In 1864, a group of sailors were castaway in Auckland Islands, some 300 miles
south of New Zealand. Very few had survived shipwrecks in that area and one such
group was led by
Capt.
Thomas Musgrave of Britain. Eight days after surviving the wreck the
sailors came out of the tent on seeing the sun and when the captain read a
passage from the Bible in which Christ asks his disciples to love one another,
the group consisting of a French gold miner, a leprosy-deformed Portuguese cook,
a Norwegian and an Englishman burst into tears. Some modern days followers
of Jesus have forgotten or have chosen to ignore this message.
All you need is ask Rajan Zed,
director of interfaith relations at
a Hindu temple in Reno, Nev., who recently gave the brief prayer that opens each
day’s Senate session. His prayer
was
disrupted by some anti-abortion activists
who shouted
“No
Lord but Jesus Christ“, “There’s only one true God,” and
”this
is an abomination”. While the Indian Parliament does not open with a
prayer, legislative assemblies in United States have opened with prayers since
the early sessions of Congress, but so far the prayers had been only of the
monotheistic religions.
Christian historian David Barton said that the prayer was unconstitutional since
Hindus worship multiple Gods and it violates the motto, One Nation under God.
Mr. Barton would have to spend a lifetime to understand the concept of
Brahman to realize the shallowness of his
statement, but much simpler for him would be to read
Ann
Althouse’s explanation that the motto isn’t in the constitution and by
protesting Mr. Barton is foolishly asking the motto to be declared
unconstitutional.
While intolerance for other faiths has been accepted without any
introspection by some of the foot soldiers, it is also worth looking at the
leadership of some of these sects as well. A 16-page document prepared by the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict XVI headed when
he was a cardinal has declared that Christian denominations outside the Roman
Catholic Church are not full churches of Jesus Christ. The document also claims
that Roman Catholic Church
alone
is the mediator of salvation while other defective Christian faiths, like
the Protestants, can be just instruments.
The Pope is also planning to
issue
a decree allowing wider use of the Tridentine Mass, the Latin rite which was
codified in 1570 and and used till the 1960s when the second Vatican
council reformed it. The Tridentine mass is supposed to be more beautiful with
Gregorian chants and a much dignified service than the present day mass.
The
Jews are not very happy about it since there are prayers in the Mass which
calls for their conversion and the
Pope’s
explanation is that whatever was held sacred by ancient generations remain
sacred to us too and cannot be forbidden. Imagine for a moment what would have
happened in India if such argument was used for reviving the caste system.
When the leadership lacks sensitivity to other monotheistic religions and even
members praying to the same God, it is too much to ask for some of their brain
washed followers to respect a religion which they don’t even understand.
Fortunately a vast majority of the people think the ant-abortion protesters are
idiots,
and stupid
jerks
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