Freeze conversions: Walk the second mile
Freeze conversions: Walk the second mile
Dr. D. Babu Paul
Organiser
December 26, 1999
Title: Freeze conversions:
Walk the second mile
Author: Dr. D. Babu
Paul
Publication: Organiser
Date: December 26, 1999
Conversions from one
religion to another-except perhaps from Hinduism to Sikhism-should be frozen
for the present. This is not because large scale conversions as alleged
take place now, but because there are people who think so or propagate
so and, therefore, the followers of Jesus who asked not to offer sacrifice
if the other man has a grievance against you have the duty to ensure that
no ill will is created in His name.
Conversion cannot be
the first priority for the Church in India. The Church has rendered yeomen
service in the fields of education, health and social action but all the
good done till now is denounced as part of a grand design to convert. We
cannot stop the work, but to clear the air and to remove the misapprehensions
we must be bold enough to say that we shall not baptize anyone for the
next ten years. After all the Bible has recorded instances where Holy Spirit
came before baptism and therefore I don't think there should be any theological
objection to this position. We must be able to explain and adapt eternal
truths in the light of historical particularities.
What happens mostly in
this country is change of denomination. In the northeast Baptists become
Catholics; in Kerala members of ancient churches move to emotion-filled
charismatic/Pentecostal groups. That worries the Pope and the Catholicose-baptists
may not have a "pope" to worry!-in Latin America and Kerala. If so is it
not understandable that a Sankaracharya gets worried about erosion from
his fold and folk? Recall in this context what happened to the papal mass
in Georgia. In India many criticized the government for not arranging live
telecast of the mass, but in Georgia the Orthocox patriarch banned his
members from attending the papal mass! The Russian Orthodox people are
like the Chinese : they don't even want a visit! Can the gospel be preached
in the oil-crescent in Asia? Could the Asian synod have been concluded
in the soil sanctified by the footsteps of the Lord, in West Asia? So let
us appreciate that in this country the Pope could come and go dignified.
If we feel that the protectors of the church have to be non-believers or
irreligious timeservers Jesus will smile to himself at our idiocy.
This country has a spiritual
bias. I am a half catholic so to say as I am a daily communicant of the
Palayam Cathedral on weekdays, but I do not think that whoever wrote the
speech of the Pope did him a favour by defining the task of the next millennium
as harvesting in Asia as in Europe in the first and in, Africa in the second
because both were disasters! We know how the faith became counterwitness
in the first millennium itself and where it stands in Europe today and
how shallow it was all along in Africa. What India needs in the new millennium
is inter-religious ecumenism and co-operation. The gospel of relevance
here is the Nazareth Manifesto (Luke 4:18, 19; Isiah 61:1,2) and for this
we can get the co-operation of even the RSS. Both in AP earlier and in
Orissa now the service, done by RSS will put the church to shame. I do
nor support their violence, if the reports, which say so, are true, but
their willingness to put service above self, which is what Christianity
really is all about, has to be appreciated. I therefore feel that the church
should enter into a dialogue with them to work together to implement the
Nazareth Manifesto, which is basically social action.
God is real, religion
is relative. Once we accept this we can see beyond religions. When I point
my finger to show you the beautiful moon don't get distracted by the mole
on my index finger. As Samartha has put more than once we must escape the
American or European institutionalization and see Jesus the Asian who is
waiting to relate to us. In this process the word mission may have to be
abandoned; but let us remember that the unilateral kerugma and the universal
diakonia should together mean marturia, the willingness to die for others.
Israel considered themselves
separated, but prophets often challenged this. Samartha has said that the
religion developed in Sinai and on the banks of Jordan cannot and need
not claim superiority over religions developed near Himalayas and on the
banks of Ganges. This may be unacceptable to some fundamentalist Christians,
but the conflict between Israel's exclusivity and God' inclusivity is not
new to students of Bible.
We must realise that
all religions are transient in nature. Every arrival is a departure. We
are on a journey to the celestial Jerusalem where there is no temple; it
is the, same as Jiddu Krishnamurthy's pathless plateau. If so there is
no need to proselytize; Incarnation begins with the magi, the shepherds,
the aliens and the neighbour to be loved as oneself is also an alien, the
Good Samaritan is the ideal not the Levite nor the Israelite priest.
We must also respect
other religions. Rama to me for the best example of a son who is loyal
to the father and a king who cares more for the subjects than for his own
wife; Krishna the able administrator and good counselor. The last sloka
of the Gita teaches the same as the Bible : surrender to Him and then he
takes over. It is the good fortune of the Marthoma church that it has an
episcopacy, which can distinguish between the essential, and the nonessential.
Excerpts from the speech
at University Senate Hall at the meeting to felicitate the new Marthoma
Metropolitan on 25-11-99.
(Dr. D.Babu Paul is Additional
Chief Secretary of Kerala and author of a biblical dictionary in Malayalam.)
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