Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

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Haresh
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

I am sure this will come, once they have the numbers.

Christian-Buddhist Tension in South Korea

http://www.sinhalanet.net/christian-bud ... outh-korea
Peregrine
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Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

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Sex abuse claims brought against 700 Catholic clergy in Illinois – AFP

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The Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, in the state of Illinois, where almost 700 clergy have been accused of child sexual assault

Almost 700 clergymen in Illinois have been accused of child sexual assault, a far greater number than the Catholic Church had previously disclosed, the Midwestern US state's top prosecutor revealed Wednesday.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the Church's revelations that 185 clergy members were credibly accused of sexual abuse fell short of the number her office has uncovered.

The preliminary results of an investigation that began in August found more than 500 additional priests and clergy members with sexual abuse allegations in the Midwestern state's six dioceses -- a total of at least 685 accused.

In a scathing statement, the attorney general's office criticized the Church's handling of the abuse allegations, saying investigations were lacking, and in many cases law enforcement and child welfare authorities were not notified.

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Child abuse scandals surrounding the Catholic Church

"The preliminary stages of this investigation have already demonstrated that the Catholic Church cannot police itself," Madigan said.

She added that the Church had failed to provide "a complete and accurate accounting of all sexually inappropriate behavior involving priests in Illinois."

The Illinois investigation was prompted by a sweeping grand jury report in August that revealed credible allegations against more than 300 suspected predator priests and identified over 1,000 victims of child sex abuse covered up for decades by the Catholic Church in the state of Pennsylvania.

In October, federal authorities for the first time opened an investigation into clergy abuse. Dioceses in the state reported receiving federal grand jury subpoenas to produce documents.

- Shocking and expected -

The Archdiocese of Chicago, the largest of the Illinois dioceses, countered Madigan's report by insisting that all abuse claims are investigated and reported to authorities.

"Since 2006, we have published the names of diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of abuse, and in 2014 we released more than 20,000 documents from these priests' files," the archiocese said in a statement.

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The Illinois attorney general's office criticized the Church's handling of the abuse allegations, saying investigations were lacking, and in many cases law enforcement and child welfare authorities were not notified

But Madigan's office said allegations of abuse have often not been adequately investigated, if they are scrutinized at all. Among the reasons for the lack of action were that the accused was deceased or had already resigned.

"This report is both shocking and exactly what we expected," Zach Hiner, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told AFP.

"We've known for a long time that church officials have been ignoring and minimizing allegations of abuse and this report is just yet another proof point that it is a systemic issue, not a highly localized one."

- Mounting pressure -

Since the state investigation opened, the dioceses have added another 45 clergy members to their official lists of those credibly accused of committing child sexual abuse, according to Madigan's office.

The attorney general anticipated additional names will be disclosed as her investigation continues.

"Allegations of sexual abuse of minors, even if they stem from conduct that occurred many years ago, cannot be treated as internal personnel matters," Madigan said.

The Catholic Church has been hit by a series of child abuse scandals in recent years, with widespread allegations of coverups. And public pressure has been mounting on its institutions.

This month, authorities of the Jesuit order overseeing at least 40 US states released the names of more than 240 members who have been credibly accused of abuse -- including dozens of priests with multiple allegations.

Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with some 16,000 members worldwide who do not fall directly under the Church's hierarchy.

They operate 30 colleges and 81 schools in the United States and Canada.

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JE Menon
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by JE Menon »

The "Conversion" Industry is a major facilitator of the above activity - which is by no means an arbitrary behaviour. The system is organised, and subtly constructed, to perpetuate this sinister evil.

Converters are a symbiotic element in the C3 Ecosystem which prevails in our country today, and four years of non-Congress rule are not enough to put an end to it. Read about this ecosystem here.

https://myvoice.opindia.com/2018/12/why ... dependent/

My article on the C3 Ecosystem, Why it Loves Poverty, and Why Any Socio-Economic Development enables the "core".
chetak
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by chetak »

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chetak
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Post by chetak »

WSJ article behind a paywall but it gives the gist of a novel defence mounted by the church against their padre paedophiles caught dipping their wicks.


Sell the church building and distribute the assets among the victims.




Catholic Church Used Bankruptcy for Sexual-Assault Cases. Now Others Are Following Suit.
USA Gymnastics, Boy Scouts of America explore chapter 11 to handle victims’ claims

By Tom Corrigan

Dec. 27, 2018

The Archdiocese of Portland was the first to do it. Three months later the Roman Catholic Diocese in Tucson, Ariz., followed suit and three months after that the diocese in Spokane, Wash., did it, too.

They all filed for bankruptcy and since then more than 15 other Catholic dioceses and religious orders have filed for bankruptcy to seek protection from lawsuits by sexual-assault victims, resulting in about 4,000 claims seeking compensation for past wrongdoing. This year, three more Catholic dioceses announced intentions to...
Haresh
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Haresh »

GOP Lawmaker Matt Shea Releases Christian Manifesto Calling For Biblical Law

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressi ... pqYa3kHIXo

Washington state lawmaker Matt Shea defends advocacy for ‘Holy Army’ as Spokane sheriff refers his writings to FBI
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... gs-to-fbi/
chetak
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by chetak »

some of the very questions that she raises have caused a large majority of their followers in the west to leave the faith because there are no forthcoming answers that can logically satisfy them.

This aspect has taken such troubling proportions that in India as in the rest of the world the padres are now strictly forbidden from exposing the converts to the vast majority of the biblical passages so that no doubts may arise in the minds of these converts and cause them to desert their new found faith and their exposure is limited to some very specific passages only.

The churches in the west are now largely empty and a vast majority of them depend on Indian converts to provide "religious" labor to man and run the empty churches there. Such "converts" are often economic migrants who see a clever opportunity in making their way to the west under the guise of "spreading the word" or obtaining a comfortable house in some obscure parish, a job, decent income, the standard of living far beyond what they could have hoped for in India and that too, at the cost of someone else and of course, their citizenship is fast tracked and virtually unstoppable. Many birds with one single single stone.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihkMjrX ... e=youtu.be

Ex-Christian Esther Introduces her new video series In English about Jesus&Bible unbelievable truths

Esther Dhanraj: Ghar Wapsi queen takes on soul vultures.


krishna_krishna
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by krishna_krishna »

Now evanjihadis start conversions at Kumbh Mela :

https://noconversion.org/2018/12/18/chr ... umbh-mela/


Please share following link on evanjihadis doing mafia Giri at local market :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuP6B3bmBOk
TKiran
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by TKiran »

https://youtu.be/A5DUqQq3dJ8


Very balanced view. Look at the brown Sepoys...
Peregrine
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Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

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Pope admits priests, bishops sexually abused nuns – AP

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE: on Tuesday publicly acknowledged the scandal of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns and vowed to do more to fight the problem, the latest sign that there is no end in sight to the 's abuse crisis — and that it now has a reckoning from the #MeToo movement.

Francis admitted to the problem for the first time in public during a news conference while returning to Rome from the United Arab Emirates. The acknowledgment comes just two weeks before he hosts an unprecedented gathering of bishops to craft a global response to the scandal of priestly predators who target children and the superiors who covered up the crimes.

Francis was asked about priests who target adult women — the religious sisters who are the backbone of the Catholic Church's education, health care and social service ministries around the globe — and whether the Holy See might consider a similar universal approach to combat that issue.

"It's not that everyone does this, but there have been priests and bishops who have," Francis told reporters. "And I think that it's continuing because it's not like once you realize it that it stops. It continues. And for some time we've been working on it."

"Should we do something more? Yes. Is there the will? Yes. But it's a path that we have already begun," Francis said.

The issue has come to the fore amid the Catholic Church's overall reckoning with the sexual abuse of minors and the #MeToo-inspired acknowledgement that adults can be victims of abuse whenever there is an imbalance of power in a relationship. In the past year, The Associated Press and other media have reported on cases of abused nuns in India , Africa, Europe and South America — evidence that the problem is by no means limited to a certain geographic area.

In November, the organization representing all the world's female Catholic religious orders, the International Union of Superiors General, publicly denounced the "culture of silence and secrecy" that prevented nuns from speaking out and urged sisters to report abuse to their superiors and police. And just last week, the women's magazine of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano identified the clerical culture of the all-powerful clergy as the culprit.

The magazine, "Women Church World," noted that the scandal involves a corollary: nuns being forced to abort the priests' children or bear children that the priests refuse to recognize.

Francis' acknowledgement of the problem comes as he prepares to decide the fate of the disgraced American ex-cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, who is accused of abusing minors as well as adult seminarians. That case also cast a spotlight on the issue of abusive power relationships, and whether the Catholic Church ought to consider seminarians and sisters as "vulnerable adults" when compared to the priests and bishops who control everything from their vocations to their studies and salaries.

Francis noted that Pope Benedict XVI had taken action against a France-based order that admitted the priest who founded it had violated his chastity vows with his female recruits. Francis said the sisters had been reduced to "sexual slavery" at the hands of the Rev Marie-Dominique Philippe and other priests.

The Community of St Jean admitted in 2013 that Philippe had behaved "in ways that went against chastity" with several women in the order, according to the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. Francis' comments about "sexual slave y" suggested that the relations were not consensual and could have involved abuse of conscience and power as well.

Phillipe died in 2006. Three years later, the local bishop imposed a new superior on the order's contemplative branch of nuns. Some rejected the new leader and followed their old female superior to found a new institute in Spain. Benedict eventually dissolved that, a decision Francis held up Tuesday as evidence of Benedict's hard line in the case.

He said Benedict acted "because a certain slavery of women had crept in, slavery to the point of sexual slavery on the part of clergy or the founder," he said.

"Sometimes the founder takes away, or empties the freedom of the sisters. It can come to this," Francis said.

Asked if any universal norms might be in the works to tackle the problem — as has been done to handle cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors — Francis implied that the priestly abuse of nuns was still being dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

"There are cases, usually in new congregations and in some regions more than others," he said. "We're working on it."

"Pray that this goes forward," he said of the Vatican efforts to fight it. "I want it to go forward."

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UlanBatori
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by UlanBatori »

Beat me 2 it. Fundamentally, "Evangelism" evolved into sex-trafficking and slavery, not long after the basic message was first developed - in an age where slavery was sort-of the routine SOP. Trouble is, while slavery etc became unfashionable over much of the world, it thrived with the Conversionists, first the Catholics and now mostly the Protestants And the Pope confirms that now

There should be a UN Declaration banning this. Question is, who will "bell the cat" or Bell the Holy Mijjile (BHM), more aptly? So far not a single one of these rats has been executed, have they? Lynched? Except for that one Australian in Odisha and maybe a few eaten by the Sentinels of Nicobar? (Sorry but what is their real name, surely not "sentinels" as the colonialist buggers called them?)
The Chinese got laughed at when they declared at Davos that "Democracy" was not doing so good in the US and UK.
Similarly, a message that Xtian Conversion is bad will evoke :rotfl: even in India (mostly in India) from the Ejjikated Classes.
Pulikeshi
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Pulikeshi »

TKiran wrote:
Very balanced view. Look at the brown Sepoys...
:eek: :shock: :roll:
Balanced??? Hopefully you are being sarcastic! The entire video is filled with subtle social engineering attempted by ignoramuses!
Far from it - seems serpentine confusion due to Abrahamic discordant mind! :evil:
So when one does the crow, camel and dog poses - which biblical confusion is that causing???
These guys should maketh a video on halal pork recipes! :mrgreen:

Please to read the Yoga Sutra in translation (from good source like Taimni) if the original in Sanskrit is not accessible.
TKiran
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by TKiran »

Pulikeshi sir, the reason why I said it's balanced is because when Rajiv Malhotra, True Indology etc scream from the rooftop that Yoga is Hindu, lot of people dismiss it.

When a white gori says Yoga is Hindu, it's the most effective way. We should make this video popular to tell the world that Yoga is Hindu.
chetak
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by chetak »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY5oQOirve4


JNU student questions John Dayal and leaves him Dumbstruck!


Pulikeshi
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Pulikeshi »

TKiran wrote:Pulikeshi sir, the reason why I said it's balanced is because when Rajiv Malhotra, True Indology etc scream from the rooftop that Yoga is Hindu, lot of people dismiss it.

When a white gori says Yoga is Hindu, it's the most effective way. We should make this video popular to tell the world that Yoga is Hindu.
She is peddling purist Christism and arguing for not doing Christism Yoga - in such a convoluted way that using it to prove Yoga is Hindu
Is taking confusion and trying to create clarity! :mrgreen:
Peregrine
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Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

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Kerala rape case: Nuns can continue to stay at Kuravilangad convent - Jaikrishnan Nair – TNN

KOTTAYAM: Finally, the Catholic Church has responded to the plea of the fellow nuns of the survivor nun in the nun rape case and assured them that they will not be transferred from the convent in Kuravilangad as long as they are needed for the court case.

Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias, auxiliary bishop emeritus of Mumbai, who was appointed as the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Jalandhar by Pope Francis, wrote to the nuns Anupama, Neena Rose, Ancitta, Alphy and Josephine regarding this. In an email letter, the bishop said that there would be no move from the diocese to oust them from Kuravilangad convent. The nuns had written to the bishop regarding this on January 16.

"I was surprised and dismayed at seeing the letter to Sr Neena Rose. I am giving a directive to the general that she will not issue any letters to the five of you without my explicit permission. This will be an order to her from me as apostolic administrator in charge of the congregation since it is if Diocesan Right, it comes under me."

"I like to assure the five of you that, as far as lies within my power, there will be no move from the diocese of Jalandhar to oust you from the Kuravilangad convent as long as you are needed for the court case," added the bishop in the letter. He began the letter seeking pardon for the delay in replying to their letter.

The four nuns who are supporting the survivor, who are also key witnesses in the case against Bishop Franco, were asked to join different convents in Punjab, Jharkhand Bihar and Kannur. Another nun who had stood with them was asked by the church to appear before the authorities in Jalandhar where at present Franco is residing and explain her actions. All five of them are key witnesses to the case.

Following this, the survivor nun and the five fellow nuns wrote to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention to ensure that they could live in the convent in Kuravilangad till the trial of the case is over, considering their safety.

A petition under the initiative of Save Our Sisters (SOS) movement, endorsed by over 50 prominent personalities and organisations from various fields across the country including poet Sachidanandan and writer Anand, was also despatched to Vijayan seeking the immediate and effective intervention of his office to ensure the constitutional and legal protection to all the nuns involved in the nun rape case.

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sanjaykumar
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by sanjaykumar »

“India’s clergy and nuns are hugely important to the Catholic Church in the West. The enthusiasm of Christians in Asia stands in stark contrast to the lower-temperature religion in the West,” said Diarmaid MacCulloch, a professor of church history at the University of Oxford.


“The church is losing its moral authority,” Father Vattoly said. “We are losing the faith of the people. The church will become a place without people if this continues. Just like in Europe, the young will no longer come here.”


The nun, who belongs to the Missionaries of Jesus religious order, first informed church authorities of the assaults in January 2017, approaching nearly a dozen church officials, including bishops, a cardinal and representatives of the Vatican. Some cautioned her to wait, assuring her that the church would take action. Other officials forbade her to go to the police, her family said.


But the only action came last September, after the church’s silence led five other nuns to mutiny and come to Kerala’s High Court to stage a days-long protest.

Bishop Mulakkal received a loving welcome when he was released on bail in October, cheered and showered with flower petals when he returned to his diocese. His church posted a large banner featuring his photo and proclaiming a “hearty welcome.”


I will spare readers my trenchant comments as they would be superfluous.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/worl ... ishop.html

Nun’s Rape Case Against Bishop Shakes a Catholic Bastion in India
chetak
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by chetak »

For the fundamentalist goras and many of the prominent newspapers of the west, it is "Hindu nationalism" that is causing them a serious bum rash.

The fact that the Hindus are now actively decrying and purposefully resisting such conversions that are strongly reminiscent of a depraved colonial, racist, intolerant and fundamentalist mindset is sending the proselytizing xtians into paroxysms of vengeful rage and vindictive response.

See how adroitly they have linked "Hindu nationalism" with the global phenomenon of padres bonking kids and nuns, a scandal so big and so widespread that even the pope, after years of deliberate obfuscation and deceitful denial, has now been forced to acknowledge.

It has been going on for decades in India, and everyone who ever went to the church knew about it, layman and laywoman as well as the lay clergy and the lay ministry. It was seen merely as just another perk of their holy office.

BTW, one of the writers of the article is Suhasini Raj, the same spiteful xtian who duplicitously and slyly tried to enter sabarimala temple to prove her feminism and uphold "women's rights". What did she stand to gain or even prove from such an enterprise




Twitter
"New York Times" reports:
A Kerala nun’s accusations of rape against a bishop in have shaken the country’s Catholics, driving a wedge between those who have called for reforms and those who want to maintain unity amid rising a riding tide of Hindu nationalism.

8:30 PM - 10 Feb 2019

Nun’s Rape Case Against Bishop Shakes a Catholic Bastion in India

Nun’s Rape Case Against Bishop Shakes a Catholic Bastion in India


By Maria Abi-Habib and Suhasini Raj
Feb. 9, 2019

KOCHI, India — When Bishop Franco Mulakkal agreed to personally celebrate the First Communion for Darly’s son, a rare honor in their Catholic Church in India, the family was overcome with pride.

During the ceremony, Darly looked over at her sister, a nun who worked with the bishop, to see her eyes spilling over with tears — tears of joy, she figured. But only later would she learn of her sister’s allegation that the night before, the bishop had summoned the nun to his quarters and raped her. The family says that was the first assault in a two-year ordeal in which the prelate raped her 13 times.

The bishop, who has maintained his innocence, will be charged and face trial by a special prosecutor on accusations of rape and intimidation, the police investigating the case said. But the church acknowledged the nun’s accusations only after five of her fellow nuns mutinied and publicly rallied to her side to draw attention to her yearlong quest for justice, despite what they described as heavy pressure to remain silent.

“We used to see the fathers of the church as equivalent to God, but not anymore,” said Darly, her voice shaking with emotion. “How can I tell my son about this, that the person teaching us the difference between right and wrong gave him his First Communion after committing such a terrible sin?”


The case in India, in the southern state of Kerala, is part of a larger problem in the church that Pope Francis addressed on Tuesday for the first time after decades of silence from the Vatican. He acknowledged that sexual abuse of nuns by clerics is a continuing problem in the church.

At a time when church attendance is low in the West, and empty parishes and monasteries are being shuttered across Europe and America, the Vatican increasingly relies on places like India to keep the faith growing.

“India’s clergy and nuns are hugely important to the Catholic Church in the West. The enthusiasm of Christians in Asia stands in stark contrast to the lower-temperature religion in the West,” said Diarmaid MacCulloch, a professor of church history at the University of Oxford.

But the scandal in Kerala is dividing India’s Catholics, who number about 20 million despite being a relatively small minority of a vast population.


Bishop Franco Mulakkal, center, after being questioned by the police in Kochi, India, last year.
Credit
Prakash Elamakkara/Associated Press


Image
Bishop Franco Mulakkal, center, after being questioned by the police in Kochi, India, last year.CreditPrakash Elamakkara/Associated Press
And there may be more to come: More nuns have stepped forward to report sexual abuse at the hands of priests, the police in Kerala State say. And in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, four priests have been accused of blackmailing women during confession, using the information to coerce them into sex, according to Sudhakaran Pillai, the head of the local crime branch.

“If this case goes ahead, it will be a new beginning and priests and bishops will be forced to be held accountable,” said the Rev. Augustine Vattoly, a priest in Kerala who was an early supporter of the nun’s accusations and said he was ordered by his superiors to back away or face repercussions.

“The church is losing its moral authority,” Father Vattoly said. “We are losing the faith of the people. The church will become a place without people if this continues. Just like in Europe, the young will no longer come here.”

Details of the nun’s accusations came from interviews with law enforcement officials and from her family and the five other nuns who saw the saga unfold inside the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, which is based in India but answers to the Vatican.

Copies of the official complaints the nun addressed to church authorities by email and post were also provided to The New York Times. (The nun is not being named and her sister is being identified only by her first name because under Indian law, the media, including international news organizations, cannot identify rape victims.)

The nun’s family accuses Bishop Mulakkal, 54, of raping her repeatedly over a two-year period, dating from May 5, 2014.

The bishop could not be reached for comment, but church officials and the Kerala police say that he maintains he is innocent.

The nun, who belongs to the Missionaries of Jesus religious order, first informed church authorities of the assaults in January 2017, approaching nearly a dozen church officials, including bishops, a cardinal and representatives of the Vatican. Some cautioned her to wait, assuring her that the church would take action. Other officials forbade her to go to the police, her family said.

But the only action came last September, after the church’s silence led five other nuns to mutiny and come to Kerala’s High Court to stage a days-long protest.

“The church is losing its moral authority,” said the Rev. Augustine Vattoly, a priest in Kerala. “We are losing the faith of the people.”
Credit
Samyukta Lakshmi for The New York Times


Image

“The church is losing its moral authority,” said the Rev. Augustine Vattoly, a priest in Kerala. “We are losing the faith of the people.”CreditSamyukta Lakshmi for The New York Times

They sat in front of a large poster featuring the Pieta statue, the famous sculpture housed in St. Peter’s Basilica depicting Mary holding the limp body of Jesus in her lap after his crucifixion. Instead of Jesus, the poster featured a nun’s lifeless body. A placard read “Justice for nuns.”

About two weeks after the protests started, the Vatican stripped Bishop Mulakkal of his administrative duties. The next day, on Sept. 21, Kerala’s police arrested him.

“Retrospectively, the church should have taken action quicker if we had known a crime had really happened. If she thought the church was not acting properly, she should have gone to the police sooner,” said the Rev. Paul Karendan, a spokesman for the archdiocese that oversees the headquarters of the Syro-Malabar Church.

Father Karendan said that the church was slow to act at first, as they thought the nun was resisting transfer orders given by Bishop Mulakkal.

In Kerala, it is not uncommon for families to have one or two daughters take vows as nuns. Statues of Mary and Jesus line streets here and even Mass on a weekday is well attended.

India’s Christians, only about 2 percent of the population, tend to stand together in the face of any crisis.

India’s governing bloc, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is rooted in Hindu nationalism. In that environment, the scandal in Kerala has pitted Christians who believe the case is a stark call for reform within the church against those who want to maintain unity out of fear.

Mary Mavely, a 36-year-old Catholic in the capital, Delhi, said she was willing to give the nuns the benefit of the doubt as opposed to her mother, who immediately stood by the bishop.

“For my mother, she thinks that in the current political climate if we put the church in a bad light it is an opportunity for B.J.P. to blow things out of proportion. For me, I want it treated as a criminal offense and we should let the court decide,” Ms. Mavely said.


Catholic nuns and Muslim supporters demanding the arrest of Bishop Mulakkal outside the High Court in Kochi last year.
Credit
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


Image

Catholic nuns and Muslim supporters demanding the arrest of Bishop Mulakkal outside the High Court in Kochi last year.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

Bishop Mulakkal received a loving welcome when he was released on bail in October, cheered and showered with flower petals when he returned to his diocese. His church posted a large banner featuring his photo and proclaiming a “hearty welcome.”

A senior police officer investigating the case said he believed that authorities had sufficient evidence to prove that Bishop Mulakkal both raped the nun and then intimidated her family and the families of the nuns who began the protest to silence them. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case, as the final police report will be filed later this month before the trial can begin.

“We are broken. The church we have given our lives to won’t even give an ear to us,” said Anupama Kelamangalathuveli, a nun who served at the convent at the same time as the nun who said she had been raped.

“This fight isn’t just for us,” she added. “The church needs to listen to women and not just the priests and bishops.”

In November 2017, Cardinal George Alencherry discouraged the nun from taking her case to the media or police, according to her family and the other nuns. Representatives of Cardinal Alencherry did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Desperate, the nun, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus religious order, decided to take her case directly to the Vatican by writing the pope’s representative in India, Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro.

“No sooner I reached the room than he pulled me toward him. I was numbed and terrified by his act. I took all efforts to get out, but in vain. He raped me brutally,” reads a letter the nun wrote to Archbishop Diquattro on January 28, 2018.

The letter went on to accuse Bishop Mulakkal of intimidating her and others into silence, and to explain how she had complained to various church authorities who failed to act.

Multiple emails and phone calls to Archbishop Diquattro requesting comment went unanswered.

Through more than a year of efforts to receive help within the church, she confided in five other nuns who had at one point lived with her at her convent, the St. Francis Mission Home, tucked away amid thick jungle in rural Kerala. Then they reached a breaking point.

The Mar Thoma Church in Kerala is where Indian Catholics believe that Jesus’ apostle Thomas, landed by boat to bring Christianity to India. The faith is deeply embedded in Kerala.
Credit
Samyukta Lakshmi for The New York Times


Image

The Mar Thoma Church in Kerala is where Indian Catholics believe that Jesus’ apostle Thomas, landed by boat to bring Christianity to India. The faith is deeply embedded in Kerala.CreditSamyukta Lakshmi for The New York Times
In April last year, the five, some who had been moved to other convents, defied church rules to slip away from their residences across India, taking buses and trains to travel hundreds of miles to join their sister and support her.

The nuns said they decided to go public only after Bishop Mulakkal filed several police cases against them and their families in June, accusing them of plotting his murder. The police said his accusations had been dismissed.

The nun wrote a second letter to Archbishop Diquattro on June 25, days after Bishop Mulakkal filed his accusations with police.

“I was waiting for the Catholic Church to give me justice,” she wrote, but as her situation had grown worse, “I am forced to approach for the legal procedures,” read a copy of the email, written in halting English.

Three days after sending the letter, she went to the police on June 28 and filed a complaint accusing Bishop Mulakkal of rape.

As the weeks went by, the church ordered the nuns to leave St. Francis and return to their respective convents.

Worried they would be evicted, and with the police slow to respond, the nuns decided in early September to take the nearly two-hour drive to Kochi, a major city in Kerala, and protest outside the High Court. When they returned the next day with their placards, they were surprised to see dozens of churchgoers, activists and even priests, holding their own signs demanding Bishop Mulakkal be held accountable.

The nuns are now filing multiple civil cases against church officials in India, claiming they tried to intimidate them to drop the case or ignored the rape accusations. The nuns are still at St. Francis, ignoring repeated orders issued by church authorities last month to disband. On Saturday, with the nuns planning another public protest, the church revoked those orders — giving the nuns a small victory.

“We took a vow to be in a congregation — to make the congregation our family,” said Sister Josephine Villoonickal, one of the nuns, who had been ordered to return to her convent in northern Jharkhand, about 1,500 miles away. “They are now trying to destroy this family.”
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Post by sanjaykumar »

http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/he0_present.htm


In its heyday the Christian Churches practised routine persecution. They tortured, mutilated, branded, dismembered and killed as a matter of course. They condemned to death any who questioned their dogmas. They burned Jews, heretics, apostates and pagans in large numbers. They imagined enemies everywhere and had them exterminated. Among their countless victims were women whose chief crimes seem to have been living alone, looking old, keeping pets, and knowing something about herbs and midwifery. Christians even persecuted their fellow believers. It is sobering to reflect that over almost 2000 years Christians have never been persecuted by any of their supposed enemies as viciously as they have been persecuted by fellow Christians.


I respectfully suggest every Hindoo and especially every Indian Christian read every word of this website.
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Post by sanjaykumar »

So you ask, what of it?

Christian persecution: Expert reveals Christians became 'SECOND CLASS citizens' in India

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/10 ... orth-Korea

Notice how the politicians are not identified. Notice the lack of metrics on persecution.


So the next time some fanatical Christian demagogues go on the rampage, you'll know how to respond.
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Post by Kati »

Southern Baptists are not far behind (in sexual violence) ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/s ... aboolafeed
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Post by Pulikeshi »



The sad story of the Nagas as narrated by the sepoys themselves! :evil:

Ironically Karl is the defender of Indian Unity! :shock: :mrgreen:
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Post by chaitanya »

^ It may sound funny but a lot of Europeans I meet are strongly against missionary work and conversions, probably stemming from shame about their past history as colonizers and overall disaffection with the church. Its the americans that are gung-ho about conversions. In the past few years this has been in overdrive even in the US; I was surprised to see large christian self-help sections in bookstores, jehova's witnesses pop-up info stands at street corners, and the number of "Jesus will save you" ads in papers and on the highway in deeply 'liberal' parts of the us (northeast, etc). I wonder if this is driven by recently converted east asians, as they seem to account for a disproportionate number of these evangelicals (case in point, John Chau)...
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Post by Avarachan »

There's a lot of WhatsApp chatter among Indian Evangelical Protestants regarding a murder in Orissa on February 11th. Supposedly, an Indian Christian was murdered by Naxals, on the order of militant Hindus. I've seen no evidence to prove this claim as of yet, but many people are accepting this claim as fact.

There are many parties from around the world with an interest in sponsoring such an attack. The Indian government should be vigilant.

This is the article link in "Asia News," which is a Vaticanist ("Roman Catholic") website.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Orissa%2 ... 46300.html
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Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Peregrine »

All-female board of Vatican women's magazine quits, citing sexism - Elizabeth Llorente

Survivors of priest abuse say Vatican summit fell short

A history professor who, as founder of the Vatican women’s magazine, was among the most high-profile females at the Holy See, has quit because of what she described as sexist working conditions.

The all-female editorial board of the magazine, called "Women Church World", also quit.

The women said that the treatment of them as second-class citizens grew worse when they drew attention to sexual abuse of nuns by clergy.

The Associated Press reported the move after obtaining an as-yet open letter the magazine’s founder, Lucetta Scaraffia, wrote addressed to Pope Francis.

"We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization," Scaraffia wrote.

Scaraffia told the AP that the decision was taken after the new editor of L'Osservatore, Andrea Monda, told her earlier this year he would take over as editor. She said he reconsidered after the editorial board threatened to resign and the Catholic weeklies that distribute translations of "Women Church World" in France, Spain and Latin America, told her they would stop distributing.

MEXICO ASKS VATICAN, SPAIN TO APOLOGIZE FOR CENTURIES-OLD CONQUEST, SAYS IT WAS CARRIED OUT WITH 'SWORD AND CROSS'

Lucetta Scaraffia, the magazine's founder, wrote an open letter to Pope Francis, saying they felt "surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization" (AP)

"After the attempts to put us under control, came the indirect attempts to delegitimize us," she said, citing other women brought in to write for L'Osservatore "with an editorial line opposed to ours."

The effect, she said, was to "obscure our words, delegitimizing us as a part of the Holy See's communications."

POPE FRANCIS: WHAT THE VIRGIN MARY CAN STILL TEACH US ABOUT MOTHERHOOD AND WOMEN IN OUR MODERN AGE

Monda denied accusations that he sought to discredit the female editors. He said in a statement that he fully respected the autonomy of the women's insert.

He said at most that he suggested ideas and people to contribute to "Women Church World."

Scaraffia launched the monthly insert in 2012 and oversaw its growth into a stand-alone Vatican magazine as a voice for women, by women and about issues of interest to the entire Catholic Church. "Women Church World" had enjoyed editorial independence from L'Osservatore, even while being published under its auspices.

In the final editorial, the editorial board said the "conditions no longer exist" to continue working with L'Osservatore, citing its initiatives with other women contributors.

"They are returning to the practice of selecting women who ensure obedience," the editorial read. "They are returning to clerical self-reference and are giving up that `parresia' (freedom to speak freely) that Pope Francis so often seeks."

The departures are the latest upheaval in the Vatican's communications operations, following the abrupt Dec. 31 resignations of the Vatican spokesman and his deputy over strategic differences with Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the dicastery for communications.

Scaraffia, a history professor and journalist, is an avowed feminist who nevertheless toed the line on official doctrine. That doesn't mean she didn't ruffle feathers with her frequent lament that half of humanity -- and the half most responsible for transmitting the faith to future generations -- simply is invisible to the men in charge of the Catholic Church.

She stoked uproar in February when she denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy and the resulting scandal of religious sisters having abortions or giving birth to children who are not recognized by their fathers.

The article prompted Francis to subsequently acknowledge, for the first time, that it was a problem and that he was committed to doing something about it.

Cheers Image
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Post by chetak »

Peregrine wrote:All-female board of Vatican women's magazine quits, citing sexism - Elizabeth Llorente

Survivors of priest abuse say Vatican summit fell short

A history professor who, as founder of the Vatican women’s magazine, was among the most high-profile females at the Holy See, has quit because of what she described as sexist working conditions.



Cheers Image
Peregrine saar,

This needs a write up in some mag like swarajya to highlight and disseminate it.

Links on twitter would help too
She stoked uproar in February when she denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy and the resulting scandal of religious sisters having abortions or giving birth to children who are not recognized by their fathers.
This is a routine matter in many places in India and more so in bangalore, kerala.

I also hear from one very uncomfortable ej friend that AIDS and associated issues are also rampant.
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Post by Peregrine »

Peregrine wrote:All-female board of Vatican women's magazine quits, citing sexism - Elizabeth Llorente

Survivors of priest abuse say Vatican summit fell short

A history professor who, as founder of the Vatican women’s magazine, was among the most high-profile females at the Holy See, has quit because of what she described as sexist working conditions.

Cheers Image
chetak wrote:Peregrine saar,

This needs a write up in some mag like swarajya to highlight and disseminate it.

Links on twitter would help too

This is a routine matter in many places in India and more so in bangalore, kerala.

I also hear from one very uncomfortable ej friend that AIDS and associated issues are also rampant.
chetak Ji :

There is a regular contributor to Swarajya Magazine on our Forum. I will check my records and see if I can contact him. Please let me have your E-Mail Address.

Cheers Image
chetak
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Post by chetak »

Peregrine wrote:
Peregrine wrote:All-female board of Vatican women's magazine quits, citing sexism - Elizabeth Llorente

Survivors of priest abuse say Vatican summit fell short

A history professor who, as founder of the Vatican women’s magazine, was among the most high-profile females at the Holy See, has quit because of what she described as sexist working conditions.

Cheers Image
chetak wrote:Peregrine saar,

This needs a write up in some mag like swarajya to highlight and disseminate it.

Links on twitter would help too

This is a routine matter in many places in India and more so in bangalore, kerala.

I also hear from one very uncomfortable ej friend that AIDS and associated issues are also rampant.
chetak Ji :

There is a regular contributor to Swarajya Magazine on our Forum. I will check my records and see if I can contact him. Please let me have your E-Mail Address.

Cheers Image
Peregrine saar,
Last edited by chetak on 28 Mar 2019 01:30, edited 2 times in total.
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Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Peregrine »

Chetak Ji,

You have E-Mail

Cheers Image
chetak
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Post by chetak »

Peregrine wrote:Chetak Ji,

You have E-Mail

Cheers Image
I have no mail, Peregrine saar.
Last edited by chetak on 28 Mar 2019 01:30, edited 1 time in total.
Peregrine
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Post by Peregrine »

Chetak Ji

Have sent again on chetakbrf.

Cheers Image
chetak
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Post by chetak »

Peregrine wrote:Chetak Ji

Have sent again

Cheers Image
I have your email saar.

Thanks, have replied.
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Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

I didn't know where else to post this; it isn't precisely under the category implied by the thread title; but oh, I do love the nice infographics.....!

These are all the world's major religions in one map



China and India are huge religious outliers
Image

India stands out as a huge Hindu bloc (dark orange).

Hindus are a minority everywhere outside India, except in Nepal.
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Post by Peregrine »

Punjab cops recover Rs 9.66 crores from nun rape accused Bishop Mulakkal’s aide - Shariq Majeed

LUDHIANA/KOCHI: Khanna police on Friday evening detained six persons including priest of a church in Jalandhar, alleged to be a close aid of Kerala nun rape accused Franco Mulkkal , after Rs 9.66 crores were recovered from three vehicle they were travelling in.

The police later handed the persons, cash and the vehicles to Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate.The detained persons have been identified as Anthony of Partappura in Jalandhar, who is priest in Church at Village Partappura, Rachpal Singh of Bhikhiwind in district Tarn Taran, Ravinder Lingayat of Kartike Park in Derabali Panvil, New Mumbai, his wife Shivangi Lingayat, Ashok Kumar of Gawabhi in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh and Harpal Singh of Choti Baradari in Jalandhar.

Giving details, SSP Khanna, Dhruv Dahiya, said that in view of Lok Sabha elections, Khanna police have set up the check post on city sealing points, district sealing points, increased the highway patrolling and also set up the special mobile-check post on highways in the jurisdiction of police district Khanna. He added that heavy police force has been deployed on these check posts for checking of vehicles.

The SSP said that police party were checking the suspected vehicles at the mobile-check post opposite McDonald (Food Court) on GT Road in Doraha while they received a specific tip-off about some persons carrying huge amount of unaccounted cash.

"After getting the information, Inspector Karnail Singh, SHO Doraha, ASI Mohinderpal Singh, along with police party started the proper checking of all vehicles coming from Jalandhar Ludhiana side. While checking, police stopped three vehicles, (PB-10-GB-0269 (Ford EcoSport), PB-02-BN-3938 (Innova), and PB-06-AQ-8020 (Maruti Breeza),” said the SSP.

Police team recovered Rs 9,66,61,700 on checking these vehicles.

Police said that all accused persons, vehicles and the recovered cash have been handed over to the Income Tax and Enforcement Departments for further probe.

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Post by sanjaykumar »

Could it still be the Dark Ages in Europe.


https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/ ... ok-burning

In the pictures, flames consumed an African wooden mask, a small Buddhist figure, figurines of elephants, books on personality and magic, and children’s novels from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by JE Menon »

X-posting (Please also x-post wherever else thought relevant).

Hello people,

I've got an article out on Opindia which looks at the parallel with the emergence/spread of Christianity in Europe and comparing it with the situation in India today as we head into a crucial election from an historic perspective. There are many underlying currents which people will sense and recognise while reading the article, while I have not explicitly stated them. That was my intention, to make people think.

I know it is tacky to ask for tweeting, facebooking, and spreading by any means necessary within your networks, but I'm still asking because I truly believe that we are at a civilizational inflextion point. So please read it, and please spread it.

https://www.opindia.com/2019/04/indias- ... ilisation/
Mukesh.Kumar
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Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

JE Menon wrote:X-posting (Please also x-post wherever else thought relevant).

Hello people,

I've got an article out on Opindia which looks at the parallel with the emergence/spread of Christianity in Europe and comparing it with the situation in India today as we head into a crucial election from an historic perspective. There are many underlying currents which people will sense and recognise while reading the article, while I have not explicitly stated them. That was my intention, to make people think.

I know it is tacky to ask for tweeting, facebooking, and spreading by any means necessary within your networks, but I'm still asking because I truly believe that we are at a civilizational inflextion point. So please read it, and please spread it.

https://www.opindia.com/2019/04/indias- ... ilisation/
Sir, the article is hard hitting. And it strikes at something which is core to Indic beliefs. The fact that Indic faiths are comfortable with ambiguity and that there are multiple paths to self-realization, which every individual needs to travel by his or her own self. That means that there are no "Only one" predetermined path. Hence, the subtle divergence in belief with a monotheistic God.

It calls for tolerance of alternate beliefs and hence Indic faiths find it difficult to hard sell/ proselytize their faiths because it conflicts with self-belief. And frankly, the majority of Indic faith people find it hard to reconcile. While, everyone recognizes the danger, this dichotomy holds us back. Till we find a logical path through this quagmire, we won't be able to trigger a renaissance with the support of a sizable chunk of Indic faiths.

Any thoughts on this?
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by JE Menon »

Thanks for the response Mukesh.Kumar.

I am not sure on which point you want my view, but I take it to be this one "Indic faiths find it difficult to hard sell/ proselytize their faiths because it conflicts with self-belief. And frankly, the majority of Indic faith people find it hard to reconcile. While, everyone recognizes the danger, this dichotomy holds us back." If yes, I agree, it is a complex matter - i.e. how to hold fast to Dharmic principles, while on the other hand being able to defend against aggressive proselytization and conversion.

There is some pushback beginning to materialise, globally in fact, but also in India. And this is a good thing in general. However, the diffusion of Dharmic principles is itself, in my opinion, the best way to deconstruct the sort of thinking that enables people to go out and aggressively convert. Some time ago, I had written a post (long one) which looked at how the Sanatana Dharma might transform its perspective and involve itself more globally. Here it is (below the line, posted on July 11, 2017 on the now deceased General Discussions Forum):
_____________________________________________________________

OK peoples, get ready for a very long post... The Mongolian's post above got me thinking and writing. Thoughts are a bit jumbled I'm sure, and by no means all that is in my mind, but I wanted to put it down before I forgot about it... Here goes:

>>What I want to see is the philosophical oceans being filled, so that each tradition around the world can relate their own history and environment to the truly fundamental elements of SD without having to link everything through a geographically parochial narrative. IOW, are we comfortable with the idea that those who received the Shruti could equally have been on the slopes of Mauna Loa as Mt. Kailas? On the banks of the Indian Ocean in Mauritius as on the banks of the Sindhu?
____________________________________________________

This is something that has been taking up mindspace for some time now. What does it mean for SD and its reasoning/shruti derived fundamentals to engage with the minds across the world and take up residence as a readily accessible thought-stream in those minds in a manner that is benign to the source.

First, the question to answer is whether that is what existing adherents to the SD desire. The answer to me is an unqualified but detached positive. Why?

Unqualified positive because we must regard the SD, essentially a method-independent means towards durable spiritual contentment, as potentially the “least harm for the most beings” approach in comparison to method-dependent (or method-absolute) approaches.

And detached because, no matter the intensity of the desire for SD to reside in the most possible minds of any type, there must be no attachment to the outcome at any given point. In other words, while the outcome is desired, the true or perceived outcome at any given point must have zero impact on the mind contemplating it. This is because attachment suggests motive, and motive impacts identities. I’ll talk about identities later below.

The second question is why should we have the desire for SD to be present in minds worldwide at all? Does not the desire, in itself, resonate with motive and parochial interest and motive, and imply a rather insidious injection of identity into a question that should not have anything to do with that, if the path is indeed eternal, and for all?

It must be acknowledged that the answer to that question, insofar as we look at it as human beings (which is the only way we can), must be: yes, the desire for the SD to be present in minds worldwide is pregnant with motive and parochial interest because this desire is generated by identity and an association with that identity. That is the problem SD advocates will have to address. The problem of individual indivisible identity, their own and that of those in whose minds the SD is not present as a living-system option.

The third, and perhaps the most important, question is why the SD? Why bother whether the SD is present in minds worldwide, and not something else. One aspect of this question is already answered: it presents a life-system that generates the possibility of the “least harm to the most beings”. Still, why bother? Sure, it is the option that seems most benign towards the illusory construct of the perceived environment. So what?

It is here that I have had the greatest difficulty thinking through and reasoning myself into a position worthy of the SD (as I see it). For me personally, i.e. for this identity posting, it appears that for a coherent mind/identity to hold and cherish more ideas within it, is generally better than the opposite. A mind with a greater fill of ideas is better than one with a lesser fill. And as the universal fundament has manifested this identity in this human form, I sense it is incumbent on the self-aware form to respect its own identity and that of others such that its own (and others) existence is organic, as is the existence of all non-aware forms.

The SD presents an additional truth to all the truths in the world, one more idea. Having the concepts upheld in the SD within a mind is better than not having them, based on the apparent principle that the greater the knowledge base one’s mind has access to, the more appropriate and the more informed for the context or circumstance will be the decisions taken by that mind. Therefore, it is better for a mind to have the SD within it than not to have it. This, of course, applies for all other living-system options as well, including the method-dependent (or method-absolute) approaches.

Having concluded that it is better to have the SD embedded as a concept in as many minds as possible, the question then arises as to how this can be enabled with utter detachment from the outcome, a complete indifference to identity, and a comprehensive and true availability to other emergent or resurgent ideas filtered through the medium of rational discourse.

How does something like that play out, how does it unfold on the practical level, what actually transpires as part of the mechanics of living? Some of the characteristics arise in my mind as follows:

1. There will be no proselytizing impulse. At the core of this impulse is the implicit assumption that what I have is better than what you have, spiritually or religiously speaking. While this approach is often successful, and therefore appealing, it cannot be a modus operandi because it degrades the very idea of the SD. Embedding of the SD idea in the mind should be the result of an individual’s search, not the result of a organized solution offering. It naturally follows that the SD ideas must be easily available in a sensitively constructed and digestible form.

2. There should be no comparative impulse. Comparison does not suggest equality or even equivalence. This is what leads to identities being energized, to verbal conflict and ultimately to physical conflict, much too often. The SD does not seek comparison, nor does it require faith. It really only requires reason given the knowledge available.

3. It should be evident that the SD is not dependent on (nor independent of) social, ritual or faith structures that exist in various parts of the world – so that adopting the notions associated with it does not impinge on what is known as freedom of religion, association, expression and so on. It also means that adopting the notions in the SD requires no specific commitment except those that are self-generated, nor particular transitional ritual except those that are wished for by the person(s) involved. The manner in which yoga is finding its space in the global psyche is (in some cases at least) an example of how the SD can find its way into minds.

4. Declaration is not necessary. No one who decides to give mindspace to the SD or even to apply its principles extensively in life need declare adherence unless they wish to.

5. The original adherents of the SD will need to gradually cede the all too human proprietary impulse, while nurturing and protecting the SD as transmitted in the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, etc. It must be accepted that the SD belongs to all, however they may realise it and manifest it. And they may not realise, nor manifest, it in ways that the original adherents are familiar or comfortable with. That is in the nature of things that survive and thrive. So long as the source is maintained, the originals are preserved, and the traditions that have come down in time are cared for the inspiration will remain. Indeed, it may be necessary, for new adherents dispersed across the globe and perhaps beyond, to return to the source now and then for nourishment.

6. New rishis, new gurus, new swamis will arise – and they may not all be in or to the south of the abode of Rudra. All of them must be evaluated and valued on the basis of their discourse and their capability to channel the SD appropriately for their context and circumstance. It should not matter whether these gurus rise on the shadow of Mauna Loa or Mt. Kailash.

7. All seekers must be guided if they seek guidance, regardless of jati (type), origin, etc.

If these conditions are fulfilled, and if the SD is easily accessible for the seeker, then all that is required is to let the reasoning mind work its magic, weaving another layer onto the tapestry of illusion that the self-aware mind has constructed in the forms that we recognize.

Kindly bear in mind I have no training, no expertise and no claim. So any misunderstanding and mistakes above are just that.
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Re: Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

JE Menon wrote:Thanks for the response Mukesh.Kumar.

I am not sure on which point you want my view, but I take it to be this one "Indic faiths find it difficult to hard sell/ proselytize their faiths because it conflicts with self-belief. And frankly, the majority of Indic faith people find it hard to reconcile. While, everyone recognizes the danger, this dichotomy holds us back." If yes, I agree, it is a complex matter - i.e. how to hold fast to Dharmic principles, while on the other hand being able to defend against aggressive proselytization and conversion.

There is some pushback beginning to materialise, globally in fact, but also in India. And this is a good thing in general. However, the diffusion of Dharmic principles is itself, in my opinion, the best way to deconstruct the sort of thinking that enables people to go out and aggressively convert. Some time ago, I had written a post (long one) which looked at how the Sanatana Dharma might transform its perspective and involve itself more globally. Here it is (below the line, posted on July 11, 2017 on the now deceased General Discussions Forum):
_____________________________________________________________

OK peoples, get ready for a very long post... The Mongolian's post above got me thinking and writing. Thoughts are a bit jumbled I'm sure, and by no means all that is in my mind, but I wanted to put it down before I forgot about it... Here goes:
....................
JEM sir, thank you for the gem of a post. Scanned though, it addresses a lot of the questions I had, but would need to read through. Allow me to go through and come back to you to understand things that I don't understand. Thanks a lot.
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