More reason for me to express my distaste of the Church. Honestly, I just don't approve of any group that uses guerrilla tactics to try to force their beliefs on others, especially when it means screwing with thousand-year-old traditions with the rationale that you're "educating the unwashed heathens as to the True Way."

Seems that there's this several thousand year old tribe of Indians living in a secluded area in Mexico called the Huichols. They've gone out of their way to seclude themselves by moving to a place where the land allows them to more easily repel invaders and keep outside influences from affecting their culture. But noooo... people came along with their airplanes and dropped solar-powered radios tuned to Christian evangelical stations and Spanish-language versions of the Bible from planes into the Huichol settlement. So far, the radios and Bibles have contaminated the Huichol culture to the point where some do not participate in Huichol rituals anymore because Christianity considers them "pagan" and are therefore forbidden. Several Huichols are complaining about how they're losing their culture to those being influenced by the missionaries, while the missionaries are convinced that if it weren't for the intimidation of the tribal elders, 80 percent of the tribe would convert to Christianity and give up their ways of "witchcraft."

I really don't understand how people can blatantly disregard other people's rights to practice what they want and what they believe, and to the point where they think that more people would be willing to convert if they weren't being "oppressed" by their age-old traditions and elders. Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're the oppressor by forcing these people to practice what you want? Personally, you can scream until you're blue in the face that I'm going to Hell and you're just trying to save me from eternal damnation, but it's still not going to affect the fact that I believe what I believe. It's my right to think what I want to think and to tell you to piss off. If you're so convinced that your way is the right way, then stop to think how you'd feel about someone coming to you and rabidly trying to convert you to their religion. Then realize that's what you're doing to these poor people around the world. Enlightenment is a personal journey of discovery, not a forced jump off a cliff.