Posted on 06/25/2008 10:25:38 AM PDT by Sopater
NEW DELHI: With Democrat senator Barack Obama busy in the run-up to the US presidential polls, a group of well-wishers in the capital have decided to send him a symbol of his lucky charm, Lord Hanuman, to help him emerge victorious.
Obama's representative Carolyn Sauvage-Mar on Tuesday received a gold-plated two-feet-high idol which she will pass it on to the Obama after it is sanctified.
The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms.
An hour-long prayer meeting to sanctify the idol was earlier organised at Sankat Mochan Dham and by Congress leader Brijmohan Bhama, Balmiki Samaj and the temple's priests.
"Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him," said Bhama.
Accepting the souvenir, Sauvage-Mar, who is chairperson of Democrats Abroad-India, said, "Obama has extended his thanks for the support."
However, questions on Obama's religious beliefs elicited just a smile from Sauvage-Mar, apparently to avoid controversy back home where the Democrat senator is pitted against the Republican Party's John McCain in the Presidential polls.
The idol will be kept at the temple for 11 more days and then sent to US.
"We will perform the prayers for 11 days and then hand the idol to Carolyn who will send it to Obama," said the temple priest.
Well, THAT throws a monkey wrench in Obambi’s pursuit of the Christian vote.
Christians are not supposed to accept idols or to eat food sacrified to idols lest the pagans come to believe that Christians think such beliefs and behavior are OK.
Otherwise this stuff won't hurt you. Presumably Obama already has sufficient numbers of devotees that he has someone on his staff who knows where to put these things.
Now, are Hindus "idol worshippers"? Or, do they use statues to represent "saints" (people who lived praiseworthy lives while manifest on Earth in a particular persona), and as memnonics to "inform and counsel" millions of people who have the misfortune of living in an illiterate society?
Buddha asked all these questions and more.
Sure took care of the statue problem for the Buddhists didn't it?!
Wouldn't put money on that. Those guys think everybody operates in the same sort of symbolic logic that they do when it comes to religion.
Obama's momma didn't raise him to grow up to be no Hindu, of that I'm sure!
The problem here is that he might end up as President, and the giver might end up as Prime Minister (remember the guy who drank his urine?).
There's absolutely no need to pick a fight over such a common happenstance.
could you please tell me which scripture in God's Word you got that from ?
That’s not a monkey god. It’s a pussy cat god.
Don't believe it. Monkeys are fun. Monkeys come into the village and steal stuff. Monkeys throw feces at each other and at people.
This is in the religion forum? Does that mean I have to be Hindi to post on this thread?
This election is a lot like a Marvel Comic isn’t it? Is Hildebeast really finished or will she come back in a later chapter?
Ac:7:41: And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Ac:15:20: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Ac:15:29: That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
Ac:17:16: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Ac:21:25: As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
Ro:2:22: Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
1Co:5:10: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co:5:11: But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
1Co:6:9: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Co:8:1: Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
1Co:8:4: As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
1Co:8:7: Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
1Co:8:10: For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;
1Co:10:7: Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
1Co:10:14: Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
1Co:10:19: What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
1Co:10:28: But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof:
1Co:12:2: Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
2Co:6:16: And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Ga:5:19: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Ga:5:20: Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Ga:5:21: Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Eph:5:5: For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Col:3:5: Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
1Th:1:9: For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
1Pe:4:3: For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
1Jo:5:21: Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Re:2:14: But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Re:2:20: Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Re:9:20: And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Re:21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
And, since he should be known by the company he keeps:
Re:22:15: For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
As a Christian, such a gift should be accepted as a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the giver, and should be put in a public place in honor of the *givers*
Since Barack Obama is a Senator, the same rule applies to him. Since the gift is supposed to belong to the public, it *SHOULD* be accepted on behalf of the people of the United States, and be displayed in public as a gift from the people of India where all may see it.
The United States and it's many *strongly* Christian founders and past leaders of state have accepted many such gifts as artifacts, and they are usually placed in museums for the education and edification of the people.
For instance, this Portrait of the Dowager Empress of China, considered to be a goddess (the goddess of mercy) in China. It was accepted in 1905, by America, at the time considered to be an openly evangelical and Christian nation. Indeed, entire wings of the Smithsonian - the Freer and Sackler galleries this year alone - are devoted to Hindu art, much of it donated to the United States as gifts, and much of it religious in nature.
Likewise, almost all Eygptian artifacts are religious in nature, and many of these were given as gifts to the Smithsonian.
Are you suggesting that these gifts to the United States be outright rejected, even to a museum? If so, then even our statues of Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses would be purged from all public places, Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey would be banned from classical literature, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art would be closed due to the religious figures it contains - many of them given as gifts to the people of the United States by well-meaning dignitaries.
National Museum of African Art
I don't think that's truly what you mean. But it's exactly what I was suggesting for this gift - a public place of honor for a gift given in respect to a sitting member of the United States Senate by the people of India.
I, as a committed life-long Christian who tries to keep my own home filled with the things of God, do not see a problem with Senator Obama accepting this gift on behalf of the American people to be placed in public trust, nor do I have a problem with honoring those who gave the gift. However, I DO have a problem with him taking *personal* gifts from foreign entities.
I believe that is considered to be unethical at the very least for Barak Obama to accept a gold statue as a personal gift from a foreign country. To accept it as a personal gift, and no less in such a back-handed secretive manner, is to imply that he doesn't honor the givers, nor the intent in which it was given - but he will take a gold-plated idol as a PERSONAL gift, thank-you-very-much-now-go-away...
Now, *THAT'S* idolatry of the worst sort - the love of money and power.
Great gift idea for a number of his peers.
Apparently, U.S. senators are prohibited from accepting gifts valued at more than $10.
However,associates of “the Obama” are planning on getting the “gift” to him anyway.
yes i agree if he is a christian however there is nothing wrong with being a hanuman devotee, if you have ever read about hanuman he was actually a very loyal friend to rama.
And I’m one of them...
I’ve seen the nickels with a horseshoe around them. You used to get them at carnivals and such.
“And I’m one of them...”
Me too, Mary.
6-29-08
OBAMA’S LUCK TOKEN CHARMS INDIANS (HANUMAN-HINDU MONKEY GOD)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038132/posts
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