| Tuesday, 13 December 2005 |
| Misconceptions and questions about missionaries and Christianity
1. Christianity was started by Jesus 1. Christianity was started by Jesus After Jesus’ departure (death??) (Who was Jesus? Did Jesus ever exist? are still open questions) from Jerusalem three groups started preaching Jesus’ teachings.
2. How did Pauline Christianity become so popular? Many reasons can be attributed to the growth of Pauline Christianity. First is the appropriation of beliefs from various cultures which they encountered. Jews were waiting for a Messiah .So Pauline Christianity smartly marketed Jesus as the Messiah that the Jews were looking for. Second is tailoring the movement to match people’s needs. For example, while Romans banned marriages between commons and slaves ,Pauline Christianity performed those marriages in return for conversion. Later rulers used Christianity and conversion as a tool to expand empires and kill enemies. 3. Does the Bible contain what Jesus preached? Nobody knows exactly what Jesus preached(Many non-Christians proofs show that he was teaching Buddhism and Hindu principles to Jews). There were more than 80 Gospels and many letters about Jesus’ life and teachings written after Jesus’ death. The council of Nicea (325) under the intense pressure and shadow of Emperor Constantine declared “ Jesus ‘divine”. Any other view (prominently Arius view) was declared heretic. All the books and documents that countered the official view were burned. Finally four Gospels became the Holy Bible, which again was rewritten several times over the centuries to suit the vested interests . Dead Sea scrolls and Nag Hammadi findings confirm that Jesus’ teachings are quite contrary to present day Christian Bible. 4. I can’t believe that Bible has been manipulated to suit vested interests. Are there any examples? Yes there are numerous examples! Luke 17:20-21 original document says ‘Kingdom of God is within you’. (Talking of spiritual component)Church rewrote as ‘Kingdom of God is this whole physical world Churches and several powers behind the game are using the aforementioned statement to establish a ‘Christendom’ (a world with nothing but its flavor of Christianity). This in turn is primarily done through Evangelical/missionary movements. 5. I have some very good Christian friends and they are very nice. Are all Christians the same? No! All Christians are not the same. Christians can be broadly classified into two groups namely liberal and conservative . Fundamentalist/evangelical Christians form a subset of conservative Christians. They are responsible for the carnage going around the world. 6. Many Christians practice yoga and they appreciate Hinduism Liberal Christians appreciate goodness in any religion. Fundamentalist Christians look upon yoga purely as a physical exercise, and reject its spirituality. They consider all other religions to be works of Satan. As expected they are trying to appropriate Yoga due to its popularity using a strategy called ‘appropriation’ which is different from contextualization. Their new slogan is ” Yoga doesn’t belong to Hinduism but to “world spirituality.” When questioned about Hindu elements (like Suryanamaskara etc..) they said “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water Let it be “sanctified”, that’s why they have a brand called “Christian yoga.” 7. Missionaries do a lot of charity work like setting up schools, hospitals, orphanages etc. People are unnecessarily bad mouthing them. The fundamental fallacy with this argument is lack of sense of differentiation between processes vs. goal. Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario where a man called Robert is trying to kidnap a school boy by offering the kid a bunch of toys, candy etc. Do you call Robert a bad man or a good man? Only a fool who sees only toys offere calls Robert a good man. Anybody in his/her right senses would first question the motive for such goodies before accepting them. Please remember- ‘There is nothing called free lunch’. Even churches and mission agencies claim without hindrance that they are doing ‘Education evangelism’, ‘Medical evangelism’, ‘Orphanage evangelism’ etc. when they set up these institutions. An example of the latter is that all the kids in Christian orphanages are raised as Christians and trained to become Christian workers whe they grow up. In most of the third world countries missionary school education results in inevitable conversion to Christianity though the situation is different in India. In India due to the strong family ties and religious upbringing in the families students develop a very positive tendency about anything Christian. A true charity helps people without conditions attached. 8. Missionaries usually convert poor people or tribals by giving money, school education etc.Missionaries want to convert everybody. They don’t have any restricted list of groups. They are far more successful in converting poor people because money easily buys the same. There are different strategies for converting all classes of people (called people groups). For example, old and sick people in India particularly when they are in distress are told that Conversion and burial of their body in a grave would automatically take them to heaven. 9. Head/Leader of Christians is Pope There are 3 dominant denominations in Christianity i.e., Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. Pope represents Roman Catholicism. Far more lethal are some protestant groups like Baptists, Seventh day Adventists etc that are ruthless in their conversion mechanism. Recently one such mission group visited a Tsunami affected village in Tamil Nadu, India and refused food packets to hapless victims because the villagers refused to convert. 10. All Christian denominations convert Not all! Many orthodox and a very few protestant denominations do not believe in proselytism. In their belief conversion is voluntary to somebody who has truly understood his/her native religion and the new religion. They don’t actively seek converts. Catholics and Protestant groups are the leaders in the business of conversion. Indian Orthodox Church is very spiritual and doesn’t involve in active proselytism. 11. Missionaries are spiritual people sent around by Churches. Missionaries are plain salespeople working to achieve a fixed target for their paycheck and bonus. They are sent primarily by mission agencies and sometimes by churches. They are trained on specific ‘sales pitches’. Just as a detergent salesman, they go around houses selling a solution (called Jesus) which would solve all their problems. They are neither spiritual seekers nor teachers of the spiritual aspect of Christianity.. They cannot and do not engage in any philosophical debate. They are trained in Bible schools in selling solutions for their target market. Thus missionary work has solely become a “for profit” activity. For example, in South India, while a school dropout can earn Rs. 10,000/month+bonus by becoming a missionary, he can earn mere Rs. 2000/month by becoming an office boy . 12. What are the primary differences between Christian and Eastern (Hindu or Buddhist) philosophies? Christian theology is based on cherry picked stanzas whereas Eastern philosophies have to be studied in a context to interpret. For example “Mark 16:15-16 15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” According to Christian theology this standalone statement is valid and its interpretation is left to author’s discretion. This is an English interpretation by some author whereas the original authors according to Hebrew interpretation ‘nations’ meant tribes in Jerusalem.This form of interpretation is the result of the author’s interests while writing the Bible and the powers promoting that interpretation. This form of error would not happen in Eastern philosophies because everything has to be studied and defined in a context. A single stanza out of context is not applicable. 13. What is wrong with conversion? What is wrong in worshipping Jesus whom Hindus also consider as GOD and 11th incarnation of Lord Vishnu? This form of reasoning is due to a syndrome called ‘Compulsive Radical Universalism’ (CRU) i.e., All religions are equally valid and lead to the same God. Protagonists of this line of thought often cite the Hindu thought of ‘’Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadantu.(but intentionally ignore the rest citing Indra, Varuna…)’ (All paths will lead to same God) to justify their claim and anybody who opposes this view is called a fundamentalist. This reasoning is following the Christian philosophy of cherry picking parts of sentences out of context. For example consider the following three statements;Jo shin (A Malaysian farmer in village Jalan) — “I am going on a bicycle to Klang to meet a great person” (traveling 15 kms to meet a bank clerk for a loan.) All religions define different paths and different goals (salvation, moksha, heaven, eternal paradise) but they are not same. Hindus respect other religions but also accept the fact that all religions are not same.. 14. Hindus want equality with all religions This is a major handicap of many Hindu leaders. They respect a religion by its headcount rather than by it’s spiritual progress. Some Hindu leaders even went to the extent of requesting the Pope to announce that ‘ Hinduism and Christianity are equal paths to salvation! But the reality is that both the religions define different goals (Moksha vs. salvation) and different paths. Hence it’s a tragedy that Hindu leaders degrade Hinduism by equating it with Christianity. Would Mukul Shah agree that he and Jo Shin are going to the same place? If Hindu leaders equate Hinduism with Christianity why are they promoting Hinduism? This argument of equality is filled with fallacy. Religions are different but Hindus respect other religions. 15. Are Hindus prepared to fight missionary activity? Let’s take a hypothetical detergent market scenario. A multinational company introduced a soap called ‘Burf’ in a market traditionally dominated by a ‘Girma’, made by a local manufacturer. Burf runs a TV advertisement in which a totally soiled shirt touched by Burf turns white whereas a white shirt touched by Girma turns dirty. Though Girma is a superior product and the TV promotion is a scam,Girma mildly condemns the advertisement but doesn’t counter Burf as a product because Girmaowners do not know anything about Burf as a product. They are scared to evaluate Burf because it is made by a multinational. Furthermore Girma owners request Burf owners to declare that ‘Girma is also a equally good soap.’ This is exactly the scenario with Hinduism vs. Christianity. Because of the bankruptcy of knowledge about Christianity, Hindus accept Jesus as a God and immediately make him a Vishnu avatar. Hindus are not countering the product (Christianity) but on the other hand are just questioning their sales tactics (missionary tactics). As long as the product is not questioned Hindus are not targeting the root cause and not prepared for the battle 16. Hinduism & Indian culture survived for 5000 years and nothing will happen to them A person can be called dead if he has lost the capacity (psychological, physical & spiritual) to uphold Dharma. Hindus are losing their character and fast losing the meaning of Dharma. A hypothetical character Mr. Raj is amputated, hands chopped off, tongue severed and psychologically so weak that he shivers by looking at an ant. Do you call Mr. Raj alive or dead? He is medically alive but functionally dead. Hindus are getting into that situation regarding Hinduism. Geographically 40% of original Bharat is officially known as ‘India’ not even as ‘Bharath’. Our thought process and culture are prisoners of west. 17. Dalits convert to avoid caste discrimination and ill treatment. Hindus should be ashamed of the caste system! This is a major strategy adopted by missionaries. It is an example of divide-and-rule policy. A dalit remains a dalit even after conversion to Christianity and his situation gets worse after conversion.
18. Dalits are empowered by conversion Here are some self-explanatory facts
19. Missionaries go around teaching the bible and their religion and they are driven by love for their religion Primary motivation for missionaries (other than money) is hatred towards non-Christians. Their activities are driven by hate. Scholars in west call evangelism a perfect hate crime. In India, missionaries and converts break temples. They have been brainwashed that non-Christian religions are works of Satan and there are specific references to such teachings in Bible. Some examples Corinthians 10:20-21: Paul wrote that Gentiles worship devils. In modern terms, they would be considered Satanists: “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.” Here, Paul writes that the Gods and Goddesses of other religions are actually demons. Christians are to completely isolate themselves from non-Christians. 2 Corinthians 6:14: Paul requires that his followers separate from “unbelievers:” “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” The author of this biblical passage recommends that Christians avoid close relationships with non-Christians. He implies that non-Christians are automatically unrighteous. He associates Christianity with “light” and other religions with “darkness.” 20. Missionary problem existed for a long time but why is this problem important now? We have so many other problems in hand to deal with Hypothetically, lets consider that you are arguing with an unruly tenant trying to vacate him from your house. Suddenly you find that there is fire in your kitchen, which if not controlled will burn your entire house. Would you continue arguing with him or spend some energy in fighting the fire? Missionary Christianity is that fire which has the history, potential, goal at destroying anything non-Christian. They did and will destroy India/world if not controlled. Missionaries were already successful Missionary Christianity got more organized since 1988 and turned more dangerous since 2001 with the introduction of Joshua project-II (Adopt a people strategy). You have to ensure that yours as well as your neighbor’s house is not burned.. Hindus have to work together with Buddhists, Jews or any other group victimized by evangelism. 21. Can the problem be solved? Yes! There is no one solution for all. |