Magic Statistics

Hindu nationalists in India have been attacking both Muslims and Christians.  Because Hindu-Muslim clashes often involve widespread rioting by hundreds of people, while Hindu attacks on Christians are smaller in scale and public repercussions, the latter are often ignored.

Persecution India Update, a blog run by the Global Council of Indian Christians, reports that Hindu intimidation of Christians takes three forms.

The first is of violent assaults on Christian priests, rape of nuns of numerous denominations, destruction and desecration of churches and chapels, and burning of Bibles.

In the recent past, such attacks have increased in frequency and severity.  They are also tending to assume a common pattern: public vilification of and assaults against Christian leaders by mobs of Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) activists.

A second form of intimidation is when converts themselves are attacked. A people’s tribunal convened by Angana Chatterji and Mihir Desai painstakingly tracks the frightening sequence of such recent attacks for the state of Orissa alone. Their long and chilling litany includes: in 1999, 157 Christian homes were set ablaze in Ranalai village, and three people suffered gunshot wounds; in 2003, seven women converts and a pastor were forcibly tonsured in Kilipal village, and a socio-economic boycott imposed on them; 15 homes were burnt in 2005 in Gandhavati village, and so on.

The third strategy for intimidation is of mobilising large masses for ‘re-conversion’ ghar wapsi ceremonies, mainly in tribal regions, in which thousands of alleged Christian converts are welcomed ‘home’ to Hinduism.

Claims of re-conversion from Christianity to Hinduism are exaggerated.  Most of those said to be “re-converted” were not Christian converts.

Read the whole thing.

Earlier this week, a Carmelite priest and four Christians were set upon by Hindutva extremists in a hospital waiting room in Karnataka state, south-western India.  The assailants beat them up, causing injuries severe enough to require hospitalization.  The following day, a large crowd gathered to condemn the attacks and call upon state authorities to act against the rising tide of anti-Christian violence.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionaries and construction workers have been threatened while trying to build a Bible college in Maharashtra state, western India.  About 20 people squatting on land owned by GFA tried to force the building project to close down.  In this case, a government land inspector came by to explain the situation to the squatters, but they defiantly said they would return later.

In Andhra Pradesh, south-eastern India, Hindu extremists tried to force Christian Pastor John Peter to bow down before an idol in a Hindu temple.  When he refused, they tore his clothes, shaved his head, and beat him until he lost consciousness.  Pastor Peter declined to press charges, saying he had forgiven them.

In London, the Hindu Council UK has voiced objections to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protects “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion“, on the grounds that it does not ban conversion through missionary activity.

The predatory religions seek the destruction of others faiths and cultures, others way of life, by sending missionaries whose religious freedom is enshrined in their mission to convert other God loving people into their own religious clubs, thereby seeking the destruction of other religions. Everyone has the right to convert through their own heart's persuation [sic] but MISSIONARY CONVERSION activity is a form of violence on the society it converts as it seeks to destroy their orginal [sic] way of life. History bears witness to it; when will the UN protect religions like the Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs?

The statement does not say why those religions need protection.  Be that as it may, the statement would appear to challenge the fundamental principles of India’s secular democracy.

Another interesting tidbit from the Hindu Council UK:

Hinduism believes all humans are born as Hindus until they are baptized or circumcised.

Christians in India are bearing a very heavy cross.  Pray that our Lord will support them and give them wisdom and courage in an often hostile place.

Previous related posts:

• Victims of religious persecution gather in Bangalore, India
• 4000 Christians arrested in Delhi, India
• British Hindu tells Christians to stop evangelising in India
• Brutal attacks on Christian leaders in India

Well, that didn’t take long.  It’s been less than a week since General Synod voted against authorising same-sex blessings (SSBs) and already an Anglican Church of Canada rector has said he will go ahead and bless ‘em anyway.

Renegade B.C. priest to bless same-sex unions

Father Antonio Osorio is inviting lesbian and gay couples to be blessed at St. Saviour's Anglican Church this Sunday.

Rev Osorio’s intent to thumb his nose at General Synod is plain.

"The Anglican Church, in my opinion, needs to stop playing games," said Osorio, who attended the national meeting and voted in favour of the blessing of same-sex unions.

"I am very pleased the national church has said blessing same-sex unions is not in conflict with the doctrine of the church," he said. "I believe blessing these unions is a justice issue. Now is the time to start blessing same-sex couples. I have done it and I intend to keep doing it."

Saint Saviour’s Anglican Church is located on the west side of Victoria harbour.  That would be in the Diocese of British Columbia, The Rt Rev James Cowan, Bishop.

Bp Cowan admits to being a liberal on SSBs.  Despite that, he was one of two bishops to vote against authorising SSBs after voting that they do not conflict with core doctrine.  In defence of his voting pattern, he said he was still "asking for the theological rationale”.

So, did Rev Osorio provide that “theological rationale”?

"They [lesbian and gay couples] need to know they are not second-class Christians," said Osorio. "I am going to bless them as a group because they are faithful and beautiful Christians. And if they want to be blessed as individual couples, I will do it too."
. . .
Osorio will also ask his gay parishioners to bless him.

"It will mean in God's eyes they are equal to me," he said.

I don’t know if that qualifies as a compelling theological argument in Bp Cowan’s book, but it sounds mighty thin to me.

St Saviour’s has its own website, and there’s some very interesting stuff posted there.  The church has been promoting liberation theology for years, complete with trips to Colombia for first-hand indoctrination instruction at the Jesuit University of Colombia. A recent adult Sunday school class entitled “Social Justice and the Gospel of Christ” taught, you guessed it, liberation theology.  A page is devoted to tendentious and superficial discussion of “class struggle”, “imperialism”, “consciousness-raising”, “institutionalized violence of capitalist society”, and what not.

Bishop Cowan needs to pay attention to what’s being taught in his back yard.

Rev Osorio has a page on the homosexuality controversy in the Anglican Communion.  His discussion of the first chapter of Romans offers the usual justifications for avoiding the conclusion that St Paul rejected homosexual practice as sinful: Paul was talking about something other than what the church has always thought he was talking about; Paul didn't know what he was talking about; we don't know what he was talking about.

On top of that, he rightly points out, the dispute over homosexual practice is merely a symptom of a deeper disagreement over how to read and understand the Bible.  He then proceeds to replace his opponents with a straw man.  Some, he says, “take a simplistic view of a literally interpreted Bible as the basis for all belief and doctrine” while others “recognize the Bible as a book out of a cultural background which cannot be applied to modern culture without a process of translation and interpretation”.  Guess which view he considers righteous.

Translating and interpreting the Bible for modern culture apparently gives one carte blanche to overturn centuries of accepted Christian moral theology without supplying a “theological rationale”.

A few days ago, Bishop Michael Ingham accused those against SSBs of being motivated by homophobia.  The silence from new primate Fred Hiltz has been deafening.  Let’s see if Bishop Cowan has anything to say about his “renegade” priest—renegade in more ways than one.

The StatDaughter comments: "What's the point of having General Synod anyway?" 

h/t: Pat Dague at Transfigurations

Previous related posts:

• Michael Ingham hits a new low
• Primates likely to criticise Canada’s ambiguity on same-sex blessings
• It’s all the bishops’ fault
• SSBs consistent with doctrine, but not allowed anyway

UPDATE (28 Jul): Bishop Cowan says the media "misquoted" and "sensationalised" Rev Osorio's remarks.

Davender Ghai, president of Newcastle's Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, has been campaigning for years to have Britain's law banning open-air funeral pyres overturned or repealed.  Now he has gained the support of a very important Hindu spiritual leader.

A CAMPAIGN for open-air funeral pyres in the UK has won the backing of the Hindu equivalent of the Pope.
. . .
Shankaracharaya Swami Divayanand Teerth of Bhanpura, a revered figure in the Hindu community, visited Mr Ghai at his Gosforth home and praised him for his work and his efforts to establish an open-air funeral site in Pakistan.
. . .
"I fully support and praise his campaign for similar rights in Britain and other western countries. Cremation in the open air is the birthright of Hindus and Sikhs as well as their unalterable duty."

Mr Ghai has not only received permission to challenge the law in court, he has also been granted legal aid.

Sikh organisations have indicated that they wish to join the legal battle.  For Sikhs, open-air cremation is a preferred choice, not the religious requirement it is for Hindus.

h/t: Religion News Blog

Previous related post: British Hindu tells Christians to stop evangelising in India

New research by Canadian academics has found that teenagers who date older people, have sex, and use alcohol and other drugs feel older than they really are—and older than their peers who do not engage in those behaviours.

A University of Alberta study has confirmed what has long been suspected: teens who act like adults, especially having sex, feel older than they really are. And the older the adolescent, the wider the gap between their chronological age and their self-perceived age.

The lead researcher was Kelly Arbeau, a doctoral student in the University of Alberta’s psychology department.

"We found that specific behaviours do have an effect on adolescents' self-perceived age," said Arbeau, lead author of the study. "For example, having an older dating partner seems to give a teen a higher subjective experience of age."

Sexual activity, especially starting at an earlier age, was found to have an important relationship to teens' subjective experience of age. "Sexual experience is unequivocally the realm of adult behaviour," Arbeau explained. "So, when teens are having sex and their peers aren't, it can make them feel more adult, more mature than their non-experienced counterparts."

Psychologists had previously discovered that adolescence is the only time in life when we feel older than we really are.  The research took an in-depth look at teens to explore the dynamics of self-perceived age in that age group.

The study, based on a random sample of 664 male and female adolescents from a medium-sized North American city, is entitled “Dating, sex, and substance use as correlates of adolescents’ subjective experience of age”.  It  is published in the June 2007 issue of Journal of Adolescence.  The abstract is posted here, and the full text can be purchased for US$30 via this page.

h/t: MercatorNet

Previous related posts:

• Family instability correlated with poor behaviour in children
• Medical science vindicates church’s anti-condom stance
• Does marriage matter for the nurturing of children?