Open Letter to Missionaries

Open letter to the Lady who tried to share her 'good news' with me today while I was looking terrible and slightly desperate in the extreme weather on my walk home. I understand you thought you where being nice but what you where doing was in fact abusive and dangerous.

Please, hear me out. At this point in history the proselytization of 'The one true god' is fundamentally and historically inseparable from colonization and by extension colonialism. Trying to convert people who are in dire straits, even if you do take the time to bother to maybe fix the physical issues, is an insidious act of terrorism. First the colonizers came and killed as many of the locals as possible then the missionaries came to convert the remainder, over and over again they came, the same story played out. The bloody and complete decimation of cultures and peoples that continues to this day, maybe not so much in 'polite' society but at every frontier where the 'civilized' find the 'barbarian'.

This religion of peace has destroyed countless nations and peoples who preceded it. This isn't a mustard seed you are trying to plant, it kudzu when it finds fertile ground it covers local customs and religions and cultures until all that remains are the distorted shapes of these things, their carcasses under the verdant foliage. So that indigenous living peoples need archaeologist and anthropologist to cut through the weeds to find the shape of their own culture.

If nature has taught us anything its that true diversity is necessary for the healthy continuation of life. I do in fact believe there is some truth to the idea that should your religion eventually reach all the corners of the earth it will truly be the end of the human race, we will simply not be diverse enough to survive and the pathogens of hate and discord and they will have their way, spreading exponentially until there is nothing left but destruction and pain, the human race will not die at the hands of any god, but instead will meet their bloody and explosive end at their own hands. Humanity will simply lack the diversity of experience and thought and insight required to solve problems and make progress.

A truly benevolent deity would be heart broken at the people who claim to speak for him using their stolen authority again and again to spread hate, hurt and discord though out the world. A deity that was not heart broken at these actions taken in their name would very simply not be worthy of consideration or adoration much less worship.

If your private religion is a calling of action to improve the world and lives of the people in it that is all well and good, go forth build schools, drill wells, build houses, provide for the meek of the earth, but don't not once mention religion, true piety is quite. Good things will spread with out force and deception. If you want to offer a stranger a ride home that is a fine thing to do, maybe ask about their life, learn something about them, expand your knowledge, but there is no need to 'share the good word' I promise they have heard it, very few in the world have not. But, if you where to succeed in converting them in their time of need, when they where vulnerable, you would have done both your faith, and them a disservice, you would have planted a invasive weed that will eventually swallow them whole covering the dead remains of what made them unique and robbed them of the ability to contribute meaningfully to the human condition.