[Buddha-l] Joshua project (was: Orissa)

[Richard Hayes]

On Tue, 2008-10-21 at 12:58 +0600, Christopher Fynn wrote:

> Being a member of this particular "ethtnic group" I can't quite make out 
>   if they consider us belonging to their "unreached" or their 
> "persecuted" category.

It becomes clear if you read the entire page. It says that 70% of
British people in Bhutan are Christian, and an alarmingly low percentage
of British Bhutanese are evangelicals. So if you are not yet an
evangelical, you belong to the unreached category. British in Bhutanese
have a pretty low number (3.2) on the Joshua project Progress Scale.
(You'll heave a sigh of relief to learn that there are no British
Buddhists living in Bhutan.)

I discovered that the "ethnic group" to which I belonged for 36 years
(Americans living in Canada) is 80% Christian and 30% evangelical, so a
lot more American Canadians have been reached than British Bhutanese.
The ethnic group to which I now belong is British living in the United
States, and I note that this group is in serious need of being
reached---we rate a 4.1 on the Progress Scale---although our plight is
not nearly as discouraging to evangelicals as the Arapaho people, only
2% of whom are Christians and only 0.1% of whom are evangelicals. The
Arapaho have a horrifyingly low 1.2 on the Progress Scale (the same
score as Jews living American, who interesting score much lower than
English-speaking Jews living in Israel, who get a fairly respectable
3.2, the same as British people in Bhutan).

My guess is that even fewer Arapaho are Buddhists, so perhaps the
Buddhist Missionary Society will want to set up some more centers in
Colorado and Wyoming (although it is worth noting that in the latter
state Buddhists are mostly used for target practice).

Perhaps a question worthy of discussion by denizens of buddha-l is
whether a website set up by a handful of crackpots is worthy of
discussion by the handful of crackpots who subscribe to buddha-l.

Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that the Joshua Project is
worthy of discussing on buddha-l. Here goes an opening gambit. Have any
of you read the Book of Joshua recently? (I'm thinking of the one in the
Bible.) Joshua was surely one of the most bloodthirsty savages in the
history of the world, laying waste to thousands upon tens of thousands
of men, women and children (and quite often to their livestock) in a
genocidal blitz on the land of Canaan. Why anyone would count him as a
model worthy of respect, let alone emulation, is pretty much completely
beyond me. Compared to the original Joshua project, the modern namesake
seems pretty mild.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Cracked Pottery
Universidad de Nuevo Mexico