And They Call Us Crazy?

[buriramboy]

I can't believe the kind of people that are on this board. It is outrageous. The man is just trying to help. I guess you people don't mind these young girls selling their flesh. I have a problem with it and commend Brother Tony for doing something about it. It may not be the best way, but there are probably some people at those places who heard him and then heard from their consciences and left. At least he is trying to make a positive difference in the world and not feeding the problems.

There is a visa for missionary purposes in Thailand. The country has no problem with people coming for religious purposes.

excuse my ignorance, could you please explain exactly how this man is trying to help and who exactly is he supposed to be helping???

he seems to shout at farangs, so i can't see hows he's helping them. And nowhere on the video did i see him trying to engage any Thais in a meaningful conversation, so please enlighten me and tell me who he is helping?

BB

[Tornado]

I can't believe the kind of people that are on this board. It is outrageous. The man is just trying to help. I guess you people don't mind these young girls selling their flesh. I have a problem with it and commend Brother Tony for doing something about it. It may not be the best way, but there are probably some people at those places who heard him and then heard from their consciences and left. At least he is trying to make a positive difference in the world and not feeding the problems.

There is a visa for missionary purposes in Thailand. The country has no problem with people coming for religious purposes.

or another slant - it looks like yelling, it looks manic, 99% of the people there cant understand him and although he thinks he is right in what he is doing, he looks stupid, which then in turn makes the whole exercise a joke to most and makes the religion he is preaching to be in peoples eyes.

Put an advert in the Thai news papers for people to come along to a venue and listen to him preach, that would make more sense surely.

[Dupont]

Got a few of these god botherers in Phuket.

They are from the same cowardly vein as the NGO's that come here saying they are preventing slavery and prostitution when they should be in Burma, Cambodia and China.

They love the nice safe feel of Thailand and run scared of carrying out their mission where it may have some effect.

Try Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia for starters, then mayby you can post the video of you having you empty head lopped off.

Muppets the lot of em, and hope the bar owners have alerted immigration and they get em on the next plane out.

[khunlungphudhu]

But if he learned to shout in Thai, and he went into the Thai whorehouses, what would they do to him there: make him a dead martyr?

Quite possibly a happier dead martyr!

[garro]

There is a visa for missionary purposes in Thailand. The country has no problem with people coming for religious purposes.

Well hopefullly this sort of behaviour will make the Thai authorities make this type of visa harder to obtain. The Thai government promotes religious tolerance. I fail to see how Tony's behaviour is promoting any tolerance as all he seems to be doing is annoying people in a very public way. The man is a disgrace not only to Christianity but to all religions. Christian missionaries like Tony should learn a bit of respect for other peoples countries and as suggested before maybe learn the language.

[meemiathai]

ahh..... brother tony, the same brother tony that wanted to start a church in Phuket.

heres a tip, learn the language as it seems the powers of god havent helped you get your point across.

I can only imagine what the Thais were thinking.

"Most if not all farangs are crazy. But we are used to it already."

[Brother_Tony]

Dear All,

Thanks for the responses. My name is Tony; everyone calls me Brother Tony. I was raised in Thailand as my Dad was stationed here doing special ops when I was a teenager. I graduated from the International School of Bangkok (ISB) in 1992; and after graduation, I began a career in Muay Thai (Thai boxing) boxing on Thai television under the ring name of "Tony Sasiprapa-gym". My mother is Vietnamese, and I was raised in a buddhist home being a buddhist growing up.

In July 1995, I was born again as I heard the word of God preached to me. I became a new creature. I was once a man full of hate and made a career of hurting people; but once I was born again, the love of God came into my heart by the Holy Ghost. I was born again from the living word of God preached to me as I put my faith in God's word.

Since I have been born again, it is my calling to preach the gospel to every creature; and this is what I have been doing for over 10 years full time. I not only preach in Bangkok but also all over Thailand from the North to the South to the Northeast to the Thai/Myanmar border. Plus, I have preached in Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and back in the U.S. on a number of occasions. This April, I am going forth to preach the gospel in Pakistan. And yes, I have done jail time for preaching in the U.S. of all places.

I am not supported by a church or an organization living completely by faith in God. Niether do I preach for a church or an organization, but I do preach in different churches on Sundays but not for them. I preach in them but not for them. I have a one year non-immigrant visa due to being married to a Thai national. I used to use a one year residence visa; but since I travel so much nowadays, the non immigrant "o" visa is perfect for me now. My wife is a Christian after seeing the change in my life after I was born again. We lived together for 3 years before I was born again. She saw such a change in my life that she put her faith in Christ as well. Praise God!

Well, I hope that answers everything. Yes, I am the first to admit that I am crazy as I wrote in my first blog; but I am crazy for Christ. I have learned it is better to be crazy for Christ than to be crazy for the devil. I am a fool for Christ, but whose fool are you? I'm sorry for not answering everyone's blog straightaway as I am not online often. And I am sorry for not being able to answer in the near future as I will be offline until maybe Monday.

Once again, it is written: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14). They may not listen to us, but we are heard; and the gospel is preached to the people as a witness unto them. You know exactly what we are preaching and who we are preaching: the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is all that we are doing. I am not a humanitarian, and I have no hope that this world will get better: the end is near. We preach not to do good or make people better; we preach for souls to repent. You will either reject the preaching or repent at the preaching. The main thing is that you have been witnessed to. Amen.

As for converts, my Dad, after years of rejecting the gospel preached to him by me, has finally put his faith in Christ. He was a career soldier for the U.S. doing Special Ops and has done time in Iraq as a mercenary. But he finally repented at the preaching of the gospel of Christ last year. There are many more, but he is the one that I have been praying for and labouring for for so many years. Praise ye the LORD!

[Flysiam]

There is a visa for missionary purposes in Thailand. The country has no problem with people coming for religious purposes.

Well hopefullly this sort of behaviour will make the Thai authorities make this type of visa harder to obtain. The Thai government promotes religious tolerance. I fail to see how Tony's behaviour is promoting any tolerance as all he seems to be doing is annoying people in a very public way. The man is a disgrace not only to Christianity but to all religions. Christian missionaries like Tony should learn a bit of respect for other peoples countries and as suggested before maybe learn the language.

I am a fairly religious person but to see the way this guy goes about 'converting' is absolutely ineffective - as has been mentioned before. If one is not willing to 'hear' the other side but blast their 'message' into your face it will not do anything but alienate people. Sad.

On another note - though there are 'missionary visas' - and generally open to people coming to Thailand for religious purposes - Thailand is FAR from one to 'promote' religious tolerance.. They do it because they 'have' to.. and the situations in the South make it even more so - Thais are generally happy the way they are and if the government had their way there would not be any proselyting of any other religions (other than Buddhism) in Thailand. Believe what you like but keep it to yourself. IMHO

[sceadugenga]

Dear All,

Thanks for the responses. My name is Tony; everyone calls me Brother Tony. I was raised in Thailand as my Dad was stationed here doing special ops when I was a teenager. I graduated from the International School of Bangkok (ISB) in 1992; and after graduation, I began a career in Muay Thai (Thai boxing) boxing on Thai television under the ring name of "Tony Sasiprapa-gym". My mother is Vietnamese, and I was raised in a buddhist home being a buddhist growing up.

In July 1995, I was born again as I heard the word of God preached to me. I became a new creature. I was once a man full of hate and made a career of hurting people; but once I was born again, the love of God came into my heart by the Holy Ghost. I was born again from the living word of God preached to me as I put my faith in God's word.

Since I have been born again, it is my calling to preach the gospel to every creature; and this is what I have been doing for over 10 years full time. I not only preach in Bangkok but also all over Thailand from the North to the South to the Northeast to the Thai/Myanmar border. Plus, I have preached in Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and back in the U.S. on a number of occasions. This April, I am going forth to preach the gospel in Pakistan. And yes, I have done jail time for preaching in the U.S. of all places.

I am not supported by a church or an organization living completely by faith in God. Niether do I preach for a church or an organization, but I do preach in different churches on Sundays but not for them. I preach in them but not for them. I have a one year non-immigrant visa due to being married to a Thai national. I used to use a one year residence visa; but since I travel so much nowadays, the non immigrant "o" visa is perfect for me now. My wife is a Christian after seeing the change in my life after I was born again. We lived together for 3 years before I was born again. She saw such a change in my life that she put her faith in Christ as well. Praise God!

Well, I hope that answers everything. Yes, I am the first to admit that I am crazy as I wrote in my first blog; but I am crazy for Christ. I have learned it is better to be crazy for Christ than to be crazy for the devil. I am a fool for Christ, but whose fool are you? I'm sorry for not answering everyone's blog straightaway as I am not online often. And I am sorry for not being able to answer in the near future as I will be offline until maybe Monday.

Once again, it is written: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14). They may not listen to us, but we are heard; and the gospel is preached to the people as a witness unto them. You know exactly what we are preaching and who we are preaching: the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is all that we are doing. I am not a humanitarian, and I have no hope that this world will get better: the end is near. We preach not to do good or make people better; we preach for souls to repent. You will either reject the preaching or repent at the preaching. The main thing is that you have been witnessed to. Amen.

As for converts, my Dad, after years of rejecting the gospel preached to him by me, has finally put his faith in Christ. He was a career soldier for the U.S. doing Special Ops and has done time in Iraq as a mercenary. But he finally repented at the preaching of the gospel of Christ last year. There are many more, but he is the one that I have been praying for and labouring for for so many years. Praise ye the LORD!

Careful, you're almost starting to sound reasonable there Tony.

I could never work out how shouting at people in the street carried as many or more brownie points for heaven as devoting yourself to working with the poor and sick though.

[meemiathai]

Praise God?

Can you tell me just one reason(scientifically) why you think God or Gods really exist?

Until I see people flying in front of me or the sea dividing in front of me, what you preach is just BS to me.

[qwertz]

This thread justifies my decision to outlaw all discussions on religion or politics from my lesson plan during class hours.

[garro]

Tony said,

Since I have been born again, it is my calling to preach the gospel to every creature; and this is what I have been doing for over 10 years full time. I not only preach in Bangkok but also all over Thailand from the North to the South to the Northeast to the Thai/Myanmar border. Plus, I have preached in Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and back in the U.S. on a number of occasions. This April, I am going forth to preach the gospel in Pakistan. And yes, I have done jail time for preaching in the U.S. of all places.

The fact that you already served jail time in the US for preaching doesn't bode well for your future in Pakistan. I lived in Saudi Arabia and if Pakistan is anything similar then you will be lucky to just end up in prison. My experience is that Muslims take their religion very serious.

You say that you are crazy for Jesus but you should bear in mind that others are just as crazy for their own faith. It is a pity you didn't develop some religious tolerance from your contact with other religions. Maybe you should take a leaf out of Islams book. They are now the fastest growing religion in the world without the need of standing outside bars shouting at strangers.

I am sure you are a man of very strong convictions and will end up doing what you feel you must. I don't like to see anyone willingly put themselves in danger but it is your life. I hope it works out for you.

[cdnvic]

Who wants to guess how many people that video turned to religion compared to the amount of people who watched and said "Hey, that looks like a great place to go this weekend"?

[PeaceBlondie]

Tony, there's a difference between being a fool for Jesus (Paul said that in reference to convincing professors of philosophy in Athens), and looking like a complete idiot. I'll bet your father wasn't converted by the kind of preaching you did on the video. Angel Martinez was a teenager delivering his first sermon, based on God's love, and his mother converted, but he didn't preach like you (although he was theatrical at times in his later work). How shall they believe, unless they have heard? People don't hear you when you shout like that. If there is no communication, the message has not been proclaimed. God bless you, brother. I'm not too normal myself.

[garro]

Far be it from me to criticize of a man of God, do whatever you feel is right, but please hear my comments as a bit of a critique. Truly the field you have chosen is rather stony ground.

First it might be a benefit for you to meditate a bit on Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

And also Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Also don’t cast your pearls before swine.

I have trouble imagining that when you bring this video to your supporters you have much success in getting them fired up about your technique. ( they might however think you are quite brave, if that’s what your trying to show) For one thing, the sound quality is atrocious. I know I can hear someone hollering out the Gospel, but I really can’t make out what is being said. So all I, and all the viewers of youtube see, is some guy in crowd yelling, and a bunch of people getting quite offended. If you’re going to use video, then learn how to use it. Bad audio is the death of any media project. Start off by getting a handheld mike with low gain.

Has this been a successful tactic for you? Do you see people convicted of their sins, or do you see what we are reading here, a bunch of folks who feel even more justified in their hatred of the Christian message. Not by the message mind you, because no one can hear it; but by what appears to them as complete arrogance and insensitivity.

When Christ went to the bars, he sat with the people, got to know their names and shared his heart with them. This is exactly what drove the Pharisees nuts; they thought he should be yelling at them from the street like you were.

I do enjoy your posts canuckamuck, and have actually started to look out for them. I am afraid that I don't agree with much you have to say but nevertheless enjoy your writing immensely; there is something very twee about it. Do you write professionally? Bravo and keep up the good work.

BTW, maybe you should suggest producing Tony's next film.

[Nikkijah]

There is one part of the video where a drunken falang is trying to explain something to Tony but Tony is having none of it, he obviously thinks that talking over somebody else whilst they are trying to speak is polite in some way, the falang then walks away, knowing that there is no point trying to reason with this man, as the falang walks away Tony says: "if it wasn't true, why would he walk away?" how pathetic, hopeless & desperate did Tony come across??? I mean, how dare the falang walk away whilst being talked AT.

Keep up the good work Tony

EDIT/ for my own pleasure

Edited March 24, 2007 by Nikkijah

[Prakanong]

I think brother Tony is fairly harmless. As far as I know is meant to be an entertainment district. I am far more worried by the the missionaries who bribe local children to attend their services.

to attend their services and what else???

Some nasty stories from my ex-wifes village

Not Brother Tony of course he has never been there

[Artisi]

For those who agree that he is a complete ######, the best response is to completely ignore him and not rise to his bait by making any comments, this is what drives him and what he wants to get his kicks and justification.

If he is completely ignored and has no audience he will go away

[Ricardo]

Who knows - maybe someone's soul may be saved, by this sort of behaviour.

But personally, I would be more impressed, by Christians running a free hospital, or a soup-kitchen, or something similar, with absolutely no other agenda, than doing good by helping the poor. Which is an end in itself.

Maybe Thaksin might be induced to sponsor this ?

[tuky]

Use your testimony Tony, not your lungs mate.

Your testimony is what will get people to listen, and even then only those that are ready to hear it.

This sort of preaching only alienates the message even further. I know where you are coming from, I have been through the Teen Challenge program and all that entails.

You say people have been witnessed to, not true mate as witnessing in that arena could only be done by actions/deed not words.

But once again, I had it pounded into me that what you are doing is the right thing to do and for a while I believed it, until realised I was using it as a crutch and then got on with my life.

[canuckamuck]

I do enjoy your posts canuckamuck, and have actually started to look out for them. I am afraid that I don't agree with much you have to say but nevertheless enjoy your writing immensely; there is something very twee about it. Do you write professionally? Bravo and keep up the good work.

BTW, maybe you should suggest producing Tony's next film.

Thanks for the props Garro, I understand my opinions are rarely shared, but I like keeping my arguments sharp in this forum, it's good for the noggin.

I do write, and I do get published, I work on a TV show as well. but I am enjoying just being a voice on the net, I like the level ground interaction that you can't find in real life.

Trust me if Brother Tony had me work on his stuff, you'd all be baptized by Monday. LOL

Actually Tony is having a bit of trouble channeling his passion, Pakistan will straighten him out. Ive been there often, last time I had a guy with an ak47 guarding my door. It aint LOS

[jdinasia]

This guy is FUNNY!

[Thai-Spy]

Can't help but wonder if Brother Tony would have the courage of his convictions to speak out publicly in Thailand about the "sin" of idolatry, worshiping before certain golden statues and icons, animistic behavior, etc. Absent that level of commitment, one can't help but wonder if he isn't just picking the low-hanging fruit...

[Prakanong]

I have actually seen Brother tony in action - I had a great view from Big Dogs

He spouts tripe of course but he does take it in humour when someone hassles him - the Thai's just switch off and see it as another crazy farang

He is a big guy.

[garro]

I do enjoy your posts canuckamuck, and have actually started to look out for them. I am afraid that I don't agree with much you have to say but nevertheless enjoy your writing immensely; there is something very twee about it. Do you write professionally? Bravo and keep up the good work.

BTW, maybe you should suggest producing Tony's next film.

Thanks for the props Garro, I understand my opinions are rarely shared, but I like keeping my arguments sharp in this forum, it's good for the noggin.

I do write, and I do get published, I work on a TV show as well. but I am enjoying just being a voice on the net, I like the level ground interaction that you can't find in real life.

Trust me if Brother Tony had me work on his stuff, you'd all be baptized by Monday. LOL

Actually Tony is having a bit of trouble channeling his passion, Pakistan will straighten him out. Ive been there often, last time I had a guy with an ak47 guarding my door. It aint LOS

You now have me curious now about your identity.

Nevermind

I don't think if 'good old' Tony got Steven Spilberg to make his film it would make much difference to me. I will listen to almost anybody who wants to talk with me but refuse to listen to someone who shouts at me.

BTW, I think quaint was actually the word I was looking for rather than Twee to describe your writing.

Edited March 24, 2007 by garro

[terry57]

I suspect a troll. I thought we ran all the god botherers off anyway.

this guy is 100 % strait up with his conviction.

ive talked to him on koh san road and the weekend market.

his life story is very interesting and let me see if i can remember it.

1. vietnamese mother and american father born in vietnam.

2. came to thailand with mother when very young.

3. lived on the street as an urchin stealing to survive.

4. turned into a drug addict and alcoholic being harassed by police.

5. turned life around and became a top thai boxer winning a title.

6. found christianity and became a preacher on the streets of bangkok devoting his life to religion.

anybody that has met brother tony would not doubt the thai boxer story as he is one powerfully built mother foe.

anyway,

to say he is crazy is a very harsh assessment and i would prefer to say his is driven by his conviction.

if you listen to his life story you might then get a feel for where he has come from.

anyway brother tony,

am i correct with my recollection of your life story ?

maybe you will remember me, a bald headed handsome australian called terry.

good luck to you.

[robert2]

Brother Tony, in a free world we have freedom of speech.

In Thailand as elsewhere there are few exceptions to this, exceptions we all can live with.

I think you are abusing thai tolerance towards falang and you absolutely fail to understand the Thai way of carrying yourself in public.

[LindsayBKK]

Ok OH God! we've given him his 5 minutes of fame now let's not give him anymore. Somebody please close down this thread.

[andook]

I admire his conviction and whatever, but I always feel getting "born again" is particularly cruel to one's Mother.

[uptou]

i remember reading the novel,the unbearable lightness of being,by milan kundera,& on only a couple of pages the author thinks back to when he was a boy at the age of 5 & was leafing through a book & came across some drawings of god.he notices that god is in human form & leads him to think that if god had a mouth then he had to eat & if he ate he had to have a sh!t .this didnt add up for the 5 year old.

the author then suggests that god can be excused for mans crimes because mankind was given freedom of choice,but the responsibility of sh!tting rests entirely with god.