Topic started by rtr (@ 202.88.149.54) on Fri Dec 12 11:16:58 EST 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Which religions treat people fair and equal?

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Star (@ dial0-118.dialin.uic.edu) on: Sun Dec 21 22:30:24 EST 2003
  
  Porno Thevar Thangashitasu,
  
  Getting bored? Where is the porn story?
  
  
• From: Gogiya (@ palo5.pacific.net.sg) on: Sun Dec 21 23:27:51 EST 2003
  
  The understanding is an armour against all surprise:it is a fortress which even enemies cannot storm.
  Tirukkural (#421)
  
  
• From: gogiya (@ 66.98.130.64) on: Mon Dec 22 01:43:46 EST 2003
  
  Conversion and Cults: Religious Freedom in the West
  
  In the West there is a cry against cults, which any religious movement out of mainstream Christianity can be called. There is a tendency to regard Hindu based religious movements in the West as cults. Under the guise of being a cult a religious organisation can be sued for millions of dollars if even one disgruntled or disappointed former disciple can be found who feels that they were taken advantage of. Many Hindu-based and yoga movements in the West have been sued as cults.
  
  The criticism against cults is that they are outside the cultural religious norm, that they are intolerant of majority religions, that they divide families and turn individuals against their upbringing. Precisely the same charges can be leveled against missionaries all over the world. The early Romans for the same reasons regarded Christianity as a cult.
  
  People in India may believe that in America all religions are treated equally. Certainly the law requires that, but this is not the fact of life. For example, it is still very difficult for Hindus to build temples in the United States, particularly in areas in which fundamentalist Christians are strong, like the Bible belt of the South: To put in perspective one would say that it over ten times harder in America to build a temple than it is to build a church. In many areas temples must not outwardly look like a temple, but should look like a school or church, or the local governments won't approve of them. While there are a few Hindu style temples in America these are exceptional and took special efforts to be allowed.
  
  Most Americans believe that Hinduism is a religion of cults. Organized Christian cult-busting legal groups, with dozens of lawyers and budgets in the many millions, go around systematically encouraging suits against Hindu or Indian religious groups. Such groups as the Hare Krishnas (ISKCON), TM, Ananda (a Yogananda group), the Himalayan Institute, Rajneesh, and the Sikhs under Yogi Bhajan, to mention a few, have had to face such suits and sometimes settlements in the millions against them. These actions are religious bullying by Christian groups not a form of justice.
  
  What Christians in America cannot do overtly because of religious freedom in the country, they are still managing to do covertly through the legal system. Any prominent Hindu-based teacher in America, particularly one who is working with the general American public or bringing people from Christianity to Hindu-based teachings, remains under a severe legal threat. Should any Hindu-based group, like the Hare Krishnas, actively seek converts in the West, they are likely to face severe litigation on many fronts. On the other hand, Christian missionaries in India do not have to endure those types of legal threats or legal suits that can put them out of business, even if their proselytizing efforts are much more aggressive.
  
  Meanwhile, Western textbooks and the Western media routinely portray Hinduism as cults, idolatry, or even as eroticism. Such negative portrayals of Christianity would not be allowed in the Indian press. These views contribute to anti-Hindu and pro-missionary attitudes. Even in the universities discussions of world religions often leave Hinduism out, precisely because it is not a conversion-seeking religion, even though it is the third largest religion in the world!
  
  So let us not pretend that the West is enlightened or tolerant about religion. The legal secularism of the West still hides much religious prejudice. We also note that the West politically will defend Christian interests overseas and criticize alleged discrimination against Christians. However it will ignore discrimination against non-Christians, particularly if done by Christians. Recently the Russians criticized the Mormons, an evangelical American Christian group as a cult. The American government lodged a protest to protect the Mormons and their missionary activity!
  
  http://www.geocities.com/focussrilanka/frawley01.htm
  
  
• From: Gogiya (@ 57.73.12.98) on: Mon Dec 22 17:40:19 EST 2003
  
  Above posting is not mine, i mean not the real Gogiya posted one.
  beware1
  gogiya (@ 66.98.130.64)- This is duplicate gogiya.
  
  
• From: Gogiya (@ 57.73.12.98) on: Mon Dec 22 17:40:37 EST 2003
  
  Above posting is not mine, i mean not the real Gogiya posted one.
  beware!
  gogiya (@ 66.98.130.64)- This is duplicate gogiya.
  
  

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