Ernie: The article about Hindutva brings to mind a problem that is related to
the rise of far-Right Hindu nationalism. Namely: Christian obliviousness to a rather basic shortcoming in their worldview. Not for one minute does this excuse violence against Christians but it certainly helps explain some of that violence. And explains why there in all probability will be more violence in the future. What many Hindus strongly object to is Christian / Muslim co-operations which they regard as collusion against Hindus. And, personally, I think that is what it amounts to. Again, how do we generalize accurately? Not all Christians are alike, and you can surely find exceptions, but there is no way to deny that a large number of "Christians" (sometimes without the quote marks) do see important commonality between themselves and Muslims. Which there is -if theology means more to you than morality. That is, both are monotheistic, both make much of Jesus, both make much of the supremacy of God. But about this I have very different views than do most Christians (or most Hindus for that matter). I really am not interested in defending "monotheism." I am interested in defending Christian faith even when it really is a form of monolatry rather than monotheism and even when, as is the case for the Assyrian church and some other Christians, the Holy Spirit is conceived as having Goddess-like attributes. Indeed, in a way, the eastern Church is sort of like Catholicism with respect to Mary. That is, much that is attributed to Mary is more-or-less how eastern believers regard the Holy Spirit. About this, needless to say, Muslims go into fits. For them, such views deserve death. But most Christians don't even see where this is a problem. For me this is vital, at the heart of everything else. For most Christians there isn't even an issue. What I have in common with Hindus is a strong sense of the feminine divine. And they know the price they have paid for their beliefs -and for their aesthetics. Death, whole scale slaughter in the past with millions of Hindus ( and a lot of Buddhists) killed by Muslims with the killing never ending even if the scale these days is more modest. But the "Hindu holocaust," as it has been called, led to the deaths of anywhere from 70 million to 100 million people. Not all at once but over the course of 1000 years of Muslim rule. And Hindus are not about to forget this any more than Jews are about to forget about WWII. Yet how many Christians have ANY awareness of this ? Better than 1% ? Hell, it may not be better than 0.0001 % I don't know about "all" Christians in India but I do know that some Christians do, in fact, co-operate with Muslims. Elsewhere in the world the Adventists are often at the forefront is proclaiming 'brotherhood' with Muslims And you sure get this among 'liberal' Protestants. For me, however, the theology is far less important than morality and on that scale how Christians can begin to co-operate with Muslims defies all comprehension. About morality no two religions can possibly be further apart. How is it possible for Christians not to see the obvious? Billy -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
