How to convert a Hindu

[Jainarayan]

...there are as many good christians as there are good hindus , there is no reason that we canot respect oneanother .

Ki jai! :bow:

There are good and bad in all religions, ethnicities, social classes, nationalities, including Hindus, Muslims and Christians. I think of the loving, kind and gentle people (note the extreme sarcasm) of the village in India who put curses on the family of the girl who was born as a conjoined twin with multiple arms and legs. The family decided to have the girl operated on, and the parasitic twin removed. The villagers thought it was sacrilege because they believed the girl was an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi (I have yet to see an image of Goddess Lakshmi, or any deity with multiple legs). The fact that the villagers are poor and ignorant puts even more of a stain on the term "real Hindu" (which I'm coming to detest as much as I detest the word mleccha). The family was even run out of town. So much for "real Hinduism". Yet it was Indian doctors and an Indian hospital who performed the surgeries without asking for a dime from the family (who didn't have a pot to **** in). St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis (USA, not Egypt), founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, a Lebanese-American Christian, does not charge a dime for treating children with cancer. This is why these interloper posters who come in with 10 posts, guns blazing, thinking they know what a real Hindu or real Christian or real Muslim is, make me go ballistic and want to throw up.

 

[Maya3]

Ki jai! :bow:

There are good and bad in all religions, ethnicities, social classes, nationalities, including Hindus, Muslims and Christians. I think of the loving, kind and gentle people (note the extreme sarcasm) of the village in India who put curses on the family of the girl who was born as a conjoined twin with multiple arms and legs. The family decided to have the girl operated on, and the parasitic twin removed. The villagers thought it was sacrilege because they believed the girl was an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi (I have yet to see an image of Goddess Lakshmi, or any deity with multiple legs). The fact that the villagers are poor and ignorant puts even more of a stain on the term "real Hindu" (which I'm coming to detest as much as I detest the word mleccha). The family was even run out of town. So much for "real Hinduism". Yet it was Indian doctors and an Indian hospital who performed the surgeries without asking for a dime from the family (who didn't have a pot to **** in). St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis (USA, not Egypt), founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, a Lebanese-American Christian, does not charge a dime for treating children with cancer. This is why these interloper posters who come in with 10 posts, guns blazing, thinking they know what a real Hindu or real Christian or real Muslim is, make me go ballistic and want to throw up.

Well said!

Maya

 

[Jainarayan]

Thank you, I have my moments!

 

[Vinayaka]

This is why these interloper posters who come in with 10 posts, guns blazing, thinking they know what a real Hindu or real Christian or real Muslim is, make me go ballistic and want to throw up.

I just cannot bring myself to be so harsh without knowing an individual and what they may have gone through. I know individuals who have witnessed war first-hand, and although they say outrageous crazy violent things some days about the enemy, I never argue, or call them on it. They're scarred.

People with guns blazing, as you say, are usually scarred.

Imagine a poor bloke with a fairly menial job, works all day supporting his wife and 3 kids. One day he comes home and his wife announces she no longer feels like going to temple ... a place where the family at one time found solace and peace. He wonders why but lets it go. Then a few months later, he discovers she wants to go to church instead. At that point he discovers that his wife and children have fallen to friendship evangelism. He gets upset. She accuses him of being possessed by the devil, just as her friendship evangelist had predicted he was, for anger is just that, according to the 'friend'. Eventually the wife divorces him.

Now, 5 years later, his life is turned around enough for him to afford a computer. He comes on a forum, and out comes the frustration. Then people tell him he really has no need to be angry. This just makes it worse, and he leaves.

Now I realise this is only a hypothetical. But I bet I could write another 100 hypotheticals. When I taught, some people wanted to treat anger management problem kids by dealing with the symptoms, and not looking at the causes.

We're all human.

 

[Jainarayan]

I understand what you are saying because, and I mean this in all sincerity, you have a calm voice of reason. I am more intense and passionate. When I was data center manager, I was called a "hard marker" (among other things, I am sure). I think we play off and complement each other very well. Flip sides of a coin... like Harihara ( OK I'm weak, I couldn't resist ).

That said...

If they are indeed in such situations, I truly do feel for them in my heart. However, regardless of their situation or condition it's lost upon them that they offend regular and sincere posters, not to mention lurkers and seekers who might want to join. Especially when said posters are new to a site. They get off on the proverbial wrong foot and don't endear themselves to anyone. I freely admit I've done the same thing, and with a few hours or days, I've made an apology and asked "can we start again?" But that's me, knowing I can be brash (hard habit to break ). It's not unlike the first time temple-goer who has had a bad first time experience; we've seen a few of them post. They say they'll never go back to that temple, and it's because one or two people made them feel unwelcome. They never got past those one or two people to meet the 100 other warm and friendly devotees. These "interlopers" as I call them, or drive-by posters stir the pot, do enough damage, then disappear.

I wonder how many people have been run off here and elsewhere by judgments about who is a Hindu and who is not, what Hinduism is and what it is not. A person who is taking the first steps may never get past the invective of a person who brings his emotional baggage onto the scene. The lurker/seeker may think "If this is what it's like, I don't want to be associated with these kinds of people". I wonder how many times that happens here (in all the forums, not just Hindu DIR). I feel the same way about the Christians I encounter in various places on the internet... they make me glad I'm not Christian anymore. The few give the many a bad name.

 

[Kalidas]

I have story a story it is the story of how i broke the nose a Jehovah witness. He was talking tome out Jesus and such. Being the nice guy I NORMALLY am I gave Jim a chance and listened to him. The subject of my son came up, he said if I had Jesus in my life and wasn't full of sin my son would have lived. My response? I broke his nose. (I know bad on me hurting someone). Yet to this day I do not speak an unkind word of jws because I know they a,r!e for the most part kind and trying "help" in their own strange way( at least they are honest when they attempt to convert you). In the end we should try and get along with each other yet understand that anger does arise and sometime it is VERY justified.

 

[nameless]

however that does not mean that we canot accept christianity as valid for christians

i have no problem in accepting christianity is valid for christians, if christians accept hinduism is valid for hindus, do their belief system allow them for that?

 

[Jainarayan]

i have no problem in accepting christianity is valid for christians, if christians accept hinduism is valid for hindus, do their belief system allow them to accept that?

Most Christians do, in my experience. When I was RC and EO, no one was concerned with what or how other people worshipped or lived. They were concerned with their own affairs. Bible literalists do not think that way. They are concerned with everyone and everything else. I was told by someone who is a bible literalist in the ridiculous degree, "I respect your right to your beliefs, even though they are way off". They are the control freaks and mental masturbators over it.

 

[Almustafa]

Hindu philosophy can be backed by science, mainstream Christianity cant...
so what do they only convert the uneducated?

 

[nameless]

Hindu philosophy can be backed by science, mainstream Christianity cant...
so what do they only convert the uneducated?

yes, mostly the uneducated and poor people, it is in this clip YouTube

 

[Kalidas]

i have no problem in accepting christianity is valid for christians, if christians accept hinduism is valid for hindus, do their belief system allow them for that?

If we only treat people as they treated us the world would surely be descending into madness(as it currently is). I believe in treating people (for the most part) better then they treat us for the sake of humanity and simply because it's what I believe. Yet I see no problem in defending ones self.There is FINE line between self defense and unprovoked aggression, I think it is high time more people learn where this line is.(that statement is for EVERYONE not just us here)

 

[Vinayaka]

When I was RC and EO,

What do these abbreviations stand for? I know RC, but not EO. Please don't assume that Hindus know the abbreviations of Christian denominations, not that it really matters.

You would be surprised at how very little I know, and I grew up in the west in the midst. Imagine an Indian who hasn't been around many at all.

 

[Vinayaka]

I wonder how many people have been run off here and elsewhere by judgments about who is a Hindu

I came very close to quitting this place for the opposite reason ... being criticized and reprimanded for my traditionalist views. I've been labelled intolerant, suggested I should do a lot more reading, narrow-minded, anti-universalist, anti-Christian, etc and sometimes with pretty hate-filled language. This intolerance thing can go both ways.


To each his own.

 

[Jainarayan]

Oh sorry... RC = Roman Catholic; EO = Eastern Orthodox.

 

[Jainarayan]

This intolerance thing can go both ways.

Very true, two wrongs never make a right. I'm glad you weathered it.

 

[Vinayaka]

My response? I broke his nose.

Good for you. The idea that people prey on the weak, the grieving, the destitute, is sickening. My mother-in-law, at age 70, 3 days after my father-in-law died of cancer, and she had been caring for him, her significant other, all this time, she got a visit from the JWS. They read obituaries, find addresses, and hunt. Good thing for them I wasn't there. She told them to "Get the hell off my property!" A grieving 70 year old frail woman should not have to do this.

You should not have had to break that guy's nose. And then people wonder why the Hindus are mad?

 

[Kalidas]

I came very close to quitting this place for the opposite reason ... being criticized and reprimanded for my traditionalist views. I've been labelled intolerant, suggested I should do a lot more reading, narrow-minded, anti-universalist, anti-Christian, etc and sometimes with pretty hate-filled language. This intolerance thing can go both ways.


To each his own.

Vinayaka don't go! No seriously though, as far as a "conservative" Hindu goes or Orthodox or what ever adjective you wish to use I feel you are actually still VERY tolerant. I hope you don't tihnk anything I said was meant for me to say that It hought you were intolerant. All I have personally ever heard from you is a great displeasure with how certain people (not exactly Christians but certain people who happen to be) and how they treat "your people" (those quotation marks are not for mimicry or sarcasm) . Considering what you and summit have seen I feel the two of you are VERY tolerant.

 

[Kalidas]

Good for you. The idea that people prey on the weak, the grieving, the destitute, is sickening. My mother-in-law, at age 70, 3 days after my father-in-law died of cancer, and she had been caring for him, her significant other, all this time, she got a visit from the JWS. They read obituaries, find addresses, and hunt. Good thing for them I wasn't there. She told them to "Get the hell off my property!" A grieving 70 year old frail woman should not have to do this.

You should not have had to break that guy's nose. And then people wonder why the Hindus are mad?

HOLY CRAP! I had NO idea they did. Now I wonder if he searched me out from the obituaries. When our son died it kind of became a big deal in our city (I work for the big grocery store in town and our school district at well every school so I am kind of well known )Now I'm all paranoid, thanks Vinayaka

 

[Vinayaka]

Now I wonder if he searched me out from the obituaries.

If it was a total stranger, then yes, that is how he found you. Ironically, he could have pressed charges on you. I believe there needs to be anti-proseltysing laws in the west too, not just the east. If it was illegal to go door to door, that would stop that part. Hospitals need to be wary. My father (the atheist) had a few choice words for the hospital gig. Criminals looking into breaking into houses also use the obits.

 

[Kalidas]

If it was a total stranger, then yes, that is how he found you. Ironically, he could have pressed charges on you. I believe there needs to be anti-proseltysing laws in the west too, not just the east. If it was illegal to go door to door, that would stop that part. Hospitals need to be wary. My father (the atheist) had a few choice words for the hospital gig. Criminals looking into breaking into houses also use the obits.

Not quit I read into it. Being that he was harassing someone with an apparent mental issue at the time the worst that could happen to me would be a 72 hour watch at a near by institution and force mandated anger management, all paid for by my health insurance.

Couldn't that also backfire? Like take me for isntanc eI converted to Hinduism because I was searching out for a new faith a friend of mine told me about Hinduism and I then read more into it. So lets say that law was around couldn't my friend technically be prosecuted by lets say my parents if I was a minor?