Love, Faith, and Manipulation

Yesterday I worked on my STOU project, just brainstorming. We are going to be staying at STOU tonight for Loy Krathong and then going to Phuket for a few days to visit Woody Leonhard and to see the Non-Formal Education center. I will be writing Blog entries on my Palm and might not be able to post photographs or entries until I get back. We will be returning on Sunday night or Monday.

I have been thinking of a couple recent conversations. I know a person that visited Thailand for two weeks, I think he is looking for a wife. His first week he spent in Bangkok with, as he says a, "girlfriend" he then went to Chiang Mai and spent another week with a different "girlfriend". His comment when he returned home is that "he could do better" and was "still looking". He also said their were "so many choices." To me there are so many complex interactions going on here, economics, ethics, sincerity, hope for a better future, honesty, etc.. I wonder if he communicated his decision to the women he met in Bangkok and Chiang Mai? I wonder if the women in Bangkok knew he was going to Chiang Mai to meet somebody else? I wonder what the womens hopes were and what their decision was. I wonder if you can be open to a long term relationship if you already are planning to meet somebody else? I just think the whole process is a sad messed up story. I know the hope for a better life is a strong incentive to want to immigrate, but it is also a motivation that can be easily taken advantage of. I also know that the longing for love can be easily taken advantage of, but honesty is the only way through the thicket of emotions and motivations to a valuable relationship.

When we were at Impact center I asked why there were so many English signs on the stores around STOU. I was told that there were many Christians who lived around the area and that they had a large building where they met. The Christians spoke excellent Thai. I asked if they went around visiting in peoples homes, and was told yes. The lady I spoke with then said "We do not know whether to trust them?" I said you probably can not because their goal was to get you to change your religion. Some Christians come to Thailand to show their belief by example and by works, and that is wonderful, others come to Thailand to convert people to Christianity, and to me that is disrespectful of the culture and tradition of Thailand. The only way that an honest relationship can be created around conversion is if the intentions of both parties are clear. "I am here to change your religion, I do not belief your religion is as good as my religion. Lets talk about it?" of course it is never stated so clearly.

Religion is like love and people can be very vulnerable to emotional manipulation, life, death, sickness, loss, longing, hope, guilt, are all messed up in religion, combined with luck, fate, and power, promises can be made that have no way to be proven true or false, emotions can be manipulated.

Both the person looking for a wife and the person looking for conversions are similar. People are coming to Thailand with very personal, highly emotional purposes, and both the Christians looking for conversion, and the people looking for wives, without an open heart, are using economic and emotional manipulation for their own personal ends. I do not think love or faith can really come form dishonest means.