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Christian Evangelism: Whither Decency? |
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Saturday, 15 March 2008 |
By Harendra De Silva
The world (or more correctly, the west) appears infatuated with "Muslim
fanaticism." We are told over and over again that Islam preaches
fanaticism, and that Muslims are allegedly violent and have a blind
hatred of non-Muslims. But really, how true are these vacuous claims?
They are stories made to justify violent attacks on the Muslim
community around the world, and take attention away from those who
really harbour ill-will against followers of other religions. The media
has not given enough attention to the insidious campaign that is taking
place this very minute to reduce and wipeout Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam
and the various other religious traditions that are followed by large
sections of humanity.
When I look around, the only people I see trying to wipe out other
religions and other peoples' belief systems are the Christian
evangelists and their loud supporters. I have never ever encountered a
Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim preacher barging in on my privacy and pushing
their holy books in my face, nor have I seen Buddhists, Hindus or
Muslims set up organizations purely for the sake of converting others
through hook and crook. Despite having a similar religious heritage, we
can clearly see that it is the Christian evangelists who are the real
religious extremists, and not the Muslims as loudly claimed by various
sections of the media.
Christian evangelism today does not appear to have any respect for
cultural and religious diversity. Its aim is to wipe out all
non-Christian cultural and religious traditions and replace them with
Christianity - more often than not the western version of it, which has
very little in common with the country or society it is targetting.
Many tribal societies across the world have lost their heritage and are
in the process of losing them due to the activities of these
evangelists. In refusing to see the good in other religions and other
ways-of-life, Christian evangelists take on an extremely fundamentalist
position that is an affront not only to non-Christians, but to moderate
Christians as well.
I am often quite amazed and plainly shocked at the fanatical zeal shown
by these Christian evangelists, who wish to convert the entire world to
Christianity through whatever means necessary. Entire organizations, or
more correctly enterprises, have been set up with the sole purpose of
"harvesting souls for God," and there are many individuals whose job in
life is to convert non-Christians to Christianity, and they are paid
handsomely to do it. No expense is spared in this task of trying to
bring every single person on planet earth to the "light of Jesus
Christ," and no thought whatsoever is given to the religious and
cultural diversity that makes this world such a wonderful place.
For these extremists, the sooner all the non-Christian "pagan" and
"Satan-inspired" religions perish or are annihilated, the better the
world will be; a rather fanatical, nazi-esque position if there ever
was one. By sending evangelist teams around the world and setting up
shop in non-Christian majority countries, these evangelist
organisations work to destroy the pillars of religious coexistence and
tolerance and erect their own pillars of religious supremacy and
intolerance in those countries. And Sri Lanka is just another one of
their many targets - yet another country "infested with evil pagans"
who need to be brought to the "light of Jesus Christ."
With the kind of mentality explained above, these evangelists have no
qualms about using whatever means necessary to gain converts. As they
have invaded countries that may not be wealthy, and as is the case in
Sri Lanka, they use material inducements to convert the poor and
destitute non-Christians to Christianity. For them, buying souls for
their God is not an issue, but the tally of supposedly "saved souls"
is. Conversion today has become a big business with big bucks behind
it, and, unfortunately, the world we live in appears a battle ground
for the Christian evangelists where the competitors are not only the
non-Christian religions but rival Christian sects as well.
And to them, all is fair in war. Encouraging new converts to smash
statues of the Buddha and Hindu gods and godesses, burn pictures of the
Buddha and Hindu gods and godesses, burn Dharma books and renounce
"pagan" cultural activities are all considered suitable methods of
propagating Christanity. Giving potential child converts biscuits
fashioned in the shape of a Buddha image, and encouraging the kids to
eat them while preaching Christianity do not strike the evangelists as
insensitive and indecent. And following in the footsepts of the
colonials in Sri Lanka, these cash-rich evangelists offer food, money
and employment to convince poor Sri Lankans to convert to Christianity,
asserting that it is the Christian God that is the harbinger of
prosperity and that it is the "Satan-inspired" Buddhist/Hindu/Muslim
traditions that continue to keep them in poverty.
It is no wonder that many Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and moderate
Christians are simply apalled at the way the evangelists carry out
their proselytism, and are extremely worried about the impact it will
have on religious harmony in this country. It can already be seen that
the provocative activities of Christian evangelists have led to the
destabilsation of peace and harmony among the various religious
communities, and if these evangelists continue with their unethical and
iconoclastic methods of proselytism the situation is bound to get
worse. Sri Lanka could very well do without these people who are
hell-bent on creating a religious imbroglio in this beautiful island.
Christian evangelists in Sri Lanka and the greater Asian region need to
reconsider their unethical and aggresive methods of proselytism. They
need to start according respect to other systems of belief instead of
treating them as sworn enemies. The current mentality that drives
proselytism, as well as the actual methods of proselytism employed by
the evangelists are going against accepted norms of decency and are
creating a negative image of Christianity at large.
By caring naught for religious harmony in Sri Lanka, Christian
evangelists are doing this country a huge disfavour. And as Sri
Lankans, we cannot sit idly by and watch the religious harmony which we
treasure so much disintegrate before our very eyes. We cannot affort to
ignore the threat unethical and aggressive evangelism poses to peace
and harmony in this country. To do so would mean the victory of
fundamentalism and intolerance.
So there is an important question that we must ask ourselves: when will
the ideological and iconoclastic war waged by Christian evangelists
against the Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims of this country end? Because
as long as the evangelists wage a war to dismantle and/or destroy
Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam in this country, there can never be true
religious harmony. A predator-prey relationship is not conducive to
peace and is always marked by stress. This is especially the case for
the prey. The predatory desire to see other religions perish and to
have Christianity "triumph" over these other religions cannot be
condoned and should never be condoned by anyone with a sense of
decency. It is a fundamentalist position that is not in tune with our
culture and way of life which gives priority to religious harmony and
religious tolerance.
Religious pluralism is what Sri Lanka is about and the evangelists want
to destroy that. We cannot and must not let them succeed.
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