12-31-2008, 07:23 AM
http://christiantheology.wordpress.com/2...-violence/
Understanding & Defining MaoistâChristian Connection
Vishal Mangalwadi
There are remote villages in Orissa where police officers are terrified to go.
An internet report explains the situation: The Maoists kidnapped a man they suspected to be police informer. To teach others a lesson, they brought him back to his village, hacked him in front of his horrified family, and ate him up as villagers watched.
Evangelists, however, do go into some of these villages and preach the Gospel. This is how it works: Maoists escort the evangelists into the village and summon everyone to hear the Gospel. The evangelists may show a film such as âJesusâ. Half-way through the film the Maoists would stop the film and give a lecture on Maoism. Then they would resume the film and ask the evangelists to give an Alter Call. Following a fellowship meal the evangelists will be escorted back to their base!
Frontline evangelists have reported such incidents to their mission leaders. Christian leaders have not reported them to their supporters because (a) many of them canât make sense of what they are hearing and (b) they are also embarrassed by the fact that their mission is supported by âterrorists.â What are they to do?
Well, what exactly is happening?
1. At the simplest level, Maoists and the evangelists may come from the same ethnic group (caste or tribe) and may even be related. It is not unusual for one brother to follow Mao while the other chooses to follow Christ.
2. Christians nurtured on books such as âTortured for Christâ see Communists as enemies. But that Communism is now dead. In Nepal and India Maoists understand Marxism to mean that Hinduism is the opiate of the masses.
3. Maoists accept the Ambedkarite belief that Hinduism is the root of Indiaâs backwardness. Since everyone cannot follow them into the jungles, the least Maoists want them to do is to get out of a socio-religious system that has enslaved them.
4. The Maoists also know that Marxist economic system has failed. Like the Communists in China and Nepal, they suspect that Christianity has something to do with the relative success of the West, even if neither the evangelist nor Jesus film can explain to them what Christ has to do with the Westâs incredible progress.
So, how should the Church respond?
(i) It serves no purpose to suppress the fact that grass root level relationships exist between Maoists, Christians and evangelists. Surely our intelligence agencies know why evangelists are able to go into villages where their brave officers cannot go. In any case, the whole world knows that Maoists killed a Hindu leader to defend Christians. Why? The world will define the relationship unless the Church defines it and educates frontline workers to use their relationships redemptively.
(ii) The evangelists need literature that communicates the âgood newsâ to the highly indoctrinated and motivated poor who are turning to Maoism for justice and progress.
(iii) Educated, urban Christians need to reach out to build positive relationships with leaders of various Communist parties in India. The Church has not done that because for most of the last century, Communists persecuted Christians wherever they could. Most Christians, therefore, consider Communism to be an enemy. But that is living in the past. The following anecdotes illustrate our changing reality:
China: Recently, I participated in a secular conference in a Western nation along with several Chinese scholars. The oldest Chinese professor was also a senior member of the ruling Communist Party in China. On the last full day of this secular conference he asked for and was baptized by his Chinese friends. Later he told us that a few months before coming for this conference he had started formal discussions within his party to open up to religion.
India: For decades the Communist parties in India had identified the Congress Party as their Enemy # 1 and the West as their Enemy #2. Four years ago, they voted in favor of making Mrs. Sonia Gandhi â an Italian born, Roman Catholic woman â the Prime Minister of India. Why did they do so?
Obviously, many factors favored that decision, but for me the most amazing explanation came from an Indian software expert who called from Chicago. âYou do not know me, Dr. Mangalwadi,â he said, âbut I have tracked you down because I have interesting news for you. Several years ago I was working for a software company in Hyderabad and I used to be in and out of the Parliament House in Delhi for work. I bought 70 copies of your book Missionary Conspiracy: Letters to a Postmodern Hinduâ and gave them to the Members of Parliament that I met.
âNow I work for a US Company and I was back in the Parliament House on behalf of this Company. I ran into Mr. [xyz], a General Secretary of a Communist Party. He asked me, âAre you the gentleman who gave me a copy of the letters to Arun Shourie?â
âWhen I told him, I was, he said, âYou know it was because of that book that we decided to support Sonia Gandhi. That book told us how good Christianity has been for India and we thought may be, as a Christian she too will be good for our country.ââ
Orissa: All observers are aware that various Communist parties and forums are visiting Orissa and issuing statements in favor of âpersecuted Christians.â Is it just because the elections are around and they are fishing in troubled waters? Some of them may be doing nothing more than that. But it is also possible that like their counterparts in China, Indian Communists and Maoists are also looking for their soul â a religious worldview that will save their souls and emancipate India from her shackles.
This is one reason why I think it is shortsighted to condemn the Maoists for killing Swami Laxamananda Saraswati. By apologizing for that murder the Church would condemn the murder but own the murders. If peace is our national interest, then bringing Maoists to the Prince of Peace would best serve our national interest.
[For a discussion of my proposal please see the next write up.]
www.vishalmangalwadi.com
Understanding & Defining MaoistâChristian Connection
Vishal Mangalwadi
There are remote villages in Orissa where police officers are terrified to go.
An internet report explains the situation: The Maoists kidnapped a man they suspected to be police informer. To teach others a lesson, they brought him back to his village, hacked him in front of his horrified family, and ate him up as villagers watched.
Evangelists, however, do go into some of these villages and preach the Gospel. This is how it works: Maoists escort the evangelists into the village and summon everyone to hear the Gospel. The evangelists may show a film such as âJesusâ. Half-way through the film the Maoists would stop the film and give a lecture on Maoism. Then they would resume the film and ask the evangelists to give an Alter Call. Following a fellowship meal the evangelists will be escorted back to their base!
Frontline evangelists have reported such incidents to their mission leaders. Christian leaders have not reported them to their supporters because (a) many of them canât make sense of what they are hearing and (b) they are also embarrassed by the fact that their mission is supported by âterrorists.â What are they to do?
Well, what exactly is happening?
1. At the simplest level, Maoists and the evangelists may come from the same ethnic group (caste or tribe) and may even be related. It is not unusual for one brother to follow Mao while the other chooses to follow Christ.
2. Christians nurtured on books such as âTortured for Christâ see Communists as enemies. But that Communism is now dead. In Nepal and India Maoists understand Marxism to mean that Hinduism is the opiate of the masses.
3. Maoists accept the Ambedkarite belief that Hinduism is the root of Indiaâs backwardness. Since everyone cannot follow them into the jungles, the least Maoists want them to do is to get out of a socio-religious system that has enslaved them.
4. The Maoists also know that Marxist economic system has failed. Like the Communists in China and Nepal, they suspect that Christianity has something to do with the relative success of the West, even if neither the evangelist nor Jesus film can explain to them what Christ has to do with the Westâs incredible progress.
So, how should the Church respond?
(i) It serves no purpose to suppress the fact that grass root level relationships exist between Maoists, Christians and evangelists. Surely our intelligence agencies know why evangelists are able to go into villages where their brave officers cannot go. In any case, the whole world knows that Maoists killed a Hindu leader to defend Christians. Why? The world will define the relationship unless the Church defines it and educates frontline workers to use their relationships redemptively.
(ii) The evangelists need literature that communicates the âgood newsâ to the highly indoctrinated and motivated poor who are turning to Maoism for justice and progress.
(iii) Educated, urban Christians need to reach out to build positive relationships with leaders of various Communist parties in India. The Church has not done that because for most of the last century, Communists persecuted Christians wherever they could. Most Christians, therefore, consider Communism to be an enemy. But that is living in the past. The following anecdotes illustrate our changing reality:
China: Recently, I participated in a secular conference in a Western nation along with several Chinese scholars. The oldest Chinese professor was also a senior member of the ruling Communist Party in China. On the last full day of this secular conference he asked for and was baptized by his Chinese friends. Later he told us that a few months before coming for this conference he had started formal discussions within his party to open up to religion.
India: For decades the Communist parties in India had identified the Congress Party as their Enemy # 1 and the West as their Enemy #2. Four years ago, they voted in favor of making Mrs. Sonia Gandhi â an Italian born, Roman Catholic woman â the Prime Minister of India. Why did they do so?
Obviously, many factors favored that decision, but for me the most amazing explanation came from an Indian software expert who called from Chicago. âYou do not know me, Dr. Mangalwadi,â he said, âbut I have tracked you down because I have interesting news for you. Several years ago I was working for a software company in Hyderabad and I used to be in and out of the Parliament House in Delhi for work. I bought 70 copies of your book Missionary Conspiracy: Letters to a Postmodern Hinduâ and gave them to the Members of Parliament that I met.
âNow I work for a US Company and I was back in the Parliament House on behalf of this Company. I ran into Mr. [xyz], a General Secretary of a Communist Party. He asked me, âAre you the gentleman who gave me a copy of the letters to Arun Shourie?â
âWhen I told him, I was, he said, âYou know it was because of that book that we decided to support Sonia Gandhi. That book told us how good Christianity has been for India and we thought may be, as a Christian she too will be good for our country.ââ
Orissa: All observers are aware that various Communist parties and forums are visiting Orissa and issuing statements in favor of âpersecuted Christians.â Is it just because the elections are around and they are fishing in troubled waters? Some of them may be doing nothing more than that. But it is also possible that like their counterparts in China, Indian Communists and Maoists are also looking for their soul â a religious worldview that will save their souls and emancipate India from her shackles.
This is one reason why I think it is shortsighted to condemn the Maoists for killing Swami Laxamananda Saraswati. By apologizing for that murder the Church would condemn the murder but own the murders. If peace is our national interest, then bringing Maoists to the Prince of Peace would best serve our national interest.
[For a discussion of my proposal please see the next write up.]
www.vishalmangalwadi.com