The Journey of an Ex-Christian

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A call to those who have skin in the game

Even when BJP had one or two MPs and RSS was but an outlawed outfit, the Christian Padres warned their wards of the impending danger to Christians if BJP were to ever come to power in India. Except those who have some direct connection with Sangh pariwar, not many Hindus would’ve known much about RSS as late as late 70s and early 80s. But I, as a Christian child raised in a hardcore evangelical church had a earful about RSS and how it was an army of Satan. If there was any kind of resistance to any church activities, the first question asked was, “are RSS people behind this?”

Christians saw both BJP and RSS as a threat to their existence in India simply because they were and are afraid that these entities have a potential to make Hindus come together with some “organizational” structure. Christians know more than anyone else that the biggest weakness of Hindus is that they can never organize themselves into any coherent group without political patronage or an organization like RSS providing leadership and guidance. Today the thumping of floors, wailing and weeping and beating of chests by both Muslims and Christians that BJP and RSS are turning the nation into a “fascist” land is not because they are afraid that Hinduism is now going to be more palatable to a commoner in India to turn them away from Islam and Christianity but because they are terrified that this combo of BJP and RSS is capable of invoking “missionary zeal” among Hindus to go on a rampage to convert and reconvert all and sundry into Hindu faith.

Whether BJP and RSS really have such a vision and mission is a matter that we can debate later but the case in point is that both Islam and Christianity are religious that are spread using an organizational structure and they are terrified if they see any semblance of organization that can bring Hindus together.

The “missionary zeal” cannot be inculcated when people sit in their houses and meditate as individuals or go on a pilgrimage to all the holy places. It will be inculcated only when people gather as a group and are inspired by speakers who with their passionate talks and speeches woo the crowd and call on them to act. Even a million plus devotees spending Shivarathri in an auspicious setting cannot achieve what a group of 50 Christians sitting in a remote church can achieve to hatch a plan to bring people into their faith because what is missing in a gathering of million plus people is a “call to act.” Please note that I have nothing against a million people coming together on Shivarathri night 🙏 As a matter of fact, I long to be part of that group one day if Ishwara wills.

My point here is that what we are missing today in the space of Hindu spiritualism is spiritual leaders’ call of actions to their followers to go and work to spread Hinduism. Today most of the messages that the spiritual leaders are giving are for individual betterment and not necessarily to make people act cohesively as a group to protect the very thread that holds many tenets of Hinduism as one body of knowledge. Ayurveda, Yoga, Meditation, saving rivers, saving Temples and reviving Samkritham are all good and needed. All of these will form into a beautiful garland to go around the neck of Maa Bharat only if they all are stringed together with a thread called Hinduism. In the absence of this thread, these are just mere beads which are lying around loosely only to be stolen, lost and eventually destroyed. As precious as these beads may be, they will either be lost or gather dust in keepsakes instead of being the living entities that they should be adorning Maa Bharat. So, we need Hindu leadership to call on its people to spread “Hinduism” and not some individual aspects of Hinduism.

Beat this calling if you can, “ Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel and Lo, I am with you always.”

For those who are not familiar, this is the call to evangelize the whole world a Christian hears one way or the other just before he disperses from the congregation of believers he spent time with. The congregation can be 2 people or 2 million people but the message is loud and clear.

Here is a Christian hymn that I cannot shake off from my head that almost every Christian child knows from memory simply because the child has heard it so many times.

//Far, far away, in heathen darkness dwelling,
Millions of souls forever may be lost;
Who, who will go, salvation’s story telling,
Looking to Jesus, heeding not the cost?

Chorus:
“All power is given unto Me,
All power is given unto Me,
Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel,
And lo, I am with you always.”

See o’er the world wide open doors inviting,
Soldiers of Christ, arise and enter in!
Christians, awake! your forces all uniting,
Send forth the Gospel, break the chains of sin.

“Why will you die?” the voice of God is calling.
“Why will you die?” re-echo in His Name;
Jesus has died to save from death appalling,
Life and salvation, therefore go proclaim.

God speed the day, when those of every nation
“Glory to God!” triumphantly shall sing.
Ransomed, redeemed, rejoicing in salvation,
Shout “Hallelujah, for the Lord is King.”//

If you live in US, go to a nearby Baptist church on what is called as a “Mission Filed Day.” A small video of famished and undernourished kids and women picking food from the dumpsters competing with pigs and dogs from India or some African country is first played. Then someone who professes to have done some “missionary” work among these people trying to save these souls gives his account. If the church is lucky, they will have an Indian “pastor” who will give his account in broken English (this is more of a design as the fellow for all you know may be fluent in English). Then the local church pastor gives a passionate sermon calling on people to act. Then the above song is played and the choir stands up to sing as baskets are passed around where people put their checks, cash and pledges. The whole atmosphere is so emotionally charged that you yourself will inadvertently look to see if you have some money in your pocket to put it in the basket when the ushers come to you. The money that is collected that day is all pledged to be sent to a church in “India” or some other “heathen” country. I was in one such service few years ago and the money collected and pledged was counted then and there and the pastor announced that a little more than a million dollars was pledged on that particular day.
It is not just money that people are asked to part with. There is also a call for people to “commit” themselves to the cause of the gospel and join the mission field work force if they heard “still and quiet ” voice of god knocking on their hearts’ door calling on them to serve the lord in the mission fields during this service. On a lucky day, the local church can recruit a dozen young people to go as “missionaries” to save the perishing. My dear friends, this is the method that is used to create“missionary zeal.”
This hopefully will be my last post for this Gregorian year of 2019. Will see you all on the other side of 2020 sharing whatever I know to call my people to ACT!!!
For those that can’t wait till Bharatiya New Years, A very Happy New Year 2020. May the Force be with us all🙏

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My First Blog Post

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

The Misery Behind the Mirth

Haunting Memories of Christmas Times

In many ways, this happens to be the hardest time of the year for me. The best of family times with my folks have been spent during this “festive” time. Most of our family get togethers in the past had all been mostly during Christmas breaks after we moved here. Even otherwise, this was the only festival I celebrated as a child growing up in a Christian home. I cannot deny that I do miss all of the fun activities during this time of the year such as shopping for new clothes, decorating the house, making cakes and sweets and attending numerous Christmas “parties. ”

Even among those happy memories, there are quite a few sore ones. The worst one was that our dad for all his crazy Christian fanaticism never got to spend most Christmas days with us at home. Coming to think of it, my dad was the present day IT consultant. The only difference was that he was made to travel by the wretched church to their “project” sites on Sundays and holidays to bring in more money for these corrupt ba$ta&ds who sat on their bottoms and ate. Unlike others in that god damn church who had been Christians for the past 2-3 generations, we were newbies to this whole Christianity game as my father was the first one in the family who romanced with this strange god and religion. So, we didn’t have much of any kind of “rooting” in this bizarre religion. I recently had an epiphany. As crazily obsessed as my dad was with Christianity , he was never the one to teach us anything about Christianity as he hardly had time to spend with the family as he was busy recruiting others into Christianity. All of the BS that I learnt about Christianity was from deranged women who doubled up as Sunday school teachers. Looking back, I would not trust most of those women to even take care of my dog in my absence. Most of these “women” were in their mid 30s who walked out of the security of their homes as they now found a “new god.” These women cut off all ties with their families and were now languishing in church “hostels” for their turn to get married to guys who will be handpicked by the church heads. So, their chance to shine to get the attention of the church leaders was to be the most “spiritual” Sunday school teacher ever to be born on this planet. One such woman comes to mind and she perhaps was the nastiest human being that I ever met. She rarely smiled and thinking about her gives me creeps. If I knew about all these mental abuse of children then, she would’ve topped the list of the most abusive person I have encountered. Sunday mornings were tortures. I had to go to this woman for “personal” work and she would drill and drill to find out what “sins” I committed in the past week. I would shrug my shoulders and say “none” which is definitely not the answer she was looking for. Then she would “describe” what are sins in great detail… No, I will not go into those details and will spare you all the torture and obscenity of it all as it can cross over into the dirty realm of pornography 😞😞😞

Getting back to where I left off, since we didn’t have any Christian “legacy” per se, we didn’t make it to the “elite” list. What that meant was that during these special occasions where they had show of talent by making kids do stage performances for Christmas celebrations, we were not included to be in the “English” crowd and had to sing only Telugu songs. Especially, I wasn’t included as I was a pain in their necks and they really needed to show me my place. As naive as I was, I never knew that all of this was by a design until much later when someone pointed this to me. As my dad’s status in church grew, I guess they had no choice but to include me in the “elite” group and that was my undoing. The church ladies now made me part of an “English choir.” What this meant was that the entire month of Christmas, we had to show up for practice almost on a daily basis. This was also the time just before the semester end exams during my undergrad and I really needed to be at my desk studying instead of fooling around with these jerks. I used to keep checking my watch and some mean woman would pick on me and say that I am not whole heartedly participating in God’s work. One wretched fool even asked me if I had an appointment with “someone,” insinuating that I had some love affair going on. How I wish I knew Suresh Garu (my husband) like that at that time. That would’ve saved my soul so much pain and torture.

My father who didn’t know head or tail of what was happening would be egged on that I am not taking all these “godly” things seriously and that I am talking to “someone” at the church gate for a long time and he would come back home angry and upset and that would unleash an ugly war at home as my mother would come to my defense and blame him for not being there to see what all happens in that church. Nevertheless, we tricked our minds to believe that all of this was part of “growing” in the lord.

As many are exchanging wishes for a “merry” Christmas, I watch all this stoically looking back on the by gone days with mixed emotions.

Since I rejected “Christ” in his entirety, I also reject “Christmas” in its entirety. And, I do it with no qualms !!!

In any case, for those of my friends and family members who are still in romance with Christ, I wish you all a very happy holiday season. My prayer and wish for you all is that you may not be “broke” physically, mentally and more importantly “financially” during this economically active season where your purses, wallets and bank accounts can get dented beyond repair if you are not ultra cautious and alert.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.