project thessalonica

july 2nd, 2006

this is not in the least bit suprising. long read, but most instructive.

this is the real face of christism. not exactly god's work, is it? the intent is cultural annihilation; if you recognize and resist, you are termed a fundamentalist. yes, just for saying, "do not destroy my faith and my culture".

christism is a monstrous, violent, death-worshipping cult that purveys a massive 4th century hoax about a mythical carpenter.

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Can Hinduism face the onslaught of Project Thessalonica?

Alex Pomero

in a Croatian Newspaper (sorry, no url was provided)

Some months back I watched a documentary which aired an interview with a
young Palestinian terrorist. Most people would be appalled simply at the
fact that someone who had killed innocent people is being treated like a
celebrity and given an opportunity to "explain" himself. But what was more
shocking was that he showed absolutely no remorse for having killed innocent
people on the streets of Israel, including women and children. Worse still
was the fact that even the parents of those youngsters supported the violent
activities of their children. *The reason: they were simply doing their
religious duty as true Muslims. For them killing an innocent bystander is
Jihad, the God-ordained religious duty of every Muslim.
*
I was born to Catholic parents and raised by a missionary Catholic mother
and an abusive, born-again Christian, who I will refer to only as "my
mother's husband". I was raised in an "ideal" Christian environment, and
would have followed my parents' footsteps and would have spread hate against
other religions, if it weren't for a fortuitous meeting I had with a Chinese
friend of my dorm roommate. Little did I realize then that the chance
encounter would end up being a turning point in my life.

The Chinese student was Buddhist who talked about meditation and its
advantages. Finding it curious I checked with my University library for some
books on meditation. After some searching, I found a book on Transcendental
Meditation ™, a meditation technique founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. That
book sparked a profound spiritual and emotional transformation in me and I
have never looked back. My thirst for knowledge led me to read more about TM
and its roots in Hinduism. I started reading every book on Hinduism I could
lay my hands on. In the Ramayana, I came across the life of Lord Rama and
his only wife Sita. Hindus consider Rama and Sita to be the ideal couple and
the path shown by them as the perfect man-woman relationship. *It was a
refreshing change from the abusive relationship I had witnessed and
experienced in my own Christian family.*

The wisdom and spirituality that I found in Hinduism has no parallels. There
is practically no aspect of life that is not dealt with in detail by the
innumerable texts that are a part of Hinduism. There are texts which deal
with the mundane aspects of day-to-day living and those which deal with more
profound questions such as those about life and death. To me, the most
fascinating aspect of Hinduism was that it was inclusive, respectful and
tolerant of all people and their various beliefs, in stark contrast to the
exclusivity that pervaded my native religion. Unfortunately the adherents of
the latter seem to be on a mission to destroy Hinduism.

Josh, my childhood friend with whom I communicate frequently was trained in
a seminary is currently a Baptist missionary. I met Josh during my recent
trip to USA. *He had just returned from India and was going back again in
November. Much of our conversation centered on his current assignment as
part of something called Project Thessalonica*. Josh was very passionate
when he spoke of Project Thessalonica - passionate in a scary kind of way.
In his eyes I could see the same resolve that was visible in the Palestinian
terrorist in the interview.

*Project Thessalonica is a sub-project of Joshua Project II. Joshua Project
II set the scope and strategy for converting the "heathen" of the world in
10-40 window (regions that lie between the latitudes of 10 and 40 degrees
north) whereas project Thessalonica (called PT) prioritizes the tasks to be
taken. Joshua Project II strategized the methodology called
'Adopt-a-peoples' wherein every mission agency or church adopted a 'people
group'.*

Tribals were the first and easy missionary targets. Unfortunately the
missionary activity didn't weaken Hinduism as the church strategists had
anticipated - many of the converts still celebrated and attended Hindu
festivals and continued to follow Hindu traditions. As a counter measure
Project Thessalonica was started in 2004. Before getting into the details of
Project Thessalonica it will be useful to look at the origins of the name of
the project.

Thessalonica was a major port city strategically located at the junction of
the main land route from Italy to the east and the main route from the
Danube down to the Aegean Sea. It was the capital of the Roman province of
Macedonia, a free city ruled by a popular assembly and magistrates. The
people of this city were rich, technologically advanced and culturally
distinct. Paul and Silas, during the Apostle's second missionary journey,
visited Thessalonica to preach the Gospel and propagate Christianity.

However, Paul's teachings received a lukewarm response from the people. Some
locals irritated by Paul's teachings got a hold of Jason and his brothers,
who were hosting Paul, and took them to city officials. They were charged
with harboring traitors, but faced no physical harm. They were eventually
made to post a bond and set free. In 390 AD, the Christian ruler Theodosius
the Great, punished a revolt by the inhabitants of the city by massacring
more than 7000 people. Much of the city was eventually converted to
Christianity.

A few observations about the city of Thessalonica at the time of Paul will
make its relevance to today's world clear. First the city was strategically
located in terms of access to other cities by both land and sea. Before
their forced conversion to Christianity, its inhabitants were economically
and culturally prosperous. Perhaps more importantly they were tolerant,
which explains why, inspire of provocation, the lives of Paul, Jason and his
brothers were spared. The government was also indifferent to the
missionaries and the adverse impact of their activities on the people.

*Hindus in India today are in the same situation as the people of
Thessalonica found themselves in at the time of Paul.* They are prosperous
economically and culturally and extremely tolerant of other people and
faiths. The government is completely indifferent to the activities of the
missionaries in India, in spite of the tremendous damage that missionary
activity has wrought on the local population all over India. *Seen in this
context, the choice of "Thessalonica" as a name for a project focused on
converting Hindus of India to Christianity seems particularly apt.*

*Project Thessalonica aims to stop or limit Hindu activity by converting
people who form the pillars of Hindu culture, festivals, traditions and
activity.* Traditionally missionaries hate any public expression or display
of heathen religions in the form of festivals and temples. *Missions want to
ensure that no new temple construction activity starts*. With this objective
they are converting masons, craftsmen and others involved in temple
construction activity. The First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee
adopted towns where the annual Kumbh Mela takes place and has been actively
converting the locals so that visitors face extreme hardship during their
next visit trying to find services and supplies. Another mission group is
adopting boatmen of Kasi where Hindus drop rice balls in river Ganges as an
offering to their forefathers. The boatsmen are being trained in other
fields so that they abandon this profession. They are making environmental
groups raise the voice so that Ganesh processions, Kumbh Melas and Jagannath
Rath Yatras are limited. One big worry seems to the extremely popular Hindu
television programs. Christian agencies have decided on buying these prime
slots at a premium and are actively working with programming sources. *Over
the past 20 years, missionaries also appear to have invested a lot in
handling the political leadership, so much so that their activities appear
to be almost immune to the ruling political party*. It seems that a good
section of media is also on their side to such an extent that any group
opposing their activity finds itself identified as a militant or extremist
group in the news media.

*My friend Josh doesn't have any sense of remorse, guilt or reasoning when
he speaks about converting the "heathens" of India through any
means.*Instead he shows a sense of pride and achievement as he
believes that he is
simply implementing God's word as written in the Bible. Just like the
Islamic terrorist in the interview.

With Christian Jihadis like Josh at the forefront of missionary activities
in India, one can only hope that Hindus don't face the same fate as the
people of Thessalonica.

*Additional reading*

1. http://www.neglectedfields.net/
2. http://in.christiantoday.com/news/mis_166.htm
A sample of the missionary mischief " A year back, when First Baptist
volunteers first set foot in India, the nation appeared overrun with
idolatry and spiritual darkness. However, the mission team sees signs of
hope".
To learn more about Project Thessalonica, e-mail
project.thessalonica@neglectedfields.net or call the International Mission
Board at 1-800-999-3113.
3. http://www.scbaptist.org/-1999999487/-1999941961.htm