In this handout photo provided by the Indian coastguard and Survival International in 2004, a man with the Sentinelese tribe aims his bow and arrow at an Indian coast guard helicopter. “Just a dumb American who thought the tribals needed ‘Jesus’ when the tribals already lived in harmony with God and nature for years without outside interference.” “John Allen Chau is not a martyr,” responded one Twitter user, capturing the prevailing sentiment on social media.

The Sentinelese, hunter-gatherers who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Andaman island chain, are considered one of the Earth’s last uncontacted peoples their entire tribe is believed to number several dozen people. Ho also told news organizations that Chau had received 13 immunizations, though Survival International, an indigenous rights group, disputes that these would have prevented infection of the isolated Sentinelese people. “We pray that John’s sacrificial efforts will bear eternal fruit in due season.” The “privilege of sharing the gospel has often involved great cost”, Dr Mary Ho, the organization’s leader, said in a statement. John was an “innocent child”, his father told me, who died from an “extreme” vision of Christianity taken to its logical conclusion.Īll Nations, the evangelical organization that trained Chau, described him as a martyr. When Chau’s death became international news, many Christians were keen to disavow his actions Chau’s father believes the American missionary community is culpable in his son’s death. In November, on an obscure island in the Indian Ocean, Chau – a 26-year-old American adventure blogger, beef-jerky marketer, and evangelical missionary – was killed by the isolated tribe he was attempting to convert to Christianity.

North sentinel island map