Religious intolerance

[Guest guest]

Dear List,

 

I too have personally witnessed religious intolerance from christians. It

is very sad to see, because I think it goes completely against the

teachings of Jesus. I once saw a bumper sticker on a car that said

" JESUS... save me from your followers! " I thought this was so ironically

true that I had to laugh.

 

A year ago, I was homeless for several months, and sometimes I stayed in a

christian mission in Seattle. In order to get some food and a mat to sleep

on for the night, people were required to attend a 1 1/2 hour chapel

beforehand.

One time, there was a muslim wearing a black cap (a symbol of muslimism, I

think). The person in charge of the chapel insisted that he take the cap

off. Someone else said " Please have respect for his faith. " But they

would not. They threatened that either he take his cap off, or he would be

kicked out, and thus have to spend the night outside without food, and I

think they even threatened the person who defended him!

 

On other occasions, the homeless sitting in the chapel were overtly

insulted, and treated with disrespect and contempt.

 

These things sadden me greatly. Yet I have seen exclusionism even in some

who are Hindus. The tendency of the human mind is to divide, to see

division, duality, and conflict, even to enjoy it, as the body's tendency

is to gravitate to sense pleasures. That is why we have to get beyond " I

am the mind. " Just as the Atman is without country, religion, sex or time,

so does the human mind have its own ignorant nature which transcends all

these things as well.

 

I recently left another Advaita-related mailing list (I may be returning

later) because there was one member who was very exclusionist. He was

saying something similar to christianity, that the Vedic tradition holds

the *only* truth there is (as if human knowledge ended thousands of years

ago with the Vedas, and nothing new could ever be added). I don't see any

difference between the statement " If you don't accept Christ as savior you

will go to hell, " and the statement " If you don't follow the Vedic

tradition, there is no hope whatsoever for realization or freedom. " This

kind of orthodoxy and dogmatism can be found occasionally in Hinduism as

well as Christianity.

 

On one hand, this person was saying that the Vedic tradition is inclusive

of all other religions (true). Yet he was also saying that no other

religion or belief system holds any truth whatsoever, that there is no hope

outside of the Vedic tradition. This is not an unusual sort of mental

confusion.

 

My point here is not to call attention to any individual, but to the fact

that exclusionist thinking is not limited to any particular religion(s) or

belief systems. Rather, it is a natural tendency of the mind, which is

ignorance itself. The tendency of thought and mental knowledge is to

increase ignorance, not to decrease it.

 

Hari OM,

 

Tim

 

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>Once i went with a friend to Church on Christamas to experience the glory

>of this day n see the divine gathering. My friend is very opposed to

>hinduism. He has all hate towards hinduism that he can express. Then there

>we came across a person who started asking us if we were protestants or

>catholics something like this for i don't know for sure in which groups r

>christians divided. Something was being offered to devotees after prayers.

>He said u r not allowed to come here n have this. My friend was shocked to

>have such a experience for his family favours christanity. I was rather

>thanking Lord for that such an act has occured. In every religion we have

>persons who hate other religions for some reason or the other.

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" Open mind, Open heart, Tolerance of all viewpoints "

 

Visit " The Core " Website at http://coresite.cjb.net -

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