Ernie : Soren Kierkegaard once said that if you aren't offending people, then you aren't doing your job as a Christian. Anything meaningful you say will offend someone, or multitudes. That's life. But about nationalism and religion, yeah, exactly. Especially the BJP ( is it ever, and waaaaay over the top ), but you see it, too, in the Christian Right with its strong emphasis on patriotism. It exists in Shiah Islam in Iran ( which is very nationalistic also ) even if it only exists in the Sunni world as imperialism since a Muslim's loyalty is to the Umma / all of Dar al-Islam. Loyalty to an empire, in so many words. And you certainly see it in the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel. The most rightist of all Buddhists, the Nichiren folks ( Sokka Gakai, etc ). are hyper Japanese nationalist. You even get it with the Parsees, but since they don't have a homeland any more, it takes the form of loyalty to a bloodline ( and the added factor of protecting the wealth of the community ). More examples could be brought up for other populations. Billy ====================================== In a message dated 11/15/2009 2:33:40 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Billy, On Nov 15, 2009, at 2:27 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Might be different kinds of "liberalism." Arya Somaj was liberal "theologically" > but were as nationalist as today's BJP. Integral Yoga ( Aurobindo ) was also > liberal in its own way, very ecumenical and open to the West ( Aurobindo > "married" a French woman ), but it, too, was nationalist, if not anything like > the BJP and its ultra Rightist views. "Was" is incorrect, Still very much alive, > and if Auroville is ever completed it will surely become a major tourist draw > and act as a source of dissemination of Aurobindo ideas to the world. I think you hit on an interesting point I've wanted to mention before. >From what I can tell, "fundamentalist Hinduism" could be characterized as "inherently nationalistic" --- just like fundamentalist Christianity is inherently anti-intellectual, and fundamentalist Islam is inherently imperialistic. [Having just offended half the list of most of humanity, I'll retreat to my blog.... :-] -- Ernie P. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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