Conversion and Evangelism
Swami Gulagulaananda said:
"Life's like a doughnut, go and take a poll;
if one sees the halo, the other sees the hole"
India is indeed a great country - a country that is secular, and preaches tolerance in everything. But we see a lot of problems that would naturally exist in such a large population. Religious intolerance. Well, now how would you define religious intolerance? If a person from one religion hates a person from another religion just because of that, then you can call it as intolerance. But is this really prevalent in India (or elsewhere) ?
I am a tolerant person, I am a Hindu. I have some friends who are Christians and Muslims... But when we are all together, we are just friends - we really don't care if a person belongs to this or that; what's more important is that we are all friends, we are all together. But this is not the case with Evangelists and Christian Conversion monks. Hinduism is a very tolerant religion; one which tells you what is what, but has never asked anyone to go and get non-Hindus to the fold. This apparently doesn't seem to be the case with Christianity, (I don't mean to blame or accuse the entire religion, however it's true) which believes that people should all be converted to Christianity...
Note before you continue reading:
a) I found this web site to be really fantastic http://www.christianaggression.org/ Please do pay this web site a visit.
b) Orkut community opposing Evangelism
--
There are many tricks and gimmicks used by missionaries to convert people to Christianity. I was talking to someone the other day, w
ho told me that the easiest target for conversion, are the poor and the tribals. They are given money, food, clothing and other "material" things, and then are "led" towards their spiritual goals. They are given the Bible and are constantly told Jesus is EVERYTHING, and the rest is fake; that they should embrace Him... Why? If you are so concerned about the health and quality of life of these poor people, just give them what you give them, without introducing religion into the picture. It's obvious where they are being led.
Here's an example of a simple conversion of tribals, who know not what a truck is. They are asked to push the truck by shouting the name of their God. Inside the driver has kept his foot on the brake pedal. The truck doesn't move. Now the evangelist asks the tribal to shout the name of Jesus... And Lo, the truck moves [You guessed it, the foot isn't on the brake pedal !!!] Simple, yet efficient. The conclusion made to draw is that Jesus is all powerful, convert and live powerfully.
I was thinking - this kind of trickery would work on a tribal who knows nothing about the modern world. But you can't royally fool an educated person like this, or at least a person who is aware of the whatnots of the urban world. Casteism is one problem that exists in the Hindu community, and a recent article in the newspaper very clearly showed casteism exists in the Christian community too. Converts especially - a low caste Hindu, converted to a Christian, is a low caste Christian - draw your own points.
I once again reiterate what I started with - Be religious tolerant, but force not your beliefs upon another; to each his own - and for "Christ's sake" please don't use gimmicks like the trucks et al. People, get a life, be true or beat it.
"Life's like a doughnut, go and take a poll;
if one sees the halo, the other sees the hole"
India is indeed a great country - a country that is secular, and preaches tolerance in everything. But we see a lot of problems that would naturally exist in such a large population. Religious intolerance. Well, now how would you define religious intolerance? If a person from one religion hates a person from another religion just because of that, then you can call it as intolerance. But is this really prevalent in India (or elsewhere) ?
I am a tolerant person, I am a Hindu. I have some friends who are Christians and Muslims... But when we are all together, we are just friends - we really don't care if a person belongs to this or that; what's more important is that we are all friends, we are all together. But this is not the case with Evangelists and Christian Conversion monks. Hinduism is a very tolerant religion; one which tells you what is what, but has never asked anyone to go and get non-Hindus to the fold. This apparently doesn't seem to be the case with Christianity, (I don't mean to blame or accuse the entire religion, however it's true) which believes that people should all be converted to Christianity...
Note before you continue reading:
a) I found this web site to be really fantastic http://www.christianaggression.org/ Please do pay this web site a visit.
b) Orkut community opposing Evangelism
--
There are many tricks and gimmicks used by missionaries to convert people to Christianity. I was talking to someone the other day, w
ho told me that the easiest target for conversion, are the poor and the tribals. They are given money, food, clothing and other "material" things, and then are "led" towards their spiritual goals. They are given the Bible and are constantly told Jesus is EVERYTHING, and the rest is fake; that they should embrace Him... Why? If you are so concerned about the health and quality of life of these poor people, just give them what you give them, without introducing religion into the picture. It's obvious where they are being led.
Here's an example of a simple conversion of tribals, who know not what a truck is. They are asked to push the truck by shouting the name of their God. Inside the driver has kept his foot on the brake pedal. The truck doesn't move. Now the evangelist asks the tribal to shout the name of Jesus... And Lo, the truck moves [You guessed it, the foot isn't on the brake pedal !!!] Simple, yet efficient. The conclusion made to draw is that Jesus is all powerful, convert and live powerfully.
I was thinking - this kind of trickery would work on a tribal who knows nothing about the modern world. But you can't royally fool an educated person like this, or at least a person who is aware of the whatnots of the urban world. Casteism is one problem that exists in the Hindu community, and a recent article in the newspaper very clearly showed casteism exists in the Christian community too. Converts especially - a low caste Hindu, converted to a Christian, is a low caste Christian - draw your own points.
I once again reiterate what I started with - Be religious tolerant, but force not your beliefs upon another; to each his own - and for "Christ's sake" please don't use gimmicks like the trucks et al. People, get a life, be true or beat it.
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