12-05-2006, 07:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2006, 03:06 AM by dhu.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sangabhedavastu of the Mahaparinirvanasutra:
Professor Lindtner has identified the Sangabhedavastu section of the Mahaparinirvanasutra of the Vinayapitakaof the Mulasarvastivadins. I have studied this text carefully and have arrived at some significant conclusions. Since Professor Lindtner is the discoverer of this resource, I think he alone should take credit for the discovery. This is the story of Gautama, a holy man, who was wrongfully condemned to die on the cross for murdering the courtesan Bhadra. Gautama is impaled on the cross, and his mentor Krishna Dvapayana visits him and enters into a long dialogue, at the end of which he dies at the place of skulls after engendering two offspring, the progenitors of the Ikshavaku Dynasty. Professor Lindtner will speak about this source after I have discussed my own discovered source, time permitting. http://www.jesusisbuddha.com/thundy.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A link locating Gotama in Iran
http://ranajitpal.com/dawn.html
12-06-2006, 02:57 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2006, 03:01 AM by dhu.)
"A link locating Gotama in Iran"
appropriation of buddhism has been in the offing for a long time, just that they are now making the final push to locate all indic elements in neutral spaces as c asia and iran. see jesusisbuddha link by the catholic zacharias thundy. he also has a statement (in an article ref'd by M Kelkar) which locates urheimat in c asia tocharian regions. it's a cut your losses and advance to the rear strategy since their previous techniques of daylight robbery are no longer possible. sadly there are plenty of slave litterateur indology groupie types who will gladly do the nanga nanch in front of the albinos.
Five caught filming nude inside church
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AIZAWL: Five youths were caught filming nude inside a non-functional <b>United Pentecostal Church (UPC) on the outskirts of Aizawl,</b> a Christian majority town, on Tuesday.
They told a church elder that there were shooting a satanic scene for a video film when he challenged them. This incident comes only a week after one of Aizawl's local weekly magazines published an article on the prevalence of Satan worship among Mizo youths.
"At 4.00 p.m., I heard some noise from inside the church. I smelled a rat since it was long closed owing to a pending case. I found the boys busy filming. A youth, cast as a Satan worshipper, was at the altar. He was naked with his face and body painted in red," Upa Zelthuama, the church elder, said. People from the neighbourhood rushed in and caught them.
They questioned the youth and set them free only after seizing their video cameras as evidences. "They told us that they were in the act of filming an anti-satanic film and they wanted to denounce the practice," Zelthuama added. "Their body paint looked like blood."
"We had a meeting today on this issue. We are taking this case seriously," R Lalthanzuala, UPC district secretary, said.
"The reel which we took from them is full of obscene clips, some depicting satanic worshippers inducting new members in ceremonial parades," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Caught_...show/738972.cms
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Five caught filming nude inside church<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
not surprised.
Interesting how the church seems to encourage bizarre behavior.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Dec 8 2006, 11:39 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Dec 8 2006, 11:39 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Five caught filming nude inside church<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
not surprised.
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Interesting interview on rediff
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'Religion gives good people bad reasons to be good'
December 12, 2006
Sam Harris
He's used to taking on religion and profiting from the experience.
Sam Harris, the author of one of the most controversial bestsellers in recent years, Letter to a Christian Nation, had also written another bombshell book, The End of Faith.
Letter to a Christian Nation has been on The New York Times bestseller list for more than four weeks now.
Harris, who spent several months in India more than a decade ago to learn meditation and yoga, has been an atheist for more than 20 years.
In his new book, he addresses the concerns of non-Judaic religions in America about the Ten Commandments being taken more seriously than before. He also argues eloquently why Jainism offers a better moral framework than Christianity.
Harris, a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University, has for 20 years studied Eastern and Western religious traditions and a variety of contemplative disciplines. He is now completing a doctorate in neuroscience.
He spoke to Rediff India Abroad Managing Editor Arthur J Pais on why he objects to organised religion.
Why are you extremely critical of the first four of the Ten Commandments of the Christian faith?
<b>It is because the first four injunctions -- 'You shall have no other gods before me; You shall not make for yourself a graven image; You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain; Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy -- have nothing whatsoever to do with morality.
They forbid the practice of any non-Judeo-Christian faith -- like Hinduism, most religious art, utterances like 'Goddamn it!' and all ordinary work on the Sabbath.</b>
And placing those commandments in government institutions like the courts, as some people demand, could hurt the feelings of non-Christians?
It is difficult to imagine what kind of practical effect it would have, but the First Commandment, if taken literally, makes a religion like Hinduism an abomination. And because Islam also forbids graven images and since many people take the injunction seriously, we run into trouble, say, when there is a caricature of the Prophet published in a newspaper.
Why are you also critical of Christians who believe that Martin Luther King Jr is the best exemplar of their religion?
<b>I am convinced that Jainism is a better guide than the Bible to become a nonviolent activist, like King Jr was. The Christian claim over King Jr as a moral, socially engaged Christian is ironic because he was directly influenced by Gandhi, who was strongly influenced by Jainism.
Christians are convinced that the Ten Commandments are the absolute statement of morality but they should look at Jainism. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, surpassed the morality, of the Bible in one, in just one sentence: Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any creature or living being.
Christians who swear by the Bible have abused, oppressed, enslaved, insulted, tormented, tortured, and killed people in the name of their scriptures for centuries. Had the Bible contained the teachings of Mahavira as its central precept, perhaps we would be living in a different world.</b>
You are an atheist but if you were to choose a religion would it be Jainism?
I believe one can be a moral being without belonging to any religion. Besides, Jainism has other consequences.<b> I am not a pacifist. I don't want Gandhi or Mahavira to decide our response to someone like Hitler. If we had listened to these two men, we would have continued to be ruled by the Nazis for another millennium.</b><i>(Same can also be said about Gandhi's response to islam)</i>
You are also critical of Christian missionaries, aren't you?
But I also recognise that there are good people among the missionaries, who go to help others in foreign countries, and they have fought against social ills, including bonded labour in India. For these missionaries service goes deeper than their religion.
Religion gives good people bad reasons to be good, while I believe there are good reasons available (to be good). It is possible to work for others because of sheer humanistic, humane impulses.
Take, for example, organisations such as Doctors Without Borders and its members, who do not go around telling people that Jesus was born of a virgin. Nor do they tell people, especially in such regions as sub-Saharan Africa where over four million people die from AIDS every year, that using condoms is a sin. Most Christian missionaries do that.
I have said, repeatedly, that this kind of piety is genocidal.
And that leads us to your comments on Mother Teresa in the book. What do you object to most in her?
She is a classic example of an extraordinarily good person having her moral intuitions clouded by her religion. I had found her at one point to be very inspiring. Even today, I have some respect for her.
There is no denying that she was a great force for compassion, and she did much to awaken others to the reality of suffering. But what she was doing was constrained by her Catholicism.
Her ideas of the nobility of poverty were counterproductive, and her views on abortions were terrible.
She often said, and especially when she accepted the Nobel Prize, that of all evils she had seen in her lifetime, none was more terrible than abortion. She also said that the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.
I cannot believe that the killing of first-trimester foetuses disturbed her more than all the sufferings she witnessed over six or seven decades.
I think if one is really worried about human sufferings, abortion should rank very low on their list of concerns.
And what would the lawmakers in this country (the US) who proclaim their Christian roots have to say to the fact that God is the most prolific abortionist?
<b>How can you say that God is an abortionist?
Since (people like) Mother Teresa, the Catholic Church and other Christians believe that God takes care of all human beings, they should think of the millions of people who have involuntary miscarriages every day across the world. Their God does not seem to be interested in doing anything about it.</b>
You have also written critically about the harm done by religious moderates in any society, particularly in America. Could you revisit the subject?
Most people think that while religious extremism is problematic and polarising, religious tolerance is the remedy. But I strongly believe religious moderates are giving cover to fundamentalists because of the respect that moderates demand of faith-based talk.
In principle, religious moderation doesn't allow us to be critical of other faiths. Thus, fundamentalism is kept alive, and fundamentalists make very cynical and artful use of the cover they're getting by their political correctness.
You have said your previous book The End of Faith, while being critical of religion itself, was more concerned with Muslim militancy across the world.
I started writing it soon after 9/11 and even while I was working on it, I was worried that it might have a Salman Rushdie kind of effect, but I also knew I had to write the book.
I argued in the book that the last thing we were going to admit was that people were flying planes into our buildings because of what they believed about God.
<b>We came up with euphemisms about this being a war on terror, and Islam being a religion of peace. Worse, we were pushed even further into our own religiosity as a nation. </b>
We began to talk about Osama bin Laden and the extremists of the Muslim world as being the exceptions. Many people compared Osama bin Laden to the Reverend Jim Jones, David Koresh, or some other marginal figure, but I could not be convinced.
<b>I deeply felt that Osama bin Laden's version of Islam is a much more central, plausible version of Islam than people tend to acknowledge.</b>
<b>I argued that the so-called moderates can no longer afford the luxury of political correctness.</b>
As I asserted in the book we must finally recognise the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>CASTE AND CONVERSION</span>
Quota double whammy on Hinduism
By Sandhya Jain
If the so-called caste bias does not go away with conversion to another faith, there is something wanting in the conversion process and the new faith.
Two interesting developments took place last month, giving a fresh twist to the raging controversy over conversions and the extension of caste-based reservations to converts. First, the Chennai High Court ruled against providing Christian Dalits the benefits of constitutional reservations in jobs, but provided them for those who returned to the Hindu fold, in consonance with the spirit of the Indian Constitution. Second, the shooting of a Christian convert from Islam in a remote Srinagar village exposed the myth that missionaries avoid poor Muslims out of fear of Islamic fundamentalism.
It speaks volumes about the money and muscle power enjoyed by Christian evangelists, not to mention the support of foreign governments that they can dare to practice conversions in Kashmir, the heartland and launching pad of jehadi terrorism in India. It bears noting that the Stateâs miniscule Hindu population has all but fled the valley, and the stray Hindus who remain are under intense pressure. Yet missionaries are unfazed, and the murder of Bashir Ahmed Tantray in Pattan village last month suggests that their successes have begun to rile the jehadis and other fundamentalists.
Although Tantrayâs family has denied allegations that he was involved in converting poor Muslims by offering money and other inducements, conservative estimates suggest that around 2000 families have converted to Christianity in recent times. This certainly suggests the presence of powerful inducements, particularly in terms of childrenâs education and employment opportunities.
Given that the offer of âincentivesâ remains the eternal missionary way of creating new believers, it is heartening that the Chennai High Court took a stand in the matter of Christianity weaning away the faithful of one tradition on the pretext of justice, equality and so on, and then failing to deliver on these exalted promises.
The case in question concerns a Dalit born to Hindu parents converted to Christianity and re-converted to Hinduism. As a Hindu Dalit, he was entitled to quota benefits provided to Scheduled Castes in the matter of government employment. A division bench comprising Justices Dharma Rao and S.K. Krishnan allowed R Shankar to challenge the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commissionâs rejection of his application to the post of civil judge under the Scheduled Caste quota.
Arguing that though born to Dalit Christian parents, Shankar said he returned to the Hindu fold in 1983 and received a Scheduled Caste certificate. Despite passing the examination and interview for the post of civil judge, his appointment was held up for verification of community (caste) status. When eventually denied appointment on grounds of being born in a Christian family, he challenged the decision successfully, with the learned judges finding his re-conversion to Hinduism acceptable.
This is a shot in the arm for all Dalit Hindus who have been weaned away from their natal faith and traditions and are discovering that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The Bishopsâ Conference of India and the All India Catholic Union, emboldened by the dominance of Ms. Sonia Gandhi in the present UPA dispensation, have promptly declared their determination to secure reservation benefits for Dalit Christians. They are likely to achieve their desires, since this is the very reason why the UPA set up the Ranganath Mishra Commission National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM); the Sachar Committee has already recommended quotas for Muslims. </span>
The missionary argument that in India caste transcends religion is too clever by half. They must confine conversions to Hindus who are willing to renounce caste in all its dimensions, failing which they must renounce the practice of conversions and learn to respect both Hindu Dharma and the caste system, which is integral to Hindu tradition. If the so-called caste bias does not go away with conversion to another faith, there is something wanting in the conversion process and the new faith.
The system of jati and varna (caste) is unique to Hindu society, and is a complex socio-historical process by which the myriad native groups of India were fused into a single civilization, which retained a rich cultural pluralism and never degenerated into uniformity. The elasticity of the caste system provided for inclusion, rather than exclusion (the premise upon which the monotheistic traditions rest), and thus accommodated all persons and groups seeking entry into the Hindu fold.
It was caste - the affiliation to a jati - which prevented the wholesale conversion of Hindus under Islamic tyranny and state power. The British Raj was the first to recognise this fact; the current evangelical determination to appropriate caste to foster conversions derives from the same imperialistic imperative of capitalism-colonialism-conversion. There can be little doubt that the Ranganath Mishra Commission has been pre-programmed to extend constitutional benefits to Dalit Christians, including political reservations, by giving them the right to contest SC/ST Parliamentary and Assembly reserved seats. This will no doubt make life easier for persons like former Congress chief minister Ajit Jogi, who is unable to tell us if he is a Christian, a scheduled caste or a scheduled tribe!
The new BJP president, Mr. Rajnath Singh, must unequivocally oppose the extension of caste benefits to missionary religions. Christianity aims at the total annihilation of the native religion and culture of its converts, and the imposition of a totally new way of life and thinking upon them. It is, in every sense of the term, a totalitarian tradition, and pastors have an enviable hold upon the faithful. Hence missionaries cannot claim that they are unable to combat caste consciousness among converts. The truth is that the upper caste church hierarchy wishes to perpetuate its own domination of the faithful, rather than combat caste-based prejudice in the manner that Hindu society itself has been doing for several hundred years.
The Chennai High Court has done well to refuse to let missionaries enter the caste door. Christians accepting and practicing caste discrimination should be prosecuted under the relevant provisions in the law, not pampered by being allowed to continue mistreating historically disadvantaged groups.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.p...&pid=161&page=8
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> http://headlines.sify.com/news/fullstory.p...ised~in~Gujarat
***********
<b>Tribal deities' statues vandalised in Gujarat </b>
Saturday, 16 December , 2006, 14:40Â
Ahmedabad: Security has been tightened in four villages of Dangs district of Gujarat after statues of local deities of tribals were allegedly found vandalised, police said in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
Wooden statues of the Tiger and Snake Gods were found half burnt in four villages between Vaghai and Ahwa towns of the district on Friday afternoon following which tension gripped the areas and security was tightened, they said.
"Unknown miscreants damaged four statues of the tribal Gods and this led to the increase in the security in the areas. Investigation is on to trace the culprits", Dangs district superintendent of police B K Srimali said.
Meanwhile, the members of local unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have decided to stage a demonstration on Sunday before the Collector's office against the desecration
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Just to let you know, FOIL/FOSA, Teesta, Prakash, Dayal and Dalit network etc varity are very active in this place.
Since UPA/Sonia came into power attacks on Hindu religious place is daily occuring and encouraged by Moron SIngh government.
'Religion gives good people bad reasons to be good'
http://www.rediff.com///news/2006/dec/12inter.htm
Arthur J Pais | December 12, 2006 | 16:59 IST
He's used to taking on religion and profiting from the experience.
Sam Harris, the author of one of the most controversial bestsellers in recent years, Letter to a Christian Nation, had also written another bombshell book, The End of Faith.
Letter to a Christian Nation has been on The New York Times bestseller list for more than four weeks now.
Harris, who spent several months in India more than a decade ago to learn meditation and yoga, has been an atheist for more than 20 years.
In his new book, he addresses the concerns of non-Judaic religions in America about the Ten Commandments being taken more seriously than before. He also argues eloquently why Jainism offers a better moral framework than Christianity.
Harris, a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University, has for 20 years studied Eastern and Western religious traditions and a variety of contemplative disciplines. He is now completing a doctorate in neuroscience.
He spoke to Rediff India Abroad Managing Editor Arthur J Pais on why he objects to organised religion.
<b>Why are you extremely critical of the first four of the Ten Commandments of the Christian faith?
It is because the first four injunctions -- 'You shall have no other gods before me; You shall not make for yourself a graven image; You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain; Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy -- have nothing whatsoever to do with morality.
They forbid the practice of any non-Judeo-Christian faith -- like Hinduism, most religious art, utterances like 'Goddamn it!' and all ordinary work on the Sabbath.</b>
And placing those commandments in government institutions like the courts, as some people demand, could hurt the feelings of non-Christians?
It is difficult to imagine what kind of practical effect it would have, but the First Commandment, if taken literally, makes a religion like Hinduism an abomination. And because Islam also forbids graven images and since many people take the injunction seriously, we run into trouble, say, when there is a caricature of the Prophet published in a newspaper.
Why are you also critical of Christians who believe that Martin Luther King Jr is the best exemplar of their religion?
I am convinced that Jainism is a better guide than the Bible to become a nonviolent activist, like King Jr was. The Christian claim over King Jr as a moral, socially engaged Christian is ironic because he was directly influenced by Gandhi, who was strongly influenced by Jainism.
Christians are convinced that the Ten Commandments are the absolute statement of morality but they should look at Jainism. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, surpassed the morality, of the Bible in one, in just one sentence: Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any creature or living being.
<b>Christians who swear by the Bible have abused, oppressed, enslaved, insulted, tormented, tortured, and killed people in the name of their scriptures for centuries. Had the Bible contained the teachings of Mahavira as its central precept, perhaps we would be living in a different world. </b>
You are an atheist but if you were to choose a religion would it be Jainism?
I believe one can be a moral being without belonging to any religion. Besides, Jainism has other consequences. I am not a pacifist. <b>I don't want Gandhi or Mahavira to decide our response to someone like Hitler. If we had listened to these two men, we would have continued to be ruled by the Nazis for another millennium. </b>
You are also critical of Christian missionaries, aren't you?
But I also recognise that there are good people among the missionaries, who go to help others in foreign countries, and they have fought against social ills, including bonded labour in India. For these missionaries service goes deeper than their religion.
Religion gives good people bad reasons to be good, while I believe there are good reasons available (to be good). It is possible to work for others because of sheer humanistic, humane impulses.
<b>Take, for example, organisations such as Doctors Without Borders and its members, who do not go around telling people that Jesus was born of a virgin. Nor do they tell people, especially in such regions as sub-Saharan Africa where over four million people die from AIDS every year, that using condoms is a sin. Most Christian missionaries do that. </b>
I have said, repeatedly, that this kind of piety is genocidal.
And that leads us to your comments on Mother Teresa in the book. What do you object to most in her?
<b>She is a classic example of an extraordinarily good person having her moral intuitions clouded by her religion.</b> I had found her at one point to be very inspiring. Even today, I have some respect for her.
There is no denying that she was a great force for compassion, and she did much to awaken others to the reality of suffering. But what she was doing was constrained by her Catholicism.
Her ideas of the nobility of poverty were counterproductive, and her views on abortions were terrible.
<b>She often said, and especially when she accepted the Nobel Prize, that of all evils she had seen in her lifetime, none was more terrible than abortion. She also said that the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.
I cannot believe that the killing of first-trimester foetuses disturbed her more than all the sufferings she witnessed over six or seven decades. </b>
I think if one is really worried about human sufferings, abortion should rank very low on their list of concerns.
And what would the lawmakers in this country (the US) who proclaim their Christian roots have to say to the fact that God is the most prolific abortionist?
How can you say that God is an abortionist?
Since (people like) Mother Teresa, the Catholic Church and other Christians believe that God takes care of all human beings, they should think of the millions of people who have involuntary miscarriages every day across the world. Their God does not seem to be interested in doing anything about it.
You have also written critically about the harm done by religious moderates in any society, particularly in America. Could you revisit the subject?
Most people think that while religious extremism is problematic and polarising, religious tolerance is the remedy. But I strongly believe religious moderates are giving cover to fundamentalists because of the respect that moderates demand of faith-based talk.
In principle, religious moderation doesn't allow us to be critical of other faiths. Thus, fundamentalism is kept alive, and fundamentalists make very cynical and artful use of the cover they're getting by their political correctness.
You have said your previous book The End of Faith, while being critical of religion itself, was more concerned with Muslim militancy across the world.
I started writing it soon after 9/11 and even while I was working on it, I was worried that it might have a Salman Rushdie kind of effect, but I also knew I had to write the book.
I argued in the book that the last thing we were going to admit was that people were flying planes into our buildings because of what they believed about God.
We came up with euphemisms about this being a war on terror, and Islam being a religion of peace. Worse, we were pushed even further into our own religiosity as a nation.
We began to talk about Osama bin Laden and the extremists of the Muslim world as being the exceptions. Many people compared Osama bin Laden to the Reverend Jim Jones, David Koresh, or some other marginal figure, but I could not be convinced.
I deeply felt that Osama bin Laden's version of Islam is a much more central, plausible version of Islam than people tend to acknowledge.
I argued that the so-called moderates can no longer afford the luxury of political correctness.
As I asserted in the book we must finally recognise the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance.
http://www.deccan.com/home/homedetails.asp...tian%20pilgrims
State plans fund for Christian pilgrims
Hyderabad, Dec. 18: The State government would consider a subsidy for Christians to travel to Bethlehem, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said on Monday. Responding to Hyderabad Archbishop Marampudi Joji's request at the United Christmas Celebrations, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy assured that the government would study the possibility and financial implications of such a subsidy.
At present, the government subsidises Muslim pilgrims to perform the Haj. Bishop Joji said, "I visited the holy land and prayed at the place where Jesus was born. I request the government to assist Christians to fulfil their wish of making a pilgrimage to the holy land by subsiding the cost to some extent."
Dr Reddy replied, "The government is allotting a budget for construction of churches in towns and villages. While increasing the allocation we can adjust some money." On the issue of dalit Christians, Bishop Joji said, "Dalit Christians should be given SC status. I request the Chief Minister to get a resolution passed in the Assembly, as the UP Assembly has done, and send the recommendation to the Prime Minister, as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has done." Dr Reddy assured that he would examine the proposal. Bishop Sugandhar, legislator Christine Lazarus among others took part in the celebrations.
<!--QuoteBegin-Sudhir+Dec 20 2006, 01:21 AM-->QUOTE(Sudhir @ Dec 20 2006, 01:21 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> http://www.deccan.com/home/homedetails.asp...tian%20pilgrims
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Surely there must be some religions which originated in Acapulco or the Beaches of Southern France? It is time for the people of those religions to come forth and ask for govt subsidy. Don't worry, one day we will get a PM from Acapulco and CM who is on Acapulco payroll..they will consider all your requests onlee.. <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Well... it was just a matter of time for indian priest to get frisky.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sex scandal hits Bangalore school
Pioneer News Service | Bangalore
Hundreds of parents staged a dharna on Tuesday demanding the arrest of Father Mathew, Principal of St Claret High School, who would allegedly molest girl students regularly.
An angry crowd of parents had stoned the car of Bangalore Archbishop Bernard Moras on Monday when he visited the area after a riot was sparked by reports of the "sex maniac" priest.
Even as the agitation snowballed, the Karnataka Government ordered an inquiry into the matter by Deputy Commissioner of Police Malini Krishnamurthy. Father Mathew is absconding.Â
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Silly question: How come all these priest with all these sex related crimes aren't removed from the Church or Vatican?
The minute a Catholic priests marries or comes out of the closet (gay/lesbian priests) or even endorses a women priest/bishop, he/she is promptly removed from the congregation and entire Church power structure comes down heavily on him/her. But if a priest is accused of crimes against the flock they are supposed to tend to, it's quitely brushed under the carpet.
Or my assumption just plain wrong?
is there no end to the jealousy of Christians ,when they find,good things,like Yoga,in other Religions?Why this Christian fanaticism,especially in the USA?
Please read the material in the link below:-
Christian Yoga? C'mon!
Many pastors are unaware that some yoga practices, especially transcendental meditation to achieve an altered state of consciousness, can be spiritually damaging. If your pastor chooses to ignore your warning, you might want to consider finding a new church home.....
http://www.newswithviews.com/West/marsha30.htm
by Marsha West
<!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Hyd kid beaten for wearing kumkum
ibnlive.com
Posted Thursday , December 21, 2006 at 13:08
Updated Thursday , December 21, 2006 at 13:48
New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a student was allegedly beat up by his teacher for attending the school wearing kumkum and mala.
Sarvesh Yadav, a fifth standard student of Hyderabad's St Christ Church School, claims he was beaten up by his English teacher and sent home for wearing kumkum and mala after taking the Ayappaswamy diksha.
He was also not allowed to appear for his exams. His mother, Jyoti Yadav, says they had not been told about any such rule. "How can wearing a bindi be this big an issue. If he doesn't want to follow the rules, let him sit at home," she says.
But the school authorities denied the allegations. "All these days, we have allowed him to wear that dress. But they had made some plan when they came to school today. We don't have any religious bias and treat all children equallyâbe it Christians, Muslim or Hindus," says the headmistress, Miss S Solomon.
The school has been provided security by the police after an angry mob allegedly manhandled the school incharge.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/hybd-kid-beate...um/29064-3.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They should remove recognition of this school. Arjun Singh should look into other missionary schools rule and should take strict action.
Had it Hindu school, Arjun Singh would have done what I am suggesting here.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.ibnlive.com/news/christians-reconvert-to-hinduism-in-up/29490-3.html
Agra (Uttar Pradesh): A large number of Christians, who were Hindus earlier,
have been reconverting their religion to brace Hinduism in Uttar Pradesh.
The reconverts said they had left the Hindu fold because of the false
promises made by Christian missionaries.
<b>"I was a Christian four to five years ago, but not now. They had given me
many allurements that my children will receive free education, will have
higher education and equal status. Those, who had converted to Christianity
earlier, were treated differently from those who joined later," said Sobhran
Singh, one of the reconverted persons.</b>
At a function organised by the Dharam Jagaran Samiti, Christian converts
attended a ritual where Vedic chants were read, and sacred threads tied on
their wrists to symbolise the homecoming bracing Hinduism.
"Those Hindus who had converted to Christianity or those who were lured into
joining it by Christian missionaries were called here to return back to the
Hindu fold with respect and on equal terms. Since they were earlier a part
of Hindu society and they have returned back, so it has been termed as a
homecoming," said Gajeshwar Singh, the regional chief of the Dharam Jagaran
Samiti (DJS).
The event comes in wake of Bharatiya Janata Party?s repeated calls for a ban
on conversions. The party argues that such a ban will foster communal
harmony, however Muslim and Christian minority groups accuse the party of
whipping up Hindu voters' fear to boost its political support.
In a country where out of the 1.1 billion population, 80 percent are Hindus,
14 percent Muslims and only three percent Christians, the religion divide
remains a cause of concern for the political parties.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Needed: A pluralistic ethics of conversion
Author: Madhuri Santanam Sondhi
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: June 22, 2006
Introduction: Freedom of conscience and freedom to propagate do not exhaust all the nuances of religious rights and tolerance. We need an ethics of diversity and pluralism.
All right-thinking people subscribe to the doctrine of freedom of conscience: a person should be free to change, adopt, enlarge or abandon any belief according to his or her conscience, and this freedom is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). But thanks to deep differences of belief and custom between the various faiths lumped together under the English term "religion," the historical conflict between converting and non-converting faiths persists. In the modern world, in which the great debates about religion and ideology seem a thing of the past, if questions are raised about the subtle or not so subtle ruses whereby conversions are effected, they rouse little indignation. What if the poor are enticed not by truths but by promises of this-worldly comforts: when even the rich and powerful sell their souls for filthy lucre or power, why should the poor be barred from doing the same? The core values are economic: rich or poor and not moral like right or wrong, or metaphysical, true or false, or cultural, authentic or mimetic. Even Swami Vivekananda remarked that one cannot preach religion (the higher dharma) to people with empty stomachs, i.e., first establish the human security which enables genuine free choice. Combining community religion with food, healthcare and education is another ballgame. In 1977 the Supreme Court upheld the constitution of conversion-prohibiting laws enacted by Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, clarifying that "organised conversion, whether by force or fraud, or by providing allurement to people taking advantage of their poverty and ignorance is anti-secular." The Court further said that respect for all religions was the basis of Indian secularism, whereas conversion was grounded in religious intolerance. And the Indian Constitution quite specifically frowns on conversions which disturb the peace.
Recently a contretemps arose in Rajasthan between the BJP government, the Congress governor and Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the introduction of a Bill barring conversions (which already obtains, at least notionally, in five states). The Pope, breaking the decorum of a credentials presentation ceremony, chastised India (read Hindus) through its envoy, for lack of religious tolerance. Virtually, Hindus were commanded in the name of freedom, to submit to proselytisation. Since conversion is an integral function of the Christian clergy, it is perhaps claimed as a religious right. But for the targeted community it could be provocative.
How to reconcile proselytisation and tolerance? These are problematic as group and not individual rights. Tolerance is an essentially contested concept, linked to a particular religious point of view, and the alleged universality of the UDHR at least in this area is controversial. The Latin religio suggests being bound or obligated: certainly Abrahamic religions have strong community bonding, and Islam in particular, fierce punishments for apostasy. Dharma covers, apart from religious particularisms, relationships within and between social groups, moral and customary duties: in the past there were severe punishments for breaking caste taboos (under reform Hinduism and the Indian secular state, these are to some extent in retreat). But there was acceptance of diverse ways of life and belief, and this plural co-existence is what constitutes India's (not only Hindu) tolerance. Vivekananda gave it a modern gloss through describing different faiths as rivers emptying into the same sea. It has been said that early Christianity and Islam functioned almost as varnas in the Indian social system after their initial proselytising advent: thereafter they played almost according to Indian social rules. But aggressive proselytising in the 19th and 20th centuries upset the old balances, causing concern to nationalists seeking a cultural definition of India. A new straw in the wind apparently quivered in the aftermath of a recent interfaith meeting jointly organised by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches whose resolutions stressed, among other things, the need for all faiths to heal themselves from the obsession of converting others. However this occurred in the same week as the Pope's bombshell, undermining the credibility of the message.
Under attack, the non-converting faiths have partly awoken to the need for self-protection. Since the defensive techniques are foreign to their basic structure, they generate much criticism, especially from their own adherents. The Hindus evolved shuddhi in the last century, reconverting converted Hindus or tribals, and defensive (sometimes veering on the destructively offensive) organisations to rally their members across castes and
sects. The energy of a missionary faith may be deplored but not condemned, whereas counter measures arouse righteous indignation.
The Khasis in Meghalaya faced a comparable crisis when the British conquered northeastern India in the 19th century, encouraging missionary activity to help pacify the areas. Their Niam Khasi religion had no recorded beliefs, no centrally administered social organisation, but there was a coherent fabric of interwoven socio-cultural practices and beliefs. By 1899, certain Khasi leaders made an effort to both organise themselves and encode their values in writing to resist the onslaught of the well-funded, well-organised government patronised missions. The result was the Seng Khasi movement, protective, revivalist and reversionist. It has won recognition as a distinct religion from the International Association for Religious Freedom. As structured today the Niam Khasi has an Indic character with belief in one God, U Blei, common to and in communication with, all of humanity. It retains its particular cosmic and nature deities, and magical elements perdure as in Tibetan Buddhism. The Oneness and universal accessibility of God obviate the need for conversions, but reverting Khasis are welcome.
Post-Independence conversions continued, with the plethora of Protestant churches finally upstaged by the Roman Catholic, today even more gung-ho under the new Pope. The traditional Khasis feel culturally threatened, lacking the means to match the excellent Christian educational and healthcare institutions with their employment potential. If earlier a convert had to abandon traditional customs, nowadays Christians more pragmatically seek to blend into local cultures. Gandhi had remarked that the advent of a missionary means the disruption of a family, and even when outward conditions of dress, manners, language and drink are unaffected, "vilification of the Hindu religion, though subdued, remains." Hindu families may squabble like any other, but religio-cultural fissures cut at the heart of the Indian group society engendering great anguish. It is anybody's guess as to who will be the ultimate winner, the foreign religion or local culture, or whether India will pull another syncretic rabbit out of its proverbial hat. Today with Central government ineptitude over northeastern problems combined with regional near-sightedness, there is much local talk of being "different from India." The Chinese have always encouraged this sense of difference along the Himalayan border.
Freedom of conscience and freedom to propagate do not exhaust all the nuances of religious rights and tolerance. We need an ethics of diversity and pluralism. Human rights discourse could consider new formulations for accommodating the needs, expectations and practices of a wide spectrum of faiths to move towards the more truly "universal." Human rights form the essential foundations of our own society and Constitution, but we might like to modify certain clauses so that all groups, big and small, can be confidently assured of their religious freedoms.
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