<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>CONVERSIONS? â STOP, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!</b>
The arrival of East India Company and the subsequent British regime have been the launch pad for foreign Christian missionaries to land in India and establish themselves. <b>They penetrated in to the far & wide of the country in the guise of focusing on "Education & Health Care" sectors to help the poor & downtrodden of the country. The Indian leaders, who were fighting for the freedom lost focus on the penetration of these missionaries. </b>After the so-called independence, the Indian leaders made two biggest blunders, one, not getting rid of the British system of education and scheme of things and two, prepared a Constitution based on the British version. The Nehruvian Secularism took over from the British Imperialism for the detriment of the country in general and majority community in particular, and for the benefit of the minorities, who have been enjoying undue privileges through blatant misuse of the Constitution and the consequent amendments brought by the pseudo-secular governments.
The proselytisation, conversion and other evangelical activities of the Christian missionaries have been subjects of debate for a long time, but no concrete solution had been found. Right from Vivekananda & Aurobindo to Gandhiji & Ambedkar, all our National Leaders have condemned religious conversions unequivocally and it is the bounden duty of the minorities to respect and adhere to the views of those great leaders if at all they feel they are Indians. They cannot take advantage of the 'tolerance' shown by the majority community. If India that is Barath is standing tall proudly, out in the crowd, it is because of the "Sanatana Dharma", which has been in practice for centuries and ages. Hinduism, apart from being the most spiritual, is the only religion in the world, which is "secular" in itself.
That is why, the "Revealed Religions" were allowed to establish here. Hinduism embraces other religions showing respect to them, but unfortunately, it is not reciprocated by the others. <b>Also, the 700 years of Islamic oppression and 300 years of Christian oppression revealed the fact that the Abrahamic religions are not at all secular or spiritual but purely political in nature and that they are born to destroy other religions and civilizations. </b>But as the saying "Adharmic conspiracy may encircle Dharma, but ultimately Dharma will prevail" goes, the Islamic & Christian rulers were driven away from this "Punya Bhoomi" and after the so-called independence, this country was proclaimed, though wrongly, as a "Secular Country" despite more than 90% being Hindu majority, only for the well being of the miniscule minorities. In fact, those minorities could have continued to live happily& peacefully even if this country had been proclaimed as a Hindu Nation officially. The leaders at the time of independence were so magnanimous that they gave full freedom to the revealed religions in the name of secularism.
The last sixty years of history shows that the minorities have been taking undue advantage of the very same freedom and the tolerance of the majority. While the Constitution permits only practicing & propagating, the minorities indulge in converting minds and harvesting souls with the help of the "aids" from outside and "abetment" from inside, which is totally illegal and against the Constitution.
The "Niyogi Commission", which was constituted by the Madhya Pradesh government in the fifties, has also confirmed the dubious methods adopted by the Churches & Missionaries for harvesting souls and it has recommended for a "BAN" on conversions. The then Prime Minister Jawahrlal Nehru, who always felt proud of being called as an English man, failed to table the Niyogi Commission Report in the parliament, for the sake of the so-called secularism, an action which was obviously aimed at appeasing the Christian community. Despite Nehru's mistake, the Congress government in MP went on to enact the anti-conversion law!
The Constitution ensures "Freedom of Religion" only to practice & Propagate and certainly doesn't grant the right to convert others. The concerned "Article-25" , which ensures freedom of religion, is subject to public order, morality and health.
The Supreme Court in its judgment interpreting Article 25 of the Constitution, in the Stainislaus v. State of Madhya Pradesh (AIR 1977 SC 908) case, had upheld the constitutional validity of a law (the Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantraya Adhiniyam) passed by the Madhya Pradesh Government in 1968 and the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, since the issues involved were the same.
In a secular country with one particular community being 85% of the total population, the balance 15% must coexist by respecting the feelings and aspirations of the majority and without interfering in the faith, culture & tradition of the majority. If it is violated and if the violation goes beyond the level of decency & tolerance, then the consequences have to be faced. It is as simple as that, and that is <b>what has happened in Orissa from 24 th to 28th of December 2007. The state of Orissa has been notorious for the illegal conversion activities perpetrated by the Christian Missionaries, particularly in the tribal belt.</b> The unabated harvesting of souls for years by the Churches with the help of foreign money power and the dubious muscle & state power extended by the pseudo-secular parties for the sake of vote banks, have gone beyond the tolerance of the majority community, which forced the organizations like RSS, VHP and other individual Religious leaders to indulge in re-conversion activities. <b>Eighty three years old Swami Lakshmannanda Saraswathi has been prominent in this and he has been into this for the last three decades. He was also spearheading a movement against the unabated 'Cow Slaughter' being carried out by the Christian community for years.</b>
On the eve of Christmas, the community had organized for a massive 'conversion' camp in a predominantly Hindu tribal area erecting arches & cut-outs in front of Hindu houses, thereby provoking them. <b>When the Hindu tribals under the leadership of Swmi Lakshmanananda protested against this, a group of Christian thugs have ruthlessly attacked his convoy, which is uncalled for and unwarranted. </b>
This arrogant action has naturally provoked the majority community, which has reacted in the only way the minority seems to understand. The Christian community leaders must respect the Constitution and the law of the land and should not indulge in conversion activities just because they get unrestricted flow of money and political support.
<b>With the advent of the UPA government, in the last three years, evangelization has been on the increase through out the country to an alarming extent.</b> This is mainly because of the minority appeasement policies of the UPA government under a 'foreign' head, which have emboldened the missionaries to indulge in large scale conversions. The Ministry of Home Affairs in its annual report ( http://mha.gov. in/fcra/annual/ ar2005-06. pdf ) on "Receipt of Foreign Contributions by Voluntary Associations" , lists "Maintenance of priests/preachers/ other religious functionaries" as one of the purposes receiving a huge amount of $21 million dollars of all foreign funding. Out of the fifteen top donor agencies given in a chart on page 20, eight are Christian and seven are secular and none are Hindu. The total fund sent to India from abroad, as per the official MHA declaration is a whopping $336,218,421 dollars! The unofficial and clandestine flow of funds is left to our imagination! <b>A major chunk of this money is spent on conversions, targeting mainly the gullible Scheduled Castes and innocent Scheduled Tribes apart from the poor & ignorant Hindus. This is what is called as "Christian syndrome"! It can be cured only by stringent anti-conversion laws, scanning of financial resources and stopping the flow of foreign funds.</b>
The minorities must respect the Constitution, Supreme Court and the Law of the land and must coexist without interfering in the cultural & religious practices of the majority community. Instead, if they continue with the ugly business of conversion with the aids from foreign countries and abetment from local pseudo-secular politicians, then they will harvest not souls, but what they have sown. <b>The retaliation will be ten times more than the provocation, which will be harmful for the secular fabric of the nation and prevalence of peace & harmony. Let the minorities and the politicians understand that the Barathiya community will no more allow its people to be converted or allow its land to be partitioned. If this fact is realized, peace & harmony will prevail, otherwise God save them</b>!
-Â Â Â Â Â B.R.Haran,
  Chennai.
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via email.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kandhamal and Bauddh districts were carved out of the Phulbani (or what used to be called the Bauddh-Kandhamal) district during the last decade. There were about 75,800 Christians (constituting 8.8% of the total population) in the composite Phulbani District in 1991, and this number has risen to 118,200 (constituting 11.6% of the total population) in 2001.
While carving out the Kandhamal District, it seems care was taken to ensure that it encompasses almost all the Christians of the erstwhile composite district. While Kandhamal has 118,000 Christians constituting about 18.2% of its total population, the Bauddh district has only 239 odd Christrians left in it.
As per the 2001 Census, the Scheduled Tribes constitute about 52% of the 6.5 lakh population of the Kandhamal District. The Scheduled castes constitute about 19% of the population.
Now, it is said that more than 60% of the Christians are from amongst the Pana community who are classed as Scheduled Castes. They also speak the language Kui, the language of the local Kui tribes. Since these converted "Dalit Christians" are not entitled to the Scheduled Caste status, a demand has been made on behalf of the Christian organisations to get them recognised as Scheduled Tribes. Why are they so keen on this new tribal identity for Pana Christians?
Well, it so happens that the founding fathers of the Indian constitution and the leaders of independent India were delightfully vague on the definition of Scheduled Tribes, especially when it came to the crucial question as to whether converts to Christianity would continue to be clased as Scheduled Tribes. The large scale conversion in the northeast decided the issue by default in favour of the converted Christians. Now, it is very hard to find a non-christian amongst all those who hold positions reserved staatutorily for Scheduled Tribes, eventhough Christians do not even constitue one-tenth of the 8.5 crore Tribal population in the country.
There has been widespread resistance from the entire tribal population of Kandhamal to this disingenious demand for recognising Pana community as Scheduled Tribes. In fact, several protests and clashes have been reported in the last few months ( See for instance the following report of September 2007:
http://www.hindu. com/2007/ 09/22/stories/ 2007092252750300 .htm )
Sri Padmanabh Behara, former minister in Biju Patnaik's Government who had to resign on this issue, is a Pana himself. he seems to have supported the Christian sponsered move for getting Panas recognised as a Scheduuled Tribe. The report below seems to indicate that he has now rescinded from that position.
http://www.hindusta ntimes.com/ StoryPage/ StoryPage. aspx?id=4e25b356 -b3c6-4607- 9c28-2d4cd15e193 a&&Headline=Quota+ fuel+to+communal +fire
<b>Quota fuel to communal fire</b>
Soumyajit Pattnaik, Hindustan Times
Phulbani, December 31, 2007
The demand for reservation added fuel to the communal fire, which had engulfed Kandhamal district in the last few days. Under the existing rules, people belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST), who converted to Christianity, continue to enjoy the reservation benefits meant for STs. But the same does not apply to members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) who converted to Christianity.
After conversion, SCs are deprived of reservation benefits. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, issued by the President under Article 341 says: âNo person who professes a religion different from Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.â
Of the more than one lakh Christians in Kandhamal district, 60 per cent have converted from SCs and they are locally called Pana Christians. But the Pana Christians speak the Kui language like tribal Kondhs. Because of this linguistic affinity with tribals, Pana Christians have been demanding ST status. They have based their demands on the Presidential Order of 2002. This has been opposed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) as well as some prominent political leaders of Kandhamal who bank on Hindu tribals to sustain their support base in the area. Of Kandhamalâs total 6.48 lakh population, 51.96 per cent are tribals.
The district administration is yet to make an official estimate of the loss caused to particular communities in the clashes. But preliminary reports suggest the Pana Christians have been targeted the most.
In 2002, the President issued an order, which mentioned Kui in the ST category. After the order, Pana Christians are demanding a correction of their Record of Rights (RORs). In the RORs, Pana Christians want their ST status to be mentioned, while the Orissa government is interpreting the presidential order differently.
Taradatt, commissioner- cum-secretary of the ST and SC Development Department, issued a clarification on September 18, 2007 to all district collectors. The clarification said, âIt is a well-known fact that Khond/Kond/Kandha tribes in Orissa speak Kui. It will not be permissible to include all Kui language speakers as Scheduled Tribes.â
VHP state general secretary Gouri Prasad Rath told Hindustan Times, âIf Pana Christians are demanding ST status because they speak Kui, there are people from general castes who speak the language. If speaking Kui is the only yardstick for ST status, it should be uniformly applied.â
Former steel and mines minister Padmanav Behera, who resigned from the state cabinet on Friday said: âUnder no circumstances, can the Kui-speaking Panas be given ST status.â
__._,_.___
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<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Jan 1 2008, 04:23 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Jan 1 2008, 04:23 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->www.dailypioneer.com
<b>Boy's dying declaration alleges torture by Christian missionaries </b>
Omer Farooq | Hyderabad
The Hyderabad Police has booked a case of mysterious death after a missing boy was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition by three unknown people who later disappeared from the scene. The 12-year-old boy Mohammed Arshad later died in the Osmania Hospital.
A case has been booked at the Chilkalguda police station and investigations have begun, said inspector Vinod Kumar. The matter has created a lot of tension as the boy, who went missing more than a week ago, told the police in his dying declaration that he was abducted by unknown people and tortured and forced to convert to Christianity. He said he was not aware of the home he was kept and tortured.
"When I refused to convert to Christian and pray according to their customs they denied me the good and beat me up hanging upside down," the boy told the police before breathing his last. The incident has created a lot of tension.
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<b>Mudy Ji :</b>
Please let me know the actual date the above news was published in The Daily Pioneer.
TIA
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Came in email (emphasis mine)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Facts on 'Clashes among Christian Missionaries and the Tribals in Kandhamal District of Orissa'.
Reports of communal violence involving the converted Christians led by the Missionaries on one hand and the Tribals on the other, in Kandhamal District of Orissa by the media since 25th December 2007 are vastly distorted and motivated which in public interest need be clarified much before the national image is tarnished before the general public and the international community. <b>The whole series of incidents started from unprovoked and preplanned attack on Vedanta Keshari Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati who was visiting his disciples in Darsingbadi village in Kandhmal District on 24th December. Swamiji, 82 years old has been working relentlessly in the District since 1967 to protect the local population where more than 75% are below the poverty line and are not literate. </b>He has opened schools and hostels, hospitals and temples to protect mainly the tribals and the down-trodden from the clutches of Missionaries who are operating with massive fund from foreign countries and pumped into NGOs in disguised operations to convert the local tribals into Christianity. <b>Chief of such NGOs is one 'WORLD VISION' patronized by one Mr. Radhakanta Nayak, a local of Darsingbadi village from 'Pana' community but later got converted to Christianity. He happens to be an employee of the State Government promoted to the IAS and retired, and now a Member in the Rajya Sabha. His henchmen were the assailants who attacked Swamiji on 24th December. </b>
     Meanwhile, the Kui tribals among the Kandhs in the District were agitating on the conspiracy by Mr. Nayak who is engineering for getting a Presidential notification under the provisions of the Constitution, to get his 'Pana' community, who are scheduled castes relisted as scheduled tribe along with the Kui on the ground that the former also speak the Kui dialect. Various reservation facilities to which scheduled tribes are entitled are not available to persons converted to Christianity. On hearing the assault news on Swamiji, the already agitated Kui community reacted and protested through out the district against the 'Pana' community converted to Christianity. Interestingly, the Maoist (Naxalites) activists in the district are also mostly from among the recent converts to Christianity. Among 47 Maoists arrested in connection with recent burning of villages inhabited by Hindus ( Brahmanigaon, Jhinjiriguda, Katingia, and Godapur) as a counter to attacks by tribals on the Churches, 20 guns have been recovered by the security forces from them. <b>It is evident that the Maoists and the Church are hands in glove with each other to spread fratricidal killings and clashes among the tribals which is evident also from incidents in Karbi-Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts in Asaam. </b>Conversions of poor tribal villagers are being conducted on gun point and by spreading terrorism.
      While in active government service Mr. Radhakanta Nayak IAS (Retd.) and Mr. John Nayak IPS (Retd.) both converted Christians were instruments of the Church to proselytize the poor and illiterate 'Pana' and tribal communities in Kandhamal district of Orissa. Under guise of NGOs thousands of dollars are pumped into the country for conversion of tribals in Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and the North-East. <b>Taking advantage of the poverty and lack of education, thousands have been converted who are also being trained for separatist movements like NSCN in Nagaland and Maoist insurgency in the aforesaid states. This trend is more pronounced since 1970 which is evident from the census reports till 2001. In Kandhamal District alone the Christian population has increased from 6% in 1970 to 27% in 2001, despite an Act enacted by Orissa Legislature in 1967 to prevent conversion by allurement, coercion, bribery and cheating.</b> Swamiji has been fighting a lone battle by making the tribal district his home for last 40 years, who has been targeted by the Church to finish him. Earlier to the recent attack, there were two other lethal attacks on Swamiji in 1971 and 1995. Since then the government has provided armed protection to Swamiji. Inspite of that, he was attacked by armed assailants on 24 December 2007 in which he and his driver and armed security personnel were seriously injured and hospitalized in Cuttack Medical College Hospital. Hence, the recent clashes manifest the various ramifications of the socio-economic, political and cultural tribal issues and the deep-rooted conspiracy by the Church to destabilize our society and our economy. Let the Nation awake and protect our tribal brethren and the national media stop distorting the facts.
Ashok Sahu, IPS (Retd.),
Former Ispector General of Police.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
b]Mudy Ji :[/b]
Thanks for the link :
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:_G20oF...n&gl=us&strip=1
Boy's dying declaration alleges torture by Christian missionaries
The Hyderabad Police has booked a case of mysterious death after a missing boy was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition by three unknown people who later disappeared from the scene. The 12-year-old boy Mohammed Arshad later died in the Osmania Hospital.
However, on âClickingâ on the Title Link I get the following :
Orissa violence : Christians seek Jharkhand Guv's intervention!
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Nareshji,
Pioneer don't archive, till yesterday it was available. <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Now it is available here - http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/3704.html
Well, if it helps, same news from another source, but no url:
Subj: Minor subjected to atrocities for not embracing Christianity
Hyderabad, December 26 (<b>Siasat News</b>): The Christian Missionaries have enhanced their 'conversion' activities in the city and to meet their goal, they are using all possible tricks. Even murder is the part of their agenda if a particular person is not willing to embrace Christianity.
One such incident came into light after two long months where a minor boy Md. Arshad was not only kidnapped but also subjected to severe atrocities for not embracing Christianity, which ultimately led to his death. The Chilkalguda police did not take any action against the culprits even after getting a dying statement of the boy given to sub-inspector V Prasanna Kumar. Md. Arshad clearly stated that he was kidnapped and was captivated in a lodge near Ghatkesar.
Student of class V, Arshad further said that he was forced to embrace Christainity and when he denied this, he was subjected to severe atrocities with regular interval, which include keeping him without food, and hanging him upside down. He revealed that he was not alone in the captivity but 50-60 other minor girls were also there.
Ultimately, the culprits, when found Arshad severely injured, got him admitted in Osmania hospital and fled. When he regained his consciousness on December 7, he somehow managed to contact his father Md. Haroon on somebody's mobile phone and informed him about the detail. His father immediately came to Osmania hospital and was in tears when he saw the condition of his son. Later, Arshad was shifted to Gandhi hospital and there, doctors said that Arshad's kidneys and heart are affected. He was put on artificial respiratory system but in vain. Arshad died.
On December 25, after the post mortem, he was buried in Chilkalguda graveyard. Earlier, a missing report of Arshad was lodged in Chikalguda police station on November 5.
According to Arshad, two women and a man kidnapped him after he was made unconscious with a chloroformed kerchief from the backyard of Secunderabad Railway station while he was returning after handing over the tiffin to his brother-in-law near Alpha hotel. He was a brilliant child and was the second son of Md. Haroon Ahmed and Shahnaz Begums' six sons.
<b>Mudy Ji :</b>
Many thanks.
<b>Shambhu Ji :</b>
Thanks to you I have found the Link to The Daily Siasat :
[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Minor subjected to atrocities for not embracing Christianity : The Siasat Daily</span></b>[/center]
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
AoA!!
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx...eID=5250&SKIN=B
Kandhamal violence-Secret Meeting of Christians held on December 24
02/01/2008 04:40:29
Kandhamal violence pre-planned plot against Naveen Govt: VHP
Pioneer News Service | Berhampur
The violence at Brahmanigaon in Kandhamal district, which led to strife in the entire district, was a pre-planned international conspiracy to malign the Naveen Patnaik Government, alleged VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders here.
A team comprising VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders, including Susant Moharana, Laxminarayan Dash, Umashankar Acharya and Ramakant Rath, briefed the mediapersons about the developments in Kandhamal after visiting the violence-hit areas and a camp where people from the Hindu community have been taking shelter following the violence.
State convener of the Bajrang Dal Acharya alleged that it was an international conspiracy to defame the State Government, in which the BJP is a partner. The visiting team came to know of a secret meeting by the minority community being held at a village near Mohana on December 24, in which the plot was hatched to create disturbances in Kandhamal. When Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was attacked, a vehicle belonging to local MP Sugrib Singh was seen in the area. It corroborated the fact that the attack on the Swami was pre-planned, he further alleged.
The VHP and Dal leaders also alleged that some NGOs were involved in creating the violence as they were engaged in religious conversation activities. As the Swami was spearheading a movement to protect the interests of the Hindus, persons belonging to the minority community, with active support from the NGOs, attacked him. Such NGOs, including Peoples' Rural Educational Movement (PREM), World Vision and some others funded by foreign counties, must be blacklisted and banned, they demanded.
They questioned the credentials of the Congress and its State president Jaydeb Jena, who was blaming the State Government for the violence. They asked why the UPA Government at the Centre was not taking any action in the Nandigram violence, in which hundreds of people were killed. They wanted to know why the Human Rights Commission and the Minorities Commission, which are seeking reports on the Kandhamal incidents, did not seek such a report on Nandigram.
The VHP and Dal leaders also displayed the video recording of some statements by those camping at Merikote village in Ganjam district following the violence in neighbouring Kandhamal. In the video one Sasmita Swain was seen accusing people of the minority community of attacking Hindus who had deserted their villages fearing for their lives.
http://www.rzim.org/ravi/
Mr. Zacharias was born in India in 1946 and immigrated to Canada with his family twenty years later. While pursuing a career in business management, his interest in theology grew; subsequently, he pursued this study during his undergraduate education. He received his Masters of Divinity from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. Well-versed in the disciplines of comparative religions, cults, and philosophy, he held the chair of Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary for three and a half years. Mr. Zacharias has been honored by the conferring of a Doctor of Divinity degree both from Houghton College, NY, and from Tyndale College and Seminary, Toronto, and a Doctor of Laws degree from Asbury College in Kentucky. He is presently a Visiting Professor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University in Oxford, England.
Ministry Description
In a generation not unlike ours, Jesus declared, âYou will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.â Throughout history the message of Christ has faced significant challenges from other worldviews, from the academy, and from culture. And understandably so, for Jesus claimed to be unique in every way.
Is a message so exclusive plausible? We believe it is, and we at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries seek to reach and challenge those who shape the ideas of a culture with the credibility and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To the questions of the skeptic and the believer we offer an apologetic â we give an answer â to the counterclaims of secularism and other worldviews. We address the intellectual and essential assumptions of our culture, realizing that for some, the door to the heart is through the mind, and for others through the imagination.
With a team of individuals based in six countries, RZIM is committed to reaching this generation around the world - in the university, the arts, politics, business, and the church. Through open forums, community outreach, and various media, we seek to remove the barriers to the cross for the skeptic and we prepare Christians to give a reason for the hope within us.
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries - stirring the imagination and impelling the mind to see the beauty and credibility of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
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Gospelcom.net (link will open in a new browser)
Seven years after its launch, Gospelcom.net has grown to become the most popular Christian website in the world. From its 1995 inception with 10 alliance ministries Gospelcom.net was formed to 1) promote cooperation among likeminded organizations, 2) minimize duplication of efforts, and 3) maximize online traffic. It has mushroomed to now include over 300 individual online ministries working to use technology and the Internet to reach the world with the message of Jesus Christ.
Arun Andrews
<b>
At the age of eight, Arun Andrews opened his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ when his pastor the Rev. Dr. Samuel T. Kamaleson preached at the Emmanuel Methodist Church, Chennai. Born in the Southern coastal town of Mangalore in Karnataka, India, Arun went on to study in the cities of Bangalore and Chennai.</b> A graduate in Economics from the Madras Christian College, he trained for Christian Ministry at the Union Biblical Seminary, Pune from where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Divinity. Having served for 17 years in the pastoral ministry of the Methodist Church in Bangalore, he went on to serve as the "Conference Evangelist" of the Methodist Church in South India. The appointments he held in the pastorates are that of an assistant pastor at the Richmond Town Methodist Church between the years 1989 and 1997 and that of pastor at the Koramangala Methodist Church between the years 1997 and 2006.
"Preaching from a pastoral heart" is what Arun knows he is called to do. As a preacher of God's word he has been privileged to speak in Schools, Colleges, corporate offices and Churches in several locations in India. His preaching ministry has taken him to over 15 denominations in the country. In the year 1995, Arun was invited to respond to a paper presented at the Lausanne Younger Leaders meeting at Hong Kong after which he was invited to preach at "The Chapel of the Resurrection" in Singapore. He was also privileged to preach in the year 2001 in the Methodist circuits of Hull and York in the U.K. On three occasions he has preached at the United Christian Church of Dubai as well as in the Bangalore Fellowship in Dubai. He has also had the privilege of being the speaker at the Bible Society's Millennium Celebrations in New Delhi in the year 2000, at the Keswick Convention held in Calcutta in the years 2001 and 2004 and at the 17th Biennial Convention of the Presbyterian Youth Fellowship held in Chirapunjee in April of 2007.
Arun serves as the Minister-at-large with RZIM Life Focus Society. He lives in Bangalore with his wife Miriam and their children Nihal and Nehara.
01-03-2008, 03:35 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2008, 03:36 AM by acharya.)
L.T. Jeyachandran
The Real Jesus
At the height of the craze, the Beatles boasted they were more popular than Jesus Christ. More recently, Earl Woods, father of the renowned golfer Tiger Woods, noted that his son was more famous than Jesus Christ. Christians are piqued when such claims are made from time to time. I wonder if we should not marvel that this simple Galilean carpenter who lived two millennia ago should, without his asking, become the frame of reference for fame. The choice of theme for Dan Brown's novel The DaVinci Code evinces a similar interest in the person of Jesus Christ.
Although it may be an unusual way of approaching the controversies that Brown and others have raised about the person of Jesus, it is helpful to see how these develop from an inadequate understanding of God. It is also a lesson for those of us who claim to be Christians that without our knowledge, we may be harboring a similar lack in our theology. In today's pragmatic climate of "how-to-get-something-out-ofâGod" and "how-to-do-something-for-God" Christianity, it is quite possible that we have left the huge gap of "Who-is-God" theology in the middle! Who Jesus claimed to be has immense implications for our understanding of who God is.
I am, therefore, grateful that God permits periodic shock treatments on his church through the likes of Hollywood or the Gnostic gospels, the Beatles or Dan Brown, for they alert us to the serious shortcomings in our own understandings of Him. The DaVinci Code tells us that Jesus was someone most of us believe he was not, and yet many of us would have a difficult time explaining who we believe he really is.
When facing any error or counterfeit, it is good for us to train ourselves to ask the question, "What is the original truth of which this is the counterfeit?" An error bears important and interesting relationships to the truth. The former is arrived at by adding to or subtracting something from the latter. Thus, an error always contains something of the truth whereas the truth has nothing of the error in it. Moreover, the opposite of a truth is always an error, but the opposite of an error is rarely the truth--it is often another error!
Dan Brown, I believe, has done a singular service to the Christian Church in helping us to discern the original within the counterfeit that he has presented to us in the form of this novel. The Gospel of Judas offers a similar opportunity. Yet, we could easily be tempted to react against such errors by looking at their opposites, only to find ourselves landing in other errors. Instead, we should try to look at the biblical originals to which these insinuations point.
For instance, there is nothing wrong with sexuality and marriage. But was Jesus married? He was not. In the most ancient accounts of his life, there is no indication that he was married or widowed, although there is abundant evidence that he had a great number of women-disciples, Mary of Magdala being one of them. It can be quite clearly concluded that Jesus limited himself by the discipline of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:12) so that he could win for himself the bride of the Church (Ephesians 5:27; II Corinthians 11:2).
We should be grateful to those who in caricaturing Christ drive us to reflect on issues to which we have paid scant attention. We, as the Church of Christ, need to move beyond the purely pragmatic, individualized understanding of our faith to the glorious sweep of the canvas that the Scripture paints for us. It is thus that we would be enabled to truly worship our amazing God and to lovingly relate to our savior Jesus Christ through his ever-living Spirit.
L.T. Jeyachandran is executive director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Singapore.
© 2008 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. All Rights Reserved.
<img src='http://www.wellspringinternational.org/images/gallery/IMG_0252.JPG' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Chennai, India
Hey I recognize that logo in the photo above! From the ads they show late at night: "sponsor a child stuff".. <!--emo&:blow--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-acharya+Jan 3 2008, 03:13 AM-->QUOTE(acharya @ Jan 3 2008, 03:13 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> http://www.rzim.org/ravi/
Mr. Zacharias was born in India in 1946 and immigrated to Canada with his family twenty years later. ...
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Ravi Zacharias appears to be one of the majors sepoys for the evangelists. He is even allowed to give lectures to massa; in this, he is a step above d'souza.
Why o why did you leave us, Swamiji? <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Cut-pasting a a comment:
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Swami Vivekanand said: Missionaries dare not to convert Muslims because they will be under physical threat. We hindus are tolerant, and that's the reason Missionaries are taking advantage of this.
MISSIONARIES HAVE BEEN DOING THESE ABUSE OF HINDUISM, CONVERSION IN INDIA FOR LAST 200 PLUS YEARS.
TIME HAS COME TO STOP THAT. FIRST BY LAW. IF REQUIRED, BY FORCE.
Swami Nikhilanand in his book "Vivekanand: a Biography" narrated how Swami Vivekanand reacted during his voyage back to India from USA when the missionary abused Hinduism.
"SWAMI VIVEKANAND WALKED TO ONE OF THE MISSIONARIES, SEIZED HIM BY COLLARm AND SAID MENACINGLY: IF YOU ABUSE MY RELIGION, I WILL THROW YOU OVERBOARD".
"LET ME GO SIR, THE FRIGHTENED MISSIONARY APOLOGIZED: "I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN".
SWAMIJI LATER SAID: "IF YOU HAVE THE POSITIVE FEELING FOR YOUR RELIGION, YOUR TRU MOTHER, YOU COULD NEVER SEE ANY HINDU BROTHER CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY. YET, WE SEE IT EVERYDAY, AND YOU ARE QUITE INDIFFERENT.WHERE IS YOUR FAITH? WHERE IS YOUR PATRIOTISM?"
(This is taken from "Hinduism for our times", by Arvind Sharma.)
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx...eID=5264&SKIN=C
<!--QuoteBegin-dhu+Jan 4 2008, 01:44 AM-->QUOTE(dhu @ Jan 4 2008, 01:44 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-acharya+Jan 3 2008, 03:13 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(acharya @ Jan 3 2008, 03:13 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> http://www.rzim.org/ravi/
Mr. Zacharias was born in India in 1946 and immigrated to Canada with his family twenty years later. ...
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Ravi Zacharias appears to be one of the majors sepoys for the evangelists. He is even allowed to give lectures to massa; in this, he is a step above d'souza.
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Read some articles by our Ari Saja who seems to know a thing or two about this Zacharias.
Anarchist Losers Attack American College Students ? And Flunk As Usual
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Another 'youth' of YSS is Usha Zacharias of Westfield College. She was the Editor of 'Ghadar', the 'journal' of the PROXSA, in 2002, when, after several years of oblivion, they suddenly got rich and rushed an issue out with unseemly urgency, citing an urgent need to get organized. That was just 3 weeks before the Godhra atrocity of February 28, 2002. Why the urgency? One might well ask as well, how this gang came to be at Oberlin College for an International Conference called 'Siting Secularism in India', just 2 weeks after February 27, in time to pass a resolution condemning the government of India for the riots in Gujarat resulting from the February 27 atrocity. Their benefactor, the Oberlin Shansi Foundation, purportedly operates a Chinese-culture exchange program, including in Tami Nadu, and is approved by the Chinese government for operation in China since the late 1990s. Their interest in siting "secularism" in India is interesting, given their Xtian Missionary nature.
The saying 'ain?t no spring chicken' does come to mind. Behind a Hindu-sounding name and Communist pretences, Zacharias comes with impeccable Soul-Saving family credentials. This rather than any Communist convictions, may account for the intense bigotry against people of other religions. Daddy 'Ravi' Zacharias is said to run a massive White Shoes Preacher operation. It is hard to find evidence that Zacharias? intellectual achievements run to anything better than joining gangs that attack leprosy patients, orphans and college students. This raises some interesting questions about the Westfield State College top Administration.
Mathew and Zacharias share another credential. Someone remarked a few years ago that both of these have been routinely inflating their credentials. Both have often described themselves as 'Professor' in public representations of their credentials, though neither has ever achieved a rank beyond associate professor. As that author pointed out, this is far worse fraud than someone claiming to have a 4-year degree that they never earned. Apparently someone pointed this out to Mr. James Castagnera, then Asst. Provost of Rider University. His excuse nearly sent the recipient to hospital with a rib injury: Rider has almost no real full professors, so they allow their 'senior faculty' (the young Biju) to pose as 'professor'! Presumably this has the effect of conning students into paying fees and enrolling at Rider, hoping to be taught by real professors. Elsewhere, we see Mr. Castagnera waxing pompous about the lack of rigorous academic standards in India (!!!) Perhaps his evidence is the standard of his 'senior' 'professors' who came from India? Can't say that I blame him.
As for Zacharias, she is a 'professor' and Chair of Communications but apparently unable to see the need for accuracy in describing her own rank ? she's been fraudulently claiming authority, posing as 'professor' since she was a first-year assistant professor. Westfield College is another Center of Excellence for Ethics in American education, no doubt, if those are the standards of a 'Department Chair'.
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