I had happened to be cruising by the plaza the other night and overhead a group of people chatting with a guy about HIV and the Plaza. Of course I listened in since I always get interested in this stuff. I am sure folks remember some group of preachers who used to sit near the entrance of the plaza and yell - I mean preach at the girls and the guys. Their Thai was quite good and they had an impact. People wanted to kick their ass and they were always being asked to leave. In my opinion, whether they have a valid message or not - this was not the way to do it. So to see a different group working the plaza I was keen to chat with them.
Let me give you my background a bit first since I do have some history with this type of stuff. I was a Catholic as a young child and attended Catechism many times a week. Then my parents converted to Christianity and for a few years I went to a private Christian School that used corporal punishment. I was swatted more than a few times. Then I went to a small public school all through the 8th grade. Then for High School(9-12) I did home study. Never stepped on a campus until I went to junior college. I never made it to uni because Silicon Valley and the allure of travel for work sucked me in.
As a young kid I could quote chapter and verse for most of the New Testament of the bible and regularly competed and won in Regional and National competitions related to Biblical knowledge and scripture memorization. My first trips abroad were actually as a missionary. So yeah - I can go toe to toe with the Bible thumpers manning the gates to the plaza. I rather enjoy it.
Their lead in was a survey. A rather mis-leading one that talked about tourism, lead into HIV and then managed to talk about the sex trade and the bars. They tried to then dissuade you from entering the plaza and scared you with a statement than 1 in 100 Thais have HIV and hinted that places like Nana were the source of this. Then they mentioned the religion angle and asked if they could give me a packet of info. Of course I took it and was keen to check it out.
I gather the organization is called welcoming faith communities. bkk 02653 0521 and pattaya 038734 531. There was a postcard to portray the HIV stats from 2005. Funny they are not up to date.
Then there was a his and hers postcard. I may scan these when I have time. One was from a bargirl talking about getting rescued from the bar 3 months in but being forced to have oral and anal sex. Clearly they did not interview Dear from Lolitas. Then it mentions her dismay in thinking she was in love and the guy kicks her out and gives her 500 baht. Clearly a made up story and one with very little reality to it.
Then a postcard from a punter who meets a girl in the massage parlor forced there beyond her will. The guy feels bad about it but wants a virgin so does it anyway. Then his whole life is ruined but saved because he found God. Nice. Totally embellished and not even a true view of the massage industry. Now I won’t use this platform to say their is not exploitation but usually it is not found in the Farang oriented areas. Many times the exploitation is the mothers forcing girls into the trade. I told these guys why don’t they go to Buriram or Surin and sort out why all this happens to beging with. Of course I know this is not interesting ot them or as showy as standing in front of the Plaza. I would say this post is more accurate of the girls in the Massage business.
I have included the links below that they list in their material. Silly stuff really with no coherent message. Very typical in my mind of organized religion where the goal usually is to create a sense of need but more often than not the organizations have very selfish agendas. I have no problem with religion but usually I find the message is lost among the greed and egos of the leaders.
http://www.avenueresource.com/ is the working domain but the paper shows this http://www.avenueresources.com - so a printed typo but seems they could easily register both domains to make it look more professional.
http://www.prodigalsonline.org/ - got this message:
An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator.
http://www.desertstream.org/- this is a great one for appealing to farangs going to Nana:
Thank you for your interest in Desert Stream Ministries. In 1980, my pastor encouraged me to start a healing/support group in the church for those seeking to come out of homosexuality. A former homosexual myself, I developed a series of teachings that helped men and women deal honestly with their brokenness and receive healing. The goal? To become life-giving members of the local church.
http://www.mysecret.tv/ - nice one. this one makes you think you are entering a porn site with their big warning splash screen. Love the use of deception for purposes of furthering the so called “truth”:
That’s what MySecret.tv is all about. It’s a place to come clean, to get real, and to take a first step toward the freedom that can be found in genuine confession. It’s not an end-all, be-all solution, but a place to begin the process and find the hope that can be found in acknowledging that carrying the burden of your shame alone will get you nowhere.
http://www.setfreerichmond.org/: what a croc. Porn is the lifeblood of any good marriage for guys outside of Thailand. For married guys in Thailand we invented the soapy.
Bill and Sue married and moved to a new area to pursue further education. They were full of newlywed bliss as they began their adventure of life together. However, their perfect world was shattered when Sue woke one morning to find Bill surfing pornography on the internet. Confusion and doubt overcame her as she asked “Aren’t I good enough?” Shame and guilt covered Bill as he confessed that he was battling a long-standing addiction and that what he had been viewing was actually homosexual pornography. He was willing to fight, but he knew he needed help.
I think my point has been made. These guys, like anyone else, have a right to further their message or cause. I often wonder why they don’t come up with better ways that actually make sense and carry some sense of purpose. Why do they always come to Thailand to target farang? How come they don’t stand outside a soapy and hassle the Thais? You know y - they would get their ass kicked.
Interesting stuff - now I know how to identify religious types…
they say ‘End all and Be all’ instead of the more normal ‘Be all and End all’ Maybe their brains are wired differently, not unlike homosexuals
View all comments by doctorbond
I love talking to the God Squad.
Sorry, but I am a non-believer. Apart from the times that I sometimes think I am God.
If Bible-puncher quoted “1 in 100 Thais have HIV ” then I’d of replied “yeah, well you cant catch it twice”.
Then I’d of probably bitch-slapped her YP style.
View all comments by Day Walker
So we should kick there ass too?
View all comments by Young Royal
How much blood has been spilled in the name of religion?
Mankind will never be free until the last priest has been hung by the entrails of the last capitalist
View all comments by martin99z
I was a Catholic as a young child and attended Catechism many times a week. Then my parents converted to Christianity….
I thought it was only Thais who would ask me if I was “Catholic” or “Christian”
I used to eat apples & banana but then I decided to eat fruit instead.
very funny indeed.
View all comments by werewolf
“I was a Catholic as a young child and attended Catechism many times a week. Then my parents converted to Christianity”
Daywalker is difference between Catechism and Christianity like the line at Eden?
View all comments by Young Royal
Of all the weirdness of my home country the overwhelming number of holy rollers is right up there on the top of the list. Interesting story about that.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20278737/jesus_made_me_puke/print
People can believe in the flying spaghetti monster if they want, but is just seems silly to me.
View all comments by tosh
Organized religion is the haven of last resort for those that have committed acts in their lives that engender lasting guilt. Salvation at death’s door is easier to believe in than the idea that you need to own up to your own actions and take responsibility for them.
A person is not defined by his mistakes, but by how he/she owns up to them. Simple as that.
View all comments by The Heckler
Daywalker you are beyond redemption.
View all comments by hanuman
“These guys, like anyone else, have a right to further their message or cause.”
I wonder how they would feel if I hung out in front of their church, handing out free girlie mags to the boys, and chatting up the girls…
Just exercising my rights to further my message and cause..
View all comments by callisto
@callisto
- If you need a hand, I’ll volunteer.
View all comments by Day Walker
In Indonesia, Protestantism and Catholicism are considered different religions (2 of the 5 I think that are sanctioned by the state). I’m guessing Smitty is making the same distinction
View all comments by julian
ww - laugh away but most mormons, christian and catholics actually see themselves as having a different fundamental belief system. Many of them hold workshops on how to convert the other. Sure - God or Jesus seems to be at the core but they tend to turn that into what they want. Hell within the Christian factions a Southern Baptist would not see eye to eye with an Evangelical.
View all comments by smitty
Hail Xenu!
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
BBB - what the heck is Xenu.
View all comments by Julian
Smitty: When you refer to Christians, what you mean is Protestants (Baptists, Calvinists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc…, ok anything but Catholic, but which were you? Or was it non mainstream Christian LDS or JW?).
We Catholics are Christians too, remember, “they will know we are Christians by our love”?
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah! And Mai ben rai too!
View all comments by bkkris
I was both a catholic and southern baptist - none of this by choice really
View all comments by smitty
yeah yeah yeah… all these big long words and beliefs…
The one thing you have got in common is that you all worship what was behind the Bible bashers… That being the Pussy.
If that means we are all going to burn in Hell, then fine by me.
You’ll not find filthy crack whores in Heaven anyway.
See you down there.
View all comments by Day Walker
@Julian: Xenu was a galactic overlord - 75 million years ago he brought billions of people to Earth (then known as Teegeeack) to execute them. He put them around volcanoes and blew them up with nuclear weapons. Their souls stuck around, though, and continue to harm the living.
This is the basis of Scientology, and is almost as funny as Christianity.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
smitty: granted that baptists, methodists, lutherans, mennonites, pentacostals, catholics, coptics, russian orthodox, greek orthodox, episcopalians and many others often have fudamentally different philosophies (i read somewhere once that there were approximately 34,000 different denominations) and many of them think that the others are bound for hell.
however, they are all christian. i find this to be an impossible concept to explain to most thai people due to limitations of language, but i’m sure you know it already, which is the reason i was chuckling.
anyway, it’s all friendly.
these days i primarily worship at the temple of the sacred daughters of ubon, burriram and si saket.
View all comments by werewolf
BBB: I thought your tongue might be firmly planted in your cheek with the story of Xenu, so I went onto the internet to read up on Scientology. Your three paragraph summary does perfect justice to the thousands of words I read on the topic. Pretty amazing stuff.
View all comments by werewolf
@WW: It’s all true. And very silly.
But no sillier than the belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so that he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.
Still, each to their own.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
The diffreence is Christians think they’ve moved past Catholicsm and on to a better form of religion…in short, they think they’re part of a superior group who really know the one, true and only way to salvation. And, they’re not afraid to tell you about it, whether you’ve asked or not.
That’s why they’re so obnoxious.
View all comments by Jack Sprat
It is better to burn out than fade away! -Highlander
View all comments by bkkris
Currently there are three topics on this blog which are ‘active’…
‘Politics, Religion and Money.
Three things that always cause arguments.
I’ll return to the blog when the topic returns to pussy, Mango burgers, Nid, and 200bht BJ’s under the bridge.
View all comments by Day Walker
ww - to say it is all about jesus and that’s that would get most biblical scholars in an uproar. I am not defending any of this but there are people that could spend hours telling u the difference and think it is important.All a joke really but you can’t say the Thais are different. very simple on this one - ask them if their Buddhism is the same as China, Vietnam, India and so on. You will get puzzled looks and then many will say it is not the same and that Thailand’s is better. So how is that any different than the Catholic and Christian talk?
Rumor is that L. Ron actually was sitting with a bunch of authors and claiming he could use a book to kick off a religion. Pretty funny if it were really trues.
View all comments by smitty