[akash]

Ping !!!

[anniegetyourgun]

"Therefore, they should now raise their voices against the divisive activities of the evangelical Christians..."

And they do. Persecution and restrictions on the faith practice of Christians (which is not to 'covert, as only the Spirit of God can do that; but rather to proclaim the good news of salvation in Christ) in India is on the rise. They seem to especially hate it when Christians proclaim the gospel of hope to the hopeless in the lowest elitist-imposed caste system of their society.

The myth of 'pluralism' in India is, at best, quaint. At worst, it is a national beguiling by its cosmetic veneer of openness, that is actually dangerous to any hint of challenge to it.

[LiteKeeper]

Missionary SITREP

[Abe Froman]

Fine, I'll fire the first shot......

One of his early points is telling-----we should "forgive" him if his interpretations of Jesus' teachings are at "variance" with his. Forgive, no doubt, but that makes him no less wrong.

Despite his faulty notion of Jesus' "eastern mysticism", and finding numerous similarities between these wholly incompatible faiths, what were the exact words of Jesus? "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the father but by me." Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh, something that no other "prophet" did. If taken at his word, Jesus himself invalidated all other faiths but in Him as the divine savior of the world.

[Pete]

Regardless of their religious affiliations, all religious leaders of goodwill can find myriads of theological convergences if they are open to sincere and deep inter-faith explorations. While it is less threatening for the practitioners of non-Abrahamic faiths to undertake such faith-based voyages of discovery, the religious fundamentalists of the monotheistic faiths shun all such excursions.

We can look at Lewis' Tao, for example, for the similarities in a myriad of cultures (and religions) with regard to ethics. Such discoveries do not even require "sincere and deep inter-faith explorations".

However, to rest our hope of reconciliation on such similarities is a fool's errand. In fact, a sincere and deep inter-faith exploration will result in exactly what the current proponents do not want. That is the illumination of the differences that make the different religions different.

We must not rely on our chronological snobbery that assumes that past generations have failed where we will succeed. They recognized that the differences are significant and really the only attributes that matter. By removing the difference (by whatever means) we will not end up with better religions or even one religion. We will end up with no religions at all.

[TexasRepublic]

I guess he never read Jesus' "Great Commission" to evangelize the world.

[aimhigh]

What a crock. Jesus himself appears to have condemned proselytization when he said,...

Jesus said to the disciples, "Go into all the world, preaching the gospel.." The author sure can twist words to his own bigotry.

[keri]

But, he fails to comprehend the distinction between freedom to propagate a religion and the right to coercively convert people to another faith.

He (Dayal) isn't alone in that regard.

Overall this is a good article. The UN is positively worthless, however, and I would think by now Indians (Christians or otherwise) would have learned that.

[Allan]

Bump

[Artist]

Bump for a later read.