SINHALA COMMISSION REPORT

There has been an investigation into what it is to be Sri Lankan. They have given a little ‘footnote’ on the problems coming into the island now, which is sent here

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(Taken from “The Island” newspaper, Thursday September 6th., 2001)

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The Catholic Church, which had not engaged in conversion in the East during the last century, is now poised to resume its mission of conversion that it had embarked upon in the Middle Ages. This is as a result of the recent visit by the Pope to India . According to a report appearing in the ( Ceylon ) “Daily News” of 9th. November, 1999, during this visit the Pope called for the conversion of Asia to Christianity during the course of the next Millennium. He is reported to have told a public Mass: “Just as the first millennium saw The Cross firmly planted in the soil of Europe, and the second in that of America and Africa , so may the third Christian millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent.”

He is also reported to have “outlined evangelical guidelines that unequivocally laid down conversion as the cornerstone of the Church’s future activity in Asia .

” While such statements would have been deplorable if made anywhere else in the world, we find them particularly obnoxious when made after being welcomed as an honoured guest in an Asian country. For they display a complete disregard of, and an insensitivity to, the feelings of the vast number of Asians who are followers of three of the world’s greatest religions: Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. The Pope has assumed there is a spiritual desert in Asiaby this call.

On the contrary, Asia is a luxuriant spiritual field and has been so over two millennia. Asia has, during this period, produced great religious leaders like the Buddha, Mahavira, Nagarjuna and Sankarachariya of India and Kungfu Tse (Confucius) and Lao Tse of China. Asians have, during these millennia, been more than satisfied to be guided by these bright lights to lighten the darkness of ignorance around them.

The Pope’s call in India to plant another Cross is not to have another light to dispel the darkness of ignorance but rather to extinguish the prevailing lights and gather another harvest of blind faithful followers and thus increase the secular power of the Church. These statements and this open call for conversion can only serve to fuel the fires of religious controversy. They are to be particularly deplored coming at a time in the world’s history when what is necessary above all, is religious tolerance, and not religious aggression.

To openly advocate undermining the faith of adherents of other religions, which is what the Pope has done, is hardly a good augury for the maintenance of religious concord in the new millennium. We had thought that the era of religious wars was long past. Clearly we were mistaken.

For what the Pope is proposing is another religious war, this time not with bullets and bayonets but by more insidious and therefore more dangerous means. In this country Buddhists have complained of the unethical conversions of Buddhists to Christianity. We now fear that, with the Pope’s open call to his followers to engage in conversions “as the cornerstone of the Church’s future activity in Asia,” attempts will be made to convert Buddhists in this country to Christianity with increasing vigour since conversion has been declared by the Head of the Catholic Church to be the most important task of the Church in the new millennium.

The Catholic Church here will have to decide whether it will attempt to implement the Papal directive and start a confrontation with the adherents of other religions and begin religious wars and conflicts here, where there is today, religious peace and co-existence.

We therefore, call upon the Catholic hierarchy in this country to allay our fears by making a clear and unequivocal declaration that it will not attempt in any way to implement the Papal directive to convert Buddhist to Christianity. It is only in this way that the religious harmony that has so far existed in this country, can continue to be maintained and fostered. We also call upon the Government, which has a duty under Article 9 of the Constitution, to “protect and foster the Buddha Sasana”, to take steps to ensure that Buddhism is not undermined as a result of attempts by the Catholic Church to “garner a great harvest of faith” in this country as directed by the Pope.

We demand that legislation be enacted to prohibit conversions of Buddhists by unethical , improper means as corruption : treating, bribery by offer of money, material things, jobs, education, health and other facilities with a view to induce conversions. In particular, we demand the prohibition of the conversion of any minor (persons below the age of 18) or the requirement of their attendance at Church and any alleged unlawful conversion of such a nature must be subjected to an official inquiry to ensure its validity.

Being alive to the danger of unethical conversions, other Asian countries have already taken steps to make such conversions criminal offences. Examples are: Malaysia , Nepal , the Provinces of Bihar, Orissa, Madhyapradesh and Gujarat , in India . We must follow suit. The Roman Catholic Church’s apology for past wrongs committed during two millennia to Jews and Muslims has been made by the Pope recently.

The history of various (theistic) religions, the report in “The Island” of 9th. March, 2000, states , is marked by “intolerance, superstition, complicity with unjust powers, and assaults on the dignity and freedom of conscience, and Christians have been no exception and they are aware that all are sinners before God.”

Buddhism, Hinduism or Taoism are certainly not guilty of this kind of intolerance, of forcing their belief on others. The Church’s “Mea Culpa’ is, it seems, confined to wrongs done to Jews through the centuries and up to theHolocaust and to Muslims in the Crusades and for the Inquisition and wrongs done to other Christian sects, but excludes wrongs done to Buddhists, Hindus, and Confucianists!

We have, in our Part I of the Report, referred to some of the worst cruelties done to Sinhala Buddhists by Portuguese Missionaries and British Anglicans in attempting to convert them to Christianity. Christians, Jews and Muslims all accept the idea that God created Adam and Eve and as stated in the Old Testament, prophets have appeared on Earth from time to time to chastise and convert human beings when they stray away from God’s way and commit sin.

But Jews do not accept Jesus as the Son of God or God himself, but regard him as a Messiah (Greek language for prophet), only. Muslims, too, do not regard Jesus as the Son of God but only as a prophet and that Mohammed was the last prophet. So, the intolerance and cruelties committed by Christians against Jews and Muslims are due to their attempts to force Jews and Muslims to their view and in spite of all intolerance, never will. Accepting this fact, an apology, or “Mea Culpa” seems, therefore, very much in order in this more enlightened age.

But this apology or “Mea Culpa” is not being extended to Asian Non-Christians. They do not believe in a God who created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, or Jesus as the Son of God. In the circumstances, the call by the Pope to plant the Cross in Asia seems to us to be a signal to revive the spiritual aggression of nearly five centuries and once again attempt to forcibly convert Asians to Christianity and make them accept the dogmas of Christianity that Jesus was the Son of God or God himself, and the Messiah of the Virgin Birth.

To keep the Asian masses in ignorance of the Truth makes it easier to exploit them for the benefit of predatory Western exploiters who have become wealthy at their expense. It is a duty of the people of Asia and especially we, here in this country , to be alert and resist the new Evangelism of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches in what ever form it comes.

We recommend , therefore :

(1) that conversions by means other than preaching or expounding the truths of any one religion to native born Buddhists , be prohibited and banned and visited with criminal penalties.

(2) that facilities be made available in the Dhamma Schools or Pirivenas for pupil Monks and lay pupils to be given a modern scientific education, and knowledge of comparative religions, and the History of this country.

(3) as far as it is possible for the State to encourage the dissemination of the Dhamma abroad, especially in the West.

E- Mail Note: In a broadcast by the B.B.C. World Service before the turn of the new millennium, of a discussion between eminent British academics concerning the forthcoming “Mea Culpa” by the Pope, they discussed , chiefly, the Inquisition. How can you ever apologise for such a thing? It becomes merely a political act. This writer gained the impression from the discussion that “Mea Culpa” was an apology just for the Inquisition or the “Great Questioning”. But for what? The discussion was very skillful, omitting any descriptive word such as “horror”, “torture”, “burning to death”, etc. Further, no mention, no publicity is ever given to this subject and its horrors in the west, when, as a historical fact, for a long period, millions (10 m. -?) of people were taken to monasteries, etc., to be questioned under torture .

There is a complete cover up – the public only know of the word “inquisition”, no further details are given. For example , a book the “English Reformation” by a leading scholar* – makes light of the burnings : “he managed to get himself burned”, (Pg. 112). ho! ho!. But nothing of the process of accusation, taking to the monastery, torture and the horror of burning to death in flames, is present in the book. ; just clinical analysis, cold recording of history.

Numbers of burnings and executions are scattered around the book, page by page but no summary of all the deaths is made, no details of the process are given; which was the real reason for the Reformation of the Monasteries. The word “Inquisition” does not appear in the index, but for much of the time England was under Catholic influence – asEurope . The Christian press is showing solidarity with its religion and churches at the expense of truth and its own people! As a historical fact, few or none were acquitted. After their bodies had been burned, seared with red hot irons, in the most private of personal places, and their arm joints broken apart by great force , they were taken in a final mockery ** to the gallows or to a fire, to be burned alive, to religious music or a religious service as an ‘Act of Faith’ (Auto da Fe).

All this was applied to not only racial minorities, but also to heretics (those discovered , or just accused of having personal freedom of thought or disbelief), witches, pagans (Buddhists), philosophers, prostitutes, and even the most beautiful of women, were all tortured and then burned alive.

DEATH FOR DOUBTING

For most of the history of Christianity, to doubt the truth of the Bible would cost you your life. Hundreds of religious courts of “Inquisition” were in permanent sitting stretching over periods of hundreds of years. One man, Torquamada, operated for about 15 years to 1495 and sent 10,220 people to be burned , hanged 97,371 heretics and otherwise disposed of 114,000 people. ( these are reliable figures given by Professor Karlheize Deschner) There were many such “Grand Inquisitors” but he was the most prominent. It is all a huge cover up by academics, historians and the press! The Pope cannot give details for what he is apologising for, it is too awful. The apology can only be a political act; a cleansing of the past, and a preparation for the future. * Book: “The English Reformation”, by Professor A.G. Dickens. He was Professor of History at Kings college , London and later, Director of the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Perhaps, he was the only one who could be trusted to write such a book gliding over the horror! This commentator was always sad to see ruins of Abbeys and Monasteries in England – I did not know what they had been used for! ** old fashioned British circus clowns wear the “Mockery” (motley) clothes. Clowns would dress up in the same mocking clothes as the victim and frolic or “ mock” the half dead victim as he goes to be burned. Look up the word “mockery” in the dictionary or encyclopedia! Similar displays or processions can be seen, even now, in the back streets of the Cathedral city ofSantiago , Spain , with big men in menacing costumes, which even now install fear and terror. The fire-place is now used as an open market. Remember – the victim may have been you! This madness pervades European thought, leading to bullying and other forms of inter- personal cruelty. Unfortunately, this cruelty has been exported by Colonization and now affects the thinking of the whole globe; another curse from Christianity.

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