On May 7, 8:20 am, Richard Corfield
<Richard.Corfi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On 2008-05-07, Romanise <josh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > On May 7, ?:?? am, ravimpillay <ravimpil...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> > All kinds of Sanyasis, Sadhus, of India have significant numbers of
> >> > perverts among them. They do ***ually exploit vulnerable Indian
young
> >> > and old women.
>
> >> all kinds of christian priests and fathers also have ***ual perverts
> >> among them
>
> Given a large population - all Christians, all Hindus, you'll find good
> eggs and bad eggs. As far as I understand the sanyasis are individuals,
> so there's a chance you'll get bad ones. You can also get bad priests
> in any religion.
>
> The news channels here tend to paint Hinduism in a bad light at times
> which may not help. I'm not sure how much I have the true picture of how
> the religion works in practice in India. I only really have the local
> people and how it works for them, and the relatively little knowledge
> I have of the scriptures.
>
> Maybe we can ask whether Brahmacharia, which as far as Swami Sichanada
> seems to say in his writings goes as far as seeing natural body
processes
> as disease, is a problem. Many religions have celibate clergy. Some
> may be able to do it, maybe for some it's a strain. Of course if we
> start challenging that then we start asking questions like "why have
> monks anyway?" which has quite complex answers.
>
> With a church or a temple you have the hope that the clergy or pundit
> is sup****ted and effectively vetted by their community, by a larger
> community perhaps. The priest at my local temple has been very good,
> and one thing I do like is that there is actually no pressure for me to
> convert to Hinduism. My local church is evangelical, quite different in
> its beliefs. It believes in the need to "Go out and win souls". To be
> fair they don't try to force it on you but they really wish to convince
> you.
>
> As for this church in India making itself look like a temple. I think
> it depends on how they do it and why, most im****tantly why. The Why will
> shape what it does in its community. One thing I so strongly believe is
> that helping others with intent only to convert them is wrong. If they
are
> genuinely crossing the boundary and accepting the good bits that
Hinduism
> has then great. If they are doing it because to them the only thing that
> matters is "winning souls" no matter how then that is not great.
>
> Then again it would be isolated. It would presumably serve those that
> accept it well. As long as it doesn't cause difficulty. Is Hindu wor****p
> of Christ much different to Hindu wor****p of, say, Swami Narayan? As
> long as you keep some basic understandings including that other people
> have other ways which are also valid for them?
>
> I wish people would realise that in the end the actual teachings of
> the major religions are so similar. I've been given a booklet by my
> local church, "Newness of Life" by John Eddison, with its readings and
> teachings and in the readings I can see so much of what I've learned
from
> Hinduism and Buddhism. I can almost draw parallels with other scripture
-
> maybe better if I knew all the other scripture better. I can certainly
> _easily_ relate the readings so far to Hindu or Buddhist concepts.
>
> The only thing that gets me is this insistence on the idea that you
> _have_ to be Christian to be "saved". The commentary in the book also
> uses this interpretation. It seems that Christianity can work well.
> The teachings are there, but there's this additional stuff. Generalise
> it a bit and you get something quite nice.
>
> - Richard
>
> --
> _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at gmail dot com
> _/ _/ _/ _/
> _/_/ _/ _/ Time is a one way street,
> _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ except in the Twilight Zone
Richard,
Hope your effort teaches something worthwhile to those claiming
affiliation to one religion keeping themselves constantly busy hurting
those who they think are believers of a different religion.
What keeps me surprised is that Indians capable of writing OK English
are not worried about how they hurt block who are their own or who
they think are less of Indians, and so are not their own.
www.dmjo****.org
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