• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Hindu extremists protest 114 foot tall Jesus statue

Should this statue go up or not?

  • Yes, it should go up

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • No, it should not go up

    Votes: 20 80.0%

  • Total voters
    25

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
Although it no doubt happens, that tends not to be what happens most of the time though. Even the average Evangelical Protestant doesn't take that approach.
Where I live, in Europe, Netherlands, it's especially the Evangelicals that do take that approach. Even after I warned the Church I attended, that they should not belittle other's faith, and definitely not put it out on the internet, because soon there might be some ISIS throwing a bomb or whatever for blasphemy, the priest continued doing it.

Coincidentally 2 weeks after, there was a bomb thread of ISIS in the Church. At least they took my advice to take the sermons belittling Islam from the internet. This was one of those Mega Baptist Churches with thousands of members. And they all believe this way (the priest assured me; and I believe him, as I heard them declare this [in front of the whole gathering] when they became members; some fixed lines they have to repeat). They even send letters to people practising Reiki, telling them that it is from the Devil. They told me dozens of times.

You are right, that the normal Protestants don't speak it out loud; same here. But I always dig a little deeper. Takes me usually 30 seconds before they admit "this is just what we believe". Once I spoke with an Argentina girl, and asked her "I guess in Argentina the Christians are not like that?". Oh no stvdv, she assured me, here it is just the same. But maybe it's just these 2 countries, that are the exception to the rule.

I hope you are right. I did not check any other countries. I am very open to that positive thought.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
In general, such laws tend to be very rarely enforced, and massive numbers of buildings violate numerous codes as legal compliance can be very difficult due to arcane bureaucracy.
Yeah, we know that laws were/are violated in India, but which side of the law you would be on? With the violators or with the law abiding? Do you mean some laws should not be applied to the minorities. Like asking the missionary organizations about how they spent the foreign donations received by them or asking illegal migrants from Bangladesh about their citizenship? India may be having some 20 or 25 million such infiltrators - because the laws were violated during the Communist and Congress rules for votes, for a whole 57 years.
 
Last edited:

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
You seem to have somewhat rose-coloured glasses on.
You quoted someone from the RSS:
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - Wikipedia
Even if "a crazy fool" tells me the "Truth", I readily accept it.
Of course, I always watch my back, when I am done listening to "a crazy fool":D

Have you ever considered that in a country of over 1 billion people, some people may not be quite as open-minded as others?

In situations like this all it takes is a small but highly vocal minority to cause problems.
I do know. We have Geert Wilders here in Holland.
2 years ago he announced "the Muhammad Cartoon drawing contest"
I wrote him an email, telling him it might not be wise to do this. Of course my email had little effect.
Some time later, Pakistany Muslims threatened to nuke the whole of The Netherlands if Wilders continues with the Mo drawing contest
Wilders stopped the contest. Of course he won this battle, and the Muslims lost (only they did not see that one yet)

Latest news: Wilders announced a new Muhammad drawing contest recently.
This time I let it slide. I do believe in homoeopathic treatment. Maybe it was a smart move of Wilders after all.

At least these Pakistani Muslims need to learn 1 lesson: Religion of Peace does not mean "nuke all people who draw your prophet".
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
Buildings are one thing... religious idols and singular instances of iconography are quite another.
I would not mind, if they placed some beautiful esthetical huge statues in my garden: Jesus, Boeddha, Einstein and Shiva. Usually I enjoy this type of nice statues much more than the boring bank buildings that are made nowadays. But I get your point.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
I would not mind, if they placed some beautiful esthetical huge statues in my garden: Jesus, Boeddha, Einstein and Shiva. Usually I enjoy this type of nice statues much more than the boring bank buildings that are made nowadays. But I get your point.
I too enjoy statues - especially when you can tell that great craftsmanship went into the working of them. People just don't craft things like they used to. So I totally understand where you're coming from. And a statue as a work of art is, itself, a pretty neutral thing, and is not intended to offend. I wonder too how much they are erecting this statue for artful reasons, versus for conversion reasons - and I suppose that is where much of the protest comes from.
 

Nyingjé Tso

Tänpa Yungdrung zhab pä tän gyur jig
Vanakkam

Oh yeah, those extrémists Hindus hating without any reason on those pooooor christians. Such a terrible religion full of absolutely intolerant people.

Those same christians who bribe insane amounts of dirty money to "buy" (préférably hindu holy) lands to replace everything on it with Christian stuff but nevermind.

Temples get vandalised, murti broken but nevermind.

Those same christian missionnaries who force convert poor village hindus with honorable tactics like family alienation and holding food but nevermind.

Ah yes those damn intolerant hindus...

Now I wanna see a Muslim Guy or a satanist girl in the US build a huge tacky mosque or statue on their private land and see where the extremists side Switch on the threads here.

There would be a worldwide shortage of popcorn for sure
 

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
Vanakkam

Oh yeah, those extrémists Hindus hating without any reason on those pooooor christians. Such a terrible religion full of absolutely intolerant people.

Those same christians who bribe insane amounts of dirty money to "buy" (préférably hindu holy) lands to replace everything on it with Christian stuff but nevermind.

Temples get vandalised, murti broken but nevermind.

Those same christian missionnaries who force convert poor village hindus with honorable tactics like family alienation and holding food but nevermind.

Ah yes those damn intolerant hindus...

Now I wanna see a Muslim Guy or a satanist girl in the US build a huge tacky mosque or statue on their private land and see where the extremists side Switch on the threads here.

There would be a worldwide shortage of popcorn for sure
This sounds more like dangerous demagoguery than the giving of useful acts.
I'm sure there will be some dirty business going on here and there as India is well known for its endemic corruption but the Christians will not be any worse than any other religious group in India.

If Hindu and Buddhist large statues are allowed, then you cannot deny this to Christians. This has nothing to do with "weakness" but everything with fair play and following the Indian constitution.

Personally I dislike the dogmatic and sectarian forms of religion but you cannot discriminate between religions on that kind of basis.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Seems to me that according to Christian media, all Hindus are Hindu extremists. Is 'extremist' becoming like 'terrorist', a word that is used mainly for psychological effect, with often no true meaning?

According to them, I'm probably an extremist. In the same vein, attaching fundamentalist to all Christians is misleading and a disservice to many, probably most Christians.
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
And a statue as a work of art is, itself, a pretty neutral thing, and is not intended to offend. I wonder too how much they are erecting this statue for artful reasons, versus for conversion reasons - and I suppose that is where much of the protest comes from.
I not even thought about placing the statue with "intention to offend". That would be really "sick". Using "an image of your God" to offend someone.
I am not sure of much in my life, but I am sure that evangelizing is offending the other. And it's so deep rooted in Christian Mind that I think it needs many generation to uproot that again. I believe (and hope) that Christianity will "kill itself" just by evangelizing (Law of Karma:D).
 

Nyingjé Tso

Tänpa Yungdrung zhab pä tän gyur jig
Vanakkam,

I'm sorry Marcion, I'm on mobile and it's a mess to post from a phone, my post was an answer to IndigoChild's post from the first page. Here's for the context.<__<

I live in a secular country but lived and worked in India also for a while, so I really don't care what people do on their own private property. In Mumbai I was in a popular hindu/Muslim/sikhi neighbourhood with Gurudwara, mosque, temple, veg and butcher shops in the Same street, Muslim, jew and hindu flyers on the Same walls and nobody was giving a damn about all that. It was peaceful living together.

That's what should be normal in this world.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
Do the Christians want peace or to further promote their religion?
I don't understand your question. Why do Hindus or Buddhists place their statues in India? It's not a competition now, is it? My own sangha does not see itself as Hindu, we also don't have any statues nor do any other type of 'tirtha' worship.

But most Indians practise some form of tirtha worship, so there should not be any distinction in the type. India is a secular nation and not based on religious bias of any sorts.
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
Point being that the Hindus are not the extremists in this incident, and rather the article should be titled "Christian Extremists plan to erect imposing statue".
I'm nothing like an expert on the cultural landscape of India. But that's the way it looks to me as well.

I would object to such a thing, here where I live, even on private property. I don't want something like that dominating the landscape. But we have zoning laws and such.
Tom
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
I don't understand your question. Why do Hindus or Buddhists place their statues in India? It's not a competition now, is it? My own sangha does not see itself as Hindu, we also don't have any statues nor do any other type of 'tirtha' worship.

But most Indians practise some form of tirtha worship, so there should not be any distinction in the type. India is a secular nation and not based on religious bias of any sorts.

If there was no bias, the state government would be controlling the funds of mosques and churches, not just Hindu temples.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
I don't understand your question. Why do Hindus or Buddhists place their statues in India? It's not a competition now, is it? My own sangha does not see itself as Hindu, we also don't have any statues nor do any other type of 'tirtha' worship.

But most Indians practise some form of tirtha worship, so there should not be any distinction in the type. India is a secular nation and not based on religious bias of any sorts.

The government maybe secular but apparently a large portion the people living in India are not.

So
A: is the statue necessary for Christianity? No.
B: could it be taken as a gesture of good will between faith to recognize/respect the ideology of another's faith? Yes.

Of course this Hindu nationalism maybe a bigger problem for India. Maybe the government wants to squash this but I don't know that enforcing tolerance for a "foreign" religion is the best way to go about it.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Looks like the government of India maybe moving away from secularism.

So some say India could become a Hindu homeland in the way Israel is a homeland for Jews worldwide. In fact, Modi's government has introduced a new citizenship amendment bill that would give Indian citizenship to anybody persecuted in neighboring countries, except if they're Muslim. So India would be using religion as a criteria for citizenship for the first time. Another possible model is Turkey, a secular republic that's seen its majority-Muslim faith brought into public life in a more overt way under Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Hindu Nationalism, The Growing Trend In India

Strengthening a national identity based around Hinduism.
 

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
Extreme right wing parties in Europe want to enforce the Christian-Jewish cultural identity on everyone who lives here. I don't deny that this identity has contributed to the forming of the humanistic altruistic side of Europe (which I see as positive), but I would not like to see any type of discrimination against ideologies which would be seen as "foreign" or undesirable. This kind of xenophobic intolerance is also seen in some types of evangelical Christianity and I would feel very sad if India would copy such a mentality. But it looks like this is already happening.
 

QuestioningMind

Well-Known Member

Who can blame them? I'd protest too if someone proposed building a 114 foot tall monstrosity of their mythical god in the middle of my community. Building a statue for your own personal worship is one thing, but clearly something this massive is designed to impose religious beliefs onto everyone who can see it. IF these Christians want to live in harmony with their religious neighbors, this is NOT the way to go about it. In fact, it's clearly designed to create conflict.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Extreme right wing parties in Europe want to enforce the Christian-Jewish cultural identity on everyone who lives here. I don't deny that this identity has contributed to the forming of the humanistic altruistic side of Europe (which I see as positive), but I would not like to see any type of discrimination against ideologies which would be seen as "foreign" or undesirable. This kind of xenophobic intolerance is also seen in some types of evangelical Christianity and I would feel very sad if India would copy such a mentality. But it looks like this is already happening.

I honestly do not at all think that that is what is happening. That is what the western press is telling us, or portraying it. But time will tell, I suppose. When India bans the hijab, (not going to happen) we can say for for sure the hunt is on.
 
Top