There is significant controversy surrounding John Allen Chau’s ill-faited attempt in 2018 to share the gospel with the world’s most isolated people on North Sentinel Island, a 20 square-mile speck of Indian territory in the Andaman archipelago, 30 miles west of Great Andaman in the Bay of Bengal, and home to one of the world’s least-contacted and least-understood groups of indigenous people, known as the Sentinelese. He was killed by the natives and is acclaimed by some as a model of selfless evangelism yet by others as one who was foolishly deluded. Chau was killed in a highly restricted area while trying to interact with the uncontacted people who have a history of “vigorous rejection towards outsiders.”

Smithsonian Magazine published an article here in 2018 regarding what happened. Outside magazine published a more detailed article here in 2019. In 2018, seminary professor Scott Hildreth published an article here on Chau’s fate. He writes,

“There are questions about the wisdom of risking one’s life for such a small, isolated group of people who clearly want no interference from outsiders. There are also theological questions about the need for a missionary to go to such lengths to evangelize people who have had no previous encounter with the Christian message.

From all accounts, Chau’s actions demonstrated some serious missiological shortcomings. Had he approached me with his plan, I would have counseled against it. His zeal for evangelism seems to have clouded his judgment.”

At the bottom of this post is a well-done documentary by National Geographic which gives you both sides of the story, that John was either deluded or a martyr. Controversy surrounding John Chau continues to this day, but whatever one concludes, Chau’s story is a vivid reminder of the responsibility of Christians to reach the lost with the gospel of Christ, a task that can sometimes entail the ultimate sacrifice – something unbelievers will never understand. Sometimes Christ calls us to places we don’t want to go (John 21:18).