This is terrible but I don’t understand why these missionaries go to violent war zones or areas in a state of anarchy.
Same reason missionaries went to dangerous places in past centuries, I imagine. There are people in need to convert, and the risks aren’t all that meaningful if you honestly believe in your message. What’s the worst someone can do, kill you? You’re in heaven then. It’s life that’s the difficult and painful period to get through, not what comes afterwards.
There is something extremely depressing about that. Knowing that their beliefs aren’t real, it is incredibly sad to see two people in their early 20’s die for what they believe in. Their one and only life is over because they couldn’t mind their own business. There is no heaven, there is no reward. They spread a fairy tale and got murdered, that’s the summary of their existence.
The real question here is why American missionaries did it in a country, Haiti, that’s over 93% Christian. The U.S. is only 63% Christian.
I guess maybe they were there more for the humanitarian rather than the religious?
Haiti is about 70% Catholic, 30% protestant (mostly Pentecoastal), and 100% Voodoo. Which, to US missionaries, means 70% heathens and 30% heretics.
They were already there. “They made the decision to remain even when it got worse because they felt like if they left, then those kids would have no where to go" Source
They were ambushed by gang members, after helping orphans at a church, in an attempted robbery. They were leaving the church and got attacked on their way home.
Damn, so genuinely good people caught in the crossfire. I don’t like how so many commenters are shitting all over them here.