Father of U.S. Missionary Killed by Remote Tribe Blames 'Extreme' Christianity for Death

The father of a U.S. missionary killed by a tribe on a remote island has blamed extreme evangelical Christianity for his son's death.

John Allen Chau, 27, was shot with bows and arrows by tribal people in November after arriving at North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal, which outsiders are banned from visiting.

Local officials said that Chau was a missionary, who was attempting to proselytise to the people on the island.

In comments to UK newspaper The Observer published Sunday, Chau's father, Dr Patrick Chau, blamed "extreme Christianity" for pushing his son to a "not unexpected end."

"If you have [anything] positive to say about religion," he said, "l wish not to see or hear."

"John is gone because the Western ideology overpowered my [Confucian] influence," he said, referring to the teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Chau, who was from Washington state, studied at Oral Roberts University, an evangelical institution in Oklahoma.

Mary Ho, executive of the All Nations Christian missionary group, of which Chau was a member, told The Washington Post he had long wanted to visit the Sentinel Island people.

"You could see that every decision he has made, every step he has taken since then was driven by his desire to be among the North Sentinelese people," Ho said.

Indian officials told the BBC in November they had "put on hold" efforts to retrieve Chau's body from the island.

Outsiders have long been banned from the island for their own safety owing to the hostility of tribal people living there to visitors. The ban is also necessary to shield the people living there from diseases, say experts.

Six fishermen Chau bribed to take him to the island were arrested after his death.

John Middleton Ramsey, a friend of Chau's and a fellow Christian, defended his actions in comments to The Observer.

"His motivation was love for the [Sentinelese] people," he told me. "If you believe in heaven and hell then what he did was the most loving thing anyone could do."

He added: "A lot of people have said these people obviously want to be left alone, so we should respect their wishes. Well my ancestors were also savages that wanted to be left alone. I'm sure glad missionaries like [Saints] Kilian and Boniface stepped up and were willing to give their lives, and that I don't live in a society like that any more."

This article was corrected on February 4 to state that Oral Roberts University is in Oklahoma, not Alabama.