It is nearly inconceivable to me that missionaries continue to flock in great hordes to many places in Latin America. After 500 years of religious domination, the vast majority of Latin American peoples have got the Jesus thing down pat. What they don’t often have are things like good sanitation infrastructure, food security, floors, access to education, or personal safety. And this, of course, is only a short list of things that many people don’t have.

Prayer has yet to solve these problems, but missionaries persist in invoking Jesus to jump start economic development.

As the only female usually there, I was surprised when three guys at the counter expressed disapproval that the missionaries had gone in the first place. There are about eight to ten regular guys there every day,playing cribbage or just bullshitting. I know the waitress–which is why I support her job with my dollars in the middle of whitemaleland.

One guy put it really well, “Those people have no business going into other countries with their own ideas.” The other two agreed that the missionaries did wrong and shouldn’t have been there. They were ready to place full blame on the missionaries for stealing children. I said that they were probably very naïve and didn’t go through the proper channels,because god told them it was okay.

Funny, isn’t it, when white men become old, frail, irrelevant and subsist on a fixed income how their world view becomes something more humane.

“Dear jesus, please make me breakfast. I expect breakfast to be on the table when I get downstairs. Thanks, bud.”
“Dear jesus, please get the university to hand me a diploma in June whether I go to class (or study or pay tuition) or not.”
“Dear jesus, please send an angel – IMMEDIATELY – to clean up the cat poo so that I don’t have to get out of bed.”

100% of the time these prayers don’t work, but all you have to do is alter your prayers and everything is fine! Example:

“Dear jesus, please let me experience at least ONE bowel movement this week.”

Bingo! Proof that jesus answers prayers.

Coincidentally, a friend was taking a (non-religious) trip to rural Paraguay around the same time. She spent 3 months building stoves because many women were developing repiratory problems from cooking over an open fire. She considered the trip an opportunity to learn about another part of the world, and did not purport any motivations related to selflessly helping others. Ironic that the supposedly altruistic missionary does nothing helpful, while the self-admitted tourist at least provided free labor.

“The Secret” – just put it out there in the Universe and you will attract all the good things to you.

It doesn’t have to be about religion. Power is retained by teaching the populace to hope instead of do, to blame internal weaknesses for structural failures in society etc.

I have also learned to hate the phrase, “Good luck” as being equivalent to the phrase, “You’re fucked.”