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