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Re: Shocking!
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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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Today there is an article on rediff.com by Pritish
Nandy. I have already put my reply. You can send this
to rediff. In case they want to compile some thing.
There are enough proofs of such thing only our secular
media is deaf.
--- Ram Narayanan <ramn@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
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> Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it,
> and propagate it!
>
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>
>
> Friends:
>
> Although this is not related to any of the topics
> currently being
> debated on this Forum, it so shocked me that I
> thought I need to
> share it with all of you.
>
> I learnt something that was breath-taking yesterday
> from a Christian friend
> who is an intellectual and an extremely
> knowledgeable person. He is
> of Indian heritage. Since he is closely
> investigating the matter, he
> didn't want his name to be revealed. This is
> what he says:
>
> QUOTE:
> XYZ has raised quite a storm by his equating the
> RSS/VHP with the Muslim
> fundamentalists. It will be now useful if he can
> back up his claims with
> published articles etc. All of us should attempt to
> grow beyond our
> positions and in that sense XYZ's article might
> prove useful.
> This is what I'd like to say. If hindus are now
> talking a language of
> intolerance let us keep in mind that this has been
> routine talk for the
> semitic religions (christian, muslim, jewish) for
> hundreds of years. XYZ,
> I am with you on this, but really we christians have
> been guilty of
> insensitive behavior and language for eons. Let me
> tie this in to a recent
> happening, stunning in its audacity, that I have
> been researching for the
> past couple of weeks. Its a long piece but I urge
> you all to read it.
>
> Mr. Embree, the one who testified in the commission
> on religious liberty
> made the claim that foreign missionaries have not
> been issued visas for the
> past several years. This struck me as odd as I have
> personally seen at
> least a dozen of these recent arrivals in India in
> the last couple of years.
>
> Talking exclusively to christian sources, I pieced
> together a recent case
> that threatens the social structure of India.
>
> In 1997, elections to the position of president of
> the Seventh Day Adventist
> church in India were conducted. (The Seventh Day
> Adventist church is the
> fastest growing church in India today). An Indian
> was elected by a huge
> majority. The president of the World Seventh Day
> Adventist church then flew
> in from Silver Spring, MD., invalidated the election
> and appointed a
> Canadian missionary in his place. This missionary,
> Ron Watts, moved to
> India on a business visa provided by the embassy
> here in Washington (they
> were completely aware that he was a religious
> missionary), and proceeded to
> pour in a few million dollars into India(via Nepal)
> where converts were
> practically bought.
>
> Here is one example how this was done. This last
> march (while Clinton was
> visiting India) Watts and two other foreign
> missionaries chartered a
> helicopter. Their modus operandi was to fly to a
> rural area(their Indian
> operatives would have collected a crowd), drop
> sweets from the air, land,
> preach, baptise and then move on. I spoke on the
> telephone to two people
> who were personally present at similar events in
> Ibrahimpatnam and Tenali in
> Andhra Pradesh. Even these Indians--Christians--felt
> this to be blatant
> purchase of converts, and very unchristian.
>
> In July this same missionary, anxious to be
> legitimately elected, flew 50
> Indian "church leaders" to Toronto and in a large
> Adventist world council
> got himself "elected" unanimously. I personally
> spoke to three of these 50
> who are now in Maryland.
>
> In July this same Watts was chief guest at a meeting
> of three thousand
> Indian Adventists here in Maryland. Less than two
> months later the
> organizers of this meeting were key promoters of the
> demonstrations against
> Vajpayee when he visited. In a troubling twist to
> this story, one of the
> organizers of this event told me(last Saturday),
> that if even one Seventh
> Day Adventist is attacked in India, hundreds of
> Indians in Fiji will be
> killed because the recent Fiji coup leader
> George...whatever his name...is a
> protector of Seventh Day Adventists around the
> world.
>
> This missionary Ron Watts continues to do his
> mischief in India (he lives in
> Hosur, Tamil Nadu and is the only foreign leader of
> a church in India) with
> seeming impunity. Huge amounts of money continue to
> pour in. I personally
> heard him disparage the BJP government in December,
> 1998 (he looked at his
> watch and said it would be only hours before the BJP
> government fell--
> eliciting supportive laughs from the several dozen
> Indians around). At that
> time however I did not know the extent of his
> operations in India.
> I feel that it is our duty--hindu, christian,
> muslim--to put our house in
> order before we prepare to fix our country. In the
> case of this missionary
> even his Indian supporters are now concerned because
> of the social damage
> this sort of conversions can cause.
>
> I promised the Indian christians I spoke to that I
> would share this story
> with all of you and see if anything can be done to
> stop this particular
> missionary. Quote the article but please not my
> name. We christians have
> become hyper-sensitive about these matters. By the
> way the world Adventist
> leader who flew in to India and invalidated the
> election resigned a year
> later when he was caught for illegal money
> laundering. The story appeared
> in the Washington Post as well as other major
> papers.
>
> My plea is this. Let us develop the ability to
> criticize that which we hold
> dear to us. It may be religion, it may be country
> but this is the only way
> we can grow. I love my religion but I love my
> country more and I'm
> sensitive when its interests are threatened. This
> does not mean that I'm
> exonerating the RSS/VHP. All I'm saying is that
> there is nonsense enough to
> go around and we shouldn't avert our eyes especially
> when the evidence hurts
> us.
> UNQUOTE.
>
> Any comments?
>
> Ram Narayanan
>
>
>
>
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