Wrapping the Good News for the Thai

This extract from an article, "Wrapping the Good News for the Thai" by Alan Johnson highlights one of the problems we face as we try to share the Gospels with Thais.

"Although there were a number of experiences over time that helped to bring the reality of the complexity of communication home to me, one stands out in particular. I was conducting an English lesson with a couple of Thai high school students and we were working through Luke 5 in the English text. We came to the point where I wanted to discuss the meaning of the passage and some of its implications and since they were unable to converse easily in English I said that we would switch into Thai. I asked the question, why did Peter fall on his knees and say that he was a sinful man? Without a moment’s hesitation the young man said, “Because he killed all of those fish!” I have to admit that his response caught me totally off guard. He was reading the text through his “Buddhist eyes” of the principle of not taking life. It made me realize in a much clearer fashion that the worldview, beliefs, values and assumptions of my listeners were causing them to make different meanings than what I was intending, even when those understandings did not surface in conversation.

This started me on the process of trying to understand the meanings that people would be making in their minds from the terms and concepts that we use when we share the Gospel. It became clear to me that Thais were not simply rejecting the Gospel or Christianity, in reality the situation was much more complicated than that. At least part of their lack of response is a rejection of the linguistic and stylistic wrapping in which we as missionaries and local Christians were presenting the message. When the “wrapping” makes no sense it keeps them from ever getting to the wonderful gift of the Good News inside."