entries in John’s diary that his family released after his death. It is a complex tale and reveals much about Evangelical Christians, skeptics, and non-believers’ motivations.
The Sentinelese reside on North Sentinel Island within the larger context of the Andaman Islands, southeast of India. It is one of the few hunter-gatherer societies still disconnected from the rest of the world by choice. Their population numbers only 200, none of whom are Christian and, tellingly, have been assigned a progress level of zero by one organization – a clearly judgmental assessment.
It’s worth noting that hunter-gatherer societies have sustainably existed for at least 300,000 years. Industrialized society is little more than 250 years on, with its long-term sustainability still an open question given humanity’s penchant for consumerism, which leads to discharging all waste by-products into the environment. In the U.S., for example, the Hopi and Zuni tribes that descend from the Anasazi can scarcely believe American profligacy – they say they were here long before Columbus arrived just 531 years ago and will still be here long after we’re gone.
It’s hard enough for the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies to stay viable. Most have been decimated over the centuries by agrarian and industrial cultures with more resources and a hunger for ownership of new lands. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to leave what’s left of them alone if that’s what they want. Westerners attempting to impose their will – cloaked as God’s will – about whom they term savages or heathens is presumptuous in the extreme. As Patrick Chau indicates, The Great Commission – preaching the message of Jesus far and wide – was a thinly veiled disguise for the colonial and imperialist agenda.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scholar Jared Diamond has studied isolated societies and their experience with first contact. These encounters are fraught with danger and are not for the faint-hearted, holding childlike mindsets. It’s not hard to understand the motivation of the natives. Stories of how foreigners subsumed other Andaman tribes were lessons not lost on the Sentinelese: Resources are scarce, and outsiders would put further stress on them; strangers bring diseases for which the islanders have no natural immunity; in some cases, intruders confiscated women and children.
One of the most insightful interviews comes from a former missionary to the jungles of Brazil. After thirty years embedded, he realized he could not do justice to the questions the natives asked him. When the missionary spoke of Jesus, they were curious if the two had ever met or if he knew anyone who had. It’s one thing to take something on faith personally, he realized – we all have that choice. However, it’s quite another to encourage someone else to do the same simply because you have become convinced. Yet here, he had spent much of his life knowingly or unknowingly attempting to impose his will on others. He eventually concluded that he was doing more harm than good – a turning point that cost him his marriage and damaged his relationships with his children for years.
The film exposes some of the mindsets that drive missionaries. At one point, John asks if this island is Satan’s last stronghold. The Sentinelese greatly value the beauty of their land and would recoil at this sort of crass characterization. Such lines of thinking suggest that if you look for the devil hard enough and long enough, you will come to believe you have found him.
While clearly intelligent, it’s fair to say that John should have been well aware of the dangers of approaching the Sentinelese. Arriving on the island unannounced, uninvited, illegally, and quoting verses from the Bible in English to a people who do not understand a word of it might not be the best way to make the case for adopting Christianity. One of the interviewees even noted that there is often a fine line between faith and madness. In essence, the Sentinelese have told outsiders repeatedly to mind their own business and that all entreaties are regarded with suspicion.
Actual footage from several missions in various countries provides a first-hand view of many of the events as they occurred, even though the specifics of John’s death are unknown and his body was never recovered. “The Mission” provides a cautionary tale for naïve pilgrims trying too hard to impose their beliefs on others. Directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, the documentary will most likely serve to reinforce viewpoints and perspectives that people already hold rather than change their minds. Even so, the film is rife with ethical and philosophical questions worth examining, and with any luck, many viewers will do just that.
In Theaters Friday, October 13th
