As a follow on to my last post I wanted to comment on the
ongoing impression of the 'crisis' that is ongoing in relation to Christian
freedom in India. I am reminded of the time honored tale of Aesop, the boy who cried wolf when watching the English Indian media today.(1a)
While viewing through the historical 'looking glass' it seems
nothing changes from a Christians perspective to malign all those who have not
placed their blinding faith in Jesus, the messiah. Time tested tactics and
significant resources with regard to funding are used to convert uneducated and
tribal Hindus, often leading to significant harm in many rural areas of India.
I would hope here to articulate some of the tactics used by the Christians in
their zeal to destroy many of the world religions.
Natural Disasters :
Karmanyevadhikaraste, ma phalesu kadachana, ma karmaphalaheturbhurma
te sango’ stvakarmani
Christians have always seen natural disasters and calamities
as the most convenient time to evangelize. During a time of crisis and
fear, when one's belief and mind are shaken by the most intense trauma, a
helping hand and kind words can often imprint and be life changing. During the
plague of Cyprian in the 2nd century, millions were affected and the misery of
death was a daily occurrence. During this time, while state machinery and the
army were finding it difficult to cope, Christians seemed to mobilize
effectively with the driving belief to convert many on their deathbed. Doing so in the
hope that they would be saving many new Christians from the hellfire and their
salvation was assured. (1b)
Fast forward to 2004 and nothing much seems to have changed.
During the tsunami, many evangelical groups saw the disaster as an opportunity
to hand out food with Bibles and hold daily prayer meetings.
To quote Kp Yohannan an important Indian evangelist during
the aftermath of the Tsunami disaster on its description :
" one of the greatest opportunities that god has given
us to share his love with the people". (2)
The pope himself has gone on record to say that charity is
the best way to evangelize.
Previously I had questioned the gospel literary account to
act with such drive and found it lacking. (3) The Indian disaster management of force of volunteers and the army
rapidly swung into action to assist as many as they could. Yet it seems however
natural disasters are prime conversion grounds for the Christians to pursue
their agenda, and within days Christians arrived with bibles and food packages
in hand. Whichever way you look at it, it leaves a bad taste for such charity
work is simply opportunism, taking advantage of those less fortunate in a
desperate situation.
The verse above is a stark contrast the Hindu view of
charity. From the Gita, Lord Krishna teaches that in any action we perform, try
to perform the action with a prayerful attitude and realize that the fruit of
any action is given by the Lord himself. To act with a prayerful attitude and
without any agenda is in stark contrast to a personal drive to gain souls for
the faith.
Christian Suffering or Self Victimization?
Christians have always tried to use the emotion of suffering
to their advantage. Suffering often evokes deep personal sympathy and often times
the illusion of being persecuted can be a powerful sleight of hand to mask further
atrocities that are ongoing.
From ancient Roman times, Christians have been the masters
of propaganda. It is well known than for many troubled Christians of the time, martyrdom
and death in emulating their savior was a avenue for escapism and suicide for
the troubled. Belief in paradise and eternity spent enjoying the fruits of heaven seemed
like a better option for many than struggling through the daily routines of 2nd
century roman life. Today this is akin and brings to mind many troubled youth
in waging Jihad with ISIS to die as a Shaheed.
One Roman governor in
Tunisia is reported to have said, that there are many trees to hang from and
many cliffs to jump from, if Christians wanted to kill themselves. Just stop
pestering me....(for Christians that wanted to die in the arena).
Roman persecution of the Christians was indeed quite rare
and for the most part Rome itself was a multi religious society that accepted
all faiths. However, most Christians need to victimize themselves into feeling
a serious connection to their savior. Fast forward to today and we've often
seen multiple 'attacks' on Christians and their places of worship in India
today. How many of these stories are
actually genuine?
I decided to delve a
little deeper into the latest of these minority atrocities, being the recent
case in Hisar. It seems that a Christian bought a piece of land in the middle
of a Hindu district for what was labeled as a new house and then illegally
started to build a church.(4) Not only this, he started to create more disharmony
by trying to convert many of his neighbors. Faced with a frustrating situation,
many of the neighbors took action against the illegal construction and broke
down sections of the Church.
The Pastor immediately raised concern that he was being
persecuted which was quickly caught onto by many media channels and reliably
broadcast by our Christian owned English media with Prannoy Roy NDTV leading
the fray. (His niece Arundhati Roy another well known Christian regularly spews
anti Hindu and anti India venom). (5)
The cycle of victimization starts again as
here we have another pastor suffering for his Church, another martyr in the
making in trying to raise his damaged Cross among the brutal Hindu Heathen.
In any country however, any illegal action to raise a place
of worship without the right authorization would have never gotten off the
building blocks so to speak. In India however, it forms the basis for polarization,
Hindu hatred and Christian victimization.
Truth is, on closer examination, it is we us Hindus who are suffering and with
no media coverage. Any attempt to broadcast the actual truth is swiftly met
with dismissal. Beware the Hindus that actually take the effort to educate the
recently converted. Swami Lakshminanda and his four disciples who sought to
expose the missionaries agenda in Orissa, was brutally murdered with numerous
Christians being held.(6) No progress has been made in this case...and it seems to
have escaped common Hindu memory.
Likewise, newly converted Christians
attacking Hindus in the North East are rarely broadcast or documented. Its
seems no people have suffered as much as we have with constant attacks by on
all sides by the various Abrahamic religions.(7) Thousands of Indians lose their
lives every year to religious terrorism but unfortunately when Indians die
without a belief in Jesus or Mohammed, their lives do not matter and quickly
consigned to short term memory.
Christian rule and Hindu accomplices:
What really led to the death of the old Roman Empire and
religion was conversion of the emperor Constantine and his state sponsored
programs to fund Churches and stop funding to the ancient temples of Rome. It
comes down to simple economics, stop the funding and the death of a culture and
religion can quickly follow. Christian terrorism on people of Old Roman
Religion and the dearth of funds effectively led to the death of the old Roman
way of living.
A parallel can be made to India today as most devotees funds to
the temple are effectively taken by the state and central government, to
finance programs that include building of Churches and Mosques! The dearth of
funds has led to many temples and priests becoming debilitated, while under
Sonia Gandhi and her progeny the growth of Pastors and Churches has seen a
significant spike.
Not only had that, but conversion of the Roman emperor led to
empowerment of the Bishops in government. Holding positions of power, they
quickly passed laws culminating in the eventual banning of the Roman religion
40 years later under Theodosius. Under Sonia Gandhi, we've seen a rise in the
number of Christians who held power in the Rajya Sabha which includes Ambika
Soni, Ajit Jogi, AK Antony and YSR Reddy to name just a few.
Today the spectrum seems to include more Christians who
openly show their distaste for Hindus such as Derek O Brien of the Trinamool
congress. He constantly hollers that all those who have studied in a Christian
school in India hold mass protests against new Hindu BJP government. Many other chief ministers in the North East
as well as Kerala are noted to be Christian as well. The ground work is well
set for many of these political Christians to use state funds and misuse
finances into building Churches. They then claim victimization when any of these
illegal settlements are removed. Many Christians such as the late YSR wife in Andhra made no attempt at a cover when she openly stated that state
funds would be used to build Churches and fund the salaries of pastors. Is it no wonder then about the massive conversion numbers that Andhra is
experiencing? Here is another example of the newly formed Telengana government
into funding a Christian Bhavan using state funds.(8a)
What troubles me are that so many Hindu accomplices in the
congress government who seem to be promoting the above for their own personal
gains. The list is indeed long and exhaustive to name, but one has to often
spend a few moments on why it is that such Hindus throughout history have
always allied with forces inimical to the faith. I can only think of this: Covert conversion and crusading for the faith or overwhelming greed for their own personnel gains.
It seems we are our own worst enemy in allying with enemies against the Hindus. (8b)
Indian tolerance for all :
Roman religion was exceeding tolerant and for that reason,
it seems to have suffered. The Christians had a dedicated game plan which included
victimization, martyrhood, malicious conversion, rise of political leadership,
slander, implementation of favorable laws before the final rise of overt terrorism.
Hinduism has sheltered many faiths from all around the world
which include all the branches of Islam, Judaism, Tibetan Buddhists and the
largest community of practicing Zoroastrians. The largest congregations of
Baha’i are now in India free now to practice their faith without any
persecution. Sikhs and Jains born of the motherland have only grown from
strength to strength. Many early Christian groups flourished under grants and
funding from Hindu Kings themselves.
It pains me to see that Christians today are at the forefront
of trying to demonize the very religion and state that gave them shelter for
over a thousand years. Make no mistake, as it is the religious tolerance for
all religions that stems from Hinduism itself and not some western construct as
some Hindu apologists would state as specified in the Indian constitution.
What happens though with conversion is self-loathing and a
new unshakeable conviction to spread a poorly understood message of the new
Christian faith. The seed of hatred against oneself and community has been
planted. What grows unfortunately is a conviction from biblical scripture of
religious apartheid that the new Christian should be a world apart from his prior life
and community. What flowers is self-absorbed mission to prove their worth to
the new faith by publically attacking their old way of life. Each conversion
brings another crusader willing to victimize himself as Jesus did to gain more
followers to the faith.
Rome fell post the rapid Christianization of the empire and
the same tactics are shown to resonate in India today. At its height with
protection from the government under the UPA regime, Christian attacks on
Hindus and state sponsored Church planting have become all too common. Any
observation to the contrary is quickly denounced as oppression by the Christian
English media, specifically NDTV among others. What follows once Christians are
in the majority are an alteration of state laws to promote Christianity and
violence against Hindus while claiming oppression.
At its height, reading about the Goa inquisition serves as a
gruesome reminder of what may happen to Hindus in a Christian dominated land.
We may not be burned alive at the stake anymore but living under the threat of
gun violence as seen from the North East is a all possible reality.
Our Personal Effort :
As I rack my brains about how to counter the disinformation
raised around, I can only answer with counter education. Newly converted Christians
would do well to educate themselves on Christ who was declared a God by a gathering
of Bishops convened by Constantine himself. The man Christ became God over the
course of a few days at the council of Nicea.(9) Their Bible is a conglomeration
of selective Gospel picking by one man.(10) Their history is stained with blood
violence in the blinding belief that Christ asked for all to hear the word of the
gospel.
Hindus would do well to learn the above and perhaps discuss
such issues with Christians themselves. The media slander must be countered by
Hindus standing up and countering the disinformation on a individual and group
level. Educated Hindus must seek out like minded individuals and publically
make their voices heard.
On a personal level
however, I’ve often found it beneficial to understand the basic tenets of the
faith that has protected millions through the millennia. As conceived by the
ancient Rishi's it's teachings about humanity and tolerance have persisted, and
can be valuable to a new Hindu initiate with a poor concept about what it truly
is that he is trying to defend. While I would elaborate on my own personal journey,
I would leave that discussion for another time and merely direct the initiate
to a valuable resource that has helped my own understanding of the Hindu faith.(11)
Support of Hindu temples and their plight towards funding is
another issue that needs to be raised. As I’ve previously tried to discuss,
without the appropriate funding whole temples and their Acharyas simply close
down as they try to support their families through different means.(12) In their space
comes the well-funded Christian NGO’s to spread more disharmony among the least
educated and most impressionable.
