
The
Pope Must Preach Real Harmony, Not Religious Intolerance
Mukund
Kher (Bloomington, Illinois)
“Recently
the Pope has called for stepping up conversion in Asia. The
Pope said that religious conversion is a human right. "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,"
the Pope said. The Pope said the Church acknowledged what
was true and holy in such religions as Buddhism, Hinduism
and Islam, but only Christ offered the way to ultimate
salvation.
The advent of Christianity in Europe, Americas, Australia,
and large parts of Africa and the Pacific led to the
systematic and complete elimination of the pre-Christian
polytheistic religions and cultures. Truly, the bible was
exchanged for the native lands with the help of the gun.
Coming from Pope, the highest official of Catholicdom, this
call to conversion is a Declaration of War against Asian
culture, Asian religions and Asian society in general, and
Hinduism in particular.
Mass-conversion to Christianity seeks to destroy the soul of
Asia, transplanting an un-needed philosophy. Asia does not
need any lesson in religion or piety from anybody. Why
should one religion try to eliminate other through
mass-conversions? Clearly, the Pope seeks to achieve
religious cleansing of Asia. This malicious and predatory
approach is highly immoral and unethical. What makes the
Pope think that his is the only true religion? This is
self-righteousness and intolerance to the extreme. He may
have the right to believe so, but he has no right to
organize a concerted attack on other societies to destroy
their very nature.
Mass religious conversions have caused political partitions
of many nations. The Pope will cause political unstability
in Asia through mass-conversions. In fact massive and active
conversion is akin to alienating the affections of one
partner in a happy marriage. The worst thing about most of
the Christian conversions in India is that they are
influenced heavily by economic inducements. Under the garb
of medical and social service, many Christian missionaries
effectively blackmail poor people into Christianity. Whose
God can be happy with such fraud?
The hypocrisy of Pope is really amazing. Last year during
his Latin American tour, he had blamed the Protestant
"wolves" of poaching his flock! The same Pope today claims
that religious conversion is a human right. Well, does the
Vatican recognise any religion other than Catholicism?
Obviously the Pope wants a one-way street of conversion to
Christianity.
While waxing eloquent about service and love, the Pope
through his chauvinist and hardline theory of "only one true
religion" makes it clear that the tolerance and goodness
displayed by Hinduism counts for nothing. Hinduism is non-judgemental,
and Hindus have graciously accepted the Christians amongst
them. The Hindus simply ask the Church to spare them the
fate of Europe and Americas. Satisfied with their religion,
the Hindus do not like outsiders seeking to change their
religious and political demography through orchestrated
mass-conversions. But the Pope insists on mass-conversions.
He leaves no incentive in being nice and accommodating.
If the Communists had been allowed to operate legally in the
USA, they would have - through their zeal and trickery and
sophistry - changed the very nature of the United States.
The US did the right thing to preserve its inherent nature
by banning the Communists outright. But the Hindus are
willing to live with Christians. They ask for only one
thing: that the Church not seek to eliminate Hinduism
through conversions, thus changing India forever. The
existing Christians can live freely without trying to
convert others. Isn't guarding one's land, liberty and
culture the most basic human right?
The Pope talks about "harvesting faith in Asia" as if the
Hindus and others are mere crops, waiting to be cut off and
stored in the elevator. Some may like being portrayed as a
flock of cattle, but the Hindus dislike being shown as
lifeless, immobile crops who can not protect themselves.
While attending an inter-faith meeting, the Pope talked
about dialogue, understanding, and solidarity between
religions. The next day he reverted back to his insistence
on Christianity as the only true religion, and gave a call
to convert Asia. This is hypocrisy and duplicity at its
worst.
The Papal determination to eliminate Hinduism and Indian
culture by converting masses to Christianity is barely one
step short of medieval Talibanism. The medieval Islamists
seek to eliminate the infidels through the sword; the Pope
seeks to achieve this through mass-conversions. The end
result is same in both cases.
The Western press is not playing a positive role in this
whole episode. Invariably, the reports from the Associated
Press and Reuters suffix the word "hardline" or "zealot"
when describing Hindu groups which are resisting the Pope's
attempts to take over their religion. Pray tell, shouldn't
the party that says "only my way is correct" be described as
hardline, zealots and fascists? Instead, Hindus who are
ready to co-exist with others - without being gobbled up by
others - are maligned.
In fact any group which claims exclusivity and believes that
all others are wrong, and which on top actively tries to
eliminate the other groups forfeits its claims to any
special rights, privileges or tolerance from others.
The dire need of the hour is religious tolerance and
co-existence. The religions may continue to believe in
themselves, but they should not seek to destroy others. Any
organized offensive on a religion will invite doom for
everybody.
We all must realize that God is too big to fit into one
religion.”
The Pope Must Preach Real Harmony, Not Religious Intolerance
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