The reason I posted this news is the fact that wearing kumkum and flowers (and bangles??) seems to be considered Hindu culture,
Catholics even in Europe and other places are accused of being idol worshippers anyway so the Indian twist is hardly new. Bangalore has dozens of flower and lamp decorated roadside Infant Jesus or Jesus and Mary shrines that are "ditto copies" of Hindu shrines that dot the city everywhere. This blends right in there with the Hindu reverence of the mother - the "Amma" as the goddess to worship. Evangelism in India (as per my reading) has taken the course of "non resistance" to local culture, both as active policy and as a result of individual priests themselves being that way. This is a double edged sword because in a sense it dilutes and makes the seeminlgy rigid ideology of the Vatican into a blend that is virtually indistinguishable from Hindu views on theism. shiv On Sunday 15 Mar 2009 6:32:44 am Kiran K Karthikeyan wrote: > Suresh, > > 2009/3/15 Suresh Ramasubramanian <sur...@hserus.net> > > > Interesting bit of nonsense here. Quality reporting (!) to be sure. > > I wouldn't dismiss it so easily. Churches in Kerala have long ago adoped > the "nila-vilakku", a bronze lamp used in Hindu homes and religious > ceremonies. I've been to as many churches as temples so I'm not aware of > any other practices they have borrwed. > > Though I do find it hard to believe that a priest would say something like > > <snip> > > “despite idol worship being prohibited in Bible, we have idol worship in > churches.” “The duty of every Christian is to convert non-Christians to > Christianity by any means,” > > </snip> > > so openly, especially where there is press access. Sure-fire way to get > yourself excommunicated. > > But my experience with Christian missionaries as well as Christian who seek > to spread the good Lord's word have been fairly abrasive - I've had to be > particularly rude to get them off my back. Somehow the mention that my > parents are Hindu and I'm an atheist heightens their enthusiasm. Once in a > while I used to humour them and there are quite a few of them waiting to go > to heaven for having converted me :) > > We've also once had to rudely refuse family friends of ours offering us a > copy of the Bible. When we refused, they left it on the coffee table on > their way out and had to be reminded to pick it up. When my father was > hopitalised a year ago, our erstwhile neighbours who are Pentecostal > Christians organized a prayer meeting at their home - ostensibly to pray > for my father's health, but invited everybody non-Christian from the > neighbourhood (Hindus and Muslims). Nil attendance at that event made them > stick to "I'll pray for you". That said, we also have Christian family > friends who seek astrological advice and have horscopes checked before > marriage. It works both ways I guess. > > Kiran
