Missionaries accused of illegally giving gadgets to isolated Amazon tribe

Brazilian laws prohibit outsiders from contacting remote Indigenous tribes in the Amazon, but that hasn’t deterred some Christian missionaries. National authorities and watchdog groups discovered plastic gadgets containing prerecorded religious messages in the Amazon’s Javari valley near the Brazil-Peru border. First reported by The Guardian and Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the secretive project has alleged ties to multiple international evangelical organizations.

Brazil is home to the world’s largest concentration of uncontacted and isolated Indigenous communities. Although the country’s Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, or Funai) estimates around 100 tribal enclaves reside in the Amazon, the agency has so far only been able to confirm about 28 of them.

For biologists, conservationists, and Indigenous rights activists—as well as the tribes themselves—this is a good thing. Limiting unsolicited contact is crucial to the safety and survival of these dwindling populations, primarily because it reduces the chance of the tribespeople contracting foreign pathogens like influenza and measles. The nonprofit advocacy group Survival International has explained it’s not unusual for 50 percent of a voluntarily isolated Indigenous community to die within a year of first contact.

Maintaining isolation is increasingly difficult, as these protected communities continue to face encroachment due to deforestation and urban expansion. An often overlooked threat comes from evangelical missionary organizations determined to spread their religious beliefs despite international and local prohibitions.

An unsolicited Messenger

The most recent examples are more technologically oriented than previous attempts. According to Brazilian authorities, unknown outsiders are giving smartphone-sized audio devices to the Korubo people in the Amazon’s Javari valley. The solar-powered, plastic case electronics play prerecorded Bible verses and inspirational sermons in multiple languages including Portuguese and English. Labels on the devices suggest they come from In Touch Ministries, an Atlanta-based Baptist church that conducts extensive international outreach work.

The items are specifically part of the organization’s longtime, technology-focused project called Messenger Lab. Started in 2007, Messenger Lab provides the free gospel gadgets to third-parties, who then distribute them to remote communities around the world. The audio players are manufactured through a partnership with MegaVoice, a company that describes itself as providing “durable, solar-powered audio and video Bibles that make Scripture accessible to people worldwide.” MegaVoice’s products also include FM transmitters and LED flashlights, while the recordings themselves are offered in over 100 languages for “unreached” listeners.

In Touch Ministries chief operating officer Seth Grey told The Guardian that while he personally gifted 48 Messenger devices to the Amazon’s Wai Wai tribe four years ago, the community has voluntarily engaged with missionaries for decades. Grey also stated that In Touch staff do not go “anywhere we’re not allowed,” and denies responsibility for what “other organizations” do with their products.

A ‘sorry history’

It is currently unclear who delivered the In Touch–MegaVoice players to the Korubo tribe members. Other groups, however, are keeping an eye on the situation for them.

Survival International media and communications officer Cailín Burns confirmed to Popular Science that the nonprofit is actively monitoring the situation.“We are extremely concerned about evangelical missionaries approaching uncontacted peoples—no matter how they do it,” she said, citing the “sorry history” of evangelical outreach endangering Indigenous peoples.

“They bring diseases for which uncontacted peoples have no immunity, they open the way for land-grabbers and other criminals, and they erode the culture of those communities,” Burns added.

She reiterated that any form of “forced contact—even indirect” can result in tragedy, and that the presence of these devices indicates someone is violating Brazilian law.

“They must stop,” she said.

Popular Science reached out to representatives from MegaVoice and In Touch Ministries, including Seth Grey, for comment. They did not respond at the time of writing.

 

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