Umpteen points to ponder – Whither goes thou Christian Churches?
Note: Our profound thinker and matchless honest critic Pamplanil has raised ever so many relevant pressing questions that we are at a loss to decide where to start and what question to pick up first.
We don’t claim to have ready answers to any nor do we say the answers we have are final. So they are presented for your criticism, correction and modification.
Organized Religions
As far as organised religions are concerned, whether it is about thousands of churches or those of other religions, they are all business organisations like our political parties, all for the survival and enrichment of the organisers only.
Can they be corrected or reformed? So many Church reformation societies are working, sincerely, whole heartedly — CCRI’l on the international level and KCRM of Kerala on the local or state level to name two examples — but they are all going to be exercises in futility.
Church leaders or leaders of other organised religions are not going to change one bit because it is their business to live posh lives without sweating. Have you seen any political party dying or quitting the scene? When they fail in one election they invent another crooked trick to win in the next election.
To save face, Yes!
As we wrote earlier none of the religious leaders — whether they are involved in Money scam, Land purchase scam or sex scam — they are not going to give up. They will nevern never change to save their SOULS, but they may for the time being change to save their FACE to fool the public, since the public has short memories.
Here we discuss briefly on point only on the BIG BUSINESS called organised religion. For any big business what they need is an unlimited market of consumers or customers. Why it is said that the biggest contribution of the Catholic church is injecting or imbuing the whole world with the sense of guilt and sin? And they have succeeded in it with the cock and bull story of a naked Adam and Eve suddenly discovering their shameful nakedness and running for the cover of a fig leaf.
Man: Sinner?
Contrast this story with the proud and profound statement of Vivekananda: “Never ever dare to call MAN the crown and glory of creation a SINNER.” You want to stick on to that idiotic god who does such stupid things, a god who sweats and toils five days and comes out with glorious products “He found them good” it is said and crowns his sixth day with the creation of a man and his consort – all gone wrong because they turned out to be just SINNERS only?
Has this God lost all his/her brains or have you lost your thinking capacity as well? So if a good tree produces only good fruits how can a God of goodness end up producing sinful humans only?
Market for poojas
Once you fill the world with people who believe anything priests and God men say, you have the market ready to sell your poojas, manthras, thantras, prayers and religious rituals for a pay. Even Prime Ministers and highly place in society will come to say Amen and get blessings from these heads of Organised religions.
With the opium of religion you create a world wide market for all varieties of god-men to sell their wares and prosper. So may we request earnestly to think seriously about the umpteen questions our friend Pamplanil has raised and come out with practical solutions and answers. james kottoor, editor ccv.
Please read below what Sri. Pamplanil has to say
Any student of history will not be surprised at the murky goings on in the Monarchical Divine Theory mode, Pyramidical Episcopal Christian Churches. Sordid stories of financial irregularities and sexual exploitations of the weak and defenceless women and children by the bishops and other clerical higher ups of Christian Churches are coming out in the open almost everyday.
The Monarchical Churches, arrogating themselves as unsinkable Titanic, have been struck by the icebergs of scandals dragging them down inexorably and irretrievably to the bottom of the ocean drowning them for ever.
My surmise: Christianity’s views on humanity are illogical and anti-human. Its mindset is anti-natural. It tells its followers that normal living, in consonance with moderated natural instincts, is SIN. The worst sins according to this religion is pursuit of happiness during an individual’s rather brief span of life on Earth. The attitude of Christian Church is one of anti-pleasure. It glorifies poverty, deprivation and negation of life. But the glaring dichotomy that stands out: these diktats are meant only for ‘aam aadmi’ or the proletariat. The higher ups in the Church indulge in all sorts of forbidden pleasures. The criminal clerics are protected by the Churches, with the enormous resources at their disposal, with scant concern to ethics and morality? Gross aberrations of Alwncherry , Franco, Robbin, the Orthodox priests all these point to the festering deep-rooted cancerous growth gnawing the innards of the Christian Churches.
The Church may be able to save the abusers by deploying all the means available to it, but in the eyes of the public these criminal violators of law and morals and trespassers of human dignity, integrity and autonomy stand condemned.
The dilemma that confronts thinking people in a nut shell : What is the relevance of organised religions in the society of the 21stcentury? Do the Churches enhance the quality of the lives of their followers?
The Churches seem to expend it’s time and resources in pushing the believers into the mire of more and more superstitions. The bread and butter of the Churches appears to be flamboyant rituals. Their efforts are concentrated in injecting ‘sense of guilt and sin’ into the minds of the credulous. The modus operandi is – make the unintelligent, sinner first and then sell remedies to cure the infection. The ignorant one is always the looser in the bargain. Burdened with a sense of sin, the gullible becomes incapable of living fuller life and appreciate the finer things around him/her. Many such persons may eventually end up as mental wrecks.
The hyperbole that the Christian Church did contribute enormously and significantly in the field of education and social development is not borne out by facts.
The Kerala Christians of earlier generations, especially of the erstwhile central Travancore, by and large, made their living by engaging in agriculture and retail trade. In the pursuit of the avocation of agriculture, they migrated to interior and even far flung places. In the absence of adequate transport, they were forced walk long distances in extreme hardship ; fight malaria and suffer from the bites of bugs and leeches. Under harsh circumstances, they cleared forests and planted food crops such as paddy, tapioca, various types of yams; Jack fruit tress, palms for thatching their roofs in addition to coconut trees, pepper, ginger, turmeric plants etc for cash.
The devote Christian settlers built thatched sheds as places of worship and prevailed upon the Christian hierarchy to depute priests for guiding prayers. In the absence of adequate facilities the clerics did not stay put in these places. In course of time, with their blood and sweat, the believers constructed pucca buildings for churches. For the education of their children, they built schools and colleges. The clerics, no doubt, provided leadership, but in the process had their pound of flesh in the form of siphoning of funds. The saying was, if there is cassock wearer in the family, its economic prosperity is assured. The behaviour of the clerics was often autocratic and arbitrary.
Needless to say, all the finances needed for the above purposes were contributed by the believers.Once the Churches and schools were established , the clerics took absolute control and did things as they pleased. The clerical hierarchy also ensured that convents are invariably established nearby to the churches.Teaching positions in the schools were generally filled up by clerics and nuns and cronies of the clerics.
Well qualified, suitable and deserving persons from parishes were ignored. Favouritism and nepotism was rampant. The same situation continue to prevail even today. Of late hefty bribes, duly baptised and named as donations, are collected from aspirants for jobs. The same type of looting is resorted even for admissions to the educational institutions under the management quota. Thus the song and dance about the selfless contribution of the Churches in these spheres are cock and bull stories and miles away from ground realities; they all are tissues of lies.
The type of education imparted in Kerala does not encourage enquiry and inquisitiveness. Students are moulded to be obedient conformists. Any one who dare to stray from the beaten path are whipped to follow the line. Almost every one talks of traditional values and not about the realities of the day or about the future to unfold. The comfort zone for the establishment is the continuation of the conventional set up. Religion survives in this milieu. In the process the proletariat suffer due to the poor quality of life.
The modern democratic state is the agency to look after the welfare of its citizens. It is all the more in the case of the 21st century. The Church does not play any worthwhile role in any society, especially in the societies of West. Religion is on the retreat in the previously Christian regions. The Christian religion has been gasping for breath for mere survival. Christian churches are deserted, their building areas sold to pay off debts. The only religion that make headway is Islam. That is not surprising. The Muslims who migrated to the European countries are, by and large, uneducated. They continue to remain under the thumb of Islamic clerics. These mostly uneducated and socially backward immigrants find themselves as fishes out of water in the new environment. Hence they hold on tenaciously to their old ways.
The Churches in Kerala with their unwieldy and money-guzzling bureaucracy and expensive appurtenances are unwanted. Their continued existence is sheer waste of scarce resources and efforts. Their continuation is not cost effective. At best, the role of the Church may be confined to looking after the spiritual needs of its folk by conducting prayer sessions and the like. Acquisition of real estate and construction of commercial complexes is not within its area of activity. It should refrain from interfering in political and civic matters. Statecraft is beyond its functional scope.
The ground situation in our country is that religions create social antagonism and enmity among people. The sufferers are ordinary people. Aggressive Christian presbyterian activism among the largely Hindu population will end in ‘no win situation’ If any misguided Christian conversion enthusiast thinks that some outside Christian agency will come to his/her rescue, when the goings go rough, perish the thought. It is wishful thinking – a pipe dream..
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