Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

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TKiran
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by TKiran »

Mukesh Kumar ji, Abrahamic religions and Sanatana Dharma are completely two different systems.

First of all you need to understand what Abrahamic religions say.

1. the God lives in heaven and never comes to Earth. God is male. He created Earth and created a perfect man Adam. Adam was bored and he wanted some one for recreation. God created Eve or Evil from his collar bone. He told Adam not to eat apple. But because Eve encouraged Adam to eat apple, the perfect man Adam has become sinner. This is called the "original sin".

2. All the progeny of Adam and Eve are born sinners. They suffer on earth.

3. God thought, I should give a chance to humans to get rid of the "original sin".

4. He created another perfect son "Jesus" and sent him to Earth to suffer on behalf of the humans and shed his blood, so that the original sin of Adam is dissolved.

5. As "Jesus" should not come to Earth with Sin, he is born to "virgin". He tells the world that he is the son of the God. The Jews do not believe him.

6. He tells the people that whoever believes that "he" is the God, will go to heaven. The process of going to heaven is - after a person died he will wait in his "kabr". This is called "resting in peace" or RIP till the judgement day.

7. The judgement day will come when the whole world becomes "Christian"

8. When the judgement day comes, he is going to take out all the humans buried out of their coffins, and to each individual, he will ask, "do you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God and he suffered on earth so that your sin is dissolved? Whether you say yes or no, doesn't matter, he will judge.

If he thinks you are true Christian, then he will send you to heaven, if he thinks you are not believing, he will torture you for 5 days, and then send you to hell, where you will be burnt for ever.

He will dissolve the earth.

Now coming to Sanatana Dharma,

1. God is nothing but all pervasive consciousness.

2. humans are composed of three things a.Body or gross b.Mind or subtle c.Atman

3. Most of the humans do not see the Atman in them. The moment they perceive "Atman" as the "paramatma", they are dissolved. That feeling can be described as "tat tvam asi" or "aham bramhasmi".

4. It's not easy to reach that stage. You need sadhana. It is beyond intellect and it's in infinite silence. Paramatma is close to the heart, about an inch below heart. It's full of Ananda and Vignana.

There are many paths to realize the "paramatma" and Abrahamic religions are certainly not that path.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by chetak »

The unravelling of India


The unravelling of India

India is descending rapidly towards a denouement that will end its two-generation old self- congratulatory superficial phase of domestic mismanagement, by a largely clueless domestic elite.

Gautam Sen, 20-04-2019

“Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism”

Sri Aurobindo


Introduction

Countries and empires unravel all the time. The reasons why they do are varied and fascinating but history is replete with the reality of grand political orders and empires disintegrating. The mighty Romans, the Persians, the Ottomans and the British empires all collapsed due to long term processes of erosion and myriad contingent factors that accompanied their eventual downfall. Now, even one of the most formidable of them, the mighty British empire, is threatened with internal implosion in the final redoubt of territories that the English first conquered and absorbed, namely, Ireland and Scotland.

In recent times, the Soviet empire of satellites collapsed in chaos, Russia itself now threatened with humiliating subordination to the victorious Western powers. It is cornered by deadly NATO missile encampments on its western border and reduced to seeking succour from an imploding Jihadi state in order to secure its eastern perimeter. The end of Russia’s superpower status has prompted a renewed Western scramble to subdue areas of the world that the Cold war stalemate allowed to function in a form of quasi self-rule. The immediate factors that account for a specific intervention are unimportant, but the underlying motivation is unambiguous. It is mostly about security calculations and access to resources though the ease of seizing control of countries ruled by weak regimes makes the temptation irresistible, many in Africa prime examples of the predicament.

In the particular case of Venezuela, a monumentally incompetent populist regime ensured that its vast oil resources would attract the attention of its imperious powerful neighbour and that dismal drama is unfolding duly. The Middle East, a theatre of powerful Cold War rivalries, has prompted bloody and unforgiving imperial intervention at unconscionable human cost. Alegria was secured two decades ago by resort to cynical subterfuge that facilitated mass slaughter, blamed on Islamic radicalism when its major sponsor was the comprador regime. When such a regime has outlived its capacity to serve foreign masters and its own plundering has bankrupted the country, popular revolts against it are smartly finessed to implant a renewed comprador relationship. Egypt is a case study of the process and Libya a particularly egregious example of competition for spoils as well among the foreign interests themselves, with France, as usual, demonstrating new levels of shameless venality to gain a place for itself in the sun.

India’s unfolding predicament

China remains immune to such a fate, for the present, though potential economic crisis and consequent internal political upheaval may well create opportunities for foreign intervention. By contrast, India is descending rapidly towards a denouement that will end its two-generation old self- congratulatory superficial phase of domestic mismanagement, by a largely clueless domestic elite. A significant aspect of the unfolding drama that will likely end in the formal political break-up of the Indian Union, in its present form, is the indifference to the situation of a self-satisfied political and bureaucratic elite. Ordinary citizens are also not conscious because no effort has been made to mobilise them by an elite oblivious to the peril that could liquidate their country, possibly within two generations. As an aside, it may be noted that the intellectual elite of India is irrelevant because state patronage has ensured its mediocrity and most think-tanks are retirement homes for self-serving bureaucrats and senior armed forces’ officers. The most prominent and best-funded among the latter are financed by international foundations with close ties to foreign chancelleries and intelligence agencies. And the Indian media has already been unashamedly subverted by foreign interests to accelerate India’s liquidation.

The critical issue of identity informs the ability of a national political elite to govern the nation and maintain its political autonomy. It is a sense of collective and individual self-identity as the stakeholders of nationhood that is vital. And that derives from a multiplicity of complex socio-political processes that unite the diverse constituents who comprise a large country like India. Do the elites of different parts of the country have an acute sense of a shared national destiny that overrides other sources of fidelity like region, language and religion? In the case of India, there is considerable room for doubt and an equal conviction that any such sense of collective identity and destiny are ebbing in its contemporary political elites. The imperatives of competition for political power have produced an inexorable spiral of divisions that accentuates the lowest common denominator of parochialism to achieve political power and the considerable loaves and fishes of office that Indian political life offers. And each regional political grouping mines deeper into the well springs of parochial loathing of the Other to outwit its rivals and incite the local population further with resentments.

A corollary of the dire situation above is the succumbing of the nerve centres of national governance to instrumental foreign intervention that has instilled divided loyalties within India’s bureaucratic and political elite. Their vulnerability to cultural and intellectual brainwashing is accompanied by an even more dangerous yielding to lucrative opportunities abroad. Virtually no segment of the higher reaches of India’s political and bureaucratic circles has escaped the temptation of foreign funding for the education of their offspring abroad. And the ownership of US green cards by relatives and queues for them of large segments of the same political and bureaucratic cohort amounts to personal capitulation to foreign cajoleries. The situation transcends political divides in India despite superficial appearances to the contrary of supposed nationalist loyalties.

Situation on ground zero

India is also an incredibly porous society despite all the earnest talk of the reach of government security agencies, whose intensity of focus is intermittent rather than systematic. National agencies also spend disproportionate effort and resources catering to the whims of the political class, spying on their opponents while a particular dispensation is in power and ensuring their personal comfort and security. In addition, Indian political parties are infiltrated by foreign intelligence agencies on a shocking scale, some pretty much funded and directed by hostile countries abroad. And the principal platform for national entertainment, its film industry, is deracine on a scale that only highlights the moral bankruptcy of a nation which has allowed itself to become a willing accomplice to emotional enslavement by its historic tormentors.

In the past two decades of globalisation, India has opened itself to rampant subversion owing to significantly increased foreign consular footprint, apt to meddle without hindrance or let. It is also a given that foreign correspondents are almost without exception intelligence assets of their home country. Foreign-funded NGOs have become a dominant feature of Indian society as well, using their local agents to pursue goals inimical to the integrity of the country, with aggressive self-confidence. The Indian judiciary, including its highest levels, has become an eager handmaiden of this egregious intrusion into many aspects of national life. It responds with alacrity to the cynical intervention of hostile foreign-funded NGOs, often of evangelical provenance, impacting Indian society with brutal contempt. Apparently, India’s judiciary has been overawed by overweening intellectual violence originating abroad. The higher judiciary has been reduced to passing incoherent euphoric judicial homilies consonant with dismantling its own society, brick by brick. Alarmingly, an extraordinarily divisive piece of proposed legislation to impose judicial remedy on a whole raft of day-to-day human differences in society that will deepen divisions among Indians along numerous axes, contrived by an Oxford academic, was tabled in the Indian parliament by an especially suspect member.

The war of ideas

The intellectual and perceptual framework of Indian society, always fragile and largely colonial in its origin has lost the incipient post-independence desire to find an authentic voice located within itself and consistent with defined national goals. India’s dominant intellectual class has been pretty much absorbed into the global nexus of imperial dominion that unavoidably moulds its untermenschen collaborators. Almost without exception, India’s intellectual entrepreneurs abroad are unequivocally anchored in supposedly superior enlightened local values of Western societies in which they operate and make a living. Their estrangement with India is unfailingly consistent in their hostility towards it and articulates, in the final analysis, the interests of imperialist machinations. The ease with which a majority abandoned Leftist pretensions, once the Soviet experiment ended and the Chinese communist party exhibited all the textbook attributes of classical fascism, is astonishing. The intellectual entrepreneurs abroad quickly adopted biddable handwringing over human rights issues, soon followed by a descent into total moral and political degradation with apologetics for the historic Jihadi wary cry of ‘Islam in danger’!

Once the garb of felicitous language and aesthetic pretensions are shorn, what the arguments posited by them insist on is the unviability of India’s own allegedly irredeemable traditions and, as a corollary, an implied need to have a trafficked world-view imposed on it, forcibly if necessary. Tragically, India’s mediocre and insecure domestic intellectual life has been comprehensively poisoned by the outpouring of spleen from the portals of privileged academic institutions abroad, where this Indian-origin cohort enjoys the comforts of a very good life. These institutions abroad wield instruments of intellectual subversion and facilitate genocide by providing the rationale and justification for it (as they did recently over Iraq). Unfortunately, they can, in the bargain, also transform the life of a hapless native toiling in an obscure mofussil town by a single invitation to a seminar abroad. Yet, glitzy social science and humanities faculties abroad in institutions like Oxbridge, LSE, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Chicago, are firmly integrated into the national purpose of their own societies, including its imperialist goals of domination and conquest.

India’s political failings

By and large, all Indian political parties have ignored the difficult task of nation building that requires mobilising the majority on the basis of values with which they can identify, their history, culture and traditions. On the contrary, these have always been assaulted mercilessly and continue to be derided and mocked by forces seeking the break-up of India, with the help of their myriad sepoys at home and abroad. The crucial dimension of this assault is to portray the entire history of the civilisation as the product of racist conquerors who created a false religious order to perpetuate themselves through caste primacy. As a result, the entire ancient canon and objects of worship are deemed repellent and the traditional projection of the struggle of every civilisation between the forces of evil and good is inverted. Thus, the divine Rama and Durga are denounced as tyrants and the objects of their divine antipathy portrayed as deserving veneration. Most of this abuse originates from evangelical sources, much practiced in the black arts of defamation and mass killings. Their domination of elite Indian education and the media has turned the egregious abuse into the legitimate common currency of discourse within Indian society. But it is the Indian state itself that has allowed the accelerating liquidation of the nation, over which it presides, to gather momentum through its own complicity in treasonous activity. The reason is not far to seek since there are immediate short-term advantages in ignoring such persistent assault.

Lacking a felt sense of common identity that would need to derive from their shared sense of identity as a people and their common struggles against invaders, Indians are impaled on a form of self-destructive selfhood that ensures and deepens both vertical fissures along caste lines and horizontal ones of region, language, etc. The seriousness of the situation seems to escape many Indians, preoccupied with daily life and a political and bureaucratic elite primarily concerned with its own survival and petty individual advancement. National policies and indeed, of late, constitutional propriety are in doubt, with much of the Northeast rejecting imperative policies and other states thwarting criminal investigations decreed by the highest legitimate authorities of the Indian Union. And a veritable tsunami of foreign infiltration, facilitated by regional political parties, has already changed the demography of West Bengal and Assam. Other parts of the country like J&K barely function as a part of the nation, with entire populations ethnically cleansed through violence and the perpetrators only held in check by a massive security presence
. Inexplicably, the state at the centre appears willing to surrender the entire region to secession by itself sponsoring demographic transformation of the remaining part of the region that had escaped the worst of the violence sponsored by neighbouring Pakistan.

Modus vivendi of breaking India

A sense of the kind of break up that might overtake India can be inferred from the pattern of evangelist-sponsored menaces being repeated by domestic politicians themselves. The idea of a southern federation of Christian states seems to have penetrated the popular political imagination, occurring in the backdrop of the effective expulsion of the bulk of the Brahmin population from southern states like Tamil Nadu. And massive conversion to Christianity, which has spread openly along the entire Andhra coastal belt, portends serious consequences though the secession of the south is likely to be, in the first instance, a common goal of Islam and Christianity. A parallel phenomenon has also occurred in West Bengal with the decimation of the intellectual and literate middle class during several decades of supposed communist rule beholden to the Muslim peasantry and the mosques which can mobilise them to enforce their demands; and its toxic fallout is amply evident today. The weakening reach and authority of the centre is the historic phenomenon that threatens to disrupt the Indian Union, as it did Mughal India earlier and other dominant territorial rulers of the remote past.

Conclusion

One constant feature of foreign-inspired intervention against the Indian Union since independence has always been to attack and attempt to weaken central rule. Observers mesmerised by immediate political events and the cut-and-thrust of daily struggles are unable to grasp the sheer scale of foreign intervention to diminish central power and authority in India. Two episodes universally misunderstood in India illustrate this corporeal reality. The first is the Naxalite revolt that originated with debates over revisionism but was ultimately a reflection of the embittered Sino-Soviet dispute and their associated border clashes. By that time the US and China had become collaborators against the Soviet Union and Maoism became a pawn to disrupt a perceived revisionist Indian CPM, supposedly still dominated by pro-Soviet elements. This was common goal shared by China and the US, vastly reinforced by India’s invasion of East Pakistan in 1971 that provoked them both enormously and fuelled a desire to create havoc in the border state of West Bengal. The second episode was a US conspiracy to disrupt Mrs Indira Gandhi’s rule, as threatened by Henry Kissinger himself because of her intervention in East Pakistan, by strangling India’s rail transportation network; subsequently celebrated as some sort of heroic instance of civil disobedience! It had extraordinary echoes to the modus operandi used earlier by Henry Kissinger in 1973 to overthrow and murder Salvador Allende of Chile by organising a trucker’s strike. The declaration of the Indian Emergency by Mrs Indira Gandhi was mostly the outcome of entrapment, contributing to her own downfall and, ultimately, assassination. It had precipitated the adoption of oppressive autocratic policies that reinforced the downward spiral of India’s internal divisions.

Yet there are glimpses of a different India emerging, with a growing urban population more committed to the idea of nationhood, pragmatic in its interests and less parochial. They are imagining a nation fashioned by themselves, without any help from the political class or India’s educational system, often inspired by incomplete and imperfect animated discussion of heroic ideas over the Internet. Yet it is a race against time and which forces will prevail remains to be seen. On the one hand, powerful, well-resourced foreign agencies and their local collaborators perceive mounting opportunities to cleave the Indian Union into broken sovereignties, frequently facilitated by a passive or complicit Indian state. On the other, there is a subterranean, popular urbanised churning that is becoming inchoately loyal to the promise of a united and economically successful nation that also espouses some kind of cultural authenticity. The ongoing current national general elections of 2019 will be a major factor determining which of the two political currents will have the opportunity to consolidate and dictate the fate of an ancient civilisation fighting for its survival.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. IndiaFacts does not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information in this article.

Gautam Sen
Dr. Gautam Sen taught international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science for over two decades
sanjaykumar
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

God created EVe from Adam's rib, unless there is a translation issue.

That was a very compelling exposition of Hinduism. If only humans would leave their idiocies shorn of all accretions. Can you imagine a society where we recognise each other's Godness?

My point is that brahman does not even need to be real (I Am not sure what this word means) for the very concepts to elevate us from the dross and coarseness of society as we have constituted it.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Lilo »

So i always wondered ...

If i converted to Christianity accepting its core doctrines,
Then iam effectively accepting that the souls of my heathen ancestors including my parents grandparents etc to whom the light of Jesu didnt reach and who lived their idol worshipping sinful heathen life to the fullest will be automatically subjected to the Christian God's eternal hellphyre on Judgement day hain ji?

Sometimes i do get tempted by the rewards being offered in this life & the promise to escape eternal Hellphyre of Christian God in other life for my soul born with original sin. More over getting rid of that sin by merely pawning off the few hundred souls of my unconverted ancestors to the Devil and his depths of eternal Hellphyre as overwatched by the wrathful Christian God on the day of Judgement seems to come easily & naturally for such a soul of mine born with the original sin.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by JE Menon »

viewtopic.php?p=2345380#p2345380

Excellent observations by Muns in the above post. And yes, you are right. What the early Christians recognised very quickly that financial consolidation and power was critical to expansion. So while the Taliban style "parabellani" roamed around in North Africa and the Levant brutalising and propagandising against the polytheists and other non-absolutists, there were people of the elite who saw an opportunity to overturn the powers that be - sort of like how AAP might see an opportunity to overthrow Congress and make an alliance with the Khalistanis (to give a current analogy). The difference is that they were successful. Even those fractious elites who chose the faith out of convenience may not have wanted things to turn out how they did, rather only wanting to rock the boat. But they capsized it.

By the way, it would do well to remember here that even the word Christiani (Latin), or Oi Christianoi (pronounced E Christiani in Greek) is only confirmed to have been used from somewhere in the early 4th century - from the writings of a monk I believe out of Antioch. Initially they were called various things, including the "Followers of the Nazarene" (i.e. JC), which of course got corrupted and changed and ended up as "Nasrani" in India via the Middle East.

This is why it is amusing sometimes to hear the Indian Christians say "Christianity came to India in 52AD". As a tradition, and belief, one is free to believe whatever one wants. I only quibble when the issue becomes a matter of historical accuracy. As far as I know, there is zero real factual historical evidence of the kind we might use to verify the dates of the metalwork in the Indus Valley, to put Christianity anywhere before the 7th century. This seems especially feasible because our friend Mohammed was driving people out of that area around that time - and one of the sanctuaries (as for the Parsis) must have been India.

Now of course we are paying the price for that hospitality, with many conversion-minded Christians determined to turn all 1.3 billion of us into their likenesses - starting, naturally, with the Hindus/Sikhs/Jains/etc... Islam comes after sufficient strength (manpower) has been accumulated.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Muns »

Jem,

As you've said it is not just one thing but nature of multiple things that eventually led to Christianity getting the upper hand over the course of 2-300 years. The primary thing, I believe was really Constantine's endowments after becoming Emperor towards the Churches, while simply cutting off funds to all of the temples as before. Interesting to know however, that Constantine was eventually only baptized on his deathbed. Hard to say why he didn't do it before but it was probably politically motivated so that he could still play both sides of the coin so to speak. Not just Constantine but his mother Helen was also actively involved, including traveling all the way to Jerusalem to find pieces of the original cross, site of his birth and crucifixion at Golgotha.

A couple of other things I will list here as I've been thinking about it that I remember from the book or other sources. This is important I feel to list out because many of the strategies are still in play today. You can basically lift out the same ideas and transpose a blueprint I believe for Christian agenda today.

1) Sponsorship and mass building of the churches while completely cutting off funds to the temples by Constantine

2) Conversion of the higher elite of Roman society. You would be granted favors with the Emperor having become Christian.

3) Higher promotion in the military since Christianity was now a accepted religion. This has further implications especially during the great plague that wiped out at third of European population of the time. Native religions were not able to compete with the now organized Christian religion that took it upon themselves to try and baptize everybody who was deemed to die and if you survived well, that was because Jesus granted you a new life as a Christian. This had a powerful effect during the time of the plague. Christians using state organization where before they had none.

4) Conversion of many native Roman leaders wives initially who then went on to convert their husbands. This can especially be seen with many of the Norse regions, whose wives initially converted thereafter converting their husbands. Not just wives but concubines of native Roman leaders also had a similar effect.
Powerful women seem to take to Christianity and give shelter to Christians on the run such as Paul. One such First initially Christian has been mentioned a couple of times such as Priscilla of Aquilla.

5) Use of the now largely converted military to run systematic campaigns against those who still held onto their native Roman or Celtic religion. Systematic destruction of important landmarks, especially in the Celtic religion related to native trees or gatherings. One such example is the destruction of Thors Tree, a tree that was hundreds if not thousands of years old where many of Norse religion used to gather and educate the community.

6) Propaganda with the a religion that promised everlasting life, as opposed to religions of the time that seem to indicate that even the Roman and Celtic gods were able to die. Ragnarok for the Norse as an example.

7) An effective campaign regarding such everlasting life especially to Martyrs and their acts of suffering. Somehow it changed this false campaign of martyrdom also seem to have a pretty successful effect. One Tunisian Roman governor was said to have reported, "if Christians want to die then there many trees from them to hang from, Just stop pestering me" For Christians that wanted to die in the Arena.
Apparently Christians at that time try to emulate Jesus by staging radical deaths in an attempt to reach this everlasting life and also promote to the campaign of martyrdom. Such suffering always has an impact! He who suffers more , hold the higher moral ground with regard to changing minds.

Now fast-forward all of these points today and you can see parallels to how such points are working on with regard to an Indian society.

1) Lack of funding and growth of the temples because of diversion of all of the money.

2) Conversion of the elite of Indian society, many of the echelons of politics in the Congress and to some extent even Bollywood are crypto Christians.

3) Not sure about the Indian military but definitely the organizational capacity to write you whenever there is a natural calamity to not only provide aid but give aid with conversion is a time-tested method for Christians. Recent events such as the Nepal earthquake and even the Kerala floods are just recent examples. It's been going on for millennia.

4) Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka

5) Christian propaganda in India with regard to Hindus is well known. Everything seems to be the work of Satan with regard to Hindu traditions. Brainwashing with a endless life of love with God vs a Human struggle of rebirth and reincarnation

6) Propaganda regarding Indian Hindu violence against Christians and again to create a campaign of Martyrdom for Christians that are being victimized by Hindus. (Remember those Christians dying in the Arena).

Again a lot of these points I'm just kind of thought off my head. But these were some of the main ideas I believe that really led to the decline of the ancient native Roman, Celtic and Greek religions of the time. I myself hate the word Pagan and thus I never use it. It's has roots in the derogatory meaning, regarding nonbelievers of the Christian faith who was self-indulgent, peasantry and basically barbarian who barely had a brain compared to the all knowing knowledge of Christians at the time.
Just some of my thoughts.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by JE Menon »

Thanks for that long post Muns. I have no disagreement.

On this point: "Interesting to know however, that Constantine was eventually only baptized on his deathbed."

This is not undisputed. There have been too many "deathbed conversions" since to actually put much weight on it. What seems to have happened is that Constantine saw an advantage, took it, and perpetuated it. Whether he was "Christian" in the sense that we today understand it, is very debatable.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

And yet it was islamists that killed them.

Notice how the writers jump through bl00dy hoops, backwards & sideways to avoid blaming or mentioning islam!!
Notice also how the comments are disabled as well.

"And maybe there are some who don’t want to talk about Christian persecution because they fear that it could easily be used – as it sometimes is – as an alibi for Islamophobia. Easier to fall silent about the murder of Christians than to be seen to side with those racists who blame Muslims for everything. I understand this – but it’s still not good enough."

"From North Korea (OK, obviously) to China, and increasingly even in places such as India – all around the world Christians are subject to real and sustained violence for the profession of their faith, the one that we proclaim most insistently today. That life is stronger than death. That love will ultimately triumph over hate."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... on-silence

“It’s shocking that India – the country which taught the world the way of ‘non-violence’ – now sits alongside the likes of Iran on our World Watch List. For many Christians in India, daily life is now full of fear – totally different from just four or five years ago,” Blyth said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... port-finds


Who was it though who murdered the christians?
Why are they bringing the Buddhists into it?
"It is disturbing to reflect that the warning signals have been there in terms of the treatment of religious minorities. When I visited the country to report on anti-Muslim riots that were happening in response to aggression and intimidation from the extremist Buddhist nationalist group, Bodu Bala Sena"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ersecution
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by souravB »

Don't know what to make of this.
What these nutjobs touch upon but do not understand is Hinduism is not only Idol worshiping. One can take other to dip into a vat of water and make him drink wine but neither can make him/her less Hindu.

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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Singha »

Haresh
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Post by Haresh »

Those civilised christian americans.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... e-U-S.html
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

souravB wrote:Don't know what to make of this
@ 14:38 he tells the story of a teacher at a christian school who converts a little Hindu girl, without her parents knowledge!!!
What right do they have to do that???? :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :cry: :cry: :x :x :x

I tell you what I make of it, it is in words all the devious methods they use to convert people, by pretending to be friends with them & interested in Indian/other culture.

These video's are good to watch, because we can learn their tactics.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Lilo »

Evangelical Christianity fueling separatism in Nagaland as demoed by the missionaries when the guard was lowered in front of a foreigner visiting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr-bMZw ... e=youtu.be

Props to the Lady .
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Post by Haresh »

America’s True History of Religious Tolerance
The idea that the United States has always been a bastion of religious freedom is reassuring—and utterly at odds with the historical record

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... -61312684/
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Post by Haresh »

The racial demons that help explain evangelical support for Trump

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/4 ... tion-south
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

Do Indian Xtians know they carry the curse of Ham?
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

sanjaykumar wrote:Do Indian Xtians know they carry the curse of Ham?
I always find this strange about the coverts and those who have been born into xtianity.
When I was in Punjab last Sept/oct 2018, I discussed this with my cousins.
These preachers are all over the place in Punjab.

The points I made to my cousins were:
A/ converts will be turned against their own families/community/people/culture
B/ I made them aware of the risk of sexual abuse of their children
C/ Converts are essentially becoming slaves of the hostile west.
D/ They will always be despised by the white xtians.
E/ It is essentially a money making scheme, church attendance in the west is minimal and they need money from a growing economy.

One of the things that they did mention to me was that when the EJ's arrive, they do not have anyone amongst the community who is educated enough to counter their (seemingly) clever arguments, they are targetted because they are not educated and poor.
Now this has given me an idea. If organisations like Arya Samaj and others, were to go to rural areas, to the rural temples and areas, send an educated speaker, someone with knowledge, and to do what the old "Town Crier's" used to do with a bloody huge bell,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3QOO1OZFVk

and basically provide their contact details, telephone numbers etc and talk to people in these areas and educate them, then I think the menace can be countered. If they are just a phone call away from an educated person to counter these EJ creeps, then the EJ's won't be able to have free rein.
Infact I have a colleague at work who's family is Arya Samaj and not to far in Punjab from my family, I will suggest it to her.
Bottom line is, the poor and uneducated have to be shown that others who are not poor and are educated care about them and that there are no easy fixes such as turning to xtianity.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

I find it difficult to believe that either Hindus or Sikhs in Panjab would convert. Any numbers?
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Deans »

I have not so far followed this thread, because religion does not interest me. I'm Christian because I was born one. I'm not religious and am perhaps one of the few in my community who is a strong supporter of Modiji. I decided to study the history of Christianity recently - because I love history. Everything I've learn makes me more sceptical about Christianity, but has also given me a different perspective:

I think all organised religions (Christianity being the most organised) have been and are businesses. They operate to make money. (Hinduism is not an organised religion). Their success has hitherto depended on 3 things:
1. Poverty and ignorance of the faithful - strongly inverse co-relation between income (or education) and religiousness.
2. The priestly class gave the impression that they knew more than the `ignorant masses' and only through the intercession of the priests (for a price) could people reach God. That's why Priests preached in Latin well into the 20th century, though none could understand it (and why Islam still uses Arabic). That did hold good in the Middle ages when the most educated people (sometimes the only literate people) in European communities were monks.
3. Tacit understanding between the ruler and the priestly classes. If a king lost a war because of lousy strategy, the priest would say it was because people were not pious enough.

In the case of India: Even in non Evangelical Christian communities (e.g. your regular Catholic school which has a church attached) I'm not sure there is any statement of use of funds, let alone accountability in any church I'm aware of. How much of the money given to the Church goes for e.g. to charitable work ? (it should not be more than 10% if one goes by the standards of good NGO 's who want tax benefits). How much goes abroad ? (e.g. preserve old churches in other countries). How much goes towards foreign jamborees of priests etc ?

As a marketing professional, my admiration for Christianity has been for its ability to con a `billion people for a thousand years' by getting them to pay money now, for a promise of an unspecified kind of good time (72 virgins is a lot more explicit) after they're dead.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

sanjaykumar wrote:I find it difficult to believe that either Hindus or Sikhs in Panjab would convert. Any numbers?
No figures I am afraid.
Saw a few new churches, with huge idols of jesus, but with Indian features.
It was widely talked about. There is quite a lot on youtube

https://www.google.com/search?ei=f57VXN ... cpzq-1pEK8

I don't really care what people believe. What annoys me is the way they are de racinated and made anti- all things Indian and basically chamchas for the west.
I have heard Indian origin xtians in the west, when talking about war & terrorism saying words to the effect "as long as the west is not affected!!"
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

Thanks for posting Deans. You are much more dangerous to god’s work than any cow swilling Hindu.

I agree that a study of Christianity is more illuminating than a thousand sermons.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by darshan »

In a civilizational land, where mother is everything, the bombardment from brainwashed has started about how we are not celebrating mothers in Hinduism like in Western countries. Scratching my head. How brainwashed and suffering from inferiority complex one has to be to go through westernized schools in India and come out like this? First wipe off all civilizations and pagans that valued mothers in the name of father and son, take over pagan concepts and then introduce to pagans young generations as something that their ancestors were not capable of thinking of.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by chetak »

derek nobrain's brother migrated to pukiland and decades later was tracked down by nobrain with much difficulty in pukistan.

nobrain was then bitterly disappointed to discover that his brother had converted to islam, taken a muslim name and was for decades living as a muslim, forsaking both his religion and his ancestry.



Blasphemy of Aasia Bibi: How Pakistan’s Christians went from cheerleaders of Partition to its victims



Blasphemy of Aasia Bibi: How Pakistan’s Christians went from cheerleaders of Partition to its victims


Christians are safe in India only as long as Hindus are a majority. If Muslims ever take control of the country through demographic warfare, they will erase Christianity from India. If you have any doubts just look across the border. Remember, Pakistan is India without Hinduism.

Rakesh Krishnan Simha @ByRakeshSimha, 13-05-2019

Pakistani Christian woman Aasia Noreen, who spent nine years on death row after being accused of blasphemy, is a free person at last, but her community is everywhere in chains in Pakistan. Christians, who make up around 2 per cent of Pakistan’s population, occupy one of the lowest rungs in the country’s class-bound society. Largely ghettoised, they live in slums and are condemned to working menial jobs as sweepers and toilet cleaners. Christians such as Noreen also face daily discrimination in their villages where their mere touch or presence is considered polluting.

It was a combination of religious fanaticism and social intolerance that led to Noreen and her family’s decade long trauma. In June 2009, Noreen, also known as Aasia Bibi, was harvesting berries in Sheikhupura, Pakistani Punjab, when she was asked by her Muslim co-workers to fetch water from a nearby well. While doing so she took a drink herself – a perfectly natural act, considering the sweltering heat of summer. One of the Muslim women named Musarat, who had been involved in a property dispute with Noreen’s family, saw her and told her it was forbidden for a Christian to drink water from the same utensil from which Muslims drink.

Some of the Muslim women also said they considered her to be unclean because she was a Christian. According to Noreen, when her co-workers made derogatory statements about Christianity and demanded she convert to Islam, she responded: “I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind? And why should it be me that converts instead of you?”

Fired by her religious zeal and perhaps believing in the superiority of her Christian faith, and her humiliation by her Muslims co-workers acting as the catalyst, it is understandable why Noreen would make such a rash and dangerous statement. But while she may have got away with her statement in India – where Christians routinely abuse Hindu Gods and Goddesses – in the ‘Land of the Pure’ people have been lynched for much less. In a country where the discovery of torn pages of the Koran can lead to mob violence and murder, Noreen had said the unspeakable. When she was arrested and presented at court, the prosecution said it would not say or write her exact words in the charge sheet because the mere mention of the blasphemy charge would be considered blasphemy.

It is a measure of how strongly Pakistanis feel about Noreen that she spent much of her prison time in solitary confinement over fears she could be attacked by a guard or another prisoner. In fact, two politicians who defended her were assassinated; and in one of those cases the killer Mumtaz Qadri was raised to the status of a saint.

Great betrayal

The reality is that Pakistani Christians are paying the price of backing the Partition of India in 1947. Indian Christians, who should have been loyal to the country of their birth, were more enthusiastic than the Muslims about breaking India. This proves Swami Vivekananda’s statement that the moment a Hindu converts to Christianity, his love for the motherland is replaced by loyalty to his Western masters. Alluding to the threat presented by converts, he said: “Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more.”

Indian Christians played the role of India’s enemy to the hilt. In a paper titled ‘The Role of Christians in the Freedom Movement of Pakistan’ Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq write that the Christians supported Mohammed Ali Jinnah and All India Muslim League when there was substantial opposition to Partition within the Muslim community. Some Muslims especially the religious leaders did not hesitate to dub Jinnah as the British agent. The Christians paid no heed to these remarks and continued supporting Jinnah. (1)

Christian leaders who played a significant role in the Pakistan Movement were Dewan Bahadur S.P. Singha (speaker of the united Punjab Assembly later speaker of the western Punjab Assembly), Advocate Chaudhry Chandu Lal, Fazal Elahi, photographer journalist F.E. Chaudhry and B.L. Ralia Ram.

How it panned out

In accordance with the Cabinet Mission plan for the partition of India after the 1946 general elections, Muslims voted for the Muslim League in support of creation of Pakistan. In 1947 the provincial assemblies were to decide the issue of partition. When Punjab Assembly was asked to vote, it was equally split.

Pakistani author Dr Samiullah Koreshi explains the role played by Christians at this critical juncture in India’s history: “At that time S.K. Singha, a Christian was the speaker of the Punjab Assembly. He cast the casting vote for Pakistan. Thus he played a role in Punjab going to Pakistan. On this occasion, Master Tara Singh jumped out of the assembly waving his kirpan as a signal for taking revenge on Muslims. His words were reported by the press. Thus, a Christian vote led to the democratic choice in making Punjab a part of Pakistan.” (2)

Referring to the “sympathetic role Christians played during the Pakistan movement”, Koreshi points out that Mohammed Ali Jinnah “appointed a Christian, Pothan Joseph, as the first editor of Dawn, Delhi, the only main English language daily to promote Pakistan movement”.

Pakistan got Punjab, thanks to Christians

According to Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq, “The support of Christians for the cause of Pakistan was based on their belief that the Muslim society in its nature was more secular than the caste ridden Hindu society hence more permissive for the rights and safe guards of the religious minorities.” (3)

“Christians strongly supported Quaid-e-Azam and Muslim League at that critical time when there was lot of opposition to the formation a new Muslim state. The All India Christian Association assured unconditional full cooperation to the founder of Pakistan. This crucial role of Christian population of the region was recognised by the founder of Pakistan and the All India Muslim League at all levels. These Christians played a very strong role in the creation of Pakistan….The Christian vote before the Boundary Commission was the only decisive vote for the true foundation of Pakistan. Christian leaders voted for Pakistan because they believed that Quaid-e-Azam would be the real protector of their rights and interests.”

In the last days of united India, Jinnah visited Lahore – where many Christians lived – as a part of his campaign to fetch the support of the minorities. He met the Christian leader Chandu Lal and Sikh leader Giani Kartar Singh. The Sikh leader turned down his offer while Chandu Lal declared unconditional support of the Christians for Pakistan. When the resolution to join Pakistan or India was moved and voted upon in the Punjab Legislative Assembly, the three Christian members voted in favour of Pakistan and saved the situation. Eighty-eight and 91 votes were cast in favour of India and Pakistan respectively. In this way the three Christian votes decided the fate of the province.

The Christian community as an expression of affection for Jinnah arranged many historical receptions in his honour for supporting his cause.

More loyal than Muslims

In the early 1930s when Cambridge undergraduate Chaudhry Rahmat Ali came up with the idea and name of Pakistan, it was an Indian Christian who first backed the idea with his own spin. Well known Christian leader Joshua Fazal-ul-Din wrote in the daily Inqilab that the areas comprising present day Pakistan had a direct relationship with Central Asia and therefore had no connection with the rest of India. He said that he was “in harmony with Rahmat Ali regarding the separation of this territory from India as it was in accordance with the voice of God”.

Pointing out the significance of Joshua Fazal-ul-Din’s support, Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq write: “It is worth noting that at the time when the idea of Pakistan was considered as the brainchild of Rahmat Ali and many prominent Muslim leaders treated it as childish and impracticable, Rehmat Ali impressed by the statement of Joshua Fazal-ul-Din wrote in a later article that Pakistan would be a democratic country and all of its citizens irrespective of their colour, race or religion would be equal in the affairs of the government.” (4)

Either Joshua Fazal-ul-Din was a complete fool or he was possessed by some kind of Abrahamic zeal to split India so that it would not be led by Hindus in a democratic form of government. Perhaps in his Christian worldview – which is shared by the likes of demagogue Kancha Illiah and many Indian Christians – only if India splits up into hundreds of small units would it be easier for Muslims and Christians to conquer it for Christ and Allah.

In 1928 an all-parties conference was held at Kolkata to deliberate about the future constitutional arrangement in India which could be acceptable to all concerned. This conference appointed a committee headed by Motilal Nehru to propose a constitutional formula which could achieve the agreement of all the communities. The committee presented its report which is known as the Nehru Report, but Jinnah rejected it saying that Hindus by virtue of their overwhelming majority could dominate all other communities.

The All India Christian Conference along with other minorities also rejected the report, expressing their lack of confidence in the Hindu leadership. In their unwitting stinging indictment of Indian Christians, Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq write: “Well before the presentation of the Nehru Report, when Iqbal was claiming that ‘Hindustan is the best in the whole world; we are its nightingales and it is our home’, and Jinnah was portrayed as the ‘Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity’ by Sarojini Naidu, at that the moment a Christian leader Joshua Fazal-ud-Din was very much clear and said that those believing in Hindu-Muslim unity were living in a fool paradise as any such attempt would make India a war place. (5)

Gurdaspur must go to Pakistan

Not content with breaking India, the Christians denounced and condemned the “unfair” distribution of Punjab province more forcefully even than the Muslims and tried their best to get the districts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur – currently in India – included in Pakistan.

When the proceedings of the Boundary Commission took place, Christian leaders S.P. Singha, C.E Gibbon (an Anglo Indian) and Fazal Elahi, in their recorded statement, demanded that for the demarcation of the boundaries, the Christian population be included and termed as Muslim population.

Chaudhary Chandu Lal served as a lawyer for the Christian community. He visited Pathankot and Gurdaspur and got a resolution passed by the Christian population in these districts to the effect that they wanted to be included in Pakistan. C.E. Gibbon appeared before the Boundary Commission to demand that Lahore must be part of western Punjab and that all the Anglo Indian Christians be transported to Pakistan as it was considered to be their final destiny. When the Radcliffe Award was announced in August 1947, it was taken by the Christian as a tailored decision aimed to create problems for Pakistan economy while facilitating Indian occupation of Kashmir. (6)

S.P. Singha raised his voice against the award, saying that as the principle of majority had been brutally crushed, it was one sided and unfair to Pakistan. Clearly hypocritical, because the same Christians had earlier rejected Hindu majority rule.

Karmic blowback

When the storm of Partition arrived, it totally shattered Punjab. While Sikhs and Hindus became the biggest victims of Islamic jehad unleashed by Muslim League goons, the Christians who had hoped to benefit from the exodus of Hindus and Sikhs were left holding the pan. Christian leaders were practically salivating at the prospect of getting some of the land abandoned but they got nothing. In retrospect that was kind of expected as Muslims are clear to this day that because Pakistan was created for India’s Muslims, other communities should not expect anything.

Some 60,000 Christian families who had been tenants of Sikh landlords were now homeless and without employment. Much of the evacuee land had been distributed among the Muslim refugees, and each family had received from six to eight acres, but these Christians who had managed to make out a living under the Sikh landlords had been ignored completely and whatever little land they tilled has been given over to the refugees.

And yet Singha behaved in a churlish manner. Instead of holding to task the new rulers of his chosen country – which had effectively disenfranchised and pauperised the entire Christian community – he blamed the Sikhs. Speaking in the Punjab legislature on January 20, 1948 he deplored the Sikhs for leaving for India, and “for leaving behind a legacy of misery and suffering for the Christians”.

Seeing the ground slip away under the feet of the Christians as their chosen homeland showed its true jehadi face, C.E. Gibbon said in the Punjab legislature: “I beg to ask for leave to make a motion for the adjournment of the business of the House to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the grave situation arising out of the policy of the Government in respect of the wholesale eviction of Christian Sepis Athirst and tenants from their home holdings and lands without providing any alternative means of shelter and livelihood, thus rendering nearly 3 lakhs of Christians homeless and on the verge of starvation, the consequences of which are too horrible to imagine.” (7)

Modern day Abrahamic hell

Pakistan is a hell for its people, especially those who are non-Muslim. Noreen’s case became a cause celebre because she was incarcerated. Had she been lynched, which is the most common fate of those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, she would have merited a single column mention in an Urdu paper. Even children are not spared – in February 1995, two Christians were sentenced to death on dubious charges of blasphemy; one of the accused, Salamat Masih, was 13 years old. In 2012, Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl suffering from Down Syndrome, was wrongly accused of burning the Koran. After months of hiding in Pakistan, she was relocated.

In view of the growing Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistani society, things are likely to get much worse before – or if at all – they get better. The number of blasphemy cases has risen in direct proportion to the incremental stringency of the laws. There were only a handful of such cases until 1984, when Zia barred Ahmadis from using Islamic terminology and made blasphemy punishable with life imprisonment. Nawaz Sharif’s government did one better in 1992 by changing the punishment for blasphemy into a mandatory death penalty. Accusations of blasphemy against non-Muslims, more often than not, provide a moral cover for settling personal scores. No one is safe from the charge in Islamic Pakistan, says Ayesha Jalal.

In April 1994, the Lahore High Court extended the scope of the blasphemy laws to all the prophets mentioned in the Koran, including Jesus, underlining the judiciary’s bias toward religious extremists. As Muslims firmly reject Christ’s divinity, the ruling endangers the lives of Pakistan’s Christians. (8)

Aasia may have made the great escape but nearly two million Pakistani Christians continue to pay the price for their leaders’ great betrayal of their motherland. It is a lesson to modern day Indian Christians who – prodded by their Western masters – reflexively hate Hinduism. Christians are safe in India only as long as Hindus are a majority. If Muslims ever take control of the country through demographic warfare, they will erase Christianity from India. If you have any doubts just look across the border. Remember, Pakistan is India without Hinduism.

Sources
Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 32, No. 2, page 441
Dawn, https://www.dawn.com/news/1144099
Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 32, No. 2, page 337
Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 32, No. 2, page 439
Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 32, No. 2, page 440
Munir-ul-Anjum and Shahnaz Tariq, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 32, No. 2, page 441
Punjab Legislative Assembly Debates, 30 April 1952, Vol-IV, p. 132.
Ayesha Jalal, The Struggle for Pakistan
Featured Image: express.co.uk

Disclaimer: The facts and opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. IndiaFacts does not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, completeness,suitability,or validity of any information in this article.

Rakesh Krishnan Simha
Rakesh is primarily a defence analyst. His articles have been quoted extensively by universities and in books on diplomacy, counter terrorism, warfare, and development of the global south; and by international defence journals.
Rakesh’s work has been cited by leading think tanks and organisations that include the Naval Postgraduate School, California; US Army War College, Pennsylvania; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC; State University of New Jersey; Institute of International and Strategic Relations, Paris; BBC Vietnam; Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk; Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi; Institute for Defense Analyses, Virginia; International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Washington DC; Stimson Centre, Washington DC; Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia; and Institute for Strategic, Political, Security and Economic Consultancy, Berlin.
His articles have been published by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi; Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies, Warsaw; and the Research Institute for European and American Studies, Greece, among others.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

Xtians found refuge a second time with the ahl e kitab during the liberation of Goa.
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Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Peregrine »

Commission into French church sex abuse claims opens - AFP
An independent commission set up by the French Catholic Church to look at allegations of sexual abuse by clerics begins its work on Monday by launching an appeal for witness statements.
Cheers Image
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

The BBC headline a couple of days ago references India's 'rape culture'.

It would appear that it is Christians who have such a culture, I am awaiting the BBC's correction.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Rony »

Is India in the Bible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pneds0utvV8

Take it with a pinch of salt but helps to understand the evangelical mindset about end of times, world war 3 , who is going to fight whom etc.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by darshan »

Western media forgot to write down Christian classification on this matter: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nearly-1 ... oken-heart

Nearly 1,700 Suspected Child Sex Predators Arrested During Operation “Broken Heart”
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

Evangelicals doing what they do best.

"Christian pastors and Pakistani and Chinese brokers work together in a lucrative trade, aggressively pursuing Pakistani girls who are tricked into fraudulent marriages and find themselves trapped in China with sometimes abusive husbands."

https://www.apnews.com/ad6b5fb667ca449d8cadc05bb2bc0a41
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by A_Gupta »

The focus on India by the Church evangelists is its battle for survival.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/amer ... ket-newtab
America’s Epidemic of Empty Churches
Many of our nation’s churches can no longer afford to maintain their structures—6,000 to 10,000 churches die each year in America—and that number will likely grow. Though more than 70 percent of our citizens still claim to be Christian, congregational participation is less central to many Americans’ faith than it once was. Most denominations are declining as a share of the overall population, and donations to congregations have been falling for decades. Meanwhile, religiously unaffiliated Americans, nicknamed the “nones,” are growing as a share of the U.S. population.

Any minister can tell you that the two best predictors of a congregation’s survival are “budgets and butts,” and American churches are struggling by both metrics. As donations and attendance decrease, the cost of maintaining large physical structures that are in use only a few hours a week by a handful of worshippers becomes prohibitive. None of these trends shows signs of slowing, so the United States’ struggling congregations face a choice: Start packing or find a creative way to stay afloat.
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https://www.opindia.com/2019/06/virtuou ... -liberals/
The normalization of paedophilia has become extremely mainstream in the West. It has become mainstream to suggest that paedophiles are ‘just like everyone else’ and worthy of our compassion. It has also been argued that society contributes to sex crimes against children by marginalizing and blaming paedophiles.
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What the heck is “Blessing of Bike”? Another thing lifted from Hindus?
https://media.zenfs.com/en/ap.org/8c36e ... 00a800ef59
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Post by darshan »

darshan
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https://www.opindia.com/2019/06/kerala- ... sing-yoga/
Kerala Catholic body issues diktat: No chanting of prayers, no idol worship, no embracing Hinduism while practising Yoga
The KCBC had warned Christians to beware that they might get attracted to Hinduism. The guidelines say that chanting prayers of other faiths and idol worship goes against the basic tenets of Christianity.
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I suppose that includes crucifixes, crosses, statues, paintings. They can learn a lot from Islam.
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https://www.opindia.com/2019/07/kerala- ... newspaper/
Kerala: Government funded Christian centre spreads superstition, advocates usage of ‘magical weekly gospel’ the ‘Kreupasanam newspaper’
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https://www.opindia.com/2019/07/kerala- ... -in-kochi/
Kerala: Priest arrested for sexually abusing minors in boy’s home in Kochi
George alias Jerry has been remanded to 14-days police custody after police registered a case against him under sections 377 of the Indian Penal Code, and other relevant sections of POCSO and Juvenile Justice Act.
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Christian Healer Who Uses ‘Supernatural Powers To Cure Devotees’, Hospitalises Himself Over Viral Fever https://swarajyamag.com/insta/christian ... iral-fever
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The guideline also read, “In Christianity, prayer is communication with God, rather than with the inner self. In yoga, however, one communicates with oneself and understands the depths of one’s mind. As per Christian faith, humble and unselfish acceptance of God’s will is the paramount facet of prayer. Christians practising yoga must never misunderstand that God can be brought to one’s bidding through meditation”.
https://www.opindia.com/2019/06/kerala- ... sing-yoga/

As opposed to God's being summoned through Christian prayer.


At any rate, I think there is a much deeper problem for Christians and their exclusionary creed eg the rapture. That problem is: Yudhisthira’s dog
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 00431.html
A teenage rape victim in El Salvador who was convicted for murdering her child and imprisoned for nearly three years after a stillbirth will now face a retrial next week.
The CDFA estimate around 20 women are in prison for abortion crimes in the socially conservative and Catholic majority nation when they suffered miscarriages, stillbirths or pregnancy complications – with some serving sentences of up to 40 years.
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