At 10:41 PM -0500 2/26/04, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >I have a question.When Christian ministers prayed in the name of Jesus >Christ at the inaugural function of prez.George Bush--was that a violation >of church and state ,since this was an official state occasion? Any >comments?
*** The separatiopn of Church and State in the USA is and has been, historically, a very touchy and slowly evolving process. Fortunately the trend has been a progressive one, instead of being regressive. That is the difference. Something to take heart in. Since I don't like toi hurt anyone's feelings :-), I won't go into where some of the most eggregious examples of regressive behaviors and attitudes that can be seen today. And now, to keep things in perspective, I am posting a note below from my friend Murthy Sudhakar, who has just returned from over a month in various parts of India: To be fair, this was NOT the only item he wrote about. There are many extremely positive and constructive examples he saw and wrote about. I hope to share some of them with you all as I digest them. But since there has been this spate of Hinduttwa and the vaunted Indian spirituality related stories in Assam net, this one might help keep things in perspective. And if you seek exmples from Assam I will be delighted to share them with you, but I am sure masochistic exercises would not be necesary: cm FEBRUARY 10 THRU 15- PAZHANI, GURUVAYUR, ERODE & BANGALORE I connected up with my Aunt, brother and his family in Coimbatore from where we proceeded to Palani (MURUGAN TEMPLE) and then to Guruvayur in Kerala (KRISHAN TEMPLE), then via Erode to Bangalore. This was family time. I will not go into details about these temples and their history or glory in this report... however I have some opinions that I want to share with you. SHORTCUT TO THE GODS Somewhere in some good book it states that it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. If I am misquoting I apologize. But you get the drift. This theory is completely invalidated in Palani and in many other temples in India. The rich man does have an easier passage and there exist both official and unofficial channels to access the deity through the use of personal resources (money). The poor, unlike the camel, wait for their turn in long lines!!! ALL EMBRACING??? Just outside the entrances to the temple in Guruvayur, there are signs that read "NO ONE OTHER THAN A HINDU IS ALLOWED TO ENTER THIS TEMPLE". Again the quote is not exact but.. trust me, that is the message. As a Hindu I felt offended and frankly quite ashamed of such a "ban". What happened to the embrace of and tolerance for all??? Additionally, the temple rules insist that no garment that is stitched or that has split legs be allowed in the temple. These are not stated ( I did not see it) but conventional wisdom and folklore insist that is the case. This too is hypocritical... women with stitched blouses of course go into the temple. For those of you who are already wondering why this fellow is being so picky when going to the house of god... why does he not pray and move on...let me remind you...of the time when even some Hindus could not enter the temples.(Remember Nandanaar) Or is this still the case in parts of India?? sudhakar www.infrasys.biz > KJD_______________________________________________ Assam mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assamTo unsubscribe or change >options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
