Re: Shocking!

["Ram Narayanan" <ramn@adelphia.net>]

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Npsingh123@aol.com wrote:

1) >
> It is quite possible that the poor of India have
> nothing more to sell than
> their cultural roots and their decision to
>convert is purely an economic one.
>  The way to stop conversions is then to
> work for improving the material
> condition of the poor rather than to
> interfere with their basic freedoms.
>

No body would disagree that the freedom to change one's faith is a basic
freedom. But the attempt to convert enmasse through fraudulent means is NOT
a basic freedom.

Yes, improving the material condition of the poor and the spread of literacy
and education will strengthen the ability of such people to resist deceitful
efforts to convert,  while at the same time preserving their freedom to
change if they genuinely wish to do so.

2) >
> Incidentally, the motivation to convert to
> Christianity for the the poor
> and  illetrate amongst the Hindus is
> the same as the motivation among the
> better off Hindus to abandon their
> cultural and family roots and settle in
> Christian beef eating countries. If  the
> well educated Hindus here in the West can
> eat at  McDonalds then why is it more
> shocking that the poor pray at a church
> back home.
>

That's a wrong analogy. Most Indian families in the US have preserved their
cultural and family roots. And if they were non-vegetarians  in India, I do
not see any reason why they should not eat at McDonalds  - whatever the
animal that's killed and served.  I was vegetarian in India and I continue
to be vegetarian here in America. My wife, who by the way is a practising
Protestant Christian - and she is a genuine Christian, not converted by
fraud - and she is vegetarian too. There is a growing number of Americans -
though still small - that is abandoning the McDonald culture.

Again, it's not shocking that the poor pray at a church back home. What is
shocking - if one carefully re-reads my original piece - is that the
conversion was being made through fraudulent means. And that was the report
of a genuine Indian Christian friend who was so shocked that he shared his
anguish with me!

Ram Narayanan







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