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In my post #247 I give a detailed breakdown of what he was suffering from given what I have read in his diaries, his family background and the new articles based on my background in psychology. But basically he was suffering from extreme Christian indoctrination, a severe inferiority complex because he was short and likely couldn't get a girlfriend (because everything I've read didn't mention a significant other in his life), an obsession to make himself a hero in the news media that would have gotten him fame, fortune and thus a good Christian girlfriend.
But in trying to accomplish this he did everything azz-backward and this resulted in stupid actions leading to him being killed. Basically he developed a suicide wish at the end because he could have turned back after his first hostile encounter with the natives but he chose to go back knowing he'd likely be killed. In other words, he chose to die.
You may have a background in psychology, but you're making a lot of assumptions in that post.
Of course being short is a factor. In John Chau's case it could have been a tremendous factor in the steps leading up to his disastrous decision to go to a place he clearly knew was dangerous but which he was obsessed with converting.
Derek, you sound like a guy. Ask yourself, "Would I rather be 6'2" or 5'2"?" If you're honest I think you'll choose the former. Then read this:
Without belaboring this just please believe me when I say men as short as John Chau do grow up with an inferiority complex. Most compensate by getting into a prestigious position like doctor or lawyer and it's the money and position in society that compensates them for being short.
In Chau's case he was so propagandized by his parents to love Jesus that all he thought about growing up being was a missionary for Jesus. That was his first mistake.
His second mistake was not getting a profession he could fall back on in case the missionary thing didn't work out. By the age of 27 he was over the hill--too old to get into a good university and too indoctrinated to get his mind wrapped around the idea that happiness in this world doesn't come from dying for Jesus, it comes from having a wife, kids, a position in his church as deacon or something and having a good profession that he can support his family on.
Lacking all that, it became a do-or-die situation for him--convert these inconvertable natives to Jesus or die in the process thereby gaining posthumous status as a martyr for Jesus.
Converting them wasn't possible as he found out the first few times he ventured to the islands but by now he was so obsessed with accomplishing something he couldn't allow himself to think of doing anything else with his life.
Bear in mind if he really wanted to be a true missionary he could have chosen to to go a thousand different places in the world.
Why didn't he?
This obsession with the converting the Sentinelese people shows just how unbalanced his mind had become.
I am shorter than average and was married and 30 years old before I went to university. I too think your making just too wide of sweeping assessment about this fool.
I am shorter than average and was married and 30 years old before I went to university. I too think your making just too wide of sweeping assessment about this fool.
Another source says Chau has a degree in Sports Medicine, so he was no dummy and was educated.
He was most likely just putting everything else off in his life for this fantasy mission, which was doomed to fail.
And yes I am on the short side of average too, but don't do foolish things like this.
You may have a background in psychology, but you're making a lot of assumptions in that post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by badlander
I am shorter than average and was married and 30 years old before I went to university. I too think your making just too wide of sweeping assessment about this fool.
Any assumptions I made are consistent with the premise I present
* he grew up in an unhealthy Christian environment. I mean when a mother tells a newspaper, "I know my son is alive because I prayed for him" when every news media has reports of him being dragged dead on the beach you have to know the mother is looney tunes.
* he wasn't just short, he was extremely short as you can tell from this pic:
* Any responsible news outlet would have checked for a significant other and nothing/no one is mentioned
* His obsession with the Sentinelese people started in high school
Quote:
It was an obsession. Ever since Chau had learned in high school through a missionary website, the Joshua Project, that the North Sentinel people were perhaps the most isolated in the world, he was hooked. Much of what he did the rest of his short life was directed toward this mission. He would pull up Google Maps and point to a green speck in a place no one had ever heard of — the Andaman Islands, far off the coast of India — and tell his friends with a buoyant smile: “I’m going there.”
* This obsession took such hold of him that he believed with all his heart that God had called him to be a missionary to the islands to convert them. But the reality is that neither God or had a thing to do with his mission to the Sentinelese any more than God or Jesus has anything to do with my single-minded purpose to get the prettiest girl in high school to go to the prom with me.
"Jazus wants me to go to the prom with that girl. He told me so in a vision. I know it is His will that I take Mary Sue Gorgeous to the prom. I just know it!"
The problem with all this is that if someone as passionately dedicated to Jesus as John Chau was couldn't rely on God to protect him, then what does this mean for the Christian faith in general and other Christians passionate about Jesus too?
This is why the title of the thread asserts Jesus is imaginary: because there isn't a single instance where it has been demonstrated that ANY action undertaken by a Christian for Jesus' sake was ever initiated by Jesus. Plainly, Jesus cannot protect his own. He promised Christians in John that no one was going to pluck them out of his hands and yet Christians, even Christian children, get raped, maligned, tortured and murdered every minute of the day. Christians can rationalize all they want that Jesus was talking spiritually, not physically, but isn't that just the biggest cop-out you ever heard? But what else are you to offer skeptics when all the evidence points to a non-existent Jesus?????
Now a Christian friend is coming forward saying he too believes there's a strong possibility Chau may still be alive.
This is what Christianity does to the human mind. It twists the mind so badly that good percentage of Christians get completely delusional. 3 cases in point: John Chau, John Chau's mother and John Chau's friend.
I wouldn't mind Christianity so much if it wasn't based on a complete fabrication for which there isn't a dime's worth of hard evidence it's avatar exists. More to the point, all I ask is that Jesus help a person like John Chau, even if that person is going to put his life in danger mistakenly trying to do something that benefits Jesus as John Chau did.
Is that too much to ask of Jesus?
Last edited by thrillobyte; 12-01-2018 at 07:41 PM..
Another source says Chau has a degree in Sports Medicine, so he was no dummy and was educated.
He was most likely just putting everything else off in his life for this fantasy mission, which was doomed to fail.
And yes I am on the short side of average too, but don't do foolish things like this.
I must disagree with the bolded. Being shot at once, and not taking the hint, certainly cemented his status as a cement-head.
I must disagree with the bolded. Being shot at once, and not taking the hint, certainly cemented his status as a cement-head.
I agree. It points to a single-mindedness that is consistent with lunacy, I don't care how smart IQ-wise the person is. And that degree in sport medicine Derek is referring to is not a medical degree. It's more akin to an emergency medical technician (EMT) another field which he was studying--definitely dime-bag stuff.
I agree. It points to a single-mindedness that is consistent with lunacy, I don't care how smart IQ-wise the person is. And that degree in sport medicine Derek is referring to is not a medical degree. It's more akin to an emergency medical technician (EMT) another field which he was studying--definitely dime-bag stuff.
Oh, I thought it was just because he was short. That's deep psychology. At least that's what Kevin Hart told me.
Probably that G-d would atomatically put the language and understanding onto his lips when he encountered them...
I suspect that he had some idea that Jesusgod would Make it Happen.
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What on earth was he thinking?
