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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (9187)	10/30/1999 1:57:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Hindus complain to Clinton about Southern Baptists Aziz Haniffa October 30, 1999, 18:15 Hrs (IST) Washington: Hindus in the US have complained to President Bill Clinton over the campaign of Southern Baptist Christians to convert Hindus to Christianity and the launching of a tirade against their religion. Hindu leaders were incensed over the Baptists' depictions, which described them as relics of an ugly colonial age. Suresh Gupta, writing on behalf of the Association of United Hindus and Jain Temples, complained to Clinton that such a depiction of Hindus during the most sacred time of the year was nothing short of sacrilege. "The Hindu community is outraged by its ignorant and hateful message and actions." The Southern Baptists, who raised the ire of Jewish leaders last month by distributing a book urging its members to evangelise Jews during the holy days of Yom Kippur, provoked another stormwhen, in an aggressive new proselytisation campaign, they published a short prayer book aimed at converting Hindus to Christianity. Like the pamphlet on the Jews, the latest one asks Southern Baptists to pray for the conversion of Hindus during Diwali, the festival of lights. But compared to the pamphlet targeting the Jews, the one targeting the Hindus uses far less tactful tones, describing Hindus in its very first sentence as "more than 900 million people lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism." The White House was circumspect when asked for a reaction. White House spokesman Barry Toiv provided the standard response, saying "under our Constitution the government neither promotes any particular religion nor interferes with the practices of any religion." "However,I will say this," he asserted. "The President believes very strongly that one of our great strengths as a nation is our diversity of religion and cultures and our tolerance for those who have different beliefs from our own." Meanwhile, Subash Razdan, chairman, Board of Trustees of the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA), an umbrella organisation which claims it is the largest Indian American organisation representing all faiths, fired off a letter to Attorney-General Reno, along with copies to Clinton, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat and founder and former co- chair of the Congressional Caucus on India, Indian Ambassador Naresh Chandra and several others. He accused the Southern Baptists of trying to proselytise Hindus and said that "suggesting 900 million people (were) lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism is nauseating. Ridiculing idol worship and insinuating Hinduism as ignorant has produced a great amount of consternation and distress to those who subscribe to Hindu religion directly or indirectly in this country where religious freedom and expression of religious thoughts are guaranteed under the Constitution." He called on Reno to instruct the FBI to investigate "this recent Southern Baptist misadventure of maliciously knocking down another man's faith to promote its own theological agenda." Gupta told IANS: "They (the Southern Baptists) did the same thing to Jews, to Muslims, and the next thing they want to do is vilify the Buddhists and Sikhs." The Southern Baptists are the second-largest Christian denomination in the country. Since its organisation in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention has mushroomed to 15.8 million members who worship in more than 40,000 churches across the country. Wendy Norvelle, a spokeswoman for the Southern Baptists, was clearly upapologetic for the furore the special prayer book had caused and declared: "We want the whole world to awaken to Christ." She asserted that they decided to zero in on the Hindus during Diwali "because they encompass a large number of people in the world" and they all come together at this time and hence would be the best time for the Southern Baptists to get their message across. "During a festive and holy time, people are aware and open to the idea of God." Norvelle dismissed the Hindus' hurt and anger, saying, "We believe we have earned the right to convert everyone. The book teaches our churches about Hinduism and how they can be reached." (India Abroad News Service )