--- On Sun, 15/3/09, ss <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: ss <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [silk] What is "Indian culture"?
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Sunday, 15 March, 2009, 7:37 AM
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>
> The reason I posted this news is the
> fact that wearing kumkum and flowers (and
> bangles??) seems to be considered Hindu culture,
Shiv, that's regional in part; bangles are part of North Indian Muslim culture,
emphatically, in parts of the country. Kumkum and flowers, I grant, totally.
> Catholics even in Europe and other places are accused of
> being idol
> worshippers anyway so the Indian twist is hardly new.
If I am correct on this one, there are elements of the Catholic church itself
that deprecate Mariolatry and the other, rather bathetic Cult of the Sacred
Heart. The most famous monument of this cult is the Cathedral at Montmartre,
which I am sure all Indians visiting Paris make it a point to see.
> 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.
I don't think it is the Vatican nor the Catholic Church in general any longer;
that is an historical episode of doubtful applicability today, as far as I
know. I do remember reading some decades ago some agitated correspondence in
Church magazines about the pernicious practices that you have described, and a
lot of hand-wringing discussion on how to educate parish priests to stand up
against sliding gradually into these grave errors.
I think that you grossly underestimate the command and control problems that
beset the Catholic Church in particular; these were always present, but they
have become more and more acute of recent centuries.
> shiv
>
>
> On Sunday 15 Mar 2009 6:32:44 am Kiran K Karthikeyan
> wrote:
> > Suresh,
> >
> > 2009/3/15 Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]>
> >
> > > 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
>
>
>
>
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