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The Crescent and The Cross
The Dangers of Monotheism in the Age of Globalization

Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was one of the most profound philosophers of this century, author and educationalist. In 1926, he was deputed by Calcutta University as the university delegate to the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1940, first Indian to be thus honored.

He had observed:

"Unfortunately Christian religion inherited the Semitic creed of the ‘jealous God’ in the view of Christ as ‘the only begotten son of God’ so could not brook any rival near the throne." 

"Evolution is an error and witch-burning a duty. Ancient ignorance is sanctified as revealed truth."

"For more than 1500 years Christian have been ready and eager to persecute those who do not share their particular brand of faith."       

(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan  p.  324- 325). 

Will Durant (1885-1981) American historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things. 

He has observed:   

"No blood has been shed for religion in India except by its invaders. Intolerance came with Islam and Christianity; the Moslems proposed to buy Paradise with the blood of “infidels” and the Portuguese, when they captured Goa, introduced the Inquisition into India.”

(source: The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage  - By Will Durant p. 459 and 505 and 524 – 600)

For more on Will Durant refer to chapter on Quotes.                                                                 

Is there a link between Monotheistic religions, Islam (religion of peace) and Christianity (religion of love) and intolerance and hostility?

As Jean-Pierre Lehmann argues, monotheistic religions have caused much turmoil throughout history - and continue to do so today. What is needed is a new global ethical and spiritual role model, and in his opinion, the best candidate to fill that spot is India.

Many in the West and elsewhere were shocked that an Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, was facing possible execution for having converted to Christianity. This is a crime, we were told, punishable by death according to Shariah law, which is the law of the land in Afghanistan, as well as in a good number of other Muslim countries. And even now that Mr. Rahman has safely arrived in Italy, where he was granted asylum, the episode is a telling example of the intolerance that is often the result of strict monotheism. (Refer to Apostasy in Islam).

To be sure, Christianity was even worse in its own heyday, not only because "heathens" were exterminated in all sorts of diverse forms, but also those whose Christianity (for example, the Albigensians in the 12th and 13th centuries) was deemed to be "heterodox."  

 

Christian priests burning the 'heathen' Native Americans.

Christianity's claims to an exclusive and universal salvation with a naked grab for global resources.

Refer to Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress - By Howard Zinn.  Refer to Proving that Bible is Repulsive video - godisimaginary.com. Also refer to Christian Evangelists Denying Scientific Evidence - youtube.com. Watch Robertson Says All Other Religions Worship Demonic Powers - Rightwingwatch.org.

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Also, the Spanish Conquistadores in Latin America, in collusion with the Church authorities, burned a good number of infidel American Indians.  

 


Adolf Hitler shaking hands with Church Leaders in Nazi Germany.

Despite being carried out by secular authorities, the Holocaust took place in Christian countries - and with the silent connivance of the established Christian Churches. 

Refer to Evangelizing the Jews: The New Techniques - IsraeleNews.com

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The idea that Christian civilization (a fairly loose term) renounced religious persecution simply because the power of the churches declined is, of course, belied by the Holocaust

(Refer to Inquisition in Goa in chapter European Imperialism and Islamic Onslaught). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com.

Despite being carried out by secular authorities, the Holocaust took place in Christian countries - and with the silent connivance of the established Christian churches. 

The Jews who were brought to the concentration camps were far worse off than Abdul Rahman, who - before he found refuge in Italy - had been told he would not be executed if he converts back to Islam. 

The Jews at Auschwitz were not given a similar option.

Violent records

Although both Christianity and Islam each have their strong points, without doubt, on balance their historical record would show more liabilities, more warfare, more intolerance, more persecution, than truly positive assets.

Intolerant tendencies

The great pre-Christian civilizations of Greece and Rome had no religious wars and had a far healthier view of their frolicking gods and goddesses than the intolerant monotheistic Christianity that later came to dominate Europe. 

 

Prudery was quite unknown to ancient Indian artists, who had no conception of ‘the sins of the flesh’ with which Western civilization is  so preoccupied even today.

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Polytheistic religions also tend to have a far more positive and healthier attitude to sex, which is seen as a good thing, than do the monotheistic faiths, where there is a much stronger tendency to equate sex with sin.

Militant Christianity

As concerns the United States, militant Christianity is clearly in ascendance, indeed it has one of its own in the White House. According to a recent Pew survey, 15, 14 and 20% of the U.S. population said they would have reasons not to vote for a presidential candidate who was Catholic, Jewish or Evangelical Christian.  

Perhaps the most encouraging development in this early 21st century is the emergence of India as an increasingly global force, economically, politically and culturally.

Managing multiculturalism

There are many anomalies, problems and injustices in Indian society - and some of these, such as the caste system, have been perpetrated by religion. But India is a microcosmic reflection of how globalization can work, especially in its generally remarkable ability to have managed multiculturalism to such a brilliant extent.

Diverse Unity

India's one billion plus population is the most heterogeneous in the world. There are far more ethnic, linguistic and religious groups than in, say, the European Union. Yet, a far greater degree of unity has been achieved among India's disparate ethnicities than among the tribes of Western Europe.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of India is to have maintained a very robust democracy in an extremely multi-ethnic environment. Contrast that with Egypt, for example, which used to have a highly multi-ethnic make-up, but which has now been mostly dissipated.

Hardly Utopia

Of course India is not Utopia. No place is - and no human is perfect. Against the remarkably inspirational preaching of non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi, India has opted to become a nuclear power. Nehru's alleged egalitarianism notwithstanding, India has the dubious distinction of having the world's greatest number of illiterates, especially among women. So, yes, there are failings galore and there are also, alas, Hindu fundamentalists.

A global ethical role model?

But in a global environment desperate for ideas, philosophy and religion, India is the most prolific birthplace of all three - because of the great synergy of democracy and diversity, and the much greater degree of self-confidence that Indians now feel. Indians and members of the enormous Indian Diaspora - over which the sun never sets - are the thought leaders in economics, business, philosophy, political science, religion and literature.

The planet needs quite desperately a sense of moral order, spirituality and an ethical compass. The Indian religious and philosophical traditions can provide a great deal of all three. It was in a recent conversation with an Indian religious guru that I was also pleased to discover I could adhere to his religious tenets, while maintaining my secular convictions. No imam or priest would allow me that.

More than a global economic force

The planet also needs an alternative geopolitical force to the American Christian Fundamentalist brand of hegemonic thinking that the Bush Administration has generated - and that is not likely to evaporate even after his departure from office.

Europe is an inward-looking and, in many ways, spent force. China is a dictatorship. The Islamic world is going through an awkward moment - to put it mildly.

Hence the importance of the role India must play in this respect - both because of its innate qualities and because there is no other serious contender. The 21st century better become the century inspired by the virtues of Indian polytheism - or else we are headed for disaster.

(source: The Dangers of Monotheism in the Age of Globalization - By Jean-Pierre Lehmann - theglobalist.com).  Refer to Learning intolerance in Saudi Arabia - thestar.com - Schoolbooks divide the world into believers — followers of Wahhabi Islam — and unbelievers. Also refer to Heaven Can't Wait - comedycentral.com and Rapture Letters. Trying To Force The Rapture - Christian fantasies about a Rapture arising out of an Armageddon during End Times. (The remaining Jews, in this post-apocalyptic vision, will convert to Christianity). Jean-Pierre Lehmann is professor of International Political Economy at IMD — a leading international business school, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

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US-funded NGOs spreading disaffection in India

  "I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct for revenge for which no expedient is sufficiently poisonous, secret, subterranean, petty-I call it the one mortal blemish of mankind."

                                                    - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher.

Noam Chomsky (1928 - ) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

In his book Year 501: The Conquest Continues on p 5, he has remarked:

"The conquest of the New World set off two vast demographic catastrophes, unparalled in history: the virtual destruction of the indigenous population of the Western hemisphere, and the devastation of Africa as the slave trade rapidly expanded to serve the needs of the conquerors, and the continent itself was subjugated."

(source: jesusneverexisted.com).

Under the guise of human rights and freedom of religion, America has for some time been promoting certain activists from weaker sections, who regularly report to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, about India’s internal affairs. Now, American academics are synergizing their work with the political concerns of their government, seeking to aggravate and exploit differences in Hindu society.

The American Academy for Religion (AAR) has sought data of a number of major Hindu temples in India that are patronized by caste Hindus and have ex-untouchable priests. This is doubly mischievous because if AAR means OBCs when it talks of ‘caste Hindus’ as opposed to upper caste Hindus, then it would know very well that it is the OBCs who oppose the entry of SCs/STs in temples. This kind of study by an outside agency is dangerously divisive, and a combative Hindu intellectual has countered that Indian intellectuals should in turn ask how many American churches attended by White people have Black priests.

In any case, since the Hindu tradition is not centralized in the manner that denominational churches are, it is unlikely that any such statistics would be available in Hindu society, and the concerned academics would certainly know this. They would also be aware that there are several gurus and paramparas in India today that are training SCs/STs as priests, should they desire to be priests. What is interesting to note, however, is that SC/ST desire to have temples with Brahmin priests, because they feel confident that they know the proper way to conduct pujas!

Becoming more overtly political, the American scholars want to know how many SCs/STs figure on the VHP’s governing board. Here I think the more pertinent question would be how many such persons figure in the Congress Working Committee, especially as that party flourished for decades on SCs/STs support, and is today headed by a White European Catholic, whose Government is committed to such token affirmative action. Even more pertinently, since the Church has long evangelized most of the African continent, how many Black Cardinals are there in the Vatican, and how many bishops in the Baptist, Adventist, Methodist and other churches?

The American scholars wonder why former weaker sections form separate sects of their own rather than with other castes; and whether they prefer to call themselves Dalits or Harijans in order to gain the respect of caste Hindus. It is obvious that the questions are more political than academic, and such studies are intended to promote the agendas of successive American administrations in interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

 

    

Hindu woman worshipping at the Brahma Kund and Bangladesh Hindus worshipping the River Brahmaputra.

Overtly political American scholars and academics are synergizing their work with the political concerns of their government, seeking to aggravate and exploit differences in Hindu society.

Refer to chapter on Nature Worship.

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Hindu society does not have sects; by definition, sects are splinter groups within monotheistic religions. I do not know if American Blacks are a separate sect or not, but it is a fact that covert discrimination even today compels them to have separate churches, and this apparently applies to other ethnic minorities in that country. In this context, it is worth mentioning that just as the dominant White Christians have failed to assimilate other groups on an equal basis in their own societies, despite converting them to their faith, so also in India the church has failed to uplift the weaker sections despite luring them away from Hindu society on the pretext of granting them social equality and economic mobility. The church has inflicted grievous injuries upon its constituents from weaker sections, forcing them to build separate churches or to sit in segregated areas of the church, take their dead to separate cemeteries, take holy water and communion separately.

Christian activists of weaker sections estimate that church institutions and Christian NGOs together receive approximately Rs. 2,500 crore of foreign aid annually, but there is no intra-community transparency regarding the utilization of these funds. Christian bodies earn huge incomes from elite schools, colleges and hospitals managed by them, as also from massive commercial properties they own in major cities. Yet weaker sections which comprise the bulk of the community get no share of its enormous wealth. It is a travesty of justice that the church is now shifting the burden of its responsibility to the Indian Government and demanding reservation benefits for the weaker section Christians. The latter were misled away from the Hindu fold and then betrayed by denying them a just share in the church’s colossal resources.

According to Census 2001, there are 24.20 million Christians in India, more than half of whom belong to the weaker section of South India. Yet power in the Indian church is jealously guarded by priests belonging to upper castes. The 200-member Catholic Bishops Conference of India will never disclose the number of bishops or cardinals from weaker sections, possibly because there are none. The UPA government has done the rich Christian educational institutions a favour by exempting minority institutions from the burden of reservation quotas that have been (and are being) extended elsewhere, so they are literally without accountability to their poorer brethren. 

(source: US-funded NGOs spreading disaffection in India - By Sandhya Jain - organiser.org).

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Training 'prospective' harvesters of souls 

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother... - Matthew 10:34-35 

"Although the Bible says that "God is love," Christianity has shed more blood and perpetrated more cruelty than any other religion in the world."

                -  G W Foote and J M Wheeler, authors of Crimes of Christianity. Progressive Publishing Co. London. 1887.

John Adams (1735 - 1826) 2nd President of the United States observed: 

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity."

(source: atheistempire.com).

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"A salesman and a preacher never tell the bad side of their product ."

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Hindus of India are committing a grave mistake in regarding the encounter between Hinduism and Christianity as a dialogue between two religions. Christianity has never been a religion; its long history tells us that it has always been a predatory imperialism 'par excellence'.

The encounter, therefore, should be viewed as a battle between two totally opposed and mutually exclusive ways of thought and behaviour. In the language of the Bhagavat Gita (Chapter XVI) it is war between Daivi (Divine) and Asuri Sampads (demonic propensities). In the mundane context of history, it can be described as war between the Vedic and the Biblical traditions.

I have often been bewildered by the fact as to why we Hindus have always remained preoccupied with the behaviour patterns of Muslims and Christians and not with the belief systems which create those behaviour patterns. We object to Christian Missions, but refuse to discuss Christianity and its God, Jesus. We object to Islamic terrorism, but refuse to have a look at Islam and its Prophet, Mohammed. I see no sense or logic in this Hindu spirit.

In this context I cannot help quoting the precise and sharp words of Sita Ram Goel  (1921- 2003) scholar, writer, publisher, the founder of Voice of India, an ‘intellectual’ Kshatriya’ par excellence, and a Hindu revivalist:

'It is high time for Hindus to dismiss the dogma of Christianity with the contempt it deserves and pay attention to the Christian Missionary apparatus planted in their midst. The sole aim of this missionary apparatus is to ruin Hindu society and culture and take over the Hindu Homeland. It goes on devising strategies for every situation, favourable and unfavourable. It trains and employs a large number of intellectual criminals ready to prostitute their talents in the service of their pay masters, and adept at dressing up dark designs in a high-sounding language.'

What is happening in Andhra Pradesh should not be viewed as an isolated incident or a localised phenomenon in a particular State. I have received terrible news from Kerala that evangelical money power is being used to import some young men and women from the United States for purposes of proselytism in the southern districts of Tamilnadu and Kerala. This is how the authorities of a Christian missionary organisation called the 'Adventures in Mission' explain themselves and their fantastic trips to India. They call for young practising Christians between the age of 15-20 and who have been Christians for at least six months to join them on this trip. Their training camps for conversions take place in Atlanta in USA. Their aim is to take advantage of the natural disasters area in and around Tenkasi in Tirunelveli District in Tamilnadu. They bring in groups of conversion activists and make them preach to the poor people of this area. They warn the participants not to be taken in by the Christians of that area because they are only Christians by name and they still follow the pagan Hindu culture. 

They say the groups' aim is to create a body of true Christians 'who will forsake the dominant pagan Hindu culture of India forever'.

Even before they set out for India, a very clear message is given to the trainees (Harvesters of Souls) as follows: 'You will fly into Trivandrum on the southern tip of Kerala. After a city tour you will be taken to Tenkasi in Tamilnadu. You will be stationed here. Be ready for hard floors on which you will be sleeping in local schools and orphanages. Local food will be served which is very spicy. Modesty is required; you cannot wear tank tops or sleeveless clothes. You need to go for a training camp before you are ready for this adventurous trip. You need to get visit visas and a whole lot of vaccinations before you come to this contaminated area. The cost is a mere 4000USD. The results will be a great service to the Christian world as you will be HARVESTING SOULS. It will be a soul fulfilling Christian adventure of Christian faith in Heathen Lands for bringing 'sons of the devil' into the fold of Angelic Christianity.' 

To conclude in the incisively brilliant words of my Think-Tank friend Capt. Balakrishnan:

'Since the days of the 'RAJ', missionary efforts to 'HARVEST SOULS' has followed a certain modus operandi: First, denigrate Hinduism and its Gods. Second, target the poor and illiterate sections of Hindu society by offering material inducements. Third, resort to subterfuge on gullible Hindus to 'HARVEST THEIR SOULS' with Christian compassion, evangelical energy and ecumenical enthusiasm'.

(source: Training 'prospective' harvesters of souls - By V Sundaram - newstodaynet.com).

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Did You Know?

The Riddle of the Well-traveled Maize 

The familiar maize plant – better known to Americans as corn – has generated spirited scholarly debate that centers on the possibility of ancient, unrecorded sea travel. Botanists know that maize cannot propagate itself; its occurrence must therefore be the result of human agency. They also know that the plant originated in the New World. And yet, researchers have found evidence that is appeared elsewhere well before he known voyages of discovery linked Old World with New.  

 

Eleventh century temples in Southern India, where maize was supposedly unknown at the time, house many stone figures that according to cultural geographers, are offering ears of maize to the Gods.  

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Even more intriguing is evidence that maize was well established in Asia long before Columbus's voyages. Eleventh century temples in Southern India, where maize was supposedly unknown at the time, house many stone figures that according to cultural geographers, are offering ears of maize to the Gods.  

(source: Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients  - Time Life Books p. 111). For more refer to chapter on Pacific.

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